Difference between revisions of "Villette (Charlotte Brontë, 1853)"
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| + | Brontë, Charlotte. ''Villette''. Pub. 1853. Ed. Helen Cooper. New York: Penguin, 2004. | ||
| + | |||
| + | *Pub 3 vol Smith, Elder | ||
| + | * '''Good for''': affectively, the depiction of Lucy's depression; 54 Representation of Paternoster Row (as in [[Pendennis (Thackeray, 1850)]]); 96 serial character studies structure: Paulina, Marchmont, Beck, Ginevra (counterbalancing triple-decker format); early use of "network" metaphor (in this sense, [http://www.oed.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/view/Entry/126342?rskey=gQpvy6&result=1&isAdvanced=false#eid 4a], earliest from 1839) (connection to [[Bleak House (1853)]]); 185-6 swoon at volume break and narrated through dissociation from material objects; 222ff gallery scene ([[Black 2000]]); 487 imperialism undergirding realist novel | ||
| + | |||
==General notes== | ==General notes== | ||
===Vol I=== | ===Vol I=== | ||
*15 Lucy's "overheated and discursive imagination" vs Paulina | *15 Lucy's "overheated and discursive imagination" vs Paulina | ||
| − | *Paulina's monomania - Nelly says heathcliff is a monomaniac in Wuthering | + | *Paulina's monomania - Nelly says heathcliff is a monomaniac in [[Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847)]] |
| − | *17 "cup did not foam up" when Paulina and father reunited --CB dampening melodramatic expectations as in first chapter of | + | *17 "cup did not foam up" when Paulina and father reunited --CB dampening melodramatic expectations as in first chapter of [[Shirley (Charlotte Brontë, 1849)]] |
*20 Graham to Paulina: "I reckon on being able to get out of you a little of that precious commodity called amusement" | *20 Graham to Paulina: "I reckon on being able to get out of you a little of that precious commodity called amusement" | ||
**a pre Marxian sense, as [[Freedgood 2006]] would say | **a pre Marxian sense, as [[Freedgood 2006]] would say | ||
| Line 16: | Line 21: | ||
*62 vision of Europe followed by school copybook disavowal | *62 vision of Europe followed by school copybook disavowal | ||
*71 "fate and providence" leading her to Madame Beck's pensionnat | *71 "fate and providence" leading her to Madame Beck's pensionnat | ||
| − | *82-3 compare description of school and pedagogy to Lowood in Jane Eyre | + | *82-3 compare description of school and pedagogy to Lowood in [[Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)]] |
*96 serial character studies structure: Paulina, Marchmont, Beck, Ginevra | *96 serial character studies structure: Paulina, Marchmont, Beck, Ginevra | ||
*106 fate again with reconnecting to Dr John | *106 fate again with reconnecting to Dr John | ||
| Line 32: | Line 37: | ||
*185 direct continuation of reflecting on swoon she just narrated -- dissociation from her soul | *185 direct continuation of reflecting on swoon she just narrated -- dissociation from her soul | ||
*tangling image clusters together: hearing returns like thunder, "I should have understood what we call a ghost, as well as I did the commonest object" | *tangling image clusters together: hearing returns like thunder, "I should have understood what we call a ghost, as well as I did the commonest object" | ||
| − | *186 really interesting that her dissociation is first | + | *186 really interesting that her dissociation is first externalized through object relations |
*i 'fell on sleep' - derivation? And the untraced allusion on 167? | *i 'fell on sleep' - derivation? And the untraced allusion on 167? | ||
*196 "I had preferred to keep the matter to myself" - unreliable narrator | *196 "I had preferred to keep the matter to myself" - unreliable narrator | ||
| Line 52: | Line 57: | ||
*328-9 LS's ceremonial burial of her letters from John (b/c of Madame's, and or someone else's, spying) -- and then seeing the nun again | *328-9 LS's ceremonial burial of her letters from John (b/c of Madame's, and or someone else's, spying) -- and then seeing the nun again | ||
*330 her nature as "overcast" | *330 her nature as "overcast" | ||
| + | *341 LS describes herself as "perhaps a personage in disguise" | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Vol III=== | ||
| + | *401 her entombed but undead(?) feelings for John | ||
| + | *403-5 Paul's surveillance of the alleyway | ||
| + | *406-7 Paul asking about the ghost | ||
| + | **she then appears on 408 | ||
| + | *414 now Paulina's letter from John to parallel Lucy's | ||
| + | *429 again her fear of storms, "that exertion if strength and use of action I always yield with pain" | ||
| + | *436 the "handful of loose beads" of her day, looking for the clasp - metafictive | ||
| + | *454 "Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation." | ||
| + | **again dampening expectations but also that tension with the gothicism of Mrs Walraven's house | ||
| + | *469 "Graham had a wealth of mirth by nature; Paulina possessed no such inherent flow of animal spirits" | ||
| + | **connection to [[Shirley Seriality Project]] | ||
| + | *482 "Is there, indeed, such happiness on earth?" and following - lovely | ||
| + | *487n. specifies that the plantations Paul goes to manage in Guadeloupe are slave plantations - as in [[Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847)|WH]] (cf. [[Sneidern 1995]] and [[Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)|JE]] (cf. [[Freedgood 2006]]), slavery undergirds the economy of the realist novel | ||
| + | *497 another vision, this time a dream one opiate induced, of Villette at night | ||
| + | *500 voyeurism/surveilling the Bassompierres on her midnight walk | ||
| + | *513 Justine Marie | ||
| + | *519 seeing the nun on her bed | ||
| + | *545-6 again the weather as portent, and the ending left open | ||
==Theme Tracking== | ==Theme Tracking== | ||
| Line 62: | Line 88: | ||
*199 Graham/John "I am sure thereby hangs a tale" Taming of the Shrew | *199 Graham/John "I am sure thereby hangs a tale" Taming of the Shrew | ||
*208 John says Mrs B reminds him of Titania when napping, she him of Bottom - Midsummer Night's Dream | *208 John says Mrs B reminds him of Titania when napping, she him of Bottom - Midsummer Night's Dream | ||
| − | *260 Ginevra calls LS Timon, again 264, 271 | + | *260 Ginevra calls LS Timon, again 264, 271, 523 ("Tim") |
*311 Count de Bassompierre described as "grave and reverend signior" Othello | *311 Count de Bassompierre described as "grave and reverend signior" Othello | ||
*318 "too too solid flesh" - Paulina - Hamlet | *318 "too too solid flesh" - Paulina - Hamlet | ||
**also horn-book is in Loves Labours Lost | **also horn-book is in Loves Labours Lost | ||
| + | *366 M Paul reading unnamed French translation of Shakespeare play | ||
| + | *460 M Paul talking to LS again "the vow 'more honored in the breach than in the observance" Hamlet | ||
| + | *539 Justine's name - "what isnin a name?" Romeo and Juliet | ||
Latest revision as of 16:48, 3 April 2018
Brontë, Charlotte. Villette. Pub. 1853. Ed. Helen Cooper. New York: Penguin, 2004.
- Pub 3 vol Smith, Elder
- Good for: affectively, the depiction of Lucy's depression; 54 Representation of Paternoster Row (as in Pendennis (Thackeray, 1850)); 96 serial character studies structure: Paulina, Marchmont, Beck, Ginevra (counterbalancing triple-decker format); early use of "network" metaphor (in this sense, 4a, earliest from 1839) (connection to Bleak House (1853)); 185-6 swoon at volume break and narrated through dissociation from material objects; 222ff gallery scene (Black 2000); 487 imperialism undergirding realist novel
Contents
General notes
Vol I
- 15 Lucy's "overheated and discursive imagination" vs Paulina
- Paulina's monomania - Nelly says heathcliff is a monomaniac in Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847)
- 17 "cup did not foam up" when Paulina and father reunited --CB dampening melodramatic expectations as in first chapter of Shirley (Charlotte Brontë, 1849)
- 20 Graham to Paulina: "I reckon on being able to get out of you a little of that precious commodity called amusement"
- a pre Marxian sense, as Freedgood 2006 would say
- 23 graham threatening to cut up the engraving Paulina likes to light candles
- 34 race and missionary English identity in Paulina's book
- 38 "We should be friendly to all, and worship none."
- 39 "the nightmare"; metaphorizing her depression (?) as falling overboard
- 41 mourning dress - gradual revelation
- 42 second time she's mentioned "character study," first Paulina and now Mrs Marchmont
- 43 disease heralded by atmospheric change?
- 49 vision instigated by Aurora borealis
- 62 vision of Europe followed by school copybook disavowal
- 71 "fate and providence" leading her to Madame Beck's pensionnat
- 82-3 compare description of school and pedagogy to Lowood in Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)
- 96 serial character studies structure: Paulina, Marchmont, Beck, Ginevra
- 106 fate again with reconnecting to Dr John
- 107 "he laid himself open to my observation" -- narration as espionage, which is explicitly thematized or represented through Mdme Beck
- 117 ghost story about nun - gothic tale irruption -- connect to description of Beck as ghostly on her first night
- 118 another natural reverie
- 121 again her nervous sensitivity to weather
- 132 "complicated, disquieting thoughts" as a threat to her identity
- 173 her despair in the vacation, faced with open time and abandoned space
- weather sensitivity again
- 177 ghostly white beds
- 178-80 LS's confession and rejection of Catholicism after
- 181 lost in villette "I got immeshed in a net-work of turns unknown" - early (?) use of this metaphor?
Vol II
- 185 direct continuation of reflecting on swoon she just narrated -- dissociation from her soul
- tangling image clusters together: hearing returns like thunder, "I should have understood what we call a ghost, as well as I did the commonest object"
- 186 really interesting that her dissociation is first externalized through object relations
- i 'fell on sleep' - derivation? And the untraced allusion on 167?
- 196 "I had preferred to keep the matter to myself" - unreliable narrator
- but why doesn't Mrs Bretton recognize her? Or does she and LS misrepresents it?*205 add SSRIs and you've got modern psychiatric treatment
- 220 john's original conversation preferred to "stealing from books"
- 222 ekphrastic reminder of nature contemplation from vol 1 in gallery
- 238 in describing the king hypochondria/melancholi/depression and its "ghostly" appearance connects that image cluster to that theme
- 255-6 moving description of the affective experience of anxiety (what she calls Reason Freud would've call the superego)
- 273 LS Sees the ghost of the nun after reading John's letter
- 277 "material terrors"
- 278 "no mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to 'cultivate' happiness."
- 281 "a new creed became mine - a belief in happiness" - don't both Caroline H and Jane E also will a change? No - I'm thinking of Maggie in Mill
- 282 writing 2 letters, feeling and reason
- 295 "whose lives have fallen amid the seclusion of schools Or of other walled-in or guarded dwellings"
- puts in mind of enclosures - must be a way to connect space affect and text
- 304 grown up Paulina Bassompierre described as "winter spirit"
- and again ff. associated imagistically with material furniture
- 310 description of women's imaginations "waiting at lonely gates and stiles" for men to come
- 328-9 LS's ceremonial burial of her letters from John (b/c of Madame's, and or someone else's, spying) -- and then seeing the nun again
- 330 her nature as "overcast"
- 341 LS describes herself as "perhaps a personage in disguise"
Vol III
- 401 her entombed but undead(?) feelings for John
- 403-5 Paul's surveillance of the alleyway
- 406-7 Paul asking about the ghost
- she then appears on 408
- 414 now Paulina's letter from John to parallel Lucy's
- 429 again her fear of storms, "that exertion if strength and use of action I always yield with pain"
- 436 the "handful of loose beads" of her day, looking for the clasp - metafictive
- 454 "Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation."
- again dampening expectations but also that tension with the gothicism of Mrs Walraven's house
- 469 "Graham had a wealth of mirth by nature; Paulina possessed no such inherent flow of animal spirits"
- connection to Shirley Seriality Project
- 482 "Is there, indeed, such happiness on earth?" and following - lovely
- 487n. specifies that the plantations Paul goes to manage in Guadeloupe are slave plantations - as in WH (cf. Sneidern 1995 and JE (cf. Freedgood 2006), slavery undergirds the economy of the realist novel
- 497 another vision, this time a dream one opiate induced, of Villette at night
- 500 voyeurism/surveilling the Bassompierres on her midnight walk
- 513 Justine Marie
- 519 seeing the nun on her bed
- 545-6 again the weather as portent, and the ending left open
Theme Tracking
Reading/writing
Materiality
Shakespeare allusions
- 78 "the head and front of her [Mrs Sweeny] offending" Othello
- 116 "that hag disappointment...all hail" Macbeth greeted by witches
- 137 "pearl of great price" othello again
- 199 Graham/John "I am sure thereby hangs a tale" Taming of the Shrew
- 208 John says Mrs B reminds him of Titania when napping, she him of Bottom - Midsummer Night's Dream
- 260 Ginevra calls LS Timon, again 264, 271, 523 ("Tim")
- 311 Count de Bassompierre described as "grave and reverend signior" Othello
- 318 "too too solid flesh" - Paulina - Hamlet
- also horn-book is in Loves Labours Lost
- 366 M Paul reading unnamed French translation of Shakespeare play
- 460 M Paul talking to LS again "the vow 'more honored in the breach than in the observance" Hamlet
- 539 Justine's name - "what isnin a name?" Romeo and Juliet
