Villette
Characters in Villette
9 characters, main characters first.Main characters
Lucy Snowe
An orphaned Englishwoman who travels to Villette to teach and narrates the novel with deliberate reserve.
Supporting characters
M. Paul Emanuel
A demanding literature teacher whose antagonism toward Lucy turns into affection.
Madame Beck
The school's watchful headmistress, given to quietly surveilling staff and students.
Dr. John Graham Bretton
A kind, handsome English physician Lucy cares for, whose affections settle elsewhere.
Mrs. Louisa Lucy Bretton
Lucy's godmother, a proud widow and the mother of Graham Bretton.
Ginevra Laura Fanshawe
A beautiful, vain and flirtatious English pupil at Madame Beck's school whom Lucy first meets on the voyage out.
Paulina Mary Home
A delicate, devoted English girl, known as Polly, whom Lucy knows in childhood and meets again years later in Villette.
Count Alfred de Hamal
A Continental colonel-count who courts Ginevra Fanshawe.
Père Silas
An elderly Catholic priest who is M. Paul Emanuel's mentor and confessor to Lucy.