AP Literature Prose Analysis Study Notes: Brontë's Villette

AP Literature Prose Analysis Overview

  • Essay Performance: Scored a 6 out of 6 on the AP Literature Prose Analysis Essay rubric.

  • Text Analyzed: Charlotte Brontë's novel Villette (referenced as Charlotte Braunt's Billette).

  • Prompt Requirements: Read the passage carefully; write a well-written essay analyzing how Brontë uses literary elements and techniques to convey how Lucy's complex perspective evolves as a result of her interaction with Miss Marchman.

  • Thesis Statement: Brontë uses literary elements such as juxtaposition and literary comparisons (metaphor) to convey Lucy's complex perspective evolving from initial hesitance to complete submission toward Miss Marchman.

Character Background and Initial Circumstances

  • Lucy Snowe's Position:

    • Transitions into working as a personal companion for Miss Marchman.

    • Obtains the job because Miss Marchman's former companion departed, coinciding with Lucy's own unnamed unfortunate circumstances.

    • Operates from a position of deep desperation and vulnerability, forcing her to accept a life of isolation and confinement.

  • Miss Marchman's Physical and Financial Reality:

    • Characterized as a woman of fortune who lives in a handsome residence.

    • Possesses severe physical limitations: described as a "rheumatic, cripple, impotent, butt in hand, and had been so for twenty years."

    • Demonstrates a central conflict between will and body: despite her wealth and desire to build a fulfilling, satisfactory life, her severe physical ailments eliminate any possibility of living comfortably.

Juxtaposition of Miss Marchman's Character

  • Financial vs. Physical Juxtaposition:

    • Highlights Miss Marchman as a multifaceted individual.

    • Frames her character with positive financial and social traits that are continuously undercut by negative physical suffering.

  • Duality of Honesty and Overbearing Demands:

    • Miss Marchman candidly warns Lucy about the rigorous demands of the companion role:

    • "It will not be an easy life, said she candidly, for I require a good deal of attention, and you will be much confined. Yet perhaps, contrasted with the existence you have lately led, it may appear tolerable."

    • Displays Miss Marchman's capacity for vulnerability and deep honesty, risking the loss of Lucy as a companion in order to speak truthfully.

    • Contrasts moral consideration for Lucy with an overbearing lifestyle that relies heavily—and potentially strenuously—on others to satisfy her daily needs.

    • Shifts Lucy's initial impression of Miss Marchman from that of a crippled, well-off woman into a figure desperate for connection, offering a tentative sense of hope for Lucy's plight.

Evolving Perspective: From Hesitance to Respect

  • Adapting to Eccentricities:

    • Upon assuming her role, Lucy's perspective evolves into respect for Miss Marchman's presence and behavioral eccentricities.

    • Accepts Miss Marchman's temper as expected and reasonable given her chronic physical state.

  • The Motherhood Metaphor:

    • Analysis of Miss Marchman's reprimands:

    • "Even when she scolded me, which she did now and then very shortly, it was in such a way as did not humiliate and left no steam. It was rather like an irascible mother raiding her daughter than a harsh mistress butchering independent."

    • Demonstrates Lucy's clear understanding of her reality, interpreting the anger not as tyrannical oppression from a mistress, but as non-humiliating maternal discipline.

Chronology of Submission and Psychological Assimilation

  • Progression of Perspective:

    • The chronological evolution of Lucy's complex perspective is encapsulated in the phrase: "a crippled old woman, my mistress, my friend, my all."

    • Charts the complete shift from initial hesitance, to professional recognition, to friendship, and ultimately to absolute submission.

  • Self-Disconnection and Assimilation:

    • Lucy embeds her identity entirely within Miss Marchman, finding communion and shared feeling in virtually all of Miss Marchman's emotional states.

    • Reveals a terrifying psychological disconnection where Lucy abandons her individual identity to appease her employer.

Dehumanization and the Metaphor of the Invalid

  • The Invalid Comparison:

    • "My appetite needed no more than the tiny messes served for the invalid."

    • Finalizes the horrific outcome of Lucy's assimilation by comparing her own bodily needs to those of a bedridden invalid.

    • Dehumanizes Lucy, reducing her to a subject stripped of context, personal needs, or independent agency.

    • Emphasizes the utter desperation that drives Lucy to surrender her selfhood.

Broad Literary Implications

  • Role of Literary Techniques:

    • Juxtaposition exposes the internal paradoxes of Miss Marchman's life and moral standing.

    • Metaphor and literary comparisons track the degradation of Lucy's autonomy.

  • Moral and Philosophical Theme:

    • Serves as a broader literary caution regarding the dangers of vulnerability and desperation following tragic events.

    • Illustrates how individuals may surrender their own morals, needs, and basic humanity to accommodate and appease others in times of extreme personal misfortune.