Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Letter LXXXI
The marquise's "manifesto" is at the heart of the novel, literally (almost exactly in the middle) and figuratively. It purports to explain how the marquise developed her outlook on life, how she resolved to not be like other women, who were ignored and ill-used and denied worldly pleasures, who were taught to concern themselves with "womanly virtues." It contains the prophetic, "I was born to avenge my sex and to dominate yours" and "I must conquer or perish." Did you feel more or less sympathetic to her after reading this letter?
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5 comments:
I was turned off by both her and the Vicomte's use of people, so I felt less sympathetic to her after reading that letter.
Definitely more sympathetic. Using people the way she did was terrible, of course, but I can't say I blame her for her life choices. The alternative form of life for a woman in those circumstances is equally sickening to me.
That's a good point. She did say that she was avenging her sex. And that makes what she did a little less terrible.
I think that letter is a masterpiece of literature. And an astonishing piece of writing — of psychological and social analysis — to come from the pen of an 18th century man. Only someone who seriously pondered the psychology of women in a repressive environment — and actually had a good deal of empathy for them — could have written that. And that is completely aside from whether the marquise was "evil."
It is a remarkable passage. You know, I expected here or at some point to learn the marquise had been mistreated and thus was protecting herself, but I like the complexity this omission adds to her character. She wasn't ruined, beaten or tricked; she just recognized the grievances meant for her sex at an early age and decided not to play by the rules.
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