Villette · Chapter
IX: Isidore explained
Lucy Snowe describes her settled life at Madame Beck's school, where she finds purpose in teaching and self-improvement.
What happens
Lucy Snowe describes her settled life at Madame Beck's school, where she finds purpose in teaching and self-improvement. She observes the cosmopolitan and morally lax environment, noting the prevalence of lying and hypocrisy. Lucy also details her interactions with the vain and coquettish Ginevra Fanshawe, who accepts expensive gifts from her admirer 'Isidore' (Dr. John Graham Bretton) while professing indifference to him and preferring the attention of Colonel Alfred de Hamal. Lucy rebukes Ginevra for her deceitful behavior.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Independence
Ginevra's disdain for Isidore as 'bourgeois' and her preference for the aristocratic de Hamal highlight class tensions, while Lucy's self-reliant teaching contrasts with Ginevra's dependence on gifts.
Illusion vs. Reality
Ginevra maintains an illusion of affection for Isidore to secure gifts, while Lucy sees through her coquetry and the moral emptiness beneath her charming exterior.
Religion and Hypocrisy
The school's casual acceptance of lying, contrasted with strictures against missing mass or reading novels, exposes religious hypocrisy in Labassecour society.
Characters to notice
- Lucy Snowe
Lucy reflects on her industrious life at the school, her strategies for managing unruly pupils, and her moral disapproval of Ginevra's conduct.
- Ginevra Fanshawe
Ginevra is portrayed as vain, coquettish, and manipulative; she accepts gifts from Isidore while openly preferring Colonel de Hamal and rejecting serious attachment.
- John Graham Bretton
Referred to as 'Isidore,' he is the devoted admirer who sends Ginevra expensive presents, though she treats him with cold indifference.
- Madame Beck
Madame Beck is noted for her policy of maintaining popularity with pupils at the expense of teacher support, and for allowing Ginevra considerable freedom.
- Mrs. Cholmondeley
Ginevra's chaperon, a fashionable lady who initially gives her gifts but later resists her constant requests.
- Alfred de Hamal
Mentioned as the colonel whom Ginevra prefers over Isidore, described as a 'beau fat' and 'joli fripon.'
Key passages
“My time was now well and profitably filled up. What with teaching others and studying closely myself, I had hardly a spare moment. It was pleasant. I felt I was getting on; not lying the stagnant prey of mould and rust, but polishing my faculties and whetting them to a keen edge with constant use.”
Lucy finds satisfaction in her busy schedule of teaching and self-study, feeling productive and mentally sharp rather than idle.
Reflects Lucy's sense of purpose and personal growth through work.
“Not a soul in Madame Beck's house, from the scullion to the directress herself, but was above being ashamed of a lie; they thought nothing of it: to invent might not be precisely a virtue, but it was the most venial of faults.”
Everyone in the school, from the lowest servant to Madame Beck, lies without shame, considering it a minor sin.
Highlights the pervasive hypocrisy and moral laxity in the school environment.
“I informed her very plainly that I believed him much too good for her, and intimated with equal plainness my impression that she was but a vain coquette.”
Lucy tells Ginevra directly that Isidore deserves better and that she is a shallow flirt.
Lucy's blunt moral judgment of Ginevra's character.
“The man is too romantic and devoted, and he expects something more of me than I find it convenient to be. He thinks I am perfect: furnished with all sorts of sterling qualities and solid virtues, such as I never had, nor intend to have.”
Ginevra complains that Isidore's idealization of her is tiresome because she has no intention of living up to his expectations.
Reveals Ginevra's self-awareness of her own flaws and her rejection of sincere devotion.
