Heretic Narrative, Reticent Subversion

Deemed as Charlotte's most difficult and obscure novel, Villette in recent years has attracted more and more attention from critics. The fascination of this novel is believed to lie mainly in the complexity of its heroine Lucy Snowe, who is studied continually by critics in feminist and psychological perspectives. With the revival of narratological study lately, attention is shift to Lucy's heretic narrative since Lucy is not only mysterious in her personality but also astonishingly unusual in her act of telling the story. Enlightened by the interdisciplinary study of feminist narratology, this thesis is to explore this heretic narrative within feminist concern so as to reveal Lucy's and thus Charlotte Bronte's underlying subversion of Victorian patriarchal society. By applying Susan Lanser's and Robyn Warhol's theoretical views in feminist narratology, this thesis will explore in details Lucy's peculiar narrative from the following three aspects: the peculiar narrative voice of Lucy Snowe, her sharp observation as a focalizor, and Lucy as a rising character in the premeditated narrative structure. As a prominent female writer, Charlotte Bronte has long been deemed as a feminist fighter who always expresses her emotions boldly and directly in her works. However, this thesis is to shift the attention to Charlotte Bronte's intentionally planned narrative and structure in Villette so as to disclose her feminist concern. As her last yet most matured novel, Villette is a world where Charlotte Bronte experiments with her power of language, through which Bronte further establishes her narrative authority.