Jun 10 2009
The “Little Woman”
In the second chapter of Bronte’s Villete, the reader gets a closer look at Miss Polly’s character through the gaze of our narrator, Lucy Snowe. Again, Lucy is mystified by the odd behavior of the young girl. Just as expected, Miss Polly does not “take a fancy to anybody in the house.” She continues to perch herself in her corner and take care of herself, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Lucy notices that Miss Polly does not mourn like any other child would or should. She comments, “She seemed growing old and unearthly.” Miss Polly’s behavior is so peculiar, that Lucy does not recognize it as being natural. In fact, she begins to associate Miss Polly with a ghost. When entering the room where Miss Polly is, Lucy feels “that roomed seemed to me not inhabited, but haunted.” Then at night, Lucy “beheld her figure, white and conspicuous in its night dress.” Miss Polly is not just too much of an adult; she has grown so old that she has died right in front of Lucy, and yet continues to “be.”
However, this ghost of a girl is resurrected by the surprise visit of none other than her father, Mr. Home. Lucy notices no physical resemblance to the “hard-featured man;” yet, there is a likeness because, “her [Miss Polly’s] mind had been filled from his.” It is very clear to Lucy that father and daughter are cut from the same cloth.
Miss Polly, of course now that she has what she has been hoping for, changes dramatically. Instead of the sulking ghostly woman-like girl, she is now the caretaker of her father. She insists that she pour his tea and do his sewing. She is in fact taking her mother’s place. This astonishing change in character leads Lucy to name Miss Polly the “little woman” because the term child is inappropriate she says: “When I say child I use an inappropriate and undescriptive term – a term suggesting any picture rather than that of the demure little person in a mourning frock and white chemisette.” Overall, this chapter emphasizes Miss Polly’s lack of childlike innocence and instead replaces it with a maturity and need for responsibility and control that astounds the older Lucy Snowe.
