Abstract
This article explores the significance of plants and vegetal growth in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette (1853) and its earlier draft The Professor (1857). While the pensionnat garden is a memorable space in Villette, plants also figure as a model of thought for Brontë to explore growth, regeneration, and heterogeneity in her novel. Thinking about plants allows Brontë to explore contradictions between life and death, difference and conjunction, emotional nourishment and material vulnerability. In particular, the plant highlights the susceptibility of life-forms to external conditions, at a time when Brontë was mourning the deaths of her brother and sisters. Through reading Villette alongside Michael Marder’s philosophical book Plant-Thinking (2013), this article traces how the plant allowed Brontë to imagine inner growth during a particularly lonely period.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
