Villette

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1853

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Chapters 39-42Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 39 Summary: “Old and New Acquaintance”

Still at the festival, Lucy continues to watch Madame Beck, Madame Walravens, and the priest talk. She overhears that M. Paul is sailing to the West Indies to care for a plantation that Madame Walravens owns. M. Paul will run the plantation, which Madame Beck hopes to inherit it one day. After a few years, M. Paul may return and start his own life. The group does not care what dangers he might encounter on the assignment. Madame Walravens calls out for Justine Marie—not the dead nun, but M. Paul’s 18-year-old ward, who was named after her aunt. M. Paul, who Lucy believed had already departed, also joins the group. Lucy infers from their interaction that M. Paul intends to marry this Justine Marie when he returns. She also learns that M. Paul has delayed his departure two weeks to handle some personal business, which he asks Justine Marie to help him with.

On her way home, Lucy is passed by a carriage, a white handkerchief waving from the window. Lucy returns to Rue Fossette and notices that she left the door unlocked. She finds an effigy of the nun in her bed. It is just empty clothing, but it bears a note: “The nun of the attic bequeaths to Lucy Snowe her wardrobe. She will be seen in the Rue Fossette no more” (609). Lucy ascertains that the clothes would not fit any woman in the convent and might therefore belong to a man. Lucy then goes to sleep.

Chapter 40 Summary: “The Happy Pair”

Ginevra goes missing and a vigorous search ensues. Lucy remembers the unlocked door and the white handkerchief in the carriage. It eventually emerges that Ginevra has eloped with de Hamal. Ginevra writes a letter to Lucy explaining the situation: The “ghost” of the nun was just de Hamal in disguise sneaking in and out of Rue Fossette to see Ginevra. The attic was often their meeting place. Ginevra left the dummy in Lucy’s bed as a joke. Ginevra is now a countess, but she tells Lucy she married de Hamal just to spite John and Paulina. Her uncle, Mr. Home, does not approve of the elopement, but Ginevra hopes to still receive her inheritance.

Lucy sees Ginevra one last time when she returns to Rue Fossette to meet with Madame Beck. The couple then moves abroad. Ginevra continues to write to Lucy complaining of her children’s illnesses and the debts they often incur. Despite this, Ginevra lives a very easy life.

Chapter 41 Summary: “Faubourg Clotilde”

M. Paul finally comes to see Lucy, but Madame Beck tries to keep them apart. She even threatens to summon the priest. Lucy begins to weep. M. Paul demands that Madame leave the room.

M. Paul takes Lucy on a walk. Her paleness worries him, and she explains that she has been sad without his companionship. She worries he does not find her beautiful, but M. Paul reassures her of his devotion. He takes her to a building he has rented and decorated: He intends it to be a school for Lucy to run. Lucy will run the school and maintain the building until M. Paul returns in three years. The building’s owner, M. Miret the bookseller, has three daughters who will be her first students. Lucy serves dinner for herself and M. Paul in the new home.

On the return walk to the convent, Lucy reveals her fears about his goddaughter, but M. Paul explains that Justine Marie is like a daughter to him and he has no plans to marry her. Justine Marie, who is already engaged to a German man, will also attend Lucy’s school. Before they part, M. Paul proposes, saying, “Lucy, take my love. One day share my life. Be my dearest, first on earth” (634). The lovers part, and M. Paul sails to Guadalupe.

Chapter 42 Summary: “Finis”

The following three years are the happiest of Lucy’s life. Running the school is hard work, but she relishes her freedom and enterprise. She unexpectedly receives an inheritance of 100 pounds from a relative of Miss Marchmont. With the money, she purchases the adjacent building for her lodging.

When the three years come to an end, Lucy anticipates and excitedly prepares for M. Paul’s return. His ship is caught in a storm, however, and she implies that he never returns. Lucy does not give the details, saying, “Trouble no quiet, kind heart; leave sunny imaginations hope” (639). Lucy ends by saying that Madame Beck and the priest live long, happy lives and that Madame Walravens dies at 90.

Chapters 39-42 Analysis

Ginevra’s hasty elopement comes as no surprise: She is selfish and impetuous until the end of the narrative. However, in a twist of events, the attic apparition turns out to have been the disguised Colonel de Hamal sneaking in and out of the convent for nightly trysts with Ginevra. What Lucy had interpreted as a sign from God was just a lusty young man chasing after his lover.

The ending of the narrative brings Lucy and Ginevra’s antagonistic relationship into focus. Ginevra is Lucy’s opposite in every way. Her marriage is built on spite, not love, and she carries out the rest of her life in selfish, reckless delusion. Lucy cannot comprehend a life or love not founded on intelligence, morality, and honest devotion. Lucy’s proclamation that Ginevra’s life was charmed comes with a sneer, as she would far prefer a hard life of prudence and virtue over Ginevra’s life of luxury and ease.

Lucy’s relationship with Madame Beck comes to a bitter ending. The proprietress for a time appeared to be a female ally from whom Lucy could learn. However, in the end, Madame Beck trades her friendship with Lucy for selfish pursuits. Lucy never faulted Madame for searching her personal effects or stalking her every move, choosing instead to respect her rule, but she cannot forgive Madame trying to sabotage her happiness with M. Paul. In Madame Beck, she sees a woman who could not win his love and is now bent on preventing others from having it as well. By contrast, Lucy rejoices in the bliss of her onetime rival Polly instead of trying to destroy it.

Without a husband or inheritance, Lucy would have little hope of ever establishing her own school. In renting the building for her, M. Paul, for all his faults, has effectively given her independence—an extravagant gift that reveals the depths of his love. She also has three years to firmly establish her position and hone her entrepreneurial skills alone while M. Paul is gone: He may have provided the building, but it was solely up to Lucy to secure its success. However, Lucy does not get a happy ending in love. The author brings the novel full circle, with harrowing sea journeys bracketing the narrative. Lucy’s story began with her voyage to Labassecour, and now her beloved (presumably) vanishes in a shipwreck. In one last flourish of unreliability, she does not confirm his death, ostensibly for the reader’s benefit. However, it is clear this redaction is to spare Lucy pain. She has endured immense loss before and now again buries her pain as a coping mechanism.