Austen, Brontë, Eliot

Debate Questions

Villette

Please decide which side you would argue and be prepared (with quotes) to do so in class on Thursday.

• Debate #1:
• Lucy Snowe is truly, really, innately, performative, passionate, expressive, and desirous. Her passivity and calmness are just facades.
• Lucy Snowe is truly, really, innately passive, calm, and quiet. She is a spectator rather than an actor in life.

• Debate #2:
• The novel suggests there is true value and benefit in the Catholic church and the practices of its faith.
• The novel suggests that the Catholic faith is deceptive and is an ultimately destructive force.

• Debate #3:
• The novel portrays Paulina De Bassompierre (aka Polly Home) as an ideal woman / heroine and her marriage to Graham as an ideal relationship. Paulina and her relationship to Graham contrast Lucy’s neurotic personality and the aberrance of Lucy’s relationship with M.Paul.
• The novel portrays Paulina and her relationship to Graham in order to emphasize Lucy’s heroism and the realism of her relationship with M. Paul.

• Debate #4:
• The novel’s ending is appropriate and justifiable.
• The novel’s ending is inappropriate and unjustifiable.