Sally & Lucy Snowe

Sometimes I like to go back and watch an episode or so of The Dick Van Dyke Show--it's just such a positive show with pain-free comedy, contrasting greatly with many (not all) of the darker fiction today. Even still, there are a few darker threads, if you will, in this show.

Darkness is also something that lurks within Villette, Charlotte Brontë's last published novel. The heroine, Lucy Snowe, grapples constantly with isolation. But the question some critics have brought up is whether she in fact makes her life and human relationships more complicated than they need be. Could she, for instance, have had a relationship past friendship with Dr. John? Although she constantly thinks about loneliness, is she in fact as willing to have companionship as she lets on?

Back to the TV show, Sally reminds me something of Lucy. She is constantly going on dates and telling herself she's gorgeous and saying she's so desperate she'll marry anyone. But she never does. She has quite a few moments of loneliness, but still her situation doesn't change. We realize she isn't so desperate and willing to settle as she says. But does Sally also, like Lucy, complicate things more than they need to be?

Further, can we fault either character if the answer to the question is yes? Or do they act the way they do simply because that's who they are?

Lucy Snowe & Hamlet & Agency

Long, long ago (that is, nearly four years ago), I posted on how I identified with certain of Hamlet's traits. He has long and rambling emotional thoughts, but is slow to action--call it a fault or simply his nature, as you will. But now I'm thinking of another character who makes things more complicated than they necessarily need to be.

Lucy Snowe of Villette.

She is another literary character I should hesitate to admit I identify with, but oh, how wonderfully are her thoughts and struggles described. This book makes me weep, mentally. But on to my comparison. Lucy doesn't have a direct order/object she is hesitating to carry out, but she is searching for something on her own. Lucy wants friendship, companionship, love--a full life, if you will. She succeeds financially, but her attainment of love and communion are achingly temporary. While Lucy didn't drive M. Paul away like Hamlet did to Ophelia, she did lose him. And her friendship with Dr. John essentially faded, or faded from what it could have been--if Lucy had seized action a little more. Lucy has a terribly low self-esteem, something I'm glad to say I don't share. She's unlike Hamlet in this regard: Hamlet thinks over all his doubts, but he's also so quick-minded that his problems with himself aren't Lucy's.

I guess that's why both these characters have generated so much analysis--and mixed feelings. Villette is sometimes called ahead of its time (which I completely agree with), but we do know that Charlotte read Shakespeare. Do you think perhaps Hamlet affected Lucy Snowe, or would that statement be stretching?