The Dresses in Villette

            Charlotte Bronte's Villette introduces Lucy Snowe, the novel's main character and narrator. Initially, Snowe may be presumed a trustworthy informant of events. As the novel progresses, Bronte challenges the relationship between the reader and Snowe by revealing Lucy's inconsistent descriptions of her acquaintances as her personal relationships with them change. Snowe is aware of her ability to withhold information from her reader and even refers to herself as a "personage in disguise" (Bronte 341). In the novel, Lucy Snowe cannot be relied upon as a dependable, trustworthy narrator. However, Lucy introduces many characters and provides perceptive insight in the characterization of these acquaintances and herself by the steady description of the clothing, mainly dresses, worn.
             In Villette, Snowe is the first character whose dress is described, "I saw myself in the glass, in my mourning-dress, a faded hollow eyed vision. Yet I thought little of the wan spectacle" (Bronte 41). Lucy describes her childhood as an uneasy one, comparing it to being thrown overboard a ship. The mourning-dress represents the loss of one or both of her parents and helps the reader understand why Lucy is alone in the world and in search of work. This first dress sets the tone for the way Lucy will dress throughout the entirety of the novel, usually in dark fabrics, as to not draw attention to herself. Her clothing at the beginning of the novel is very plain, and she describes herself as looking like an "over wrought servant" (Bronte 48) only proving her higher station in society by using her eloquent manners. Lucy's dresses at the beginning of the novel are depressing, a direct correlation to her situation in life, a young woman alone, poor, in search of work, with an uncertainty as to what may become of her life. .
             Next, the dress of other characters is revealed as Lucy travels in search of work on board a ship named The Vivid, which is en route to a town in France named Villette.