So. I figured I could start posting my essays on here so people could read things that I wrote.
I wrote about the Princess de Cleves by Madame de Layafette. So here it is.
The text The Princess de Clèves by Madame de Lafayette, the protagonist the Princess de Clèves is given advice by her Mother to live virtuously will give her a tranquil life. Her mother “often gave her daughter descriptions of love … she spoke to her of men’s insincerity, of their deceptions and infidelity, of the disastrous effect of love affairs on conjugal life; and she painted for her, on the other hand, the tranquility that a woman of good reputation enjoys” (Madame de Lafayette, 10). This essay will prove that while the Princess lived the life of virtue that her mother wanted her to live. She did not live for her own happiness. She feels consistently jealous for those who associated with her love M. de Nemours and was never truly tranquil as her mother advised through her lifetime. The only tranquility that the princess found within her lifetime was knowing that her mother would have approved of her actions of living a life of high esteem. It is proven within the text that she does live a life of virtue in the eyes of her Mother. The princess stays away from her love and loves her husband as her mother tells her to. This essay will outline the conversation the princess has with her mother, where the virtue originates from. It will also outline the many acts the princess does to act virtuously, then showing the demise that occurs at the end of the text. Thus showing, when the princess realizes her virtuous acts made her mother happy but did not make the princess happy.
In the conversation that the princess has with her Mother, Mlle Chartres, her mother tells her that she needs to act virtuously in order to live a tranquil life by saying “the tranquility that a woman of good reputation enjoys… how much brilliance and distinction virtue bestows” (10). Mlle de Chartres tells the princess that tranquility and virtue will make the princess happy beyond anything else. The princess demonstrates her virtuousness by staying away from her lover, M. de Nemours. “For Mme. De Clèves, too, peace was not easy to find. To be free from her constraints’’ (152). The constraints that she is referencing in this quotation is that she is loving her husband instead of her lover Nemours. The constraints are so hard on the princess that they feel almost feel like chains holding her back. This is why she has such a difficult time to hide emotions and keep herself together. When her lover sends her a message that he wishes to speak with her she replies that she is ill, even though she is in good health. The reason she replies in this way is to refrain from associating with Nemours. “[Mme. de Clèves] did not hesitate to reply that she was ill and unable to speak to [M. de Nemours]” (84). This is to not reveal her feelings towards Nemours so that the court will continue to think that she is in love with her husband. The reason she does not associate with Nemours is so that the Princess “Had not wanted to expose herself to him in a manner that so contradicted the rule she had adopted” (132). The rule that she had adopted was to not speak to him, so no one would be no questioning her love for her husband. The princess knows that her husband will give her stability, and that that is something very important to her mother. The princess also continues to keep her feelings to her self and never breaks down even though it is very difficult for her to keep these feelings at bay. She never breaks down on herself or breaks down in telling anyone else of her feelings for the longest time. So that she remains respected as a princess of high esteem and standards as her mother wanted.
Because the princess acts virtuously, however her life is never tranquil. She is never in a calm state. She does not pursue her love but keeps her thoughts at bay. She is constantly on edge to make sure that she does not upset her husband. The princess feels anxiety towards any time or place when she could see M. de Nemours, she is also unaware of her husband knowing that M. de Nemours witnessed her private moment. As she did not know he spies on her during her private moment. During the scene in which M. de Nemours watches her in the garden she is paranoid that someone will see her doing this action where she is essentially revealing her feelings for Nemours in staring longingly at his picture, touching his cane in the nude. She is so paranoid that when she believes that someone has watched her doing these actions that she becomes “Visibly so disturbed that she felt unwell” (129). This made her so uncomfortable because she did not wish to expose her feelings. The only way that she was able to be tranquil was by knowing that the actions she pursued her mother would be proud of. The tranquility that her mother references during her speech in the first paragraph is not a tranquility for the princess. It is the tranquility she would feel in death, knowing that her daughter is living a life she approves. Mme. de Clèves feels this tranquility in knowing that the life she is living is one that Mlle. de Chartres approved of.
During the illness of her husband Mme. de Clèves refuses to be seen in the same room as M. de Nemours. This is something that is constant throughout the entire novel and this shows that the princess does not even want to be seen with him so that no one will suspect that she loves him. She also does this when she tells him that she is ill when he wants to meet. The Princess de Clèves dismisses her feelings towards M. de Nemours more than once, she even goes as far to tell her husband that he will never know what she truly thinks by telling him that “I have the strength to keep to myself what I believe I must not reveal” (96). The reason for this is that she believes that by avoiding him she can keep her thoughts at bay. While it does work for a while it is not a perfect method to avoiding Nemours. There are times in which she has to socialize with him, such as after the death of her husband.
The death of the Princesses’ husband is due to her love for Nemours, he says "I am dying of the cruel blow you have struck me" (136). This is a representation of how the selfish acts the princess committed for her own conscience ended up killing her husband. The love she feels for Nemours eats away at her husband and killing him. The Princesses decision to shy away from a relationship with Nemours after her husband’s death shows how much being true to her mother meant to her. Because the princess felt that she wanted to be true to her mother she was able to feel her own tranquility. Although this is different from the tranquility that her mother was referencing in the speech during the beginning of the novel “The tranquility that a woman of good reputation enjoys” (10). Her mother felt the tranquility in knowing that her daughter acted the way that she wanted her to act in living a virtuous life. Her mother does not reference the happiness the princess would feel in knowing that she would make her mother proud.
The Princess decides to live the virtuous life of holding herself in high esteem so that Mme. de Chartes did not die in vain. She made her decisions based on what her mother wanted her to do. Even though the princess lived such a virtuous life, it did not result in her relationship being as simple as her mother described, “love one’s husband and be loved by him” (10). The Princess loved her husband, but even though she loved and did not pursue any other he believed that she had. His belief that she had pursued someone else leads to his death. Such as the scene in which her husband suspects that she spent the night in the garden with Nemours, the scene was true but his assumptions were not. The princess “spent” the night with Nemours by him witnessing her actions that she did not want anyone else to see. She not only protests about her actions during this time, but she also protests about her actions during other times. She explains in desperation, “I have never performed any act which I would not have been happy for you to witness” (137). In avoiding M. de Nemours, the princess kept the promise that her she made to her mother. The Princess did not consent to M. de Nemours witnessing her naked private moment; she did not even know that he was there that night.
This eventually leads to the death of her husband, although she can pursue Nemours after this death without feeling remorse. She does not, because she knows that her mother would not want her to act in this way. So that she can feel the tranquility that she has pleased her mother in her virtuous acts. Knowing that she lived a virtuous life and living with the tranquility that she is pleasing her mother is enough for the Princess. Staying with her husband for the stability of her own conscience in knowing she would have her mother’s approval. This is not for the value of true love that she could feel at another time. Loving her husband for the entirety of their relationship and avoiding and shying away from M. de Nemours. The princess accomplished living a life of virtue that her mother would be proud of. She then continues to live this way for the rest of her life up to the time in which she dies in the convent.
Works Cited: Mme de Lafayette. The Princesse De Clèves. Trans. Terence Cave. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Print.
