Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Just deserts?

Did you find the book's ending satisfying? Why do you think the author had Valmont die and the marquise live (in disgrace, with smallpox)?
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3 comments:

Ben said...

I'm not sure about this, but I think perhaps the punishment of living disfigured and "ruined" was supposed to be worse than the punishment of death, and the Marquise was supposed to be the worse of the two characters.

4:12 PM, July 17, 2007
Erin said...

I agree that was probably the ultimate price for the Marquise to pay: losing her beauty and power and social status.

The ending was satisfying, I guess, although I'm not a fan of women dying of despair.

6:47 PM, July 17, 2007
kc said...

I think the author was also making a point that an honorable death is not available to a woman. Female honor is tied up almost exclusively in sexual and religious purity/fidelity. Once those things are gone, she is literally ruined, as good as dead. Death would be a redundancy. Society thought the marquise was basically good, and at the end she was unmasked. Valmont, being a man, had the privilege of walking around unmasked and being received into society.

They may have both been libertines, but there was a huge difference in how they had to pursue that lifestyle.

8:36 PM, July 17, 2007

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