In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust - Essay Example

?In Search of Lost Time Introduction Marcel Proust is perhaps one of the most acclaimed French novelists of all time though he was not highly celebrated in his life time. Proust’s claim to fame stems from his novel In Search of Lost Time that spans around seven volumes and contains reflections from the author’s own life. Being a gargantuan work of literature, the novel spins itself around a number of themes that include memory, space and time as well as a number of other themes. The novel began to emerge in 1909 and then continued up to 1922 when the author became ill and died. Overall this novel has borne a great influence on twentieth century literature as a number of writers tried to emulate the novel’s style while others attempted to parody it and some tried to discredit it as a piece of literature. Moreover the novel has emerged as the epitome of innumerable thematic, literary, stylistic and structural possibilities (Painter). It has been argued that this novel is largely based on previous experiences of the author that he recalls from his memory but most of these memories echo jealousy, hence jealousy could be taken as the central interest of the entire novel. However given the novel’s eclectic nature and the manner in which it has been authored and compiled, it would be unfair to restrict the entire novel to jealousy alone. Instead the novel is more or less composed of a variety of themes amongst which jealousy is one though jealousy tends to weigh heavily against other themes in the novel (Shattuck). These themes and the importance of memory as a central focus for the novel are discussed in greater detail below to extricate jealousy as the central and only focus of the entire novel. 2. Swan’s Way The first part of the novel is better known through its translated title as Swan’s Way. Swan is the author’s neighbour who his parents and family socialise with excessively especially his grandfather. The author’s earliest memories stem from Combray, the French town in which the author’s family resided. The author begins the novel subtly by declaring that (Proust, Swann's Way Swan's Way, Overture): “For a long time, I used to go to bed early.” The author sets the tone for his first piece by recalling his room in the family’s country home in the country town of Combray where he waits while his parents are downstairs entertaining an elegant and refined neighbour of Jewish origin, Charles Swan. He also recalls that Swan has strong connections to society but Swan’s untimely visiting time and his parent’s devotion is depriving him of his mother’s goodnight kiss. The author tends to wait around for the goodnight kiss till his parents discover him on the stairs and his father allows his mother to read to the author as a means for compensating him. However the author still feels a little friction with Swan as he states (Proust, Swann's Way Swan's Way, Overture): “But the only one of us in whom the prospect of Swann’s arrival gave rise to an unhappy foreboding was myself.” The statement above can be seen as both a vivid recollection of the author thus reinforcing the element of memory as well as his nascent jealousy for the neighbour who captured his family’s attention. However this does not indicate that the author is occupied with jealousy alone. Instead the author recalls the town of Combray vividly as well as his relatives who they stayed with “every year in Holy Week”. The town has been described in detail by the author though he presents a gloomy outlook of a typical country town with sheep, “wooly grey backs of ... flocking houses” as well as streets named after saints. The author steers clear of controversy in that his fashion of writing is as if he is reporting on the state of the town. Moreover he does not comment on the town’s appearance with highly negative opinions but his description makes the reader aware that the author is not fond of staying in the town as a child. The fond memories of the author’s aunt are also encapsulated with great attention to detail such as his aunt’s soft manner of speaking as well as the “big yellow chest of drawers of lemon wood” in her room. One of the most important parts of the novel in terms of memory is being sketched out by the author in the section “Combray” of Swan’s Way. This relates to the author’s experience of enjoying Madeleines with his great aunt which the author recalls later as an involuntary memory. This process of consuming Madeleines is described by the author as (Proust, Swann's Way Swan's Way, Combray): “Presently my aunt was able to dip in the boiling infusion, in which she would relish the savour of dead or faded blossom, a little madeleine, of which she would hold out a piece to me when it was sufficiently soft.” This experience is later cherished by the author and this theme tends to compete well with the element of jealousy that was previously reported. Similarly the author remembers the interaction between his mother and Francoise in avid detail indicating on the author’s reliance on memory. Such descriptions are common throughout the first volume including descriptions for a host of other characters such as Gilberte Swan, Madame Guermantes, Madame Verdurin and the like (Terdiman). These descriptions are made more interesting with recollections of small routine matters such as the protagonist passing by the Swan house when Gilberte gestures such as she was dismissing the author. Yet the greatest event after the Madeline recollection is the courtship between Odette de Crecy, a former courtesan and Charles Swan who does not value his wife heavily. Swan’s infatuation with Odette leaves him blind to her fallacies till she finally stops taking note of Swan. This is portrayed in a novel fashion by the author as he intertwines the elements of jealousy and memory for the first time though with Swan’s perspective. In the author’s words (Proust, Swann's Way Swan's Way, Swan in Love): “He was not jealous, at first, of the whole of Odette’s life, but of those moments only in which an incident, which he had perhaps misinterpreted, had led him to suppose that Odette might have played him false. His jealousy, like an octopus which throws out a first, then a second, and finally a third tentacle, fastened itself irremovably first to that moment, five o’clock in the afternoon, then to another, then to another again. But Swann was incapable of inventing his sufferings. They were only the memory, the perpetuation of a suffering that had come to him from without.” Again the theme of jealousy is seen surfacing but it is intertwined deeply with memory but not just with the author’s memory alone. Instead the author has portrayed how Swan views Odette’s actions after she has deposed of him. In doing so the author develops how Swan’s jealousy has taken over him like an octopus and how Swan treated these as memories in the author’s view. The themes of memory and jealousy again seem ever present to support the structure of the novel. The constant resounding jealousy brought in by the author time and again is perhaps the author’s try at making his work more interesting or merely his recollection of a basic human fallacy. At this junction it is yet too early to reliably predict if the author has brought out these subjects intentionally or unintentionally. It is therefore more pertinent to wade through the other volumes by the author in order to decide on this issue better. 3. Within a Budding Grove The second volume of In Search of Lost Time has been translated roughly as “Within a Budding Grove” and it portrays the author as growing up and trying to take up a real profession in life. A diplomat colleague of the author’s father, Norpois convinces his parents to allow him to see a theatre performance by Berma. However the author’s first impression of the theatre performance does not put provide much regard to Berma’s work so he asks for Norpois to teach him about art. Consequently Norpois begins to teach the author about art but the author finds out later that he evolves into much of a dilettante rather than a real artist. In addition to the author’s possession with trying to understand art is the issue of Gilberte Swan with whom the author has become accustomed. Again the author continues in his style by introducing characters in succession while filling out the gaps with little trinkets of memory such as him being invited to tea by Gilberte or his friend Bloch taking him to a prostitute named Rachel. These small events play either no role or insignificant roles in the current volume but these events tend to connect well to the overall picture as the novels proceed as a lineage (Carter). Even more significantly the author relates that Charles Swan has overcome “his jealous imagination” in relation to Odette to realise that he had “blackened what was in reality the innocent life of Odette”. The author believes that Swan has done so in order to end his suffering at the hands of jealousy due to Odette’s actions. Consequently Swan can be seen cured of his maladies of jealousy due to Odette’s actions but he still continues with his investigations. In the author’s own words (Proust Within a Budding Grove, Madame Swan at Home): “Then that curiosity itself had disappeared, without, however, his abandoning his investigations. He continued the attempt to discover what no longer interested him, because his old ego though it had shrivelled to the extreme of decrepitude still acted mechanically, following the course of preoccupations so utterly abandoned that Swann could not now succeed even in forming an idea of that anguish...” This is an important revelation because the author represents himself in an impressionable age where he is learning about greater social interaction and how to deal with its “maladies”. Just as the author grasped a little about the performing arts from Norpois the author can be seen as grasping a potent method of dealing with jealousy in Swan’s example. It could perhaps also be argued that when the author and Gilberte drifted apart the author was not as obsessed as Swan was obsessed with Odette. This could be attributed to such learning by the author from his social environment which has made the author a little wiser. The author is perceptibly close to Gilberte as indicated by Madame Swan’s statement (Proust Within a Budding Grove, Madame Swan at Home): “But you ought to know a great deal better than I do. You are in her confidence, her great favourite, her ‘chum,’ as the English say.” After having parted ways with Gilberte the author sees her walking with someone resembling a boy and so the author chooses to let go of her for good rather than obsess over her like Swan did with Odette. These incidents can be taken as a sign that the author is maturing with his years and the loss of Gilberte does not force him into a corner with jealousy as the only company. The author continues developing the novel’s story line further by relating his visit to Madame Swan who has grown in clout as a hostess even though he does not care about Gilberte. Later the author goes to Balbec with his grandmother and Francoise (who is in the service of his grandmother). The grandmother meets an old friend and renews her friendship with her. The trio roam the countryside and discuss politics and art. Again the author drops in occasional characters and connects them with sketchy instances and events that are as yet not highly clearly connected. During the author’s journeys into the countryside he looks at a clump of three trees and is instigated by his involuntary memory though he fails to recall the trigger. When the author came to Balbec he was sad because of his unfamiliar surroundings but his grandmother comforted him. Yet after looking at the aforementioned trees the author felt happier and far more content. In his own words (Proust Within a Budding Grove, Place Name: The Place): “We came down towards Hudimesnil; suddenly I was overwhelmed with that profound happiness which I had not often felt since Combray; happiness analogous to that which had been given me by — among other things — the steeples of Martinville. But this time it remained incomplete. I had just seen, standing a little way back from the steep ridge over which we were passing, three trees, probably marking the entrance to a shady avenue, which made a pattern at which I was looking now not for the first time; I could not succeed in reconstructing the place from which they had been, as it were, detached, but I felt that it had been familiar to me once; so that my mind having wavered between some distant year and the present moment, Balbec and its surroundings began to dissolve and I asked myself whether the whole of this drive were not a make-believe, Balbec a place to which I had never gone save in imagination...” It must be noted in the passage above that the author is feeling happier based on the incomplete relation of an involuntary memory. This can be taken to indicate that the author is introducing memories as a pastime that could be enjoyed especially all the more if they are involuntary and so a little shrouded in mystery. At the beginning of Swan’s Way the author has mentioned that habituation comes about when a task is repeatedly accomplished but old memories can cease the habituation temporarily. Such a break is seen as pleasant and enthralling from the author’s perspective and this break in the author’s life of discovering three trees that resemble something in his mind tend to make him happier. The theme of memory resonates from this encounter and the concept of involuntary memory takes shape as well. This concept is used by the author throughout the rest of the novel too, more famously in the Madeline incident. Attention must also be paid to the fact that the author is depicted as a young man in his twenties yet he is already recalling his past and is enjoying this experience. This brings out the reliance of the author on memory and memory based phenomenon in order to strengthen the novel’s plot (Kristeva). In addition to these themes, this chapter of the novel delves into the author’s first bouts at reflecting on love after becoming infatuated with a care free girl Albertine. Initially the author is interested in the entire group of Albertine and her friends but over time the author can be seen growing closer to Albertine. However the author’s interest in the group of girls does not subside completely. Albertine rejects the author but he takes it with an open attitude and there is little to indicate jealousy on the part of the author. The entire tale of the author’s first musings at love and infatuation seem to prove that the author is more mired in memory along with his text than he would have been mired in jealousy. As indicated before, the author can be seen as mature enough by this point in time in dealing with such issues to place jealousy aside. It could alternatively be argued that Albertine was not engaged or in the courtship of another man so there was little reason to be jealous. However it must be kept in mind that Albertine’s image shows that she was social and outgoing and met many men. While Swan chose to muse how Odette might interact with other men, the author had no such trains of thought. This clearly shows that the author was far more devoid of jealousy than might actually be possible for a normal human being. Again it cannot be clearly defined if the author was merely trying to create a character with high “tolerance” for such matters or if a human being could be so accustomed to such affairs that jealousy does not result. Deciding on such an issue would be unjustified as everyone reading and analysing Proust’s work would tend to have their own opinions in relation to their own life experiences. It must be noted here that the author’s writing style places one in such ambiguity because everything is merely reported in the author’s account without any possible positive or negative connotations in place. 4. The Captive The fifth volume which is roughly translated as “The Captive” (also The Prisoner) continues the author’s story and his infatuation with Albertine. By this point in time Albertine is already living with the author in his family’s apartment though at the expense of Francoise’s distrust and the chagrin of the author’s mother. The author portrays himself overly obsessed with Albertine in such a manner that he recruits Andree to report on the whereabouts of Albertine. The author has been portrayed as jealously guarding Albertine as if she were a personal possession of the author. Perhaps the passage below summarises the author’s concern beautifully (Proust The Captive, Life With Albertine): “... for the evil existed not in Albertine alone, but in others to whom any opportunity for enjoyment is good. ... And so it was enough that she should return later than usual, that her expedition should have taken an unaccountable time, although it was perfectly easy perhaps to account for it without introducing any sensual reason, for my malady to break out afresh, ... not satisfied by the information that Andree and the chauffeur had given me as to their expeditions with my mistress, I had felt the neighbourhood of Paris to be as tormenting as that of Balbec, and had gone off for a few days in the country with Albertine. But everywhere my uncertainty as to what she might be doing was the same; the possibility that it was something wrong as abundant, vigilance even more difficult, with the result that I returned with her to Paris. In leaving Balbec, I had imagined that I was leaving Gomorrah, plucking Albertine from it; in reality, alas, Gomorrah was dispersed to all the ends of the earth. And partly out of jealousy, partly out of ignorance of such joys (a case which is rare indeed), I had arranged unawares this game of hide and seek in which Albertine was always to escape me. Throughout the entire volume the author is far more concerned with Albertine’s suspected infidelity than with anything else. Given the author’s less than thoughtful behaviour and the restrictions placed on Albertine, she eventually decides to call it off with the author. This occurs at much the same time that the author is thinking of resolving this matter but before he can act, Albertine is already gone along with her things. Without any given doubt this entire volume spins around the themes of jealousy and infatuation and memory plays little part such as the small reference to Gomorrah in the passage above. 5. Time Regained The last volume of the novel is roughly translated as “Time Regained” and the author begins to fold up the entire story in this volume. The tale begins to culminate as the author meets with Gilberte and stays with her at her home near Combray. While walking out with Gilberte the author is taken aback when he finds out that Gilberte was attracted to him when she was young and she gestured him to attract his attention. Previously the author mused that Gilberte’s gesture was a rude dismissal above anything. Similarly when the author saw Gilberte walking with what seemed like a boy as he was about to make up with her after a fight, was actually Lea. The author recollects memories again though this time they are voluntary and they show him that he was over assuming about things. As this volume progresses further on it becomes clear that the author is reflecting on memories as he compares the present to the past. The author realises that art and society have changed as have warfare and the status of gays and lesbians. One of the author’s old acquaintances Saint Loup goes to war and dies after which the author begins to ponder what might have happened had Saint Loup lived. Towards the very end of this volume, the author attends a party at Prince de Guermantes’ residence where he sees a number of his old acquaintances. On his way he notices Charlus and Jupien while at the party he meets Gilberte and her daughter, Morel, Madame de Forcheville, Madame Verdurin amongst other. As the author sees the paving stones of the Guermantes residence another bout of involuntary memory takes the author back in time. Two other such incidents also follow the author inside the residence and the author realises that through simultaneous contact with the past and the present he can step outside of things and see the true nature of things. He also realises that his whole life has been preparing him to become a writer such that he can report on the incidents in his life. Again the overwhelming theme of memory especially involuntary memory is clear in this volume and jealousy is nowhere to be found. 6. Conclusion In Search of Lost Time is an eclectic mix of a variety of different themes amongst which one is jealousy though it appears as a dominant theme in some volumes. However to confine the entire novel to jealousy alone would be superficial. It must also be noted that memory plays a vital part in the development of the entire novel and so it serves as an overwhelming theme. Furthermore it would be highly justified to claim that memory serves as the core objective from which the novel’s interest stems. Memory can be seen as a pervasive concept in the entire novel that develops from the very first page to the very last sentence. The author has also put great effort into introducing newer elements of memory that were previously little explored in literature such as the concept of involuntary memory that appears to represent watersheds in the novel. The novel hints at a multitude of other themes such as jealousy, social mobility, affiliation, achievement, competition, cooperation, violence, homosexuality and many others. However all of these themes in the novel are derived directly from the use of memory alone as the author recalls previous incidents. Therefore to project jealousy as the only or the major element from which the novel’s interest stems is rather an understatement. 7. Bibliography Carter, William C. Marcel Proust: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Kristeva, Julia. Time and Sense: Proust and the Experience of Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Painter, George. Marcel Proust: A Biography Volume 2. New York: Random House, 1959. Proust, Marcel. Swann's Way. London: Vintage, 1922. —. The Captive. London: Vintage, 1929. —. Within a Budding Grove. London: Vintage, 1924. Shattuck, Roger. Proust's Way: A Field Guide To In Search of Lost Time. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000. Terdiman, Richard. Present Past: Modernity and the Memory Crisis. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993. Read More