Charlotte Brontë: When novels meet reality. A biographical study of Villette.

Abstract

Charlotte Brontë’s life, correspondence and diaries have been studied endlessly, making clear that many events and characters included in her novels are based on real events. This paper analyses how far the similarities go, where the personal experience ends, and the imagination starts, considering the analysis of Brontë’s novels. After having provided a short social and cultural background of the Victorian age, the research examines Bronte’s biographies, her personal letters, and her acquaintances’ testimonies. In addition to this, in the central chapters, the study analyses Brontë’s novel Villette, to ascertain how much of her work is based on her personal experience, dwelling on the characterization of Lucy Snowe and the character’s development throughout the novel. The last part of the research presents a comparative study between the two major novels Villette and Jane Eyre.