Comparing the Quest for Self in Jane Eyre and Villete Essay -- compari

Quest for Self in Jane Eyre and Villete Why is Villette so disagreeable? Because the writers mind contains nothing but hunger, rebellion and rage. Matthew Arnold, 1853. Matthew Arnold was certainly extrospective about the defects of both(prenominal) Charlotte Brontes mind and of her novel. Indeed he was not all in his chemical reaction to her Anne Mozley in The Christian Remembrancer in April 1853 wrote in reaction to Brontes other great work of rebellion, Jane Eyre, that she had to make a balk against the outrages on decorum, the moral perversity, the toleration, nay, indifference to vice which deform her picture of a desolate woman (my italics). Mozley even went far enough to label Jane Eyre a dangerous book, a sentiment which Arnolds comments show that he shared. Yes both Villette and Jane Eyre are pervaded by hunger, rebellion and rage but it is this very actor which allows Brontes protagonists to explore their own identities in, crucially, their own terms. That both Jane Eyre and Villette are first psyche narratives is highly important. Unlike Catherine Earnshaw, Maggie Tulliver and Isabel Archer, Lucy Snowe and Jane Eyre are able to fixate their own stories, and subsequently, to define themselves. As Tony Tanner stated, Janes narrative act is not so a great deal one of retrieval as of establishing and maintaining her identity and this can easily be extended to Lucy. Indeed in Villette the importance of language to proclaim identity, and thus power, is demonstrated by Lucys inability to enunciate French when she arrives in Villette I could say nothing whatever. Of course the role of teaching Lucy to speak French falls to M. Paul demonstrating the masc... ...ion and rage. BBIBLIOGRAPHY The Brontes The Critical Heritage, ed. Miriam Allott (1974). Person, Narrative and Identity in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, Tony Tanner in Teaching the Text ed. S Kappeler. Jane Eyres home(a) Design, Karen Chase in Jane Eyre (Ne w Casebook), ed. Heather Glenn. Introduction to Villette (Penguin,1979), Tony Tanner. The Buried carriage of Lucy Snowe and A Dialogue of Self and Soul Plain Janes Progress in The Mad Woman in the Attic, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar (2000). Charlotte Bronte as a Freak Genius, David Cecil in Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyreand Villette (A Casebook Series) ed. Miriam Allot. Three Womens Texts and a Critique of Imperialism, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in The Feminist contributor ed. Catherine Belsey and Jane Moore (1997).