ued that narrative surveillance û the other watching the self û is a vital aspect of this novel. Through Lucy, Bronte (2001) distorts the conventional frames through which reality is perceived and offers readers glimpses of an alternative way of ôseeingö and being. Lucy represents a challenge to the dominance of the male gaze (Shaw, 1994). Lucy, for example, says of herself that ôI like seeking the goddess in her temple, and handling the veil, and daring the dread presence (Bronte, 2001, p. 594).ö
There is, additionally, an implicit reference to religious seduction present in the novel (Nelson 1994). Lucy is drawn to the atmosphere of sensuality in the church and is in love with a Roman Catholic man. Lucy opts not to convert (and therefore achieve the proper status needed for marriage) because of her conviction that her individuality would be diminished by a conversion to Catholicism. Lucy ôseesö, in essence, that the Roman Church (and Paul) are unlikely to be a source of fulfillment and may be a source of further (and permanent) enclosure (Nelson, 1994).
Enclosure is also seen by Feinberg (1993) as representative of the enclosure and isolation of women in the home û womanÆs ônatural sphereö and ôplace.ö The home is seen by Bronte (2001) as existing within a complicated and oppositional relationship with the self, an effect achieved by disjunction which stipulates that Lucy Snowe will have to choose between a self-sacrificing marital home and a self-serving educational establishment. Lucy indicates that the domestic ideal does not stem, as thought, from romance or the egocentric concerns of a sexual relationship but from something more communitarian. Bronte (2001) therefore suggests, in part, that the exclusion of the sexual from the marital household reflects the exclusion from the home of personal (egocentric) intentions. Feinberg (1993), like Shaw (1994), therefore suggests that LucyÆs freedom is ...