Villette

Anxious to read her letter alone, Lucy searches for a quiet place and finds it in the attic. She reads the letter, which is long and kind. Lucy is interrupted by a ghostly figure approaching her: “I saw in the middle of that ghostly chamber a figure all black and white; the skirts straight, narrow, black; the head bandaged, veiled, white” (316). Lucy runs from the room screaming for Madame Beck, who is entertaining her visiting family. Everyone goes to investigate, but the room is empty, and Lucy is distressed to find her letter gone.

Dr. John is at the school and goes up to see the commotion. He consoles Lucy and, taking her to warm by the fire, asks her why she is so upset over the loss of his letter. As they are talking, the letter falls from his pocket. John returns it to her but asks her to describe the ghost. Lucy refuses, as she does not want to be deemed mad. Plying her with the promise of more letters, John convinces Lucy to describe what she saw. He says it must be a hallucination due to her mental illness. In response to her pleas for a cure, he says, “Happiness is the cure—a cheerful mind the preventative: cultivate both” (322). Lucy, incredulous at the suggestion, asks how he cultivates joy. She returns to the subject of Ginevra, and John insists that he does not let anything, including lost love, cause him sadness for very long. He warns her to tell no one of the nun, as they would question her mental health. The attic search produces nothing, and everyone except Lucy forgets the incident.

Lucy has entered a season of happiness. John Graham has sent her four more letters. She replies to each with two letters, one for him and one for herself, stating her true feelings in the latter. Lucy visits La Terrasse once a week, and John cares for her as if she is his patient.

One evening John arrives at the school, surprising Lucy with an invitation to the theater. A famous star called Vashti is performing in Villette. He and Lucy will go to the performance without Mrs. Bretton, and Lucy fears how others will view the unchaperoned outing. She must dress quickly and goes to the attic to find a dress. Lucy sees a strange light in the attic but ignores it in her excitement.

While at the theater, Lucy observes Vashti and finds her diminished somewhat by age but still a captivating actress. The play is violent and gory but Lucy is captivated by Vashti's performance and how she channels fierce anger to deal with her pain. Lucy watches John’s face to see how he reacts to the play. She asks him what he thought of Vashti and he is unmoved: “[H]e judged her as a woman, not an artist: it was a branding judgment” (336). During the last act, a fire breaks out, and the crowd turns into a chaotic mob. John remains calm, helping Lucy and another girl with an injured shoulder get to safety outside. The injured girl’s father asks John to follow them to their hotel to attend to his daughter’s injuries. The man and his 17-year-old daughter are English. Lucy describes the girl’s striking appearance as she helps John care for her. John and Lucy then return home, passing the theater: The fire that started with a spark in the curtains has been extinguished.