jhowell wrote (in another thread):As this is "below the line" I guess it is OK to mention a SPOILER ------------ the first time I really noticed her addressing us is when Lucy lets on she knew who Dr. John was from the very beginning. Why, I wonder, does Bronte have Lucy keep this from us? Is it simply just to serve dramatic tension or is it somehow manipulating this relationship between "the reader" and the narrator. Do we trust Lucy? I am on the fence here. Is she really as self-effacing as she would have us believe?
Lucy is certainly very secretive! I remember when she said how she suddenly stared at Dr. John in the garden. I thought it was probably because she suddenly suspected that Dr. John was Ginevra's "Isidore", which I had suspected all along. Of course, that turned out to be true, too, but we find that Lucy's revelation had been that Dr. John was Graham. I guess when she wasn't going to tell him that she knew him, she decided not to tell us, either!
What I found even stranger was when she came to and found herself in Mrs. Bretton's home, and met Mrs. Bretton, she didn't reveal herself. Although they hadn't seen each other in a long time, Mrs. Bretton was her godmother with whom she had once lived, and it sounded like they had had a good relationship and that Mrs. Bretton had been kind to her. Why didn't she want to immediately renew that acquaintance, but preferred to remain as a stranger in her godmother's home? Luckily, Mrs. Bretton did eventually recognize her, or who knows how this story would have developed?
I wonder if it is Lucy's tendency to reject companionship, as she did with the other teachers, and so she even does not want to be friendly with those she was once close to. Perhaps fearing eventual rejection. Or is it that, as long as they do not recognize her, she somehow has the upper hand in knowing something that they don't? Perhaps the latter, as she says:
To _say_ anything on the subject, to _hint_ at my discovery,
had not suited my habits of thought, or assimilated with my system of
feeling. On the contrary, I had preferred to keep the matter to
myself. I liked entering his presence covered with a cloud he had not
seen through, while he stood before me under a ray of special
illumination which shone all partial over his head, trembled about his
feet, and cast light no farther.
I'm surprised that the revelation when Mrs. Bretton recognized her was so calm, and they were not more upset with her, as she obviously had recognized them much earlier and said nothing.
I actually had suspected when Dr. John helped Lucy on her arrival to Villette, that he might be Graham, but then because she continually saw him at the school and said nothing, and he used a different name, I figured I had been wrong. But in many of these novels, characters who appear early on tend to reappear unexpectedly later on. So, once I knew of the Brettons, I was just waiting for Polly to appear! I knew we hadn't seen the last of her!
I was a bit surprised that the Brettons practically dropped Lucy once they started associating with the de Bassompierres. From what Lucy said, she had been visiting with them every weekend, and when Mrs. Bretton was unable to go to the theatre, her first thought was that Lucy should go in her place. Then, nothing for weeks or even several months. I'm not so surprised by Graham; I think he is kind, but not particularly thoughtful, and easily distracted into forgetting. But his mother surprised me - she seems kind and considerate of Lucy.
I also think Lucy is in love with Graham - what does everyone else think? I don't remember any hints of this partiality from back near the beginning of the novel; I thought she found him to be a rather spoiled, thoughtless boy.
Message Edited by dulcinea3 on 04-14-2008 01:03 PM
