Villette (novel) - Characters

Characters

Lucy Snowe: The narrator and main character of Villette. A 23-year-old self-reliant, quiet, intelligent young lady; she has, as Miss Ginevra Fanshawe asserts, ‘no attractive accomplishments – no beauty,’ and no relations. Though usually reserved and emotionally self-controlled (‘I, Lucy Snowe, was calm’), she has strong feelings and affections for those she really values, and even sincerely cares for the giddy Ginevra, albeit in a blunt curmudgeonly fashion. She is a firm Protestant, and denounces Roman Catholicism as false (‘God is not with Rome’). She is generally cool and collected (for instance, at the fire at the theatre, she is firm and calm, while Paulina is knocked down, almost crushed).
M. Paul Carlos David Emanuel: A fiery, autocratic schoolmaster, a professor of literature; moody, irritable, blunt, and hot-tempered, he is apt to fly into passions and roar out lectures without hesitation. However, he shows a surprisingly naïve love of power, of applause, and of supremacy at times, which much amuses Lucy. Despite all his faults and bursts of fire at little trifles, Lucy relishes his good qualities. He is generous: he delights in giving Lucy secret presents, and when he holds a breakfast out in the country for his students, he is never stingy; if rather brusque at times, his frank sincerity, especially well displayed in his childlike praying, is refreshing to Lucy; he is strong and able, like his kinswoman, Madame Beck; he is kind and magnanimous, as is shown by his supporting and sheltering the loveless misanthrope grandmother of his dead fiancée, Justine Marie, together with his old tutor and servant, faithfully. He has a habit of smoking, which Lucy does not approve of, but which he seems to enjoy immensely. He is a Catholic, and therefore frightened by Lucy's Protestantism, but is somewhat reassured when Lucy herself affirms that she believes and loves God and the Bible, and finally gives up trying to convert her to Catholicism. His black head is as close-shorn as raven-down, he has a broad, sallow brow, a thin cheek, a wide, quivering nostril, and a passionate eye. He is related to the cool Madame Beck, and is a great help to her in the school. It is strongly hinted that he dies at the end of the story.
Dr. John Graham Bretton: A handsome, gentlemanly young English doctor, the son of Lucy's godmother. He is described as ‘sunny,’ ‘supple,’ ‘cheerful,’ ‘benignant,’ and ‘bland.’ Lucy, when young, showed no particular fondness for him as did Polly, saying, "I told you I liked him a little. Where is the use of caring for him so very much? He is full of faults." However, when they meet again ten years later, their cool friendship is more than rekindled, and Lucy secretly begins to cherish affection for him. He does not return this affection, however, any more than the usual boundaries of friendship, and lightly calls her "quiet Lucy Snowe," and "a being inoffensive as a shadow." He has, at first, a passion for Ginevra Fanshawe, which she treats very irreverently, "for amusement, sometimes." Her love of money and sneer at Mrs. Bretton quenches his love at last, and he later falls in love with Paulina, and they have a happy marriage. Lucy conquers her own affection for him, and symbolically buries all his treasured letters to her, saying, "Good-night, Dr John; you are good, you are beautiful; but you are not mine. Good-night, and God bless you!"
Mrs. Bretton: Dr John Graham Bretton's mother and Lucy's godmother. She is a widow, and has "health without flaw," and an even, equal, cheerful temper and supply of steady sense.
Ginevra Fanshawe: A very pretty, blooming, but rather shallow and selfish young girl of eighteen, with a light, careless temperament. She is very vain, but not proud, thus making a sort of friend and confidant of Lucy; an incorrigible coquette, with a relish for flirtation, but "honest enough," as Lucy puts it. She is a student at Madame Beck's, and it is her random, slight remark, "I wish you would come to Madame Beck's; she has some marmots you might look after: she wants an English gouvernante, or was wanting one two months ago," which prompts Lucy to go to Villette. With all her selfishness and faults, however, Lucy does cherish a certain fondness for her: ‘while we wrangled daily, we were never alienated.’ She thinks of Lucy as ‘caustic, ironic, and cynical,’ calling her ‘old lady’ and ‘dear crosspatch,’ and most frequently ‘Timon,’ after a Greek philosopher renowned for his austere style of living (SOED). She elopes with a man named de Hamal later, and keeps in touch with Lucy via letter.
Polly Home/Paulina Mary de Bassompierre: an eighteen-year-old cousin of Ginevra Fanshawe. She is first introduced to the story when a very little girl, called "Missy" or "Polly." She is capricious and whimsical towards Lucy, polite and "tractable enough" towards Mrs. Bretton, but excessively fond of John Graham Bretton. ‘Oh! I do like you…I do like you very much," she says once. Later, she grows up to be a quite beautiful young lady of eighteen, delicate and intelligent. She loves her father deeply, and upon meeting Graham again, their friendship develops into love. She does show, however, a chord of shallowness: she has a portion of pride, and Lucy says, "She looked a mere doll," and describes her as shaped like "a model." However, the two like each other, and though Lucy is often pained by her relationship with Dr Bretton, she gently looks upon their happiness without a grudge.
Mr. de Bassompierre: A sensitive and thoughtful count, who very dearly loves his daughter (‘she is my comfort!’)—he hates parting with her; when he playfully suggests that Paulina enroll in Madame Beck's school, Paulina said that he was sure to come with her, as he did the last time he enrolled her in a school; and when he observes Paulina's relationship with Dr Bretton, he is very averse to parting with her (‘I don’t want to part with her,’ said he, and he groaned). He regards her as a mere child, however, and calls her his ‘little treasure,’ or ‘little Polly.’ He at last relinquishes Polly to Dr Bretton, however, saying, "May God deal with you as you deal with her!"
Fraulein Anna Braun: Polly and Lucy's German mistress, a hearty, honest woman of about forty-five. She is afraid of, and is fascinated by, Paulina, who sometimes treats her with cool pride, and leans more towards Lucy.
Madame Modeste Maria Beck: The headmistress of the boarding school for girls where Lucy works at. She is rather short and stout, but not uncomely: her complexion is fresh and sanguine, with the colour, but not the texture, of youth; her eye is blue and serene; and "she looked well, though a little bourgeois…" She has strong sense, though unblended with the gentleness of kindness and feeling, and possesses high administration powers. Lucy says, "…she had no heart to be touched: it reminded her where she was impotent and dead," and she goes on further to describe her as "wise, firm, faithless; secret, crafty, passionless; watchful and inscrutable; acute and insensate – withal perfectly decorous – what more could be desired?" She seems to have a lurking liking for Dr John at first, but it dies away quickly; and she seeks to marry M. Emanuel herself, doing all she can to break Lucy and M. Emanuel up.
Rosine: the unprincipled though pretty portress at Madame Beck's boarding school. She is "smart, trim, and pert", but "not a bad sort of person", according to Lucy, and likes bribes.