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Rhetoric And Fancy As A Basis For Narrative In The Novels Of Jean Giraudoux

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Rhetoric And Fancy As A Basis For Narrative In The Novels Of Jean Giraudoux

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Content RHETORIC AND FANCY AS A BASIS FOR NARRATIVE IN THE NOVELS OF JEAN GIRAUDOUX by Robert Stanley Cox A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (French) February 1963 UNIVERSITY O F SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES 7. CALIFORNIA This dissertation, written by .........................R obe r t . Stanley.. C o x ......................... under the direction of his.....Dissertation Com mittee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by the Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y ■ Dean B ate February.,...L.9.6.3......................... DISSERTATION COMMITTEE .. Chairman TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION......... 1 Chapter I. METHODS OF APPLYING RHETORIC AND FANCY TO NARRATIVE............................. 17 II. EARLY APPLICATIONS OF RHETORIC AND FANCY IN SIMON LE PATH&TIQUE.................... 54 III. APPLICATION OF RHETORIC AND FANCY TO ENVIRONMENTAL ELEMENTS OF THE NOVEL....... 88 IV. NARRATIVE DERIVED FROM RESTRICTIVELY PATTERNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR.....................130 V. NARRATIVE DERIVED FROM AN INTERPLAY OF RHETORICAL AND FANCIFUL CONCEPTS............. 165 CONCLUSION: EFFECTS OF RHETORIC AND FANCY ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE NARRATIVE...................209 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................241 ii INTRODUCTION Today the name of Jean Giraudoux is familiar to enthusiasts of French theater throughout the world, and frequent successful revivals of his plays attest to his enduring popularity as a dramatic author. Yet despite the fervent and widespread acclaim which Giraudoux has received as a dramatist, his accomplishments as a novelist have been almost entirely forgotten by the present generation. This disparity is even more peculiar when we consider the fact that during his own lifetime Giraudoux was highly regarded as a prose writer. Although his first major dramatic work was not produced until 1928, when he was already forty-five years of age, his initial collection of short stories, Les Provinciales. was praised by Andre Gide in one of the early editions of La Nouvelle Revue fran- caise.1 In 1922 his third novel, Siegfried et le Limousin, won the Frix Balzac; and in the 1920's the appearances ^La Nouvelle Revue frangaise, I (1909), 463. 1 of his other novels, Suzanne et le Pacifique (1921), Juliette au pays des homnes'(1924), Bella (1926) and Eglantine (1927), were all major literary events. Even after his great success as a playwright in the 1930' s he produced three important novels: Les Aventures de Jerdme Bardlni (1930), Combat avec l'ange (1932), and Choix des lSlues (1938). The latter of these was the subject of a major critical review by Jean-Paul Sartre in what proved to be one of the final issues of La Nouvelle Revue fran- O caise before the German occupation. Indeed, in view of the sharp decline of Giraudoux's reputation as a novelist since the war, it is quite ironic that in 1927, when it was announced that the newly formed theatrical company of Louis Jouvet was planning to do a play by Jean Giraudoux at the Comedie des Champs-£lysees, critics were sceptical as to whether an author with such a unique prose style could successfully make the transition from the novel to 2 For a review of critical reactions to Giraudoux's novels during this period see bibliography in Rene Marill Alberes, Esthetique et morale chez Jean Giraudoux (Paris, 1957), pp. 541-542. "M. Jean Giraudoux et la philosophie d'Aristote," La Nouvelle Revue francaise, LIV (1940), 339-354. the theater.^ Today, if it were not for his accomplish ments as a playwright, Giraudoux would probably be as unfamiliar to us as many other prominent novelists of the twenties such as Paul Morand and Joseph Delteil. This study is an effort to analyse the probable stylistic causes for the precipitous decline of the Giral- ducian novel. It seeks to prove that the present state of neglect into which Giraudoux's novels have fallen is largely due to the unusual role he assigned to rhetoric in his writing. In numerous literary manuals, rhetoric, in its broadest sense, is defined as either the art of expressive speech or that of writing well in prose. Ordinarily, any systematic or pervasive application of rhetoric to prose is identified with expository writing and is used to give a maximum of fluency and vividness to the communication of ideas for purposes of persuasion. When rhetorical devices such as metaphor are used in the creation of fiction, they may lend a high degree of color to the author's descrip tions or greatly enhance his expression of ideas and 4 Laurent LeSage, Jean Giraudoux: His Life and Works (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1959), p. 66. 4 emotions; however, they are not normally conceived as moulding the actions of the narrative as they would shape the development of a discourse. In the course of Girau- doux's development as a writer, his irrepressibly fanciful mind led him to expand the uses of rhetoric beyond its traditionally descriptive role in the novel. He made it the basis for a new type of narrative embodying the most ingenious inventions of his prolific and capricious imagi nation. In his plays Giraudoux's rhetorical constructions were necessarily confined to dialogue and therefore were tem pered by the restrictive requirements of an oral delivery. In the novel, however, when Giraudoux allowed rhetoric to assume an equally pervasive function, the structure of the narrative was profoundly affected and tended to be recast along highly artificial lines which appear today to be entirely out of harmony with the demands of the genre. Nowhere has the current attitude toward the Giralducian novel been better summed up than by Edmond Jaloux in his contribution to Jean Prevost's collection of critical essays on the novel, Problemes du roman, published in 1943: La supreme habilete du roman de l'aprfes-guerre a ete de constituer un exercice de style, delicieusement fragile comme tous les exerclces de style. Au debut, 1*Influence de Jean Giraudoux et celle de Paul Morand, ont ete predominances. On ne sauralt enumerer tous les llvres qul ont obel a une veritable Improvisation ver- bale avec des Images rafflnees, des analogies subtiles et des metaphores ingenieuses. Peu d'annees ont pass£ depuis, et beaucoup sont illisibles; leurs auteurs, disparus.^ It is amusing to note that if we seek to discover the reasons for the initial success of the Giralducian novel and to analyse the climate of opinion which prevailed in French literary circles in the 1920's, we find that at that time Edmond Jaloux was one of Giraudoux1s most enthusiastic supporters.^ This change of attitude on the part of one of the most discerning critics of twentieth century French literature did not result from a petty literary feud, but reflects the search for new artistic values and the accom panying rise and fall of enthusiasms which is a predominant feature of the between-the-wars period. In the 1920's the novel, which had been dominated before the war by traditionalist authors like Paul Bourget 5"L'Evolution du roman franpais," Problfemes du roman (Lyon, 1943), p. 31. £ Edmond Jaloux, L'Esprit des livres. I (Paris, 1923), 195. and Maurice Barrfes, underwent an abrupt and arresting transformation. The literary scene was occupied by a dis concerting host of innovators who held one ideal in common: the total abolition of realist fiction. Their bold application of rhetorical devices to prose writing, which was later regarded as an exercice de style was then called impressionisme or papillonisme and was looked upon as a new romanticism or an emergence of symbolism in the novel. Though Lucien Dubech called Giraudoux the worst writer of his generation,^ most critics felt that in bringing the novel once again under the control of the individual imagination, he and other avant-garde writers like Morand were bringing about a significant renewal of the genre in France. This reaction against realism, which had actually been initiated earlier in the century by authors like Andre Gide, Marcel Proust, Alain-Fournier, and Giraudoux himself, was considerably intensified by the physical horrors and ideological deceptions of the First World War. The litera ture it produced tended to be predominantly Iconoclastic ^Lucien Dubech, Les Chefs de file de la ieune generation (Paris, 1925), p. 164. and escapist in content, and at the same time aggressively different in style from the writing of the pre-war period. The new novel, though necessarily "experimental" was, above all, non-scientific and non-objective. Both in style and in over-all design it was intended to be spontaneously subjective and, it was hoped, fruitfully illogical. Any subject or quality of mind which served to stimu late the new vision of things was phrenetically exploited. While the Surrealists turned to the subconscious to dis cover new writing techniques, the mechanical inventions which characterized the new age such as the express train, the telephone, and the airplane provided numerous other authors, including both Giraudoux and Morand, with a less clinical source of inspiration. The exciting and novel transformations of reality which they effected were thought to provide the basis for a revolutionary set of aesthetic standards to be emulated stylistically by the musician, the artist, the poet, and the writer. It is not surprising that the literature of the aprfes-guerre sometimes gives the impression of being predominantly one of swift-moving voyagers whose ideal was to travel like a bullet in flight. 8 Giraudoux*s emphatic denunciations of realism at this time provide an important key to understanding the develop ment of his style and better enable us to weigh his con tribution to French letters. He detested Zola, whom he felt had abolished poetry from the novel. He called the poetic spirit "a hummingbird strangled by the abominable Zola and his disciples."® Besides their preoccupation with the more sordid aspects of reality, what turned Giraudoux against the realist and naturalist authors of the late nineteenth cen tury was a tendency on their part to regard the novel as a scientific demonstration rather than a creation of the imagination. By the end of the 1880's the meaning of Barbey d'Aurevilly's prophetic warning, "la boue n'est pas infinie," had been recognised even by the naturalists them selves. But though the brutal excesses identified with naturalism were purged from the novel by authors like Paul Bourget, its scientific pretentions had, if anything, increased. In a study of Paul Bourget, written just after the novelist's death in 1937, Andre Rousseaux accurately 8 Yves Gandon, "Soliloque sur la colonne de juillet," Nouvelles litteraires. August 17, 1929, p. 4. discerned that in the writing of the Catholic author of such novels as Un Divorce and Le D&non de midi the scien tific and determinist theories professed by Taine and Zola received their most rigorous application.^ In reality Bourget did not abolish the "experimental novel" after his conversion to Catholicism in 1901, but utilized its tech niques in defense of conservative religious and social ideas. In 1930, when interviewed by Simone Ratel, Giraudoux recalled the stifling effects of realism upon the French imagination and the spirit of revolt it aroused just prior to the First World War: ... la litterature romanesque etait une route mono tone, creusee d’ornieres dans lesquelles on s'engageait k la queue-leu-leu. ... Nous avons voulu reagir, briser les moules, donner du champ k 1'invention. It is evident from this statement that Giraudoux re garded his prose style as a salutary innovation essential for the revitalization of French prose. What realist ^Andre Rousseaux, "Donnees pour un portrait de Paul Bourget," Litterature du vingtifeme sifecle, I (Paris, 1938), 208-211. ^Simone Ratel, Dialogues a une seule voix (Paris, 1930), p. 12. authors called a concern for the truth, Giraudoux con sidered an adherence to sterile and conventional ideas; what they called scientific investigation he derisively termed a search for a problem to which the solution is known in advance. He felt that by a more imaginative ex ploitation of the resources of language he might demon strate the absurdity of the realist belief that the modern novel had to be based on so-called scientific procedures and that once this was accomplished French writers would be free to create a rich new type of fiction. In this revolt Giraudoux drew considerable inspiration from his travels abroad and his acquaintance with foreign literature. As a result of a year of study in Munich and his specialization in German literature at the £cole Normale, he was keenly interested in the German romantics and possessed an uncommon knowledge of their writing. Paul Morand, who knew Giraudoux in Munich, stated that without his discovery of the German romantics his style would have been totally different.^ In their lengthy studies devoted to Giraudoux's development as an author ■^Paul Morand, Souvenirs (Geneva, 1948), p. 132. 11 and playwright, both Rene Marill Alberes*^ and Laurent 13 LeSage have likewise stressed the importance of this Influence. One can well imagine the strong appeal the German romantic movement must have held for the idealistically inclined youth of Giraudoux's generation who sought to break away from the stifling conventions of tum-of-the- century realism. This influence is not only evident in the case of Giraudoux but is frequently attested to in the journals of Andre Gide and in the memorable correspondence between Alain-Fournier and Jacques Rivi&re. Certainly no literary formulae could have been more electrifyingly opposed to the theories of the realist school or more chal lenging to its ascendancy than those of the German roman tics. In complete contrast to the realists, they believed that a novel or any work of fiction could only be the product of a mind freed from practical and rational con siderations and that the role of the writer was to free 12 f Rene Marill Alberts, Esthetique et morale chez Jean Giraudoux (Paris, 1957), pp. 26-50. 13 / Laurent LeSage, Jean Giraudoux, Surrealisme and the German Romantic Ideal (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1952). 12 himself from the impingements of the exterior world rather than make himself subservient to it. Clearly it is the German romantic conception of writing as a spontaneous and poetic activity which re inforced Giraudoux*s penchant for humor and phantasy and encouraged him to exploit his rhetorical gifts at the expense of verisimilitude until \riiat was at first mere stylistic embellishment finally altered the entire content and construction of his narrative. In his analysis of Giraudoux*s development as a writer, Rene Marill precisely situates the inception of the style we now designate by the adjective Giralducian, between 1906 and 1910, that is, in the years immediately following his sojourn in Munich. Marill demonstrates that this stylistic development was conscious and deliberate, by contrasting the stories Giraudoux wrote at that time for the newspaper Le Matin (which can be read today in the col lection Les Contes d*un matin) with the more radically experimental stories he wrote for such reviews as L*Ermitage and Le Mercure de France (which were collected in the volume Les Provinciales in 1909). The stories in the former volume are simply and directly narrated and 13 depend upon a moving or dramatic climax for their full effect. However, the stories collected In Les Provlnclales bear the stamp of two Important stylistic modifications. First of all, It Is Immediately apparent that the develop** ment of the plot Is no longer Giraudoux*s primary concern, and secondly, the Individuals or objects which solicit his attention In the course of the narrative are not considered with the realist's eye for detail but with an attitude more akin to that of the poet; his imagination hovers over them seeking to enhance their role in the story by means of whimsical or poetic associations. This latter character istic of Giraudoux*s style is admirably described by Pierre Brodin: ... Les faits n'y sont que les brins d'herbe oil l'imagination-sauterelle du poete, partagee entre les mille sollicitations qul s'offrent h elle, cede toujours a la plus imprevue, narguant les ordres d'une raison trouble-jole.^ It is this new way of looking at reality which gave Giraudoux*s first collection of short stories, Les Pro- vinciales, the freshness and charm commented on by Gide in his critique for the NRF. In one of these stories, "^Pierre Brodin, Les ecrivains francais de l'entre- deux-guerres (Montreal, 1942), p. 155. 14 "De ma fenStre," for Instance, what might be a thoroughly dreary convalescence is infused with wit and sentiment through the unusual way in which the young protagonist views his situation and the people around him. The First World War provided a severe test for Giraudoux's new style of writing and the attitude which it embodied. Although he was twice wounded in combat, his will to preserve the poetic ideals which his temperament and formation made vital to him was strongly reaffirmed in the three books which resulted from his wartime experiences Arnica America, Lectures pour une ombre, and Adorable Clio. Some critics were offended by what one termed his "version pommadee de la guerre."^ However, Benjamin Cremieux expressed a particular admiration for Giraudoux's writings on the war and at the same time perceived the deep emo tional and intellectual resonances beneath the apparent capriciousness of his style.^ 15 Marcel Azals, Le Chemin des Gardies (Paris, 1926), p. 232. Cited by Laurence LeSage, Metaphor in the Non- drama tic Works of Jean Giraudoux (Eugene: University of Oregon Press, 1952), p. 8. ■^Benjamin Cremieux, "Jean Giraudoux," Vingtieme siecle, I (Paris, 1924), 111. 15 In the literary atmosphere of post-war Paris, Girau doux' s anti-realist style made him one of the leaders of the new generation of writers. At this time his use of rhetoric and fancy underwent an important final modifica tion. No doubt encouraged by such radical new experiments as those of the surrealists, he not only endowed his characters with the capacity for momentary poetic insights and whimsical interpretations of reality, but developed a style of writing which permitted such concepts to become a constant and systematic motivation for their behavior. The highly refined quality of the rhetorical con structions which resulted and their origin in literary artifice contrasted sharply both with the prose techniques of the surrealists, who sought to base their writing on subconscious or instinctive metaphoric associations, and the frequent but more conventional use of figures of speech and other rhetorical devices by such authors as Colette, Saint Exupery, Jean Giono, and Marcel Proust. It is the purpose of this study to analyse the predominant role these highly original rhetorical and fanciful constructions play in the formation of the Giralducian novel by clari fying the principles which govern their application 16 to the narrative and demonstrating their effect upon Its over-all structure. CHAPTER I METHODS OF APPLYING RHETORIC AND FANCY TO NARRATIVE The unusual way events tend to adhere to a fanciful rhetorical framework In the novels of Giraudoux may be Illustrated by an analysis of a typical segment of narra tive taken from Combat avec 1 * ange, one of his later prose works. As the novel begins, Jacques Brisson, the young narrator, has just suffered three major losses: his car has been stolen, his dog has run away, and he has been aban doned by his mistress. In a traditional work of fiction any one of these losses would provide the author with ample opportunity either to depict its effects upon the subsequent behavior of the protagonist or to explore those of his actions which were antecedent to its occurrence in order to determine how it came about. The latter approach to a fictional situ ation is common in the psychological novel, particularly 17 I 18 In the case of the most momentous and least accidental of the three events narrated by Brisson, the departure of his mistress. In treating such a situation the author is normally judged successful if his presentation of the chain of events which provoked the departure is made plausible and enlightening to the reader. In the psychological novel, however complex and profound the author's insights may be, their validity depends to some degree upon a cor respondence with the reader's personal experience of human behavior. In the fictional world of Jean Giraudoux, however, the reader soon learns to expect neither normal actions nor conventional explanations for their occurrence; Indeed, Giraudoux's originality stems chiefly from a deliberate and systematic violation of the logic employed in realist and psychological novels. The three events which take place in the opening chap ter of Combat avec l'ange are related in a context which reveals a startlingly original reason for their occurrence. Brisson informs us that the theft of his automobile and the flight of his favorite pet are no more accidental than the departure of his mistress; furthermore, the three 19 losses have a common cause for which Brisson himself Is largely responsible. He explains that he has provoked the loss of his dog, his automobile, and his mistress to con form with a firmly established pattern of behavior which enables him to sense the approach of momentous or cata clysmic events and to prepare himself for their arrival: J'etals prSt. On ne pouvait meme Stre plus pret pour un grand moment, pour une grande epoque. J'al toujours eu la divination de ces crises qul surglssent entre genera tions, entre continents, entre races. Je les prevols si nettement que j'eprouve le besoln de me rendre libre pour elles. Des que 1*Instinct m'avertit de leur approche, je laisse chacune de mes occupations, chacun de mes goClts arriver k son terme, et tous mes baux moraux expirer. ... Aussi, alors que les annees de veillees d’armes engourdissent les autres ou les surchargent, et que ce sont des gens nerveux et encombres qu'elles en- voient k la crise ou au combat, j*arrive sans bagage, sans passe ... devant le cataclysme ou le conflit humain. * Jacques Brisson's statements are emphatic and have the categorical ring of a highly proven formula. However, If we examine them closely we find they contain several mani fest exaggerations of a type commonly used for purposes of emotional emphasis. • ^Combat avec l'ange (Paris, 1934), p. 7. Subsequent references to this work will appear in the text. 20 The first element of exaggeration in the passage stems from a hyperbolic use of adverbs and adjectives, as exem plified by the underlined words in the two following sen tences: "J'ai toujours eu la divination de ces crises qui surgissent entre generations, entre continents, entre races," and "D&s que 1'instinct m'avertit de leur approche, je laisse chacune de mes occupations, chacun de mes goOts arriver a son terme, et tous mes baux moraux expirer." Similar exclamatory connotations are often given to adverbs and adjectives in ordinary conversation. When for instance an excited speaker says, "I always know when a major crisis is going to arrive," or "I worry about you every minute of the day," the listener normally interprets the sentence as an expression of strong emotion rather than as a statement of fact. This direct use of hyperbole is followed by a metaphor containing a more subtle but equally strong element of exaggeration. When stripped of all rhetorical artifice, Brisson*s final comment, "... j'arrive sans bagage, sans passe ... devant le cataclysme ou le conflit humain," would be regarded as a metaphoric overstatement employed to give emphasis and color to the explanation of his customary 21 attitude on the eve of great crises. Under cold analysis the exaggerations In Brisson*s commentary stand out with disruptive clarity, as do those of clumsy rhetorical writing. But in context and as a result of the vividness and elegance of Giraudoux*s style they Impress the reader as having a curiously literal validity. The supreme artifice of the ensuing narrative is to perpetuate and reinforce this impression by making subsequent events depend entirely upon the total literal acceptance of what are commonly regarded as purely emo tional or fanciful statements. Thus Jacques Brisson proceeds to offer proof that his extravagant affirmation, "... j*arrive sans bagage, sans passe ... devant le cataclysme ou le conflit humain," has an entirely literal meaning. With continuing aplomb, wit, and conviction he attributes the loss of his automobile to a completely fanciful cause: Cette fois-ci, je constatais un perfectionnement dans mes methodes. Les Stres, les objets se detachaient, tombaient de moi d'eux-m&nes. Ma voiture avait ete volee 1'autre semaine, devant la boutique de coiffeur ou j'allais falre couper ras les cheveux de l'epoque heureuse. La dame du kiosque avait vu un grand jeune homme, a longs cheveux celui-lk, k pardessus beige avec revers de sole, verifier les numeros de l'auto, les plaques, et jusqu'aux phares. ... A mon avis le voleur s'etait m£me donne trop de peine. J'etais sdr qu'elle 22 l'etit suivi, s'11 avait marche devant et s'11 lui avait fait signe. Je savals de quo! sont capables les objets pour s'assurer une existence avec un humain k revers de sole. ... (p. 8) This second phase in the progression of the narrative serves to strengthen the literal truth of Brisson's opening commentary. Consequently the elements of whimsy which it contains are considerably heightened. Normally Brisson's explanation for the loss of his automobile would be con** strued as an ironic or flippant use of anthropomorphism. For instance one can easily imagine an irate motorist, whose car has been stolen, replying to a sceptical police officer, "Oh my car wasn't stolen, it just got tired of having me as an owner!" However, in the Giralducian con text, because of the solidity with which Brisson's substi tute system of causation is established, his statement must be accepted with entire literalness. At the same time the extremely fanciful nature of the resulting narrative makes it possible for the author to introduce a number of whimsical observations which add immeasurably to the charm of his style. An excellent example of Giralducian humor occurs when Brisson's car is stolen by a thief with long hair while he is in the barber shop having his hair cut short in readiness for the 23 coming crisis. The thief's efficiency also becomes a source of humor in the light of Brisson's explanation for his loss. Having been subtly persuaded to accept Brisson's statement at face value, the reader finds himself sub scribing to an interpretation of events which is increas ingly divorced from common sense notions of cause and effect. In a fictional context where it is perfectly plausible for an automobile to desert its owner for a more affluent one, we are not surprised when, by means of anthropomorphism, Brisson's dog is given more touching but equally original motives for its flight: ... Le lendemain mon chien s'£tait perdu. Sous la voOte de la concierge, dans le moment ou je lui passais son collier avant la promenade, il avait detourne brusquement la t€te, il avait dit non, et file entre mes jambes. ... Ainsi, m'avait dit un ami, s'enfuit le chien qui adore son maitre et qui se sent devenir enrage. La comparaison etait fausse. Peut-etre avait- il fui plutdt, par amour aussi, et k toute vitesse, un maitre qui devient insensible, (pp. 8-9) The reader has likewise been prepared for a highly imaginative interpretation of the events which preceded the separation of Brisson and his mistress, Annie. The curious effects which resulted from a fancifully literal applica tion of rhetorical constructions to events involving 24 an inanimate object and an animal can likewise be obtained when the same devices are applied to human psychology. In the section of the novel concerning the break between Brisson and his mistress, the validity of his original comments is corroborated by an Intensive use of parallel ism, hyperbole, metaphor, and enumeration: Pour Annie, elle avait fui un homme qui devenait ch?ste. Elle 1*avait fui lentement, depuis trois mois, par millimetres. II est dur pour une femme qui a trouve celui qu'elle aimait, qui l'a trouve dans sa perfection, avec la seule largeur de poitrine, la seule taille, la seule faeon de prononcer les liaisons, de manger, de boire, d'etemuer, de regarder la mer ou les incendies, ... de le voir soudain d'une autre chair. Car ce n'est pas a proprement parler de chastete qu’il s'agissait. ... Elle se sentait devant une metamorphose, d’un amant qu'elle etreignait, l'hostilite du destin faisait un arbre, tin metal. ... (pp. 9-10) The passage above begins with an imaginative parallel between the departure of Brisson's mistress and that of his pet. Both have fled from him: the dog in haste, Annie reluctantly and "by inches"; both in perfect conformity to Brisson's original explicatory formula. Guraudoux then uses metaphor to create a further fanciful motivation for Annie's decision: Brisson's behavior is so completely dominated by his imaginary formula that he appears to Annie to be undergoing a metamorphosis over which his mind has little or no control; a hostile destiny has changed him 25 into a tree or perhaps a metal. At this point Giraudoux's use of rhetoric has become so literal that the behavior of his characters bears a striking resemblance to that of individuals whose actions are ascribed to the influence of occult forces. We can now fully understand the frequency with which critics refer to Giraudoux as a "magician", an "acrobat", or an "enchanter"; one whose writing is described as "precious". Having provided his fictional characters with completely fanciful motives for their behavior and thus freed them from the necessity for normal perceptions and reactions, it is possible for him to introduce the most extreme linguistic artifices of the medieval Rhetoriqueurs and the seventeenth century Precieux into the modem novel. Rene Bray’s perceptive comment on the art of certain medieval poets whom he considers the precursors of seven teenth century preciosity could easily be applied to the narrative technique of Giraudoux: Les yeux de la dame inspirent de frequentes comparal- sons: ils parlent, font de vrais discours, portent des ordres, des interdictions; tour a tour interpretes, ora- teurs, toessagers, herauts, ils subissent de telles personnifications que le lecteur oublie leur nature et 26 se laisse duper en prenant au pied de la lettre ce qui n'est dit que par metaphore.2 The literalness with which the reader accepts Girau- doux's rhetorical constructions enables him to transform them from mere descriptive devices into inventions which shape the action of the narrative and direct it along totally fanciful lines. The remainder of Annie's episodic role in the novel, for instance, is almost entirely con trolled by hyperbole and metaphor. By means of the former device the growing psychological distance between Brisson and Annie is prodigiously magnified: "J'etais dans un monde dont la lumiere demandait une seconde pour arriver au sien" (p. 11). This conceit becomes the sustaining explanation for a boldly precious trick of perception. Because the distance between them is "superhuman", Brisson and Annie no longer see one another as human beings: "Une impression cruelle de non appareillage entre nos dges, nos epoques, donnait & notre union un cdte inhumain. Elle couchait avec un genie. Moi avec une biche" (p. 11). 2 / ^ / Rene Bray, La Preciosite et les precieux de Thibaut de Champagne a Jean Giraudoux (Paris, 1948), p. 28. 27 The form which Annie takes is that of a doe. Brisson is then reminded of the night he spent with a real doe which was captured by the French during the war to prevent it from becoming game for the enemy. This analogy becomes the basis for an elaborate, fanciful parallel between Annie's behavior and that of the captured doe. In relating his last night with Annie, Brisson displays a quixotically academic absorption in the details of his parallel that is typically Giralducian. The following passage is only a part of the lengthy development the comparison is given: ... A chacun des mouvements de ma compagne animale me venait a 1'esprit le mot noble de venerie qui desig- nait la part du corps qui s'agitait, et les bonds d'Annie, ses repos, ses chaleurs, declanehaient aussi en moi un vocabulaire tendre ou brutal. Parfois un bruit plus continu, plus doux: e'etait Annie ^ui caressait l'etoffe du mur, e'etait la biche qui lechait le sal- petre, e'etait la seule consolation, le t»eul recours. (p. 12) The doe was shot by an officer while attempting to flee to the forest at dawn. Brisson tried unsuccessfully to prevent this: "J’avais lutte avec la biche, presque a bras le corps, poitrail bleu k boutons d'or contre poitrail blanc si lisse, moi avec mon calot, elle coiffee d'oreilles palpitantes" (p. 13). Annie's departure then provides a whimsical end to the comparison: 28 ... SI, pendant qu'elle m'enjambait pour sortlr du lit, j'avals dit un mot, un seul mot, peut~@tre fGtelle restee. ... Peut-Stre aussi si j'avals barre la porte, comme pour la biche, et lutte k bras le corps. Mals nous 8ommes toujours molns tendres pour un Stre humaln que pour son symbole. ... (p. 14) The account of Brisson's three losses forms a prelude to the main plot of Combat avec l'ange which serves to demonstrate how Giraudoux uses rhetoric to free the action of the novel from normal causation and to subject It to the dictates of fancy. This technique results In a systematic proliferation of certain rhetorical devices, prominent In the narrative, which characterize the Glralduclan style. It Is not the object of this study to catalogue all the rhetorical devices used by Giraudoux In his novels or to determine the frequency with which any one of them occurs. Still It Is important to establish the relative importance of those devices which have a bearing on the narrative, before fully analysing the manner in which they are applied. The great variety of rhetorical devices used by Giraudoux led critics to suggest that selections from his works would make an ideal stylistic manual; however, only five of them play a prominent role in the formation of his narrative. These are: hyperbole, metaphor, parallelism, antithesis, and enumeration. In this study special 29 emphasis has been placed on his use of hyperbole because in these constructions we find the clearest manifestation of the ingenious verbal artifice which enables Giraudoux to employ all four rhetorical devices as a source of narra tive. Analysis of the opening passage of Combat avec 1 * ange has shown the original manner in which Giraudoux utilizes hyperbole as a basis for narrative. In statements such as "J'ai toujours eu la divination de ces crises qui surgissent entre generations, entre continents, entre races," adverbs normally used to give expression to intense emotion are interpreted by Giraudoux as factual rather than affective. A complete literal acceptance of this exagger ated idea then leads to the hero's involvement in a series of events which are entirely divorced from normal notions of cause and effect. Because metaphor is so often used to give graphic expression to intense emotions, it is ideally suited to exploitation along the same exaggeratedly literal lines. For this reason Giraudoux*s writing contains every con ceivable type of figurative invention, including, on occasion, allegory and prosopopoeia; and often his prose appears to be governed entirely by metaphoric inspiration. 30 But it is not the boldness of Giraudoux's metaphors which sets his style so completely apart from the prose tech niques of his contemporaries. His use of this device would not differ so radically from that of Jules Renard, to whom he was compared early in his career, or even that of Marcel Proust, were it not for the fact that he alone seeks to give these inventions a fanciful literal validity. Parallelism and antithesis are adapted by Giraudoux to the formation of narrative in a similar manner. The vividly opposed patterns of behavior which may be derived from the latter device when it is employed with hyperbolic literalness add considerable life and color to his novels, at the same time exercising a profound and extended influ ence upon the structure of the narrative. Analysing Giraudoux's use of antithesis, Claude-Edmonde Magny wrote: "Le premier effet de l'antithese est de rendre plus mani- feste 1'essence d'un objet par l'opposition avec ce qui n'est pas lui, d'en aviver les caractbres par le con- 4 traste." When such constructions are given the fully 3 Jean Viollis (rev. of Les Provinciales), Marges (May 1909), pp. 193-194. A / Claude-Edmonde Magny, Precieux Giraudoux (Paris, 1945), pp. 33-34. 31 literal connotations they possess in a Giralducian context, the individuals to whom they are ascribed automatically become capable of highly exceptional behavior. Although antithesis is not used in the passage of Combat avec l'ange which has just been analysed, it is encountered with great frequency in the Giralducian novel. An excellent example of its use occurs in Giraudoux's first novel, Simon le pathetique, when the hero establishes a paradoxical con trast between his own uneventful life and the adventurous background of his girl-friend, Anne: Je n' avals sejourne que dans des capitales. Anne, au contraire, n'avait habite que des hdtels dans des mon- tagnes, des bourgs, des chateaux. Elle me montra un jour 1*atlas ou etait indiquee par une croix chacune de ses demeures, croix eparpillees au hasard comme celles qui marquent la mort des aeronautes. Qu’il paraissait en fant in mon tour d'Europe, trace en rouge sur ma carte, important et sec comme l'itineraire de Marco Polo, em- pruntant les vallees et les cols.' Pas un seul point du monde que j'aie semble atteindre, comme elle, non par une route, par un chemin de fer, mais avec de machines ailees, mais par un souterrain.5 We may note here how readily this antithetical con struction combines with Giraudoux's use of hyperbole. The passage contains several important overstatements of the type singled out in the analysis of the initial pages 5Simon le pathetique (Paris, 1926), pp. 104-105. 32 of Combat avec l'ange. The "ne que" construction which Simon uses in his first two sentences is an exaggeration which one encounters with unusual frequency in the novels of Giraudoux. Once they are established, such constructions may be prolonged and heightened by an enumeration of the character traits or actions of the protagonists who embody them. For example, Simon proceeds to provide Anne with several more exceptional attributes, merely by extending his antithesis: ... Toutes les aventures que j'avals lues ou eues par mes livres d'enfant, l'incendie qu'allume un serviteur et qui consume la maison de famille, l'inondation, le naufrage, elle en avait 1'experience; elle savait faire les noeuds pour attacher une corde k une fenStre; elle savait ramer, nager. ... (p. 105) As is evident in this passage, enumeration serves to expand and reinforce fanciful motifs established through the use of other rhetorical devices. Generally it results in an accumulation of novel or striking observations, such as the fact that Anne has experienced the burning of her home, a flood and a shipwreck, and knows how to row, swim, and tie knots. Thus Anne becomes the first in a succession of Giralducian heroines whom the author chooses to endow with the exceptional background and aptitudes which grow 33 out of his original use of rhetoric as a basis for narra tive. Analysis of the nine major novels written by Giraudoux from 1919 to 1939 reveals three distinct types of narrative which result from a literal application of the rhetorical devices listed above to the content and plot of his novels. The first type of narrative is a result of the application of these colorful rhetorical artifices to animals, inani mate objects, natural phenomena and other environmental elements of the novel. The fanciful human qualities which animals and objects acquire through the literalness of Giralducian anthropomorphism permit them to participate in the events of the novel just as though their actions were those of human beings; if we describe what happened in Combat avec l'ange, Brisson's automobile and his dog "left him" just as did his mistress. An episode from Giraudoux's last novel, Choix des jfilues, offers another more extended example of narrative derived from a literal use of anthropomorphism. In chap ter five the heroine, Edmee, leaves her husband for a pro longed sojourn with wealthy friends. Though Edmee and her husband are still in love, a spiritual incompatibility 34 has developed between them. One might expect that such a situation would lead to a tense emotional conflict between Edmee and her husband when she decides to depart. However, at this point the focus of the narrative is not the conduct of Edmee's husband, but the anthropomorphically dramatized reactions of the household objects which she is leaving behind. What would normally be a mere figurative projection of Edmee's guilt feelings is developed with such intricate literalness that these objects participate in the narrative as though they were capable of human reactions. On her last night at home they protest vociferously against her departure: La maison n'etait pas aussi bonne que Pierre. La maison ne la connaissait plus. Tout ce que Pierre ne lui disait pas, qu'elle trahissait, qu'elle cedait, le moindre meuble le criait. ... Ils n'acceptaient aucun mot d'affection, aucune excuse. ... — Nous soranes du cafe, disait la livre de cafe k travers sa vitre. Pars si tu veux! Nous n'avons pas a fairede sentiment. Nous avons a exciter les gens. ... Tu n'auras plus k nous mordre, disaient les comichons. ... Trompe-nous si tu veux. Nous n'avons pas a nous occuper des dmes, mais des lan- gues. D'autres nous mangeront, k defaut de toi. ... Toute la semaine fut ainsi une suite de denis et d'in jures. These protests become so literally a part of the nar rative that on her last night at home Edmee is more ^Cholx des 6lues (Paris, 1939), pp. 104-105. 35 concerned with the reactions of her bedroom furniture than with those of her husband. An imaginary objection of the bed to the nightgown Edmee has chosen has such literal reality for her that she tears it up and puts on one of Pierre's pyjama tops. This action placates the anger of the bed and the house remains silent for the rest of the night: ... — C'est peut-Stre trks feminin, disait le lit, de mettre une chemise qu'on qualifie d'horreur, pour que votre mari, qui n'a sur les dentelles que 1'opinion des prospecteurs en petrole, vous croie habillee en fiancee de luxe. Nous, lits, appelons cela de l'hypocrisie. ... Et le monologue injurieux continuait ainsi, sans parler d'allusions k faire rougir, jusqu'k ce qu'Edmee bondtt, jusqu'k ce qu'elle s'enfermdt dans le cabinet de toilette. Pierre entendit dechirer en long et en large tine etoffe, un linge; it ne sut pas quoi, il ne demandait pas quoi. ... Edmee revenait deja habillee dans un pyjama k lui. ... Le lit se tut. ... Ainsi passa la nuit. (pp. 105-106) It is revealing to compare this extended fanciful per sonification to the more conventional handling of the same device by Antoine de Saint Exupery and Marcel Proust. Stephen Ullman, in his study of imagery in the modern French novel, cites Proust's use of personification to describe the peculiar juxtaposition of Romanesque and Gothic architecture in the church of Combray: ... le rude et farouche XIe siecle ... dissimule par les gracieuses arcades gothiques qui se pressaient I coquettement devant lui, comme de plus grandes soeurs, pour le cacher aux etrangers, se placent en sourlant devant un jeune frhre rustre, grognon et mal vdtu.^ In the Proustlan passage a vivid and artistic descrip tive effect is obtained through the use of personification. Despite the presence of the adverb "comme" which binds these anthropomorphic traits to their human source, the description retains a high degree of animation. Had Girau doux created this analogy, it might easily have been ex ploited in a fancifully literal manner. The intimate psychological ties we have with objects gives them a power of suggestion resembling the gift of speech. By analogy, therefore, writers often describe the effect of objects upon us as they would a verbal communica tion. The verb parler is used in this way by Saint Exupery in the moving episode of Vol de Nuit when the wife of a missing pilot comes to the aerial mail service for which he was flying to inquire about his absence: La femme de Fabien se fit annoncer. ... Les secre taires, h la derobee, levaient les yeux vers son visage. Elle en eprouvait une sorte de honte et regardait avec crainte autour d'elle: tout ici la refusait. Ces hommes ^The Image in the Modern French Novel (Cambridge, 1960), p. 201. 37 qui continuaient leur travail, coame s'ils marchaient sur un corps, ces dossiers ou la vie humaine, la sou££rance humaine ne laissaient qu'un residu de chi££res durs. Elle cherchait des signes qui lui eussent parle de Fabien. Chez elle tout montrait cette absence: le lit entr'ouvert, le cafe servi, un bouquet de £leurs. ... The style o£ the passage resembles that o£ Giraudoux, but in Saint Exupery the personification is of extremely brief duration, and its development is abruptly arrested by a shift in focus from the wife's introspection to the human activity in the office when she hears an employee swearing: ... La seule phrase qu'elle entendit, car personne n'elevait la voix devant elle, fut le juron d'un employe, qui reclamait un bordereau. --Le bordereau des dynamos, bon Dieu.' que nous expedions a Santos. (p. 157) This comparison to two other modern authors illus trates the expanded function of rhetoric which results from Giraudoux's exaggeratedly literal use of personification. An over-all study of his prose work reveals that an im portant body of narrative arises from this source.^ When rhetorical constructions are applied to human behavior two other types of narrative ensue. The first type result8 in the creation of characters whose conduct 8 / Antoine de Saint Exupery, Vol de nuit (Paris, 1931), pp. 156-157. ^See Chapter III. is largely governed by a single restrictive fanciful con cept. Their actions play a particularly prominent part in the formation of narrative in the early Giralducian novels such as Siegfried et le Limousin and Juliette au pays des hommes. Consequently these works have an extremely epi sodic quality. In the later novels restrictively stylized personalities play less prominent roles and are better integrated into the over-all structure of the narrative. An excellent example of this type of character is the nobleman Fontranges, a secondary figure who enters the plot of Bella in the fifth chapter. Fontranges is the sixty- year-old father of the novel's heroine. He belongs to one of France'8 oldest aristocratic families and is described by Giraudoux as a man of great distinction and impressively noble bearing. A little later in the chapter we find that Fontranges has engaged in a singularly sordid adventure, despite his honorable appearance and obvious refinement. On the eve of France's declaration of war against Germany he prowled the streets of Paris; in a bar off the Place de l'Op£ra he met a prostitute named Indiana and spent the night in her apartment. Returning to his hotel in the early morning, 39 he met his son 'who had come to Paris to enlist: the date was August 1, 1914, and war had been declared between France and Germany. Recounted in this way, these events read like the work of a poor imitator of Guy de Maupassant. However, judging Giraudoux's novel on the basis of such a synopsis would be rather like reading Candide as a serious adventure story. This illustrates once again how completely the behavior of Giraudoux's characters is divorced from the motivational patterns of psychological realism. Just as the three seemingly commonplace losses of Brisson in Combat avec 11ange were completely altered by their fanciful rhetorical causes, the significance of Fontranges' night of debauchery is totally transformed by the unusual motives behind his actions. The first thing we learn about Fontranges, after the description of his attire, is a startling fact concerning the effects of heredity upon the behavior of his family. For centuries the disposition and longevity of successive generations have been characterized by absolute contrast. Un regime alterne de secheresse et de tendresse dominait la famille des Fontranges. A une generation de Fontranges qui vivait jusqu'a quatre-vingts ans dans 40 1'avarice, le mepris des voisins, la durete pour les enfants, succedait toujours une generation passionnee, mais qui mourait vite. ... This isolated passage further elucidates the key function assigned to overstatement in the formation of Giralducian narrative. The statement, "A une generation de Fontranges qui vivait jusqu'a quatre-vingts ans dans 1*avarice ... succedait toujours une generation passionnee, mais qui mourait vite ...” contains the same exaggeratedly literal use of adverbial modifiers as found in Combat avec 1'ange and Simon le pathetique. In each of these construc tions the fancifully literal interpretation of overstate ment leads to two important consequences. It endows Giral ducian characters with unusual attributes, but severely limits their freedom of action. Fontranges' conduct in the novel Bella is an example of this type of behavior in its most extreme form. The original restrictive construction is immediately reinforced by a second which further limits Fontranges' hereditary background. ... Les passions des Fontranges ne les egaralent jamais. Elies n'£taient jamais provoquees par tme actrice, par une cousine mariee. Aucun desir qui les 10Bella (Paris, 1926), p. 102. 41 men&t hors de leur maison et de leur droit. ... C'etait k leur mkre, k leur femme, a leur belle-mere, quelque- fois k leur pkre cruel qu'ils se consacralent. ... (pp. 104-105) This further use of overstatement centers the passions of the affectionate generations exclusively on members of the family. By comparison even £mile Zola's attempt at scientifically established heredity in the Rougon-Macquart novels is less constraining than these fanciful determi nants assigned to the behavior of the Fontranges family. We learn subsequently that Fontranges' rhetorically determined passion takes the form of an extremely ardent love for his son Jacques. Overstatement figures promi nently in the description of Fontranges' attitude toward his son, as is apparent in the underlined parts of the following passage: ... II ne 1'avait jamais quitte un seul lour. mSme bebe. 11 venait cheque aprks-midi avec un pliant s'asseoir aupres du berceau. ... II ne donna jamais Jacques qu'avec le sentiment d'une separation eternelle aux divers modes de locomotion, k la voiture k chevre, au poney, k la bicyclette. (p. 105) A completely stylized relationship between father and son is thus established in complete conformity to rhetori cal exaggeration. Fontranges even studies the same courses as his son and follows his son's diet, thus prolonging 42 his life, so that he becomes the first member of the gentle generation to pass the age of forty (p. 111). As a result of all this attention Jacques leaves for Paris at nineteen in a superlative state of health: ... Jamais creature ne s'embarqua aussi intacte pour une capitale. Pas un ongle blanc. Pas un durillon. Pas un souffle au coeur. L'amour patemel 1*avait protege des cicatrices, des boutons causes par le faux-col, des veines gonflees par les jaretelles. ... Quand ce fils sans myopie, sans arthrite, sans tache de rousseur, lui dit adieu, Fontranges, serrant sur son coeur l'gtre le plus sain qu'ait produit le monde, defaillait d'admira tion et de bonheur. (p. 112) At this point in the narrative the influence of hyper bole, antithesis and enumeration has already resulted in extreme singularity of behavior, but they have by no means exercised their culminating effect. The full measure of Fontranges* devotion to his son is only shown when Jacques, who left for Paris in perfect health, returns home from his sojourn in the capital with a serious venereal infection. Fontranges' devotion to his son is so extreme that instead of feeling disgust toward his son, he becomes ashamed of his own perfect state of health and seeks to share the ill ness. It is this curious motivation which leads Fontranges on his unique mission to Paris on the eve of France's declaration of war against Germany: 43 ... Jacques ne comprenait pas pourquoi le pkre recher- chait son bras, mSlait les couteaux k table. Retranche dans 8on mal, 11 en voulalt k Fontranges de l'y relancer egolstement. Un jour vlnt oil, son pkre l'ayant embrasse, 11 se retourna furieux, pret k tout dire. ... Mais la decision de Fontranges etalt prise. Cette passion qui avait mene son grand-pere au suicide, le grand-pkre de ce grand-pkre k la tuberculose, le guldalt sans remede. ... II partlt pour Paris, (p. 115) Fontranges' actions In this episode from Bella demon strate how the actions of secondary characters In the Giralducian novel may be entirely dominated by a single rhetorically Inspired pattern of conduct that Is distinctly set apart from normal human behavior. As absurd as such ♦ a motivation would appear In a normal fictional context, we can only conclude that Fontranges' trip to Paris was not Impelled by base carnal desires, but by his passion for his son. But the price for these sublime motives Is high, par ticularly in the case of characters whose appearance in the Giralducian novel is episodic; while these artifices insure nobility of conduct, they require conformity to a rigidly determined pattern which is discussed in detail in chap ter four. Fontranges is 1^? elled to go to Paris "by the same passion which caused his grandfather to commit suicide and his grandfather's grandfather to contract tubercu losis." 44 The third type of narrative is based on the literal application of rhetorical patterns to characters whose behavior is determined by a more subtle and complex inter* play of several fanciful concepts. Its predominance in the later Giralducian novels, beginning with Bella in 1926, marks the final evolution of his anti-realist technique and distinguishes these works from the novels of his earlier period. The basic artifices which Giraudoux uses to adapt rhetoric to the formation of narrative are the same, but he more successfully frees his characters' actions from the restrictive effects of these patterns and thus enables them to influence one another's behavior in a more spontaneous manner. Giraudoux's style proved to be ideally suited to studies of romantic relations between men and women because intense emotional relationships are particularly suscepti ble to rhetorical treatment. Though romance plays a promi nent part in the narrative of all the later novels, neither the element of fancy nor the influence of rhetoric upon the behavior of his characters is reduced. This latter nar rative is more susceptible to modification through human interaction; still motives totally distinct from normal ones continue to operate through a new interplay of rhetorical determinants. The new patterns are more com plex, but the principles behind their application are the same. This third type of narrative may be illustrated by a romantic episode from Eglantine, which was published in 1927. In the second chapter of this novel, which recounts a young girl's adventures in Parisian high society, the heroine makes the acquaintance of Molse, one of Europe's most powerful financiers, through a chance meeting on the Boulevard Saint Honore. The description of Molse's habits which precedes their encounter contains a characteristic Giralducian use of hyperbole: ... D'un itineraire que ni la guerre ni la goutte n'avait change, aussi fixe et implacable qu'est droite cette promenade d'asphalte qui termine les villes d'Orient, Molse quittait vers six heures son bureau, et, par la rue de la Paix, les boulevards, le faubourg Saint-Honore, regagnait sa maison de 1'avenue Gabriel. 11 connaissait le moindre objet, la moindre vendeuse des bou£^ques de son trottoir, rien des boutiques d'en face • • • Just as in the other cases where this device was used, Giraudoux succeeds in endowing Molse with a unique per sonality and rare powers of perception at the expense of Eglantine (Paris, 1927), p. 40. 46 a rigidly crystallized pattern of behavior. Initially the rather commonplace overstatements which stylize Molse's behavior are related to the regularity with which he takes his evening walk through the Faubourg Saint Honore. Over statement to express regularity of habit is frequently employed conversationally in expressions such as, "In the evening I always take a walk down Fifth Avenue." Fre quently accompanying these expressions are others, also given emphasis by overstatement, which establish the character's familiarity with his surroundings. A statement such as, "I know every shop on Fifth Avenue," is typical. The fact that they are used so frequently without any ques tion of their veracity enables Giraudoux to exploit them along fanciful lines. These more commonplace exaggerations are followed by others of an increasingly extravagant character. It is not the country which makes Molse aware of the change of seasons, but his favorite shop windows: Bien plus que la campagne, qu'il n'aimait guere, les etalages lui donnaient la conscience des saisons, et c'est quand les cravates, les bretelles s'abattaient par centaines brunes ou mauves dans les vitrines, vers les equinoxes, qu'il renouvelait, A defaut de coeur, sa garde-robe. (p. 40) Along with such eccentricities we are informed in the lengthy passage which follows that Molse possesses powers 47 of perception which verge on the occult: ... Ce qu'11 eprouvait pour les passants de son trottoir, presque tous des habitues d'ailleurs ... e'etait de 1'amour, une esp&ce d'amour, et il pouvait indiquer chaque soir, avec plus de precision que le bureau des statistiques, la proportion des etrangers, des nouveaux etrangers dans Paris, des houses arrives juste d*Indianapolis ou de Karachi pour qui son coeur ne battait pas. ... (p. 41) In the passage above, by means of a succession of literally interpreted overstatements, Giraudoux attributes to Molse the ability of precisely determining the number of for eigners who have arrived in Paris on any given day. By means of hyperbole in combination with an extremely precious metaphoric conceit Giraudoux also endows Molse with the ability to determine the city's current state of prosperity in the course of his promenade: ... II n'etit renonce pour rien au monde k cette prome nade ... qui lui donnait, par la distance qui separait les jupes du sol, la qualite du rouge sur les levres des femmes, la temperature exacte du luxe et de l'agrement. ... (p. 42) Thus far the narrative derived from Molse's actions has been rigidly patterned along the lines which character ize the first manner of applying rhetoric to human actions. However when Eglantine enters the narrative, Molse's rigidly crystallized pattern of behavior is entirely eclipsed by her influence. Hyperbole which, up to this 48 point, has been applied only to the activities of Molse, begins affecting the actions of Eglantine from the moment he observes her passing by the entrance of his bank: ... Mais, juste h la porte de la banque, du pas attenue dont les entratneurs vous prennent, une jeune femne partit devant Molse. Elle avait juste le pas de Molse, juste sa vitesse. Aucune chance de rattraper jamais les cinq metres d'avance dejfc pris sur lui. Mais cela importait peu k Molse, qui eprouvait en ce moment beaucoup moins le desir de suivre que d'etre precede. ... (p. 43) Eglantine has "exactly" the same step as Molse and walks "exactly" at his pace. It is amusing to observe that in the following sentence Giraudoux uses the exaggerated literalness of this statement as a basis for humor: because of the precise similarity in their paces Molse has no chance of ever catching up with Eglantine. To the rhetori cally strengthened imagination of the Giralducian protago nist, be he gardener, soldier, or banker, such a correspon dence transcends a merely accidental similarity of behavior and becomes a powerful source of attraction similar to secret affinities in occult science. Eglantine's pace is not uniform, however; like most young girls, she stops to look at the merchandise displayed in show windows. To Molse these stops acquire a signifi cance which in a normal context could only be attributed 49 to the actions of a person with superhuman powers of per ception. By the amount of time Eglantine spends in front of each shop window she reveals to Molse which of the mer chants whom he has been patronizing are honest and which are not, even though this is perhaps the first time she has ever looked at their merchandise: ... sur ce parcours qu'elle suivait peut-dtre pour la premiere fois k pareille heure, elle montrait des finesses qu'il avait fallu des annees k Molse pour acquerir, graduant le temps et le regard qu'elle accor- dait k chaque boutique k croire qu'elle connaissait le coeur du proprietaire, accelerant le pas devant un anti- quaire voleur, le ralentissant devant le seul parfumeur non chimiste, vengeant Molse, par le seul rythme de sa marche, de cravates mal tissees et de Rubens tin peu repeints. ... (p. 44) We see here another excellent example of how the unusual literal strength of Giralducian hyperbole culmi nates in the creation of phenomenally gifted individuals. His frequent use of the superlative, so often commented on by critics, is actually an inevitable outgrowth of his narrative technique. Molse, for instance, next recognizes an archetypal quality in Eglantine's gait and height: ... Elle continuait ... d'une allure type qui faisait distinguer aussitot parmi les instruments de locomotion <jui l'effleuraient, taxi, autobus ou cycles, lesquels etaient vraiment humains, d'une taille type cjui montrait aussitdt quels monuments et quelles maisons etaient k l'echelle d l'homme. (p. 46) 50 After this extraordinary prelude to their meeting it would matter little just how Eglantine and Molse actually do encounter one another, were it not for the fact that this meeting illustrates Giraudoux's ability to transform the most hackneyed of fictional situations by an introduction of wit and fancy. As Molse is about to step down from the curb, a car brushes by, causing him to lose his balance. Eglantine prevents him from falling, then supports him while he walks, to make sure that he has not been seriously injured. Molse, being a typical Giralducian protagonist, is not concerned with the accident, but with a paradoxical analogy suggested to him by Eglantine's seemingly maternal solicitations: ... Elle attendit, grave, surveillant la faqon dont il reprenait son equilibre, ne le ldchant qu'a coup stir, essayant pour la premiere fois, et sur Molse, ce souci qu'ont les meres pour leur enfant le jour ou il apprend A marcher. Souvent, depuls, Molse pensa avec attendris- sement A cette minute, k cette nouvelle et logique solution de la vie: titre trks Sge, avec une mere tres jeune. ... (p. 48) The fact that Eglantine has unknowingly come to the aid of one of the richest bankers in Europe is also amusingly commented on by Giraudoux: ... Elle, ignorant qu'il lui arrivait ce que souhaitent tant de ses soeurs avides, sauver Carnegie de la noyade, arreter le cheval emballe de Rockfeller, 51 elle l'epoussetait, non de la poussi&re du sol, car 11 n'avait pas touche terre, mats de sa poudre k elle et un peu de son parfum. ... (p. 48) Such accidental meetings are the Ideal type of Giral- ducian encounter because of the anonymity which they give to his protagonists. Without restricting Identities they are free to develop their relationship along totally Imaginative lines. Here, as Is frequently the case In the novels of Giraudoux, the protagonists deliberately and consciously withhold their Identity from one another be cause of the more Imaginative relationship which is per mitted by a state of incognito. Their unique liaison provokes a kind of kaleidoscopic succession of fanciful inventions which characterizes the third type of Giraldu- cian narrative. As Molse and Eglantine begin to meet with some regu larity, he makes her a paragon of punctuality and devotion by means of the hyperbolic constructions underlined below: ... Elle apparaissait a l'heure dite, sans jamais faire une objection k l'heure que fixait Molse, sans jamais paraltre pressee, sans jamais donner 1'impression d'oisivete ou de paresse. C'etait le premiere femme qui le quittait sans courir vers quelque obligation, mais bien parce qu'on dressait les tables. ... (p. 53) The same poetic license which Giraudoux uses to give literalness to rhetorical constructions enables him to impose other fanciful attitudes and criteria for judg ment which would appear highly eccentric in a normal context. Eglantine's indifference with regard to Molse's identity and occupation, which might normally be upsetting to a man, is a source of satisfaction to Molse because of the whimsical way he interprets her lack of curiosity: ... Jamais une question, jamais un desir de savoir ce que pouvait §tre la vie, le nom, le coeur de Molse, son dge, c'est cela qui semblait lui suffire, la combler. (p. 55) Molse proves to be entirely correct in his optimistic interpretation of Eglantine's actions. Thus far the course of the narrative has been almost entirely determined by the patterns which Molse has imposed on his environment in the course of his promenades. However, at this point an inter play of concepts derived from the imagination of both protagonists begins. As we might suspect, Eglantine's reasons for being attracted to Molse are based on very unusual criteria. We learn that she responds to the atten tions of Molse not because he is one of the wealthiest men in Europe, a fact which she continues to ignore, but be cause of his age. Again the successful development of this deliberate paradox is made credible by the skillful com bination of rhetoric and fancy. Because elderly people 53 are the "only" ones who have not shown visible signs of change since her childhood and because they appear to have successfully resisted the passage of time, they give her confidence in life: ... Sa confiance dans le bonheur, son desir d'une realite la poussaient tout naturellement vers ceux des Stres qui, depuis son enfance, etaient restes les m&nes, c'est a dire vers les vieillards. Eux seuls lui parais- saient la part resistante, la constance du monde. Cette crainte profonde de la mort, inconnue d'elle-mSme ... ce n'etait certes pas les aviateurs, les femmes en couches qui pouvaient l'en delivrer ... mais Molse, sur qui soixante annees avaient sevi en vain. ... (pp. 60-61) Such fanciful criteria for judgment constantly lead to eccentricities of behavior among Giralducian characters which in turn directly affect the development of his plot. The narrative of the romance between Molse and Eglantine is largely determined by a constant interplay of such quixotic motives and is therefore typical of the most advanced Giralducian prose style which will be more fully analysed in Chapter V. CHAPTER II EARLY APPLICATIONS OF RHETORIC AND FANCY IN SIMON LE PATH&TIQUE The fully stylized Giralducian novels of the between- the-wars period are preceded by a semi-autobiographical first novel, Simon le pathetique. Part of the earliest version of this work appeared in serial form in 1*Opinion, but the outbreak of the First World War interrupted its presentation. The first edition of the complete novel was published by Grasset in 1918; the definitive edition appeared in 1926.^ Although the order of the chapters is altered in the latter edition the contents of the narrative are essentially the same. Because rhetoric and fancy are somewhat irregularly applied to the narrative in Simon le pathetique, this work reveals the formation and growth Hjill L. McLendon, "Un Mutile de Giraudoux: Simon le pathetique," The French Review, XXXI (1957), 99. 55 of Giralducian style in the same way that Jean Santeuil provides essentials to a complete understanding of the finished style of Marcel Proust. Simon le pathetique in its final form is divided into two parts: Simon's experiences in school and his foreign travels make up the first two chapters; and the remaining nine chapters relate his romance with a young girl named Anne. As has been demonstrated in the first chapter, the best means of determining whether the Giralducian narrative is being controlled by rhetoric and fancy is to examine the motives which govern the actions of his protagonists. In Simon le pathetique the motivational patterns do not have the radically fanciful quality of those which affect the behavior of characters in his later novels. The basic motives of Simon remain those of a normal adolescent throughout. Nevertheless the narrative of Simon's adventures does display several characteristics which anticipate the more fanciful constructions of Giraudoux's later works. First of all the author shows a marked tendency to create para doxical or humorous situations by stylizing, to some degree, the actions of his characters. Secondly, he fre quently transforms whimsical subjective impressions into important narrative events and expands the significance of actual events by means of figurative language and hyper bole. These qualities are apparent in the chapters related to Simon's school life which open the book. Paradox is prominent in the beginning of the narrative which relates Simon's departure from home to become a boarder at a lycee in a nearby town. Simon is advancing in grade and thus, in a sense, is becoming "more civilized," but because of the isolated location of the school, going "toward civili zation” appears to Simon to mean moving toward more and more deserted regions in smaller and smaller conveyances: Je me laissai aller, la voiture me debarqua juste avant la nuit dans une petite ville d'ou une carriole me conduisit a un bourg, et un cabriolet a une gare perdue. Je ne m'effrayais pas de voir qu'aller vers la vie et l'humanite c'etait aller vers des regions de plus en plus desertes dans des voitures de plus en plus petites et hautes.^ Likewise Simon's views of school life contrast para doxically with the grim picture of school life stressed o Simon le pathetique (Paris, 1926), p. 16. 57 in most realist descriptions of adolescents in boarding schools. Upon arriving at the lvcee to begin his studies, Simon is delighted to find that each study hall has its historical dictionary, a library, and an atlas; instead of being overwhelmed by the school's twenty professors and the thirty books he is assigned, he is ecstatically happy: "Je trouvai tout en abondance: dans mes reves les plus heureux, ce que j'avals juste imagine, c'etait le lycee" (p. 18). The element of paradox is again strong in the descrip tion of Simon's work habits at school. For him the main problem at school is not avoiding study, but finding a means to work longer than the school schedule allows: ... II est si facile, que"e que soit la surveillance, de travailler sans reldche. Au refectoire, alors qu'on distribuait les lettres, j'en profitais, puisqu'on ne m’ecrivait jamais, pour relire mes cahiers. Le jeudi et le dimanche, pour eviter la promenade, je me glissais a la Permanence. ... Dans les recreations il suffisait, sans m&me dissimuler son livre, de toumer lentement autour d'un pilier selon la place du rep£titeur qui faisait les cent pas. (pp. 18-19) This inclination to employ paradox is accompanied by a tendency to develop whimsical subjective impressions rather than restrict his account to a factual description of school life. In the following passage a whimsical observation is derived from the fact that the school 58 courtyard is adjacent to a military installation: ... D'immenses cours sans arbres. D'immenses dortoirs dont les fenStres donnaient sur le terrain d'une caserne. Au lever, en voyant au-dessous courir et manoeuvrer ces uniformes, on avait 1'impression qu'aprfes la classe au second etage, aprfes 1'etude au premier, a midi l'on sor- tirait soldat. (p. 18) Because the students need not arise until half an hour after reveille is played at the barracks, but must be in bed half an hour before taps is sounded, the day appears to have a margin which the students reserve for their pranks. ... La sonnerie du clairon au reveil et au couvre- feu, une demi-heure avant notre lever, une demi-heure aprfes notre coucher, encadrait la journee d'une marge, d'un temps neutre et libre pour lequel nous reservions nos gambades, nos folies. (p. 18) Throughout the chapter devoted to Simon's school life Giraudoux represents Simon's own thoughts as well as the actions of the class in a somewhat elevated figurative manner. Rather than depict Simon's study habits directly, Giraudoux describes them by means of an elaborate sequence of personifications which, for a time, becomes the focus of the narrative, giving it an allegorical quality: ... Je savais que la journee, avant de s'evanouir, me laisserait la solution du probleme, qu'elle ne mourrait pas sans devoiler le sens de la phrase latine la plus mysterieuse. ... Je savais que les fautes d'orthographe oubliees devaient apparaitre sur le mur, en caracteres geants, que les barbarismes bossus, les solecismes 59 emacies, envoQtes dans le grec pur et ferine de mon thkme, allatent s'en degager et, grimaqants, se laisser prendre. ... (pp. 19-20) The actions of the class, though not fancifully motivated, tend to be presented as a whole In conformity to figuratively patterned generalizations. The following passage demonstrates their hyperbolic character. La classe precedente etait dejk si vieille, si vul- gaire; elle avait laisse rider sur elle nos enthou- siasmes, notre science; 11 nous fallait la chasser devant nous, k chaque fin d'annee, corame un serpent chasse sa peau; — la classe inferieure si enfantine, si brouil- lonne, si degingandee dans nos defroques. Deux autres generations en somme. (pp. 22-23) The manner in which Simon experiences the passing of the nineteenth century during his last year at the lycee exemplifies the elevated interpretation which may be given to events by the imaginative use of figurative language. For Simon the century does not merely end, it collapses, with several whimsical repercussions. He is cut off from the literary idols with whom he had tried to establish imaginary genealogies: ... Enfin, en rhetorique, le vieux siecle s'effondra, ... Tous ceux qui n'avaient ete jusque-lk pour notre classe que de proches atnes, Lamartine, Michelet, Hugo, passkrent le second cercle du Styx. Je me degageai d'eux. Je renonqai, par des genealogies fictives, k me faire le cousin de Vigny, le petit-fils de Chateaubriand. ... Ce fut une tente qui s'abbattait et ensevelissait tous nos aines. (pp. 30-31) 60 In the few salient events of lycee life which are specifically mentioned, Giraudoux tends to stylize his characters' actions for witty effects. In such passages one feels strongly that certain details have been invented in order to implement a humorous idea or conceit, rather than for the sake of strict verisimilitude. In one such episode Simon deliberately baits a tyrannical censeur who has forbidden the students to exchange notes in the court yard. The censeur is described as a former cavalryman who charged at Reischoffen. Simon, when asked a question about the Danube basin, starts talking about Alsace-Lorraine. He is brusquely interrupted by the censeur: — Vous ne bavarderiez pas k tort et a travers de 1'Alsace, fit-il, si vous saviez ce que c'est. Simon boldly replies, — Ce que c'est? C'est une province que nos peres ont perdue. The censeur is described as "a cheval sur sa chaise." This notation, combined with the facts of his cavalry career, becomes the basis for a humorous conceit. Seen in anger astride his chair, the censeur appears to be making ready for another charge, this time on Simon. The peculiar kinship between Giraudoux's most sophisti cated rhetorical constructions and the imaginary inventions 61 which children impose upon reality is one of the more fascinating aspects of his style. Pierre Gueguen even re ferred to the type of writing which Giraudoux invented as 3 le style de 1*adolescence. Like the child, Giraudoux has the ability to make the figurative element of a metaphor more eminently real than the object which evoked it. His characters, like children, behave as though their meta phoric creations were entirely literal. Because it is the nature of childhood fantasies to transform prosaic objects or actions into more dramatic ones, these imaginary constructions are often highly exaggerated in character. To Simon a chair becomes a horse upon which the censeur is about to charge. Another example of this type of youthful invention occurs earlier in the chapter when Simon goes to his room to make ready for his departure for the lycee. In addition to packing his clothes and putting his toys away so that the room will have a grown-up appearance, he pushes his bed back against the wall. The real motive for this action would be diffi cult to discover were it not provided by Giraudoux: 3 Pierre Gueguen, "Giraudoux ou le style de 1*adoles cence," Europe (March 1947), pp. 27-41. 62 ... Malgre la surveillance, j'etais parvenu k ecarter mon lit de la clolson suffisamment pour m'endormir, k ma guise, dans un sous-tnarln, sur un radeau, dans une tie. Je supprlmal tout ocean, je repoussal le lit contre le mur. L*enfant molns temeraire qui m'y succederait pouvait s'etendre sans rlsquer la tempSte et la mort. (P- 9) This example of the superImposing of metaphor on reality by youthful Giralducian protagonists shows how even the style of his first novel was Influenced by a penchant for interpreting events in an imaginative manner. However, an Important distinction must be established between the use of rhetoric in these early incidents and the rhetorical techniques of the more radically stylized post-war novels. In Simon le pathetique the effect of these early poetic transformations upon the narrative is very limited, despite their vividness. Simon's idea that his bed is a boat is a private one, and does not affect his conduct outside his room. This point is made more evident by comparing his actions with those of young Jacques in Giraudoux's last novel, Choix des £lues. After his mother and sister have gone away by surprise one day, Jacques, who is extremely devoted to his mother, becomes increasingly afraid that she is going to run away again. To provide himself with a satisfactory explanation for her conduct, he attributes 63 her departure to a physical "lightness" which could cause her to float away at any time. This conceit becomes so graphically real to Jacques that he even borrows a chemis try book from an older student to ascertain the peculiar substance of which his mother is made.^ It is only when the Giralducian protagonist acts upon a rhetorical concept as though it were entirely literal that a complete break with realism occurs. Earlier in Choix des filues Jacques' mother Edmee and his sister Claudie go on an outing which disrupts the calm of the home. When Edmee asks Claudie to telephone Jacques to say they will not be home for dinner, Claudie does so with great relish. When she hangs up, it is noted that she takes great care both in replacing the receiver and closing the door of the booth. To what motivation would such care normally be ascribed? Is Claudie of an overly meticulous nature and afraid of deranging her hair or catching her dress in the door of the booth? The Giralducian explana tion for her conduct is far more fanciful. The idea of the telephone line as a "connection" with the family is so ^Choix des £lues, p. 89. 64 literal in Claudie's mind that she takes care not to get a strand of hair tangled in the receiver or a corner of her dress caught in the door so that her and her mother's severance with the house will be complete: La fillette entra dans le poste telephonique. Elle savait telephoner. Elle savait aussi, ce qu'Edmee n'avait jamais su, jamais pu, si ce n'est aujourd'hui pour la premiere fois, se rendre libre. En dix secondes, elle eut vaincu 1'amour fratemel. ... Le combat etait inegal avec cette fille qu'Edmee voyait k travers la vitre, nette, impitoyable. Le fil qui la reliait aux deux hommes lh-bas n'etait vraiment qu'un fil. Elle le coupa. Puis toute rose d'avoir decommande le pere qui attendait, le fils qui attendait, ... elle raccrocha l'appareil posement, elle referma la porte de la cabine soigneusement pour ne pas etre retenue a sa fami lie meme par un cheveu ou un coin de ceinture. (p. 55) An even more marked resemblance to Giraudoux's later novels occurs in the stylization of the actions of second ary characters in Simon le pathetique. The first section of the book concerning Simon's childhood and school days offers two examples of the second type of Giralducian nar ration in \rtiich rhetorically controlled behavior results from the application of a single restrictive concept to human actions. The first example originates in a contrast between two of Simon’s tutors. The first is discharged by Simon's father because he has a bad accent. The second tutor's 65 accent is perfectly good, but unfortunately he has practi cally no voice. This attribute is accentuated by the characteristic Giralducian use of hyperbole analysed in chapter one, the elements of which are underlined in the following passage: L'instituteur n'avait pas d'accent, mais il n'avait pas de voix. Je ne l'ai jamais vu qu'essouffle, enroue. Toujours bancal aussi, toujours boiteux, toujours gau- cher. Premier dans tous ses examens ecrits, il n'avait qu'k paraitre, a l'oral, pour 6tre refuse, (p. 13) Here as elsewhere in the novels of Giraudoux the hyperbolic handling of this eccentricity makes it suitable for extended exploitation. Because the tutor has "never" been able to pass an oral examination he fanatically trains Simon to pass "all" the examinations which he failed. To illustrate further this eccentricity Giraudoux invents an amusing battery of imaginary oral examinations for which Simon is being trained. These demonstrate his ability to parody the type of erudition that was required in the arduous program of study which he went through as an adolescent. In one of the rare passages where Simon refers spe cifically to two of his classmates, he stylizes the letter's behavior on the basis of an overstatement: 66 ... Notre file eclipsait les plus anciennes files c|uand nous part Ions pour la promenade, les deux memes elkves toujours en tSte, ... Gontran, inegal, paresseux l'kte, qui par un devoir rature, inacheve, parvenalt k un quart de point, dans les compositions finales, de ma cople parfalte, — avec Georges, qui ne savait que depeindre les forets, et dans toute narration parvenalt a gllsser la description dfun talllls, ou d'un etang entoure de futales, a la rlgueur d'une oasis, (p. 23) In the episodes of Simon le pathetique related to his travels there Is the same curious mixture of autobiographi cal elements and partially stylized narrative. Simon does not want to go into teaching directly after graduation be cause as yet he does not want to give up the possibility of building cathedrals, commanding armies or becoming a monk: ... Je ne pus me resoudre k signer le papier qu'ils me tendaient, et k m'engager pour dix ans h Stre des leurs, c'est-a-dire k ne point construire pendant dix ans de cathedrales, point commander d'armees, ne point devenir moine. ... (p. 36) Although presented in a humorous overstatement these motives are normal enough. Simon's reluctance to enter the teaching profession is actually very similar to the conduct of Giraudoux who only half-heartedly prepared for the agregation in German because he was not anxious to go di rectly from his graduate studies into an academic career.*’ ■*Rene Mar ill Alberes, Esthetique et morale chez Jean Giraudoux. pp. 48-49. 67 A note of humor is added by comparing Simon's situ ation to that of a fiance who has broken off his engage ment: ... Mes professeurs obtinrent pour moi une mission k l'etranger et arrangerent, d'eux-mSmes, le voyage que l'on offre au fiance dont le mariage est rompu. (p. 36) The Giralducian tendency to pattern events along eccentric lines through the use of restrictive statements has an early manifestation in the description of Simon's departure for his trip. It has an exceptional quality because for the first time Simon is traveling without a uniform: Je partis done pour la premiere fois de tna vie sans uniforme. D'interne, — sans connaitre les inter mediates: externe, vagabond, — je passai emigre. (p. 36) Again the drama of the event is considerably heightened by the striking way it is represented in Simon's imagination: from being a boarder he passes to the rank of an emigre without any intermediary steps. The event is further stylized by the "ne que" construction which is used so often in the later novels to establish fanciful patterns of conduct. Simon is frightened in the railway station because, in his family, funerals were the only occasions for travel: ... Je partis non sans peine. Les departs etaient laborieux chez moi; mon pere, qui ne voyageait que pour 68 les enterrements, m'avait l£gue sa peur des salles d'attente. ... (p. 36) Basically, then, Simon's motives for his trip are normal; that is, they are reasons for travel which would not evoke surprise when compared to the reader's experience of student life. However, the events which he relates consist almost entirely of whimsical subjective impressions in which a use of hyperbole and metaphor figures promi nently. When Simon begins his trip by visiting Dieppe, it is not merely to see the ocean, but to start off from the "only correct level.” Avant de quitter Paris, je voulus passer un aprfes-midi a Dieppe. J'aurais eu honte de ne pas connaltre la mer avant de m'enfoncer en Europe; ainsi je partirais du seul niveau veritable. ... (p. 37) It is significant that since he has no traveling com panion on his trip, the narration consists entirely of his own thoughts and impressions. He imagines that his pro fessors have, without knowing it, given him a number of errands to accomplish for them in the course of his travels. These purely imaginary activities are then given reality through metaphor: Ce fut longtemps un voyage silencieux, consacre a m’acquitter des mille commissions dont mes professeurs 69 m'avaient charge, sans le savolr, pour ce monde qu'ils ne connattralent jamais. J'allai remettre en liberte, dans le pays qu'ils m’avaient revele, mi lie souvenirs precis que j'ai oublies maintenant, qui aussitdt s'y fondirent, comme un oiseau qu'on reliche dans l'air. (P. 38) By means of an ingenious conceit the trip assumes the form of a pilgrimage in Simon's mind. Because, on occasion, when he was a boarder the thought of certain distant cities cured him of his loneliness and rancor, he visits them as one would religious shrines: ... Entendre un nom de ville, quand on est interne, prisonnier, c'est faire voeu de la coimaitre. J'accom- plis mon pklerinage vers cheque cite qui m'avait gueri, au lycee, d'un soir de solitude ou d'injustice. (pp. 38-39) What Simon sees during his travels, though colored by what he has learned in school, is stylized by a whimsical use of hyperbole. He has been so thoroughly oriented to history that he lowers his head when he enters the port of Rhodes so as not to bump into the Colossus; yet he does not see the flowers along the road in Holland because his pro fessors have not told him about them: ... Je voyageai sur le plan incomplet et perime transmis par mes maitres. Je ne vis pas, en Hollande, les fleurs, --qu’aucun d'eux n'avait songe h me sig naler. ... Je tins k visiter les lieux de defenestra tion, de decapitation. J'etais le voyageur qui baissait encore un peu la t8te, ... en entrant dans le port de Rhodes, pour ne point se heurter au colosse. (p. 39) 70 His visits to museums are animated by the fanciful concept that he is in pursuit of the man who painted the masterpieces; therefore he has no time to look at minor works: ... Dans les musees, dedaignant les peintres des petites batailles, des petits hivers, des enormes comues, je ne vis que Rembrandt, Rubens, Holbein. A eux trois ils me suffisaient. Je suivais leurs tableaux epars sur ma route comme les traces de je ne sais quel voyageur, mon atne, et stir de le rejoindre. Avec mes bottes de sept lieues, je passais sans fatigue de l'un k 1'autre, sans souffler aux petites oeuvres. ... (pp. 39-40) In the latter part of the chapter Giraudoux's use of overstatement briefly endows his hero with the magically- formulated behavior characteristics of his later protago nists. Because Simon happens to arrive in several coun tries just when major events occur, he has the feeling that his gifts of punctuality and exactitude have put his movements in time with a secret timetable of the world's major events. Suddenly he feels like the children in his school books who always arrive in a region of France just when the activity which characterizes that region happens to be occurring. ... Ma vie devenait un livre de classe. J'en rials. Comme les deux enfants du Tour de France, qui arrivaient k Bourges le jour oil l'on fondait le plus gros canon, k Valence le jour oil eclosaient les vers k soie ... 71 11 me suffisait d’entrer dans un pays pour que le monar- que en mourdt, ou se maridt. ... Ennemi de ceux <^ui manquent leur train, ... j*avals regie, dfes le debut, mon pas sur le vrai horaire du monde. (pp. 46-47) Thus what is initially merely good fortune is gradu ally transformed into a veritable talent. Simon ends by saying that he had even acquired the ability to know when to increase his pace to keep tip with the imaginary time table of great events. He catches Ibsen and Gladstone on the edge of the grave and is the last Frenchman to see Bismarck. But these inventions do not provide initial motiva tion, as do the rhetorical and fanciful concepts which are applied to the narrative in the later novels. This point may be made more evident if we compare Simon’s motives for travel with those of the heroine in Juliette au pays des hommes. Juliette hesitates before marriage in the same way that Simon hesitates before accepting a career as a teacher, but whereas Simon's reasons for not accepting a teaching position are perfectly normal ones for a young man, those of Juliette could hardly be attributed to even the most sensitive young girl. She has had a number of school-girl 72 crushes during which she has imagined herself to be pas sionately in love with several men, some of whom were mere visitors to her home town, people with whom she had only the briefest acquaintance or whom she knew only by name. By a precious metaphorical artifice the concept of giving oneself in romantic relationships assumes such graphic con creteness in the mind of Juliette that she believes that these passersby have each taken possession of a "Juliette", and that before her marriage to Gerard she must hunt down these scattered "Juliettes" and retrieve them, even from those men who were unaware of her infatuation. ... II y avait k delivrer Juliette de tous ceux qui la tenaient, sans le savoir d'ailleurs, emprisonnee. Ou plutot il lui fallait rassembler pour la nuit de noces toutes ces Juliettes donnees par elle k des passants, a des inconnus, k ces heures de demiclarte ou de demi-desir propices aux materialisations.^ This comparison of Simon’s travel motives with those of Juliette is a clear example of how an initial tendency to interpret events in a whimsical manner evolved, in the post-war novels, into a type of narrative derived princi pally from rhetorical and fanciful sources. ^Juliette au pays des hommes (Paris, 1924), pp. 25-26. 73 The same partial stylization of narrative is also evident in the romance between Simon and Anne which takes up the largest portion of the book. Giraudoux's abhorrence for the detailed veracity of realism, which made him avoid physical descriptions, is accompanied by an equal loathing for the conventional scenes of passion and conflict which characterized the turn-of-the-century novel. One has the impression in reading the last section of Simon le pathetique that Giraudoux is exercising unusual reserve in his narration of his hero’s actions, but that he has not completely succeeded in replacing the tradi tional causes for the romantic conflict between Simon and Anne with the stylized motives of his later protagonists. The basis for the meeting between Anne and Simon does not possess the degree of singularity that is character istic of the romances in the later novels. For example, the Giralducian use of incognito to permit a free develop ment of fanciful concepts is absent. Simon makes the acquaintance of Anne through a mutual friend. Her reasons for visiting Paris after residing abroad for some time appear quite normal, particularly when compared to those of Juliette which have been analyzed earlier in the chapter. 74 Anne's reasons for her attraction to Simon are per fectly normal if we compare them to the paradoxical cause of Eglantine's attachment to Molse.^ Simon himself offers a very direct explanation of his appeal to Anne. — Vous m'aimez parce que je suis grand, vif, agile. Parce que ma voix est claire. Parce que je suis partout k ma place, partout naturel. Nulle part je ne suis en surcharge. Jamais je ne suis l'ennuyeux, le grincheux, l'indiscret. Vous m'aimez parce que j’ai ma jeunesse k moi, une vraie jeunesse, puisee k la campagne et aux vieux livres. ... (pp. 111-112) But though the circumstances of their meeting and the reasons for their attraction are natural, their actions immediately undergo a marked rhetorical stylization. It is not their behavior on specific occasions which comprises the narrative as much as their broad patterns of conduct. In this way their actions acquire a somewhat exceptional character. When Simon first meets Anne at the beginning of spring her main occupation is "trying to prolong the winter." Her activities are all related to this project and narrated in the imperfect: Anne, qui avait compris pourtant, s'obstinait k recueillir tous les restes de 1'autre saison. Elle entretenait l'hiver comme on refait un feu qui tombe, avec des tisons, des bfiches de fortune. Tous les ^See Chapter I, p. 53. 75 devoirs envers la neige, envers la ville couverte et chaude, si souvent negliges en decembre ou en janvier, elle les observait maintenant avec scrupule. Elle se vouait k la religion du froid et du gresil, qui allait devenir fausse. (p. 101) Momentarily her preoccupation even affects the be havior of Simon. Because of Anne's devotion to the winter, Simon must contain his gaiety which would personify the spring: ... Je devais contenir, en sa presence, cette humeur joyeuse qui m'invitait k rire plus haut, k chanter, k personnifier pour mon propre compte le printemps. (p. 102) This fanciful construction ends abruptly on a note of paradox. A week of extremely hot weather causes Anne to accept the spring because it then seems to succeed the summer: ... Une semaine de chaleur torride vainquit enfin sa resistance. Elle pardonnait au printemps quand il succedait k l'ete. (p. 102) Much of the account of their early relationship is devoted to a rhetorically patterned description of their customary conversations. It is stated that they alter nately try to compare and then to contrast the events of their childhood. They first seek to discover the things they have in common. 76 ... nous nous amusions k deterrer de notre enfance chaque minute qui pouvait avoir ete la meme pour nous deux. Nous cherchions des amis communs, a leur defaut des amis symetriques. II etait bien rare que le meme enfant, petite fille chez elle, petit gareon chez moi, n'etit pas ete prfes de nous, le jour ou nous avions decouvert le mime coin de notre coeur; ... Nous en arrivions, egalisant nos souvenirs, f e avoir ete Sieves k peu prfes par les memes domestiques, eprouve les memes frayeurs. ... (pp. 102-103) This use of parallelism is followed by the passage Q based on antithesis quoted in the first chapter. One feels certain that Giraudoux was being deliberately para doxical in the latter construction when he attributed an adventurous youth to Anne and an uneventful childhood to Simon. Also in this passage one senses that the rhetorical design has come first; that the attributes and actions of the characters thereafter are contingent upon it. The accounts of these antecedent events are related as a conversational pastime and do not affect the current action of the novel, as do similar inventions in the later works of Giraudoux. What Anne does is totally unrelated to her colorful background. In the antithetical construc tion it is stated that she has only sojourned in mountain hotels and chateaux while Simon has lived only in capitals. g Chapter I, p. 31. 77 Yet he has no trouble seeing her because she remains in Paris throughout the novel, except for one short trip. If the rhetorical construction were applied to the narrative with complete literalness as in the later novels, it might even have become an obstacle to Simon and Anne. Such a source of conflict does arise, for example, in the romance between Eglantine and Molse. Their relationship is progressing idyllically when a sudden source of difficulty arises: Eglantine feels that she is not "on a level with Molse." In a lengthy fanciful development dependent upon a literal use of hyperbole, metaphor, and antithesis, Giraudoux reveals the bizarre cause of this problem: Molse has "never” loved any women except those who were supine, whereas Eglantine is so ethereal that she hardly touches the ground: ... D'abord et en employant les mots dans leur vrai sens, dans la langue des ingenieurs et des ponts et chaussees, elle n'ktait pas de plain-pied avec lui. Molse n'avait jamais aime en sonxne que des femmes qui vivaient k ras de terre. Pendant toute sa jeunesse, en Orient, en Europe centrale, il n'avait gukre connu ses amies qu'accroupies, ktendues k mSme les tapis ou les dalles. ... II ne eomprenait la tendresse qu'etendu sur une natte ou un divan. ... La fumee des cigarettes de Sarah partait presque du parquet, du sol, vraie fumee d'herbes. ... Voilk vingt ans, aprks son veuvage, le hasard avait voulu que la mode chassdt des appartements oil habitaient ses amies femmes les fauteuils et les 78 vrais lits. C'etait l’epoque, aujourd'hui agonisante, des sophas, des tables basses, ou les Occldentaux eux- mSmes etaient plus las de l'attirance vers le zenith que de la gravitation. II avalt done continue k se laisser choir dans le fond de la civilisation.9 The antithesis arises from the fact that Eglantine's hyperbolically stylized background is diametrically opposed to the experience of Molse: ... la vie d'Eglantine s'etait presque uniquement passee a un jeu de chat perche avec un compere invisible. On ne la voyait que sur le falte des voitures k foin, des toltures, des peupliers. L'automobile du chiteau datait des premikres croisades des autos, et n'avait rien k envier en altitude k un sulky. Les lits etaient sur des estrades. ... Elle s'amusait parfois, le soir, k dormir debout contre un arbre. Un sentiment de dignite l'ecar- tait toujours quelques minutes, avant le coucher, de la position etendue, de cette position de mort, et elle toumait autour du lit, accrochait des vStements, redres- sait des cadres, n'abdiquait sa hauteur que dans une crise de fatigue. ... A Fontranges, dans les moissons, quand les travailleurs bottelaient ou dormaient, on voyait la t§te de la petite Eglantine sumager seule au-dessus des epis et du deluge de l'ete. (pp. 84-85) In the resulting conflict between these two modes of behavior it is Eglantine who triumphs. Molse, "for the first time in his life," conducts a love relationship on his feet. Since Eglantine finds only the window-sill of Molse's residence suitable as support, she remains standing or paces about the room most of the time. The servants ^Eglantine, pp. 82-83. 79 are grateful to Eglantine because they no longer have to spend most of their time hunched over In the presence of Molse. The romantic conflict which arises between Anne and Simon Is the result of a curious mixture of realistic and rhetorically stylized motivations. There is nothing in Giraudoux's first account of their early meetings that would indicate anything but a sophisticated relationship between two well-balanced and reserved young people hesi tating on the brink of marriage. Suddenly however a serious misunderstanding arises between them and they are separated for several weeks. Only two indications are given beforehand of the intensity of the relationship and of the impending break. Simon admits that he and Anne have become tense in one another's presence and that he is upset by her failure to speak to him on the occasions when she saw him standing tinder her window at midnight and waiting in the rain for her exit from the theater. It ironically occurs to him that she might think he has a double. To retaliate he creates the image of another Anne, one who better coincides with his moods: ... Elle m'avait apercu, une ou deux fois, vers minuit, passant lentement dans sa rue ou & sa sortie 80 du the litre, sans parapluie sous l'orage, les bords de mon chapeau ruisselants. Croyait-elle done k mon Sosle? Se desinteressait-elle alors de mon Sosle? L'ecart s'accentuait entre mes lettres et mes paroles. Dks qu'Anne n'etait plus devant mol, m'apparalssalt une Anne plus proche, plus lolntalne, k laquelle plus de liens et plus de souvenirs encore mfattachalent. C'est k celle-lk que j’ecrivals maintenant. L'autre ne m'en parlait jamais; elle eflt sembl£ k moi-meme indiscrete et sa presence n'etalt pas quelquefois le remkde exact k ma peine. Je feignais de croire, mol, k son Sosle, et peut- etre l'un de nous n'etait-il jamais qu'avec 1'ombre de 1’autre, (pp. 114-115) In this text reference to the "other Anne" and the "other Simon" is not emphatic enough for them to acquire a literal reality; however, they are concrete enough at one point to become a topic of conversation between Anne and Simon: ... il m'arrivait, quand je suivais de trop pres ma lettre, de troirver Anne nerveuse; elle bousculait un des objets qu'elle me savait aimer, elle avait un mot injuste pour cette Anne melancolique et tendre k laquelle je venais d'ecrire, et la traitait avec dedain. Alors, decide k ne rien supporter d’elle, k ne point ceder d'un pas, je la defiais. (p. 115) These concepts, rather than turbulent emotions or the intervention of a third person in the narrative, become the cause for the first quarrel between Simon and Anne. The substitution of such subjective phenomena for a conflict involving outside parties is the first step in the direc tion of later Giralducian romances which evolve almost 81 entirely from an interplay of literally interpreted fanci ful concepts. The final development of this early tendency may be illustrated by an incident in the romance between Malena Paz and Jacques Brisson in Combat avec l'ange in which similar subjective impressions have become so objec tified that the characters have their own doubles as rivals. One evening when Jacques Brisson is supposed to meet his mistress Malena Paz for dinner he is obliged to call off the engagement because he has been asked to work late. Malena responds that she too must cancel in order to meet her mother at the railway station. But because Jacque's employer is indisposed, he is allowed to leave early. Believing that Malena is occupied, he decides to walk along the river. In the meantime Malena's mother notifies her that she has decided to come by plane. Thinking that Jacques is at work, Malena also takes a walk. When they meet by accident on their promenades, what could be a banal chance encounter is profoundly altered by the intervention of rhetoric and fancy. In a very literal sense, neither is walking alone, but with an image of the other: Nous etions face a face. Je ne trouvais pas un mot et elle osait a peine me sourire. II y avait plutot 82 de la cralnte dans son regard, car elle aussl avalt compris ma promenade, avalt vu ma nouvelle compagne. ... Malena me retrouvait, me surprenalt avec elle-m§me, je la retrotxvais avec mol. SI du moins, semblait-elle penser, c'etait elle, cette Malena epuree, anoblle, demesuree, dont elle devinalt encore la presence autour de mol. Si du moins c'etait mol, cet homme avec elle qui me res- semblait conxne un frere, peut-§tre seulement comme un frere, et qui etait moi, et que je sentais dej& s'in- quieter k son cdte comme si j'allais lui reprocher d'avoir tenu pres de Malena mon role avec trop de per fection. Car c'etait bien la notre faute: separes la veille en complet accord, nous nous surprenions sur ce pont tous deux en flagrant delit de tendresse, d'imagina tion trop genereuses. ■ * ■ 0 The subjective impressions of Malena and Jacques are here so graphically objectified that as a result of this chance meeting their relationship is completely altered, just as though they had surprised one another with an unknown rival. The most effective intervention of rhetoric in the narrative occurs in the episodes which succeed Simon's first break with Anne. After several weeks of trying to lead a self-sufficient intellectual life, suddenly Simon attempts to renew his romance with Anne by sending flowers to her, having several friends call in his behalf, and finally returning to see her himself. One might well ^Combat avec l'ange, p. 69. 83 imagine that Anne, a very attractive young girl, would have a number of rivals for her hand, particularly after a pro longed break which Simon himself had largely provoked. Anne does have a number of friends who are vying for her attentions; and because she is upset with Simon, she arranges a party for all of her friends, so that Simon can meet them and learn a lesson from their conduct. However any tension that might occur is considerably reduced by the peculiar criteria used by Anne to judge her friends. Her chief complaint against Simon is that his character lacks definition, that he does not personify anything to her. ... Des hommes, dans un salon, dans une rue, m'ont dit une seule phrase, un seul mot qui s'est grave dans ma memoire. Des gestes de passants se sont fixes pour toujours sur mes yeux, comme des silhouettes apereues d’un navire. Vous ne m'avez fait aucun de ces signaux. De vous j’oublie tout. ... — Tout! Vous ne personnifiez pour moi aucun sentiment, aucun §tre, alors que je ne peux voir le moindre de vos amis sans penser k la montagne, k la mer. ... (pp. 117-118) In the one scene in which Simon is involved in a rivalry with the other suitors, who all are referred to by the quality they personify rather than by name, he triumphs because in his presence the vaunted personifications prove themselves shams. 84 ... Dans la semaine, elle invitait, pour me donner me leqon, les amis qui personnifiaient k ses yeux la noblesse, le courage, l'automne. Mais ce diner de masques justement me vengealt. Le simple contact avec mol leur etait funeste. Le Courage se revelait vulgaire, l’Automne bavard, l'Honnetete riait stupidement d&s qu’on prononcait le mot femme. Anne les ecoutait avec le depit qu'eprouve le directeur des Enfers, Virgile ou quelque seigneur les visitant, contre Atlas ldchant son globe, contre Sisyphe echappant son rocher. (pp. 118-119) In this particular episode Anne, by imposing such whimsical criteria on the conduct of her friends, is be having very much like the later Giralducian heroines whose peculiar aptitudes and inventions lead to a type of be havior that is entirely divorced from normal motivation. However, such rhetorical motivations are conspicuously absent from the latter part of the book. After Simon's triumph over Anne's personifications, their romance pro ceeds along much more conventional lines. As a couple they lead an active social life, visiting friends, dining out, and promenading in the country. One such outing to a wood on the outskirts of Paris, described at length, appears to bring them to the culminating point of their courtship. But in the evening, as they return to the city by auto mobile, a serious misunderstanding abruptly arises between them. On this occasion there is no rhetorical motivation for the conflict of the protagonists; moreover, it appears 85 to lack sufficient conventional motivation as well. Near the end of their drive, with absolutely no warning, Anne's affectionate bantering is cut short by Simon: — Aurons-nous un nom composite, Sianne ou Annemon pour les telegrammes communs? C'est ainsi qu'k nouveau elle s'ingeniait k enlacer de faux liens autour de nous, alors que je la tenais dans mes bras. — Je ne sais pas, Anne, cela dependra de vous. ... --Cela dependra? Elle regardait avec angoisse. Elle esperait encore que j'allais rire et dissiper par une plaisanterie son malaise. Je m'obstinais, et, plus que mon amour, ce fut ce petit ent£tement passager et inexplicable qui me poussa k mettre fin a cette annee debordante et incer- taine. (p. 180) The lack of necessity for this scene is singled out by Robert Brasillach in his criticism of the novel: ... 1'absence absolu de motif ... des brouilles et des ruptures, la brume ou reste noyee la fin provisoire de l'aventure irreelle ... paraissent terriblement manquer de necessite. 1 Will McLendon has since published a probing analysis of Simon le pathetique in which he reveals the existence of an earlier manuscript version of the novel where Giraudoux Robert Brasillach, "Les Premiers Livres de Jean Giraudoux," Cahiers des Amis de Robert Brasillach. I (Lausanne, juin 1950), 24. Cited by Will L. McLendon, "Un Mutile de Giraudoux: Simon le pathetique," The French Review, XXXI (1957), 103. 86 provided a more realistic motivation for the second break between Anne and Simon. In this manuscript the end of their promenade is treated altogether differently. As they are returning in the automobile, Anne, in a moment of great tenderness, is guilty of an unfortunate slip of the tongue: wishing to express her affection for Simon she addresses him as Jean. The scene from the original manuscript given by McLendon is as follows: Jean, murmura-t-elle, je vous aime. Je ne dis rien; je ne bougeai pas, je feignis d’accepter ce nouveau prenom. Mais soudain eveillee, elle rougit; elle ne chercha pas k me tromper, elle ne me dit pas, pour me faire croire k quelque jeu: — Pierre, je vous aime. Jacques, je vous aime. Elle s'£carta; et la grosse voiture, nous voyant separes et attristes, nous depassa tout d'un coup. (McLendon, p. 104) The article also reveals some very important changes in the treatment of Simon's reactions to this romantic deception. In the final version, Simon, behaving with an urbanity worthy of the heroes of Paul Morand, boards the Orient Express for an excursion to the Bosphorus and en gages in a series of light-hearted amorous adventures in order to forget Anne. The earlier Simon is far less worldly in his conduct. His display of melancholy is worthy of a romantic poet; he even thinks momentarily of suicide (McLendon, p. 106). i 87 These findings are of the utmost significance because they reveal that, despite Giraudoux's later reputation for facility of composition, he, like Alain-Fournier, Proust, Gide, and other leading writers of his generation, experi mented for a prolonged period in order to free himself from tum-of-the-century literary conventions. ■ CHAPTER III APPLICATION OF RHETORIC AND FANCY TO ENVIRONMENTAL ELEMENTS OF THE NOVEL In Simon le pathetique Giraudoux displays a hostility to the philosophical and psychological approach of the realist novel. This reaction against empirically based notions of human behavior caused him to pattern the conduct of his characters entirely by rhetorical Inspiration. One of the most Important consequences of his new narrative technique was a complete transformation of the traditional role of environment and nature In the novel. An unconventional application of rhetorical devices to the description of nature Is a feature of his earliest short stories. He begins "De ma fen8tre," the first story in his collection, Les Provinclales, with an Imaginative interpretation of the approach of autumn: Ne croyez pas que les feuilles mortes tombent d'un coup,-comme les fruits mdrs, ou sans bruit, comme les fleurs fanees. Celles des aulnes, au bord des ruisseaux, se detachent vers midi, et, attardees par des feuilles 88 encore vivantes, par des nids abandonnes qui ne les rechauffkrent pas, arrivent k terre tout juste avant le soleil. Similar fanciful interpretations are frequently given to the actions of animals by analogy with human motives: ... Un chat se promenait, s'attardant aux touffes, pour faire croire aux oiseaux qu'il broutait. Les oies dormaient sur une patte; le bout de 1*autre, fripe a dessein comne un gant, pendait negligemment de leur gousset. Et soudain les voilk qui clament, laneant leur cou et le ramenant en piston de trombone k coulisse, sans ensemble et sans mesure, car ce n*est qu'une repeti tion. Rene Marill, in his lengthy study of the work of Giraudoux, has shown that even these early episodic de scriptions in Giraudoux*s first collection of short stories show a serious literary design behind the whimsical use of analogy and the seemingly gratuitous systems of causation which he imposes upon natural phenomena. According to Alberes, Giraudoux intends to disrupt and transform our traditional notions regarding man's relationship to his environment. He substitutes an arrestingly imaginative vision of things for the worn-out deterministic concepts of nature: *Les Provinciales (Paris, 1922), p. 9. 2 Les Provinciales, pp. 43-44. 90 Cette nature ne saurait @tre conventionnelle; elle se renouvelle sans cesse et sa varlete accompagne la varlete des evenements humains. C'est pour rendre un sens vlerge et neuf k la vie des hommes que Giraudoux la relle k la vie de la nature; et cette nature elle-n&ne dolt &tre vue par des yeux neufs, hors de tout artifice descrlptlf et de toute routine l l t t e r a i r e . 3 It Is chiefly In the light of this fervent reaction against realism that Giraudoux*s work must be Interpreted. As Marlll recalls, Giraudoux himself expressly stated this In an Interview with Simone Ratel: "A l'origine de notre oeuvre, 11 n'y a pas influence, mais antipathie.We must similarly Interpret the more celebrated statement of motives given by Giraudoux in his novel, Juliette au pays des hommes: ... Je n’ai contribue en rien k 1*invention des coffres- forts et de leurs sytkmes, ni k celle des briques igni- fugees, ni k 1'edulcoration des sous-produits de la terebenthine. Les quelques modifications que l'on me doit ici-bas sont celles que j'aurais apportees au jardin d'Eve. Une certaine manikre neuve d'approcher les en** fants, les petits animaux et de parler d’eux en leur presence. I f t i e certaine manikre d'offrir, au lieu de votre bouche k xme autre bouche, votre langage k un autre langage. ... 3 * Esthetique et morale chez Jean Giraudoux. pp. 84-85. ^Dialogues k une seule volx, p. 12. ^Juliette au pays des hommes, p. 190. 91 This fanciful Interpretation of nature becomes inte grated with the main events of the plot In Giraudoux's completely stylized novels of the between-the-wars period. There a rhetorically animated nature steps out of Its passive environmental role to participate directly In the narrative. The central situation of Giraudoux's first postwar novel, Suzanne et le Paciflque, published In 1921, is developed almost entirely in this way. In this novel, for the first time, Giraudoux completely frees his writing from the autobiographical contaminations of his earlier works. He allows himself complete freedom to exploit the rhetori cal devices which received only partial application in Simon le pathetique. In Suzanne et le Paciflque the author deliberately fabricates the most fictitious possible excuse for the heroine's adventures: Because Suzanne wins a trip to Australia by writing the best maxim on the subject of bore dom for the Sidney Daily, she and her governess set out for the Island Continent. During the trip their boat sinks in a typhoon leaving Suzanne stranded alone on a Pacific island. It may be noted in passing that in the earlier 92 work, Simon le pathetique, the antithesis between Simon's uneventful childhood and the youthful adventures of Anne contains the germ of this paradoxical situation concerning the adventurous ingenue. One would expect the narrative of a lone girl's activities on an island to concern the privations and dangers of her struggle for survival. But from the moment she arrives there her conduct makes the accomplishments of Europe's most famous castaway, the practical-minded Robin son Crusoe, seem pitiful by comparison. Endowed with the supreme Giralducian gift of imagination, she proceeds to organize everything in terms of her own imaginative con cepts, rather than allow the conditions on the island to govern her behavior. As she regains consciousness on the beach, a fanciful academic problem preoccupies her. The random unfamiliar sounds she hears do not frighten her because she is princi pally concerned with the discovery of an order in them: ... Les heures s'ecoulaient. Je reconnaissais chacune des veilles h un bruit inconnu, mais dont je devinais la traduction. Vers le milieu de la nuit, un cri de trompette et trois hululements, ce qui devait Stre ici le premier chant du coq; un peu plus tard, ce qui devait Stre ici notre brlse de deux heures et ses jasmins et sa glycine; une haleine en vanllle et en poivre; plus tard encore, des fracas de baisers qui firent taire [ 93 tous les autres oiseaux, ce qui devait correspondre lcl aux roulades, au rosslgnol. ... Puls un souffle sec, ardent, ce qui correspondalt dans cet archlpel k la rosee. ... Puls un coup k ma t@te, un olseau k gros bee s'enfult aprks m'avoir blessee, le sang coulait de mon front. ... Ce qui correspondalt lcl k l’appel de Mademoiselle. ...” Thus the narrative of Suzanne's adventures on the island begins with parallelism and overstatement. She recognizes that "each one" of her new experiences has a counterpart in her home town. This parallel construction concludes in an extravagant but witty comparison. Being pecked by a bird in the morning is likened by Suzanne to being awakened by her governess. As was explained in Chapter I, exaggerations of this type are normally used for sarcasm or irony (see pp. 19-20). For example, the camper who returns from an unpleasant trip might say: "Yes, the island was just like home. There was even a bird to get me up in the morning." When such exaggerations are given literal meaning as they are in the Giralducian narrative, several far-reaching consequences accompany the humorous effect. The characters themselves accept as factual rather than affective the imaginative concepts which Giraudoux wishes to impose ^Suzanne et le Paciflque (Paris, 1949), p. 64. 94 on reality; and by their actions they cause the events of the story to verify his inventions. When combined with other rhetorical devices and imposed upon nature, these exaggerations make natural phenomena conform to a new type of harmonious order. Though this order possesses all the qualities of precision evident in empirically derived systems of data, it is constructed by the individual imagi nation? not by any scientific means. As a result of this order the phenomena of nature become intimately associated with the actions of the characters, causing the Giralducian protagonist to react to his environment with a totally unique rapport. From the beginning of the novel the reader's view of the natural phenomena on the island is largely determined by Suzanne; it is her conception of what happens that makes the "events” related in the narrative. If we examine her description of the island, we observe a subtle process of domestication through analogy. The movement of sun, moon, and clouds is described as cleansing the island: ... une faible lune passa sans hdte sur tout le ciel un enduit blanchitre, et subitement le soleil, derriere moi, d'un rayon, d'un nuage chiffon fit tout etinceler. (p. 64) 95 The sun is later described as performing house cleaning: "Un beau soleil vaquait derrifere fougeres et palmes comme une cuisinifere" (p. 65). The island, then, begins to take on a hospitable quality as a result of these and further fanciful analogies. The rays of the sun even act as chop sticks which shake the fruit on the trees, revealing it to Suzanne: ... de rayons separes et croises comme les bdtons d'un Chinois qui mange, il [le soleil] harcelait et me revelait de petits ananas et d'enormes fraises. (p. 65) Suzanne's power to impose such concepts on her sur roundings leads to a total stylization of her environment along lines which are deliberately opposed to realism. When the ocean swells up suddenly and splashes over Suzanne while she is on the shore, one would expect her first reaction to be one of fear. Yet she is not the least bit discomfited or concerned because she is inclined to believe that at that moment in some distant port the ship has been launched which is destined to come to her rescue: Parfois, je croyais sentir que le navire partait, peut- etre partait-il, on mettait un navire gigantesque a . la mer, j'avals de l'eau soudain jusqu'aux chevilles. ... (pp. 69-70) Suzanne finds everything she needs in abundance: the coconuts which fall split on rocks and land opened and 96 ready to eat; birds* nests containing eggs are at waist level, as though placed there in readiness for the first human visitor; perfume accumulates in shells, and cinnamon- flavored water may be sipped through reeds. Suzanne be comes so absorbed in her transformation of the island that she finds rocks which resemble European furnishings with such a degree of exactness that she can perceive differ ences in the quality of the reproduction. The only reason given for the island's luxury is Suzanne's frivolous anthropomorphic explanation: Tout le luxe etait lk, tout le confort que peut se donner la nature par fierte personnelle, dans de petites ties sans visiteurs; une petite source chaude dans un rocher d'agate, pres d'une petite source froide, dans la mousse; ... des fruits semblables k des savons, des pierres ponces eparses, des feuilles-brosses, des epines-epingles; les simulacres en quartz d'or d'une grande cheminee Louis XV et d'un orgue de style moins pur. ... (pp. 66-67) The surety and vividness with which Suzanne exterior izes metaphoric concepts and enforces overstatements totally alters the events in which she participates. In another instance the island, seen through the eyes of Suzanne, appears to be an airfield for tropical birds: Sur mon tie, dessinee comme tin signal a terre dans les camps d'aviation, premikre bordure en corail et en nacre, seconde ceinture de cocotiers, troisieme de fleurs et de gazons, au centre deux collines dans des 97 forSts vierges, les zones vertes etincelant le jour, celle des coqulllages la nult, k midi juste deux petits lacs s'allumant au fatte des mornes, tous les oiseaux du Paciflque venaient atterrir. (p. 74) Because of the exaggerated precision of Suzanne's metaphoric conception, the landscape appears to contain a signaling system; and what would ordinarily be two random events, the approach of birds and the flashing of the sun light on two small lakes, appear to be interrelated parts of a systematic landing operation. Once Giraudoux has succeeded in creating an atmosphere favorable to the acceptance of rhetorically patterned events, his original inventions can become the point of departure for further unconventional narration. This tendency of Giralducian narrative to progress at the dictates of fancy and per petuate itself along paradoxical lines is demonstrated by a lengthy sequence of events which arises in the fifth chapter of Suzanne et le Paciflque as a result of the rhetorical domestication of nature accomplished previously by the heroine. She so humbles her surroundings that they begin to bore her: Cette innocence de l'ile, aprks m'en etre rejouie j'en fus decue. ... C'etait lassant de voir ces palmiers naif8 sur lesquels seul un crabe montait et redescendait, selon le soleil, comme un poids de pendule. Les larges 98 feullles piquantes, dans lesquelles j'etendais mon bras jamais ne se refermaient sur lui, et pas une fleur qui essayftt de mordre ou de retenir mon petit doigt. ... cette nature en somme ... paralysee par le bonheur, par l'impuissance k faire venlr des continents ses conduites de venin, et dont les reflexes, oiseau qui s'envole, lezard qui fuit, ne fonctionnaient jamais, mSme en frap- pant au bon endroit; parfois elle m*exasp^rait. ... Peut-etre un homme eflt-il obtenu plus de reaction de cette tie qui restait sous moi placide comne un cheval sous un cavalier-femme, (pp. 86-87) In this passage analogy and hyperbole are skillfully combined to make the island appear to be totally innocuous in character. A palm tree with a crab running up and down the trunk is seen as a pendulum clock. Plants are "never" harmful. Because there is "never" any sudden movement on the island it has no reflexes. Then the idea that it is like a living thing and the fact that Suzanne is alone on it suggests a final conceit: perhaps a man would have pro voked a stronger reaction from the island because it seems to be behaving like a horse with a woman rider. As a result of this ingenious construction, when a succession of three predatory animals does appear, Suzanne is entertained and at the same time becomes the defender of the island’s innocence: Par bonheur aussi, l1tie eut a cette epoque besoin de moi. Pendant quelques jours le courant qui contoumait les recifs ... porta des amas de feuilles ou des ilots 99 d'arbres entrelaces, ... du plus grand, je vis tine llane se detacher, nager, accoster, s'enrouler autour d'un arbuste: un boa. Je le tuai le solr mime, dans son sonmell, ... Une semalne plus tard, ... un epervier, qui, lul, avant d'itre attelnt par ma fronde, eut le temps de gotiter un specimen de tous mes olseaux. Puls, sur un de ces Hots derivants, je crus apercevolr une bite a pelage ... que j'empichai de se jeter vers mol en le menacant tout le long de la grfeve d'une branche allumee. (pp. 88-89) After these Incidents Suzanne sees herself as the Island's savior: J'etals touchee des dangers qu'avalt enfln courus mon lie. La seule attaque peut-itre que devalt y falre le mal, la Providence m'avalt mandee de Bellac pour y repondre. (p. 89) Suzanne's rhetorically stylized Involvement with her natural surroundings reaches Its peak when a number of objects In her environment begin begging her to deify them. As she Is the only human whom they have encountered, they are motivated by the ambition to impress her and thus be promoted in her mind to a status of divinity "because they know that In Polynesia they have a better chance of being elevated to this rank than in other less primitive parts of the world." Seule? ... Pas tout h fait. ... Mille souffles, mille petlts fracas, mille petites presences qui tournoyaient autour de moi, mendiant cette divinite qu'ils savaient par les llvres de Spencer plus facile k obtenir en Poly- nesie que dans le reste du monde. J'etals assalllle de leurs ambitions. ... (pp. 89-90) 100 This notion, perhaps one of Glraudoux's most extrava gant conceits, forms the basis for an extended segment of narrative comprising an enumeration of the various solici tations which Suzanne must endure. Passing clouds, animals, fish, trees and even the ocean importune her: Je les comprenals d'Instinct. . . . . Un nuage tout rond, quotldien, qui defllalt vers mldl devant mol, farde et poudre, comme Esther devant son rol, avec la secrete pretention d'avoir un grade entre les cumuli; ... la mer, qui parfols sfecartait de 1'horizon comne un gdteau de son moule, que je n'aurals eu dans ces moments qu'h retourner, deesse. (pp. 90-91) Typical of the extraordinarily detailed developments given to these Inventions Is the notation that some of the less ambitious objects seek only partial deification: Quand je passals sous l'arbre a raclnes retombantes toujours un coup sur l'epaule, net, et brutal, de celul qui voulalt devenlr peut-Stre dleu des caresses. Une ambition sans bornes des moindres reflets dans les eaux, les sources, et qui gagnait des polssons isoles, soudain figes et ridicules. Les demi-appels, les dend-eclats des modestes qui ne voulaient Stre que dend-dieux. (p. 91) A further variation of this unusual fanciful concept is obtained through Suzanne's reaction to these attentions. The Imaginary solicitations of the phenomena around her are so completely and graphically real to Suzanne that her mood is profoundly affected by them. Like a monarch being pestered to confer titles, she grows haughty and peevish: 101 Je me refusals k combler ces voeux enfantIns. ... Je me detournais du nuage, du rayon avec l'humeur du prince qu'on 8olllclte. (p. 91) This situation has such reality for Suzanne that she even devises a protocol which she firmly enforces In rela tions with things on the Island. She goes so far as to address her "entourage" with the formal vous rather than the familiar tu so that they will not mistakenly think that a title has been conferred upon them: Je me gardais de certains gestes comme s'ils allaient conferer d’eux-m&mes, ainsi qu'il arrive parfois au roi d'Espagne s'11 se couvre ou s'11 tutoye, des titres k tous ces demons. Je disals vous aux oiseaux, k l'tle. (P. 91) For a time Suzanne becomes so impressed with this attention that she begins to assume the airs of a princess, and is even tempted to use her powers to deify portions of her own body: ... un regret me prenait de n'Stre point aussi avide qu’eux une envle de sacrifler un peu de ces tresors en moi k mon etemlte; ... et, pour narguer tous ces demons anonymes, de couvrir d'appellations divines mes mains, mes genoux et jusqu'k mes pensees. Je succombais une minute k cette couronne qu'on m'offrait. J'etals malgre moi plus compassee, ... toute nue, j'allais comme avec une tralne. (p. 93) Suzanne is saved from this temptation by remembering her true masters, those whom she left behind in Europe: 102 La pensee soudalne de ces gens en Europe que je sentals mes vrais malt res, ces receveuses de tramways qui vous egarent, ces agents qui vous tnartyrisent, ces cochers qui vous enferment en des bottes puantes, ces taxis, refuges et plates-formes ou je n'avals ete ... qu'une escalve payante, m'egayait et m'enlevait toute preten tion. ... (p. 93) The Imaginative system of relations which Suzanne establishes with her environment creates a rapprochement between man and nature which is maintained throughout the work of Giraudoux. This new relationship requires a type of comportment on the part of his characters which he aptly describes as "de la politesse envers la creation," one in which a sense of fitness and balance are as important as imagination. "J*avals, en me prenant le pied dans une liane, a faire mille grdces aux lianes," says Suzanne. Although they use their conceptual gifts to free themselves from quotidian routine, the Giralducian protagonists avoid un bridled expression of their individuality. An element of ritualized refinement is evident in their behavior, even when their actions are based on fanciful criteria. In this respect Giraudoux remains very close to the Ideals of seventeenth century preciosity. However, Giraudoux had several important ideological affinities with Romanticism which made his attitude toward 103 nature differ from that of the seventeenth century Precieux. who tended to equate what was natural In man with what was bestial and sought to suppress such traits by artificial refinements of style. As a part of his reaction against realism, Giraudoux adhered to the Romantic belief that man has lost his Edenic communion with nature through a stunt ing of his imagination. Giraudoux uses the stylistic devices of the Precieux, aptly described by one critic as "une jolie machine contre la barbarie,to reestablish this primitive communion on a refined and harmonious basis in order to avoid an involvement with the mundane elements of modem life so destructive to poetic insight. This quest for an harmoniously poetic order explains Giraudoux's abhorrence for conventionally motivated scenes of passion and conflict; and accounts for his frequent creation of rhetorically stylized relationships with nature as a buffer between his characters and the crude realities of day-to- day living. ^Pierre Lafue, "Bella, ou les nouveaux jeux de H. Jean Giraudoux," La Revue Hebdomadaire, III (1926), 119. Cited by Laurent LeSage, Metaphor in the Nondramatic Works of Jean Giraudoux (Eugene: Uhiversity of Oregon Press, 1952), p. 9. 104 The application of rhetoric to environment necessarily plays a less dominant role In the novels which follow Suzanne et le Paclflque, because they concern a number of characters, rather than a single Individual living In Isolation. It remains as a vital means of transcending the banalities and conflicts of everyday life which threaten the Glralduclan poetic order. Siegfried et le Limousin contains a situation in which Giraudoux replaces a conflict arising from prosaic motiva tion with a stylized involvement with nature. The two women in the story struggle passionately for the attention of nature instead of competing for the affections of Sieg fried. Genevifeve Prat, the French woman, beneath the seeming artificiality of her manner, is paradoxically more at ease in natural surroundings than the German woman, Eva von Schwanhofer, despite the German reputation for soulful communion with nature: Depuis que Genevifeve etait avec nous, la belle Eva ... semblait prise de g$ne envers la nature. Alors que Genevieve vivait a l'aise dans ce paysage pourtant nouveau et parmi ces gens dont elle ignorait la langue, en face de cheque emotion et de cheque Stre vlvant faisait toujours le poids, comme un boxeur, — pour arriver a un accord avec le moindre epicea ou haimeton de mer, Eva se voyait dans la necessite de changer complfetement d'&ne, sinon de costume ... Genevifeve etait 105 toujour8 logee & la place exacte ou la bale et le salon du Casino, de leur soleil ou de leur ripolin, l'eussent secretee comme une perle, Eva h celle ou la municipalite eOt eleve la £ontalne ou la statue.° Using hyperbole to exploit the notion o£ a personified nature Giraudoux succeeds In Involving his two protagonists In an extremely precise and consequential relationship with their environment. They compete for the attention of nature giving rise to an entertaining sequence of events which subtly eliminates from the narrative any direct con flict between the two women. In the opening scene of the novel Juliette au pays des hommes the narrative Is largely derived from the concepts which Juliette and her fiance, Gerard, Impose upon their home environment In the province of Limousin. The Initial pages relate Gerard's feelings as he lies Indolently on the bank of a river where he has gone to fish. The seem ingly Insignificant happenings of the day are balanced perfectly In his mind against the most substantial sources of happiness afforded him by his heritage: Les faveurs divines, les grdces efficaces eparses dans ce gazon valurent soudaln pour lul les bonheurs que ses ascendants et lul-mSme s'etalent, par le travail de ^Siegfried et le Limousin (Paris, 1922), pp. 188-190. 106 vlngt generations, prepares k grands frals. II se trouvait sucer une pallle, -- et, joulasance exactement egale, 11 avalt deux cent mille francs de rente.® By means of overstatement and parallelism Gerard's Impressions are removed from the realm of vague day dreaming and given the emphatic quality of accurate and orderly perceptions, as In the expression: "II se trouvait sucer une pallle, -- et, joulssance exactement egale, 11 avalt deux cent mille francs de rente." Once established, the rhetorical pattern Is reinforced by an extended series of overstatements, each establishing a balance between pairs of conventionally unequal sources of pleasure: II portalt une ombre de merle sur le front, — et, pesee equlvalente, sur toute l'Sme, la silhouette d'une fiancee riche, pure, et denommee Juliette. Son pled etait attaque par un chatoulllement exquls, -- et 11 descen- dalt de Guizot. Sa main couvait un chardon ... et 11 avalt une Hispano Suiza, (pp. 9-10) When the series of comparisons might become monotonous a problem occurs which Gerard finds difficult to solve. Two birds pass over, for which he is unable to find an equivalent: 9 Juliette au pays des hommes, pp. 9-10. 107 Puis flamberent des eclairs de bonheur trop fulgurants pour susciter leur equivalent dans un autre domaine de la jole: un martin-pScheur, un autre martin-pgcheur, olseaux intraduisibles. (pp. 10-11) Later as Gerard becomes more fully awake, the struc ture of the comparison is reversed and he balances the "big things" in his immediate surroundings against the "little things" in his life: Puis, troisieme stade du reveil, l'equilibre s'ltablit au contraire entre les merveilles de la nature et les avantages secondaires de sa vie courante: il avait a sa droite le soleil couchant, et k sa gauche un fond de bouteille d*absinthe; il possedait l’lte ... et 11 possedait aussi, dans la faible mesure evidemment ou les objets nous appartiennent, un moulinet Graham pour les truites. ... (p. 11) One is reminded here of the prolonged and Intricate games of psychological classification which were important to seventeenth century preciosity. As a favorite pastime the habitues of the precieux salons engaged in the verbal separating of emotions into categories. Giraudoux takes obvious pleasure in prolonging and varying this witty and unusual parallel according to the spontaneous suggestions of his imagination. Such a deliberately gratuitous style precludes any possibility that his characters adopt a fixed or conventional attitude toward nature; no note of banality is allowed to enter 108 the narrative. Even a commonplace action, like Gerard's glance at his watch, Is enhanced by the author's Imagina tion: Du geste dont le scorpion qu'agacent les enfants re- toume vers sol sa queue, enfonce en sa tSte son dard, et immole son heureuse vie de scorpion, Gerard eleva son bras gauche, l'arrondlt, porta contre ses yeux sa montre bracelet, et tua sa plus belle minute, (p. 12) Gerard's action of getting up from the grass Is also treated poetically: Il se leva. ... C'est par un effort de ce genre, vollh vlngt mille ans, qu'un de ses ancStres, tout nu et chevelu, ancStre aussl de Guizot, avalt arrache sa conscience h celle de la nature. ... (p. 13) When Juliette enters the narrative, a new use arises for the close poetic rapport with nature which had enabled the Isolated Gerard to reinterpret events In terms of a personal frame of reference. By having Juliette and Gerard express differing attitudes toward their environment, Giraudoux avoids what would normally be a direct conflict between them. Gerard, having spent a divine moment, begins to feel god-like: Les pres, l'eau fugitive, cette distribution d'amarante par le couchant h chaque arbuste figurant, donnferent soudain a Gerard ce qui ne lui etait venu jusqu'a ce jour que par la vue des grands mariages: L'orgueil de sa condition d'homme. Par un de ces calembours qui 109 articulent hypocrltement tous les traites de meta- physique, il passa de cette minute divine & rien moins qu'k sa divinlte. (p. 13) At that moment Juliette sees nature as a chaotic force and man as an insignificant insect: Juliette etait maussade, car elle venait de s'eveiller, au contraire de Gerard, avec 1'impression que notre pla- nete est encore en travail de contraction, et l'horane une sorte d'insecte. (pp. 13-14) She views her fiance as a terrestrial "provincial" by comparison with her interstellar standards: Alors qu'elle-mSme se sentait ce soir de nature inter- stellaire, elle trouvait k la parole de Gerard un timbre terrestre qui le situait aussi impitoyablement sur cette planete qu'un accent bordelais vous situe k Bordeaux. Rien de plus terrestre aussi, cet ete que les vestons a martingale. Impossible avec ce veston de loger Gerard sans scandale dans aucun de ces espaces ou elle, Parisienne du firmament, pouvait indifferemnent circu- ler. (p. 15) In this way prosaic motivations for quarrels and mis understandings are consistently replaced, or their harsh ness attenuated, by a rhetorical dialectic in which nature serves as the intermediary between antagonistic parties. Giraudoux himself accomplishes a feat similar to one which he attributed to mademoiselle de Rambouillet: Etre precieuse, ... C'est mademoiselle de Rambouillet couvrant de sa blanche main tous les mots cruels, et nous les rendant ensuite, le mot Courroux, le mot Barbare, 110 Inoffensifs comme les detectives qui changent le revolver du bandit en un revolver porte-clgares. By engaging his protagonists In such rhetorically Inspired Involvements with nature, Giraudoux gives their thoughts poetic scope and avoids a vulgar lovers' quarrel. The reasons for Juliette's dissatisfaction with her home and fiance contrast radically with convention and prepare the reader to accept the eccentric thoughts and actions which follow, such as her quest for the "scattered Juliettes," studied In Chapter II (see pp. 71-72). Perhaps the most objectionable feature which Giraudoux found In realist writing was Its tendency to depict life as hum-drum In the absence of passion and violence. Whereas the realists tended to reduce dally living to a routine succession of predetermined acts performed In stultifying surroundings Giraudoux animated nature by rhetoric, re placing monotonous descriptions with enlivened narrative. A metaphoric Interpretation of Juliette's tenseness on the eve of her departure for Paris forms the basis for an entertaining, original segment of narrative. The countryside and the sky, drawn taut like a bow, eject ^Suzanne et le Paclflque, p. 133. Ill sounds which strike Juliette's heart like arrows: Tous les diambtres entre les constellations etaient ... cette nuit-lk tendus k craquer. La route aussi etait tendue d'Aigueperse k Randan, et tout chariot, toute bicyclette qui s'y risquait, y resonnait, y gresillait, attaquait le coeur.H In a supreme development of the conceit, the earth becomes a bullet which causes Juliette's defeat in an imaginary duel with her environment by penetrating her heart: Une jeune fille ne peut guere soutenir au clair de lune un duel avec la terre. La plankte traverse soudain le coeur de Juliette comne une balle. (p. 25) This victory of the earth over Juliette comes too late however. She is determined to carry out her plan and leaves the next morning. A fanciful use of personification and hyperbole, simi lar to that which played such a vital role in Suzanne et le Pacifique, occurs in the narrative of Juliette's first days in Paris. Rather than describe Paris realistically Giraudoux has the city act upon Juliette: Peu voyageuse, elle n'avait pas le sentiment de con- templer Paris, mals d'etre contemplee par lui et par chacun de ses edifices. Devant chaque coupole, cheque clocher, comme devant des microscope geants, elle se ^Juliette au pays des honmes, p. 24. 112 sentait traversee et jugee par un sikcle, une vertu, et son squelette, et les parties stables de son dme etaient diffkrents pour chacun de ces radiums. ... Juliette sentait sa vie et ses secrets h vlf. (p. 45) Having become the object of such overpowering scrutiny Juliette must seek the protection of France's great men burled In the Pantheon: Elle essaya de jouer au plus fort. Comme l'alouette qui n'a d'autre recours que de se poser sur le canon du chasseur, elle alia se placer au centre m@me du Pantheon, pul8 devant le tombeau de Victor Hugo lui-m£me; elle allia une minute, pour resister h cet examen des edi- flees illu8tres, sa jeune vie inconnue aux fantdmes de tous ceux qui avaient en France repondu personnellement au createur. ... (p. 45) This rhetorically inspired rapport between persons and objects, between humans and their non-human surroundings, epitomizes Giralducian anti-realism. However, because Juliette au pays des hommes is episodic and lacking in theme, its rhetorical constructions fit no integrated pat tern and tend to strike the reader as gratuitous displays of virtuosity. In Bella and Eglantine, the two novels which he wrote in the latter part of the 1920's, Giraudoux succeeds in giving the narrative greater unity. The episodic characters appear with functions integral to the plot; the protagonists of the later books: bankers, noble men, politicians, and women in high Parisian society, 113 outwardly resemble those of realist fiction more closely than Suzanne, the castaway; Siegriod, the amnesiac; and Juliette, the runaway. At the same time these later Giral- ducian characters avoid stereotyped conduct by an intense rapport with the objects of their environment. Such a rhetorically animated relationship with nature is attributed to the nobleman Fontranges in the latter part of the novel, Bella. When Bella dies as a result of her attempt to reconcile Rebendart and Dubardeau the narrative again centers on her father, Fontranges (see appendix). Here the peculiar character of Fontranges' relationship with his son forms the basis for a new and highly para doxical development. Because of Fontranges* passionate devotion to his son, Jacques, he was hardly aware of his daughter's existence. When she dies he suddenly discovers his deep affection for her. Having constantly worn black since Jacques' death in the war, he can express his love for his daughter only by coining out of mourning: Cette meticulosite qui chez lui avait ete a peu prfes la seule expression d'un coeur tendre et delicat lui ordonnait, dans cette ceremonie, de se laver de l'ancien deuil, de changer de vdtement. ... He pouvant changer tout de suite les souliers de la messe de Jacques, les chaussettes, la chemise, il voulut du moins secouer cet aspect douloureux qui n*etait depuis quelques annees 114 que 1'uniforme aux armes de Jacques. Pour Bella, 11 modifia son attitude. 11 se redressa, 11 releva la tdte, 11 prlt un regard vif, 11 marcha d'un pas de gage. ... Sur son visage plus tendu les rides s'atte- nuferent. Des amis le trouvferent de deux ans plus jeune au cimeti&re qu'fc l'eglise. C'est qu'll avalt pris entre temps le deuil de Bella.*2 One need only recall what happened to Meursault, the A hero of L*titranger, as a result of his unconventional atti tude toward the death of his mother, in order to imagine the grim consequences such conduct might possibly evoke. However, at this point in the narrative the intensity of Fontranges' new feeling for his daughter is rhetorically expanded to include an affection for all that is feminine in nature; and by the same device Giraudoux causes nature to respond to Fontranges' devotion. In this way the author avoids any of the unpleasant occurrences which would normally result from Fontranges' eccentric behavior: On prit des blaireaux. Il (Fontranges) epargna une petite femelle en l'honneur de Bella. ... Une qualite de Bella-se gllssait dans toutes les femelles, rattes, perdrix hases, et amollissait ses bras. Une foulne le regards avec le regard de Bella. Devant des poules d'eau, des renardes, il releva son fusil. Mais il y avalt plus. Une vertu feminine gagnait la nature en- tifere. Le pare et les bois devenaient la forSt, les prfes devenaient la prairie, jusqu'au ch&teau qui s'humiliait, ^ Bella, pp. 212-213. 115 souriait, se simplifialt et dans le coeur de Fontranges devenait la maison. Cat univers qui 1*avalt jusqu'k ce jour seduit par ses attrlbuts m&les, par ses rochers, ses larges rulsseaux, ou ses yeux dlstlngualent de preference les clochers, les pins, les pics, les attrl buts mascullns, changealt peu k peu de sexe, le sedulsant par ses roches, ses rivikres, et conme k un colleglen, lui offralt des colllnes semblables k des gorges, et des ravines d*ombre, (p. 227) In the later writings Glralducian fancy often mani fests Itself In the form of frequent paradoxes. Systemati cally sustained by rhetoric, they serve to direct the action along unusual lines. When the characters appear to act normally, the eccentricity of their conduct Is guaran teed by the paradoxical quality of their motives. Nowhere Is this Important feature of the later books better Illus trated than In the romance between Eglantine and Molse In which her willingness to accept his lavish attention Is based on a paradoxical attitude toward nature, her eccen tric fear of the daylight hours: ... Eglantine, qui le soir en se couchant laissait sa porte ouverte, qui ne regardait jamais sous meubles, des que le jour se levait commeneait k eprouver ces sortes de cralntes que nous avons la nuit. ... Lorsque, aprks un sommeil profond, divise comme une joumee en epoques nettes, et peuple d’evenements tranqullles, elle se trouvait aux prises avec la joumee m&me, elle se sentait submergee d*ignorances et d'apprehensions. (pp. 79-80) Because of the exaggerated quality of her fears figlantine "only" feels safe in the company of one of 116 Europe's most powerful financiers and "all" of his riches are necessary to make her feel at ease: Prks de Molse seulement elle n*avalt plus k savoir, plus k craindre ... et cet assemblage des privileges que collectionnent d'habitude les vaniteux et les parvenus, elle l'admettait par une excessive modestie. De mSme, tout son deslr de luxe venait de son immense sentiment de faiblesse, et l'exercice parfait de cette vie humble reclamait comme condition premiere et Indispensable 1'opulence et la cel£brite de Molse. (pp. 80-81) Although Giraudoux's use of rhetorically animated nature to disengage his characters from traditional physi cal and emotional involvements remains constant throughout his career, the last three novels, Les Aventures de Jerome Bardini, Combat avec l'ange, and Choix des tilues. reflect a change in attitude concerning the relationship of man to 13 the forces of his environment. In these later applica tions of rhetoric to the novel, nature appears as fraught with contradiction and discord as the lives of human beings. A poetic and non-empirical tie continues to exist between the protagonists and their environment, but the rapport less frequently results in a discovery of harmony. Individuals must even cope with mischievous or Inscrutable 13Alberfes, pp. 291-292. 117 forces Which Intervene perversely in their lives. Never theless, as in previous novels dating from Suzanne et le Pacifioue. any direct intervention of nature in the action is brought about by an exaggeratedly literal projection of subjective impressions onto environment. The effect created is the same: the resulting ''events" are detached from their subjective origin and appear to occur inde pendently of the protagonists. In Les Aventures de Jerome Bardini. the hero, who deserts his wife and child, attributes his departure for the United States to a feeling of boredom and stifling routine. But he absolves himself of responsibility for his action by placing the blame on his environment: ... la fatallte ne cherchait pas, par le minimum de fantalsie, a retenir Jerdme Bardini dans sa vocation de receveur de l'enregistrement et de Bardini. L'angelus sonnalt. Chaque coup de cloche obliterait de seculaire cette heure qui passe pour neuve. Un rayon de soleil, le mdme, le mdme depuls des annees, tout luisant de la banalite de la lumiere du monde, charge de poussiferes dont chacune etait reconnaissable, traverse la per- sienne. ... Il ouvrit les volets. L'aube crut lui livrer la campagne. En fait, ce n*etait pas la campagne, c1etait une espfece de recitatif, de motif immuable. La campagne n'attendalt que le geste de Bardini pour reci ter, et sans faute, ce monologue.^ 14 * Les Aventures de Jerdme Bardini (Paris, 1930), p. 4. 118 Bardini'8 shift of responsibility for his departure to his environment may strike the reader as an Imaginative kind of alibi. In fact Giraudoux intends that it be taken with a high degree of literalness, despite the artifices of its construction. If we regard the ensemble of Giraudoux's later work, the major conflicts of his novels are rarely between one individual and another, but with outside forces. In the early novels his characters appeared to lead magically whimsical and independent lives detached from normal human concerns. The later protagonists engage in prolonged struggles with rhetorically animated adver saries which manifest themselves in nature. The idea of man in opposition to forces outside him self which influence his destiny is by no means original but Giraudoux, even in his treatment of the "superhuman," contradicts what is anticipated. His irrepressible origi nality is evident in the unpredictable series of confronta tions with nature which occur in Combat avec l'ange, the story of young Malena Paz's unsuccessful search for un happiness. The heroine's paradoxical quest begins after she and Jacques Brisson meet by accident as each is walking along 119 the Seine with his respective vision of the other. Her reaction at this point provides the basis for a lengthy fanciful development: fearing that she is not equal in stature to the image that Jacques has of her because she has not suffered, she decides to discard her happy love for a more heroic one. In a passage which satirizes the pro cedures of romantic literature, Giraudoux attributes to nature an awareness of her change of attitude. Nature "feels" that Malena's heroic love must have an appropriate decor and proceeds to alter itself to suit the couple's new emotions: La nature devine les coeurs pleins aussi sGrement que les aubergistes les poches pleines. En une seconde, tout fut pr£t, tout changea autour de nous, paysage et figuration; il ne resta plus rien de cette nature anodine qui etait le decor de notre amour anodin; nous vtmes le fleuve devenir lamentable, l'heure navrante. ... Au centre de Paris, il y eut jusqu'k ces bruits qu'on n'entend qu'h la campagne, un glas, un aboiement. Tout ce o|ue je m'etais jusqu'alors refuse A convoquer pour Malena, les odeurs, les ombres, les lumieres, tout l'accessoire des passions de haut luxe etait accouru. As soon as nature is given the capacity to react in this way to the actions of the characters, it may actively intervene at any moment in their affairs, creating a situation in which they appear to be contending with Combat avec l'ange, p. 73. 120 cosmic forces. In the Giralducian world, characters do not necessarily need extraordinary Intelligence or sensitivity to become aware of this Interference In their lives. Such Is the case with Malena's servant, Amparo. When Malena decides that she must become acquainted with suffering and unhappiness, she begins to invite a num ber of infirm and impoverished individuals to her sumptuous apartment. Word of her actions spreads among the city's derelicts who soon besiege the building, forcing Amparo to become her mistress's defender. Her task is rendered more difficult by the fact that elements of nature participate in the siege: Amparo voyait avec apprehension Malena preter de la fen&tre ses cheveux au vent. Jusqu'h ce jour, jamais le vent n'avait ose toucher k cette coiffure impeccable. Voilh qu'elle n'£tait plus sfire ni du soleil, ni de la lune, ni de la nult. ... II n'y avait plus k en douter, c'etait la lutte d'Amparo contre la nature qui commen- cait. ... Des monuments, Amparo attendait beaucoup pour lutter contre les arbres et les astres. En fait, 11 s'agissait simplement de replacer tous les objets du monde h leur ancienne place, et Madame, dans son ancien emploi du temps, de s'arranger pour que le soleil, pour Malena, se couchdt sur l'Arc de Triomphe, que la lune se levdt sur le Bois, que les orages eclatassent pendant le the au Ritz. (pp. 145-147) Rhetorically animated nature again complicates the action when Malena decides she must sacrifice Jacques to a woman more heroic than herself. She expects to be 121 ennobled by her decision but nature reacts to It by treat ing her disdainfully: Entre des arbres ... qui devenaient pour elle des geants, devant une place de la Concorde decuplee, une Tour Eiffel dont le drapeau se perdait dans les nuages, Malena etait decue de se sentir, non pas grandie, mais rape- tissee par son sacrifice. ... L'univers l'avalt eue comme on dit. Il l'avait eue comme l'fitat pendant la guerre, avalt eu ceux qui lui avalent donne leur or. II avalt implore avec bassesse le sacrifice de Malena pour l'en- fouir dans une cave. ... II avalt le lingot, et inutile maintenant de feindre pour elle. (pp. 229-230) Because Malena is upset by nature's attitude, she tries to delay her sacrifice, causing a paradoxical plot development. In order to justify remaining with Jacques she tries to discover his faults, thereby making herself appear less unworthy. On this occasion Jacques proves to be faultless, so Malena has no choice but to give him up. Still she manages one last delay when a major war scare occurs. She hopes that by being caught up in such a crisis she will acquire the stature she seeks. She is "counting on" Paris to "naturalize" her and ally her to its cause, but Paris "callously refuses" to do so: Elle comptait ... sur Paris. Elle esp£rait que cette ville, qu'elle avait si longtemps habitee et aimee, n'allait tout de meme pas la releguer au rang d'etran- gere. Mais elle se trompait. La naturalisation qu'elle cherchait dans ses promenades a travers Paris lui etait a chaque minute cruellement refusee. Paris se degageait 122 de son affection et de son intimite. Tout ce qui etait style, statualre, architecture decllnalt soudaln toute parente avec elle, et Notre-Dame elle-m£me, et Saint- Eustache ... n'etaient plus que des refus ou des denega tions. ... Jusqu'au reverbere devant sa porte ... qui par je ne sals quelle disposition nouvelle de sa fonte et de son electrlclte, lui denlalt toute participation a l'aventure et h l'honneur promls depuls quelques jours aux reverbferes parlslens. (pp. 258-259) Here as elsewhere In the novels of Giraudoux this unusual focus of attention on environment Is made possible by presenting commonly used hyperbolic and anthropomorphic statements In such a way that the reader accepts them as literal. A traveler, for instance, who unsuccessfully attempts to blend with a foreign environment could easily make the statement, "Paris is an unfriendly city." How ever, the "unfriendliness" attributed to the city cannot be conceived of as deliberately or consciously motivated. Rather it is an emphatic means of expressing resentment at people's indifference to the traveler. Malena's accusation of Paris involves this kind of personification and hyper bole, exploited literally by Giraudoux to attribute conscious hostility to the objects of her environment. The entire character of the narrative is altered by this device. Instead of depicting the actions and feelings of a melancholy girl, the author projects her mood onto 123 her environment. The disturbed heroine's discontent Is then no longer her own, but Is attributed to the antagonism of the objects around her. Consequently the heroine appears to be contending with an actively hostile environ ment which Is responsible In a large measure for her un happiness. Since the resulting rapport with nature depends upon rhetorical Inspiration It Is subject to change at the author's slightest whim. Malena experiences such a com pletely unexpected reversal of fortune In the climax of Combat avec l'ange. Having finally decided to sacrifice Jacques to a formidable socialite friend named Gladys, she sends them away for a weekend In the country, planning In the meantime to mar her reputation by going openly to a notorious hdtel de passe with a disreputable playboy com patriot. However, before she is able to carry out her plans Jacques rescues her as a result of a warning from a totally unexpected and fanciful source: A toad In the garden of the country hotel urgently signals him that Malena is in danger: C'etait bien du chant de crapaud, de cette voyelle entre toutes les voyelles, que me venait cette angoisse et en m£me temps cette douceur. II heurtait la nuit comme 124 le doigt heurte la vitre, pour appeler l'humaln. ... J*avals trouve. Je tenais lk le slgne que me faisalt la nult. II aufflsalt malntenant de la traduire. ... Le crl resonnait avec l'ent&tement de 1*avertIsaeur auto mat! que, pendant qu'on cambriole et qu'on tue. ... J'avals trouve! ... Tout en Malena etalt attelnt par chacune des voyelles veloutees comae par une balle ... j'en etais arrive k souhalter que le crapaud se tOt; ... male 11 contlnuait, impassible. ... Comae un signal qul continue k resonner une £ols qu'on l'a d£clanche, 11 contlnuait ... k appeler k l'alde pour Mallna. (pp. 267-269) The Intervention o£ a toad embodying so mechanically precise a signaling system, In addition to Its startling Incongruity as a climactic feature of the novel, has the effect of shifting the final responsibility for Malena's rescue from Jacques to an unknown and Infinitely perverse entity. The drame d'adultkre, which was so prominent in both the theater and the novel in France at the turn of the century, was one of the realist plots which Giraudoux sought to transform by means of rhetorical techniques. It is a fact of the utmost significance that not one serious confrontation of human rivals exists in the entire col lection of Giraudoux'8 novels. Choix des filues perhaps represents Giraudoux's supreme feat in transcending the conventional triangle of late nineteenth century fiction. 125 In this story the traditional situation involving a woman who is unfaithful to her husband is totally transformed by a rhetorical animation of nature. It would be difficult to conceive of actions more opposed to conventional scenes of adultery than those of Edmee when she deceives her husband by going for a walk in the local park. There Edmee suddenly becomes aware that a profound change has taken place in her relationship to her environment. Her daughter, who accompanies her, is consciously an accomplice in the betrayal (see Chapter II, p. 63). The park becomes the third member of a triangle involving Edmee and her husband. Typically, Giraudoux transforms this sequence of events by making objects of Edmee's environment appear to instigate her actions rather than reflect her mood. She therefore surrenders to the park as she would to another human being: Elle abandonnait des armes, elle ne savait lesquelles. Un long siege avait eu lieu, par elle ne savait quels ennemis; quels amis plutdt, et aujourd'hui elle avait capitule! Ce qu'elle leur donnait, elle l'ignorait encore. Mais il y avait fort h presumer que c'etait elle-mSme. Tons ces objets, ces £tres avec lesquels elle s'etait refusee inconsciemment jusqu'ici h Stre familiere etaient devenus des vainqueurs. Ils l'avaient roulee dans le gravier du jardin, ils l'avaient accablee de 1'ombre du sapin, du frisson des bambous, et ils l'avaient vaincue. Le soleil en etait. Les nuages en etaient: il en serait fait desormais selon leur volonte. 126 Tout a 1'heure, quand la nuit serait venue, la lune en serait, les etoiles: car le soleil avait aussl combattu a leur compte.16 Later the extraordinarily literal character of Edmee's liaison is given complete corroboration by the fact that her husband, Pierre, goes to investigate the park, which he considers a dangerous rival: Assis sur un banc, le banc qui lui avait semble avoir ete celui d'Edmee, c'est une explication qu'il (Pierre) demandait k ce rival heureux. L*autre repondait. Pierre sentait une reponse generale, cjul etait le beau temps, la paresse, et cent reponses de detail, qui etaient les arbres, les parterres. ... Mais Pierre ne comprenait pas. II s'attendait k voir un pare, k de la noblesse, k de l'elolgnement, et a travers chaque branche on pouvait apercevoir les reclames de la rue. ... Il pensait qu'Edmee avait ete seduite par quelque promontolre au- dessus de la ville, ... et il voyait un grand square, seulement un grand square anonyme. Elle 1'avait trompe avec un square anonyme. (p. 92) In the later novels Giraudoux picturesquely represents the intervention of fate or supernatural forces in the lives of his characters by rhetorically stylizing their relationships with palpable objects. In reality the park is the first in a series of temptations created by a hob goblin called the Abalstitiel who has selected Edmee to be his companion. Edmee senses that the Abalstitiel has ^Choix des tilues, p. 61. 127 his eye on her, so to speak, and tries to act in a manner which will not draw his attention. She is unsuccessful in thwarting her fate, however. When a wealthy couple invites Edmee and her husband for a sojourn, Pierre is retained by professional obligations but insists that his wife and daughter go alone. On the eve of their departure the scene occurs between Edmee and the objects of her household which was presented as a model for the first type of Giralducian narrative in Chapter I (see pp. 33-35). For several years Edmee is protected from her super natural pursuer by her daughter. They live unmolested by the hobgoblin until there is a surprise break in her rela tions with Claudie. Edmee then succumbs to the Abalsti tiel. For a time she lives in a "state of grace" as his "elected one." But the Abalstitiel proves to be even more fickle than the stereotyped seducers of mundane fiction. After a while he drops Edmee and turns his attention to her daughter. When the Abalstitiel leaves Edmee, this final ironic twist of the plot is largely executed through the rhetorical animation of Edmee's surroundings. After a lengthy series of importunities by the household objects she has distained for so long, Edmee realizes that she 128 has been abandoned by her demon lover and returns wistfully to her husband: ... 11 ne lul restalt rlen qu'un coeur remls k neuf pour 1*existence bourgeoise, tin coeur k domestlque, k pikge k rats, k lectures de romans. ... On lul rendalt ses bagages, tout ce qu'elle avait consigne ... k 1'entree de cette predilection, les grands hommes, la muslque, la nature. ... On lul rendalt Pierre, Jacques. ... On les lul rendalt avec mauvaise fol, avec les raisons alleguees dans les ruptures les plus vlles: tu as ete d'abord k un autre, tu etals mere de famllle! ... Et comme s'11 s'etait agl surtout de son corps dans cette liaison lrreelle, ... on lul rendalt un corps ou elle sentalt tout d'un coup regner les devoirs et les exigences. Ses dolgts etaient terrlblement dolgts, sa poltrlne terrlble- ment poltrlne, ses ortells, ses narlnes terrlblement ortells et narlnes. ... L'autre, pour la placer plus facilement, la changealt en femme, en ce qu'il croyalt une femme, (p. 265) In the ensemble of Giraudoux's novels a startling variety of rhetorical patterns Is Imposed upon nature. Because of the resulting rapport between humans and the objects of their environment the latter are often directly Involved In the plot at critical junctures. At any moment the focus of attention may be turned from actions Involving Individuals and centered upon their relationship to the objects around them. This device has the curious effect of freeing the actions of his characters from purely human or pragmatic criteria and making them appear related to a cosmic or poetic order. What Giraudoux does do, in effect, is to subject both the characters and environment of his novels to an all pervading narrative technique based on the unique primacy of rhetoric as a determinant of action. CHAPTER IV NARRATIVE DERIVED FROM RESTRICTIVELY PATTERNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR The preceding chapter was devoted to a study of the unique way in which Giraudoux employs rhetorical devices to engage animals, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena directly in the action of the novel. These devices are used in a similar manner to establish patterns of human behavior which are distinct from those one encounters in conventional fiction. Since hyperbole is frequently used alone as a means of creating unusual or deliberately paradoxical patterns of behavior, it is convenient to study some of its applica tions to human conduct as a special category of narrative in this chapter. A majority of these examples of its use will be taken from the earlier novels and from passages dealing with secondary and minor characters, because it is here that hyperbole can best be viewed in isolation. 130 131 Chapter V will deal with overstatement as It Is used In conjunction with other rhetorical devices to develop the more complex characterizations o£ the later novels. This special category of narrative based upon hyper bole or overstatement was Illustrated In Chapter I by the analysis of Fontranges' rhetorically established genealogy and Its Influence upon his behavior. Earlier examples of Its use In Simon le pathetlque were also studied In the first and second chapters. Because of the protagonist's Isolation In Suzanne et le Paclflque, Giraudoux's first completely stylized novel, his reliance on this type of narrative Is less evident there. The action Is largely derived from the fanciful rapport between Suzanne and her environment. However, In the two novels which followed, Siegfried et le Limousin, and Juliette au pays des homaes, hyperbolically engendered behavior patterns are particularly prominent. In Siegfried et le Limousin a young Frenchman dis covers that his closest friend, Jacques Forestier, believed to have been killed in the war, is living in Germany. Having lost his French identity through amnesia, Forestier has become a politically prominent figure in postwar Germany under the name of Siegfried von Kleist. The main action of the novel concerns the efforts of the narrator, who is only referred to as Jean, to extricate his friend from his new life and bring him back to France. However, the plot almost immediately evolves into a series of epi sodes describing the singular behavior of the people whom the narrator contacts in his effort to help his friend re cover his former identity. At times these elaborate digressions remind one of the prose technique of eighteenth century novelists, who so often lapsed from the main thread of the plot to recount the background of secondary charac ters encountered by the protagonist in the course of his adventures. The actions of two of the most prominent secondary characters in Siegfried et le Limousin. Count von Zelten and Genevibve Prat, illustrate such elaborate plot digres sions based on hyperbole. In Paris the narrator meets the Count, a German friend whom he has not seen since the out break of the war. Though Zelten does have important in formation concerning Siegfried von Kleist, whom the nar rator suspects to be his missing friend, Jacques Forestier, the quest for Forestier gives way to a lengthy and boldly 133 fanciful segment of narrative concerning the eccentricities of the Count. As seen by the narrator, Zelten's life con** sists of a series of acts exemplifying German Romanticism in its most extreme form. In the passage which follows, the adverbs and adjectives which typify this construction have been underlined to emphasize their restrictive charac ter: Zelten avait tous ces defauts superbes et voyants dont on ornait chez nous les Allemands jusqu'en 1870, ... il avait des cheveux blonds en boucles, il sacrifiait cheque minute de sa vie k des chimkres, il descendait habille dans les bassins pour poser la main sur le jet d'eau ou remettre sous la bonne aile le bee du cygne endormi: ... quand par exemple 11 devint sportif, tous les gestes qu'on accomplit nu et sans pensee se trouvkrent chez lui amalgames aux actes qui commandent le plus de v€tements et de devotion: il ne se baignait dans le Rhin qu'en plongeant du pont d’ou Schumann s'etait jete; 11 sautait k cheval le mur dont etait tombe Beethoven dans la chute qui causa, dit-on, sa surdite. . . . • * ■ Overstatement is equally prominent in a second pic turesque description which more directly affects Zelten's role in the novel. When Zelten announces that he is leaving for Munich on a major revolutionary enterprise, his explanation of this action is entirely fanciful: — ... Je pars pour Munich. Je pars a cause d'une phrase qui m'obskde. Cette phrase, e'est tout ce que ^Siegfried et le Limousin, pp. 22-23. 134 je sais encore de mes projets. Je me suls achemine vers tous les actes Importants de ma vie, ... tout simplement en me repetant une annee, six mois k l'avance la mSme formule, venue d'ailleurs par hasard k mon esprit. ... Je ne redoutais rien plus, enfant, que desobelr k mon grand-pkre, mais si je me repetais trois jours de suite: "J'ai dit zut k mon grand-pkre," j'arrivals ineluctable- ment et sans remords k ce mefait. ... Ainsi dans mon existence j'ai prononce six mois innocemment la phrase: "J'ai trorape ma femne," puis six autres mois j'ai dit: "Je trompe ma femme avec ma belle-soeur," et ces phrases endormaient en moi tout sursaut et tout jugement. ... Sache seulement que la phrase que je porte en ce moment est la suivante: "Je veux mourir pour la vraie Alle- magne. ..." (pp. 43-44) Later in the novel when the narrator goes to Munich to find out if Siegfried is his friend Forestier, he learns that Zelten is organizing a revolution. On this occasion yet a third eccentricity is attributed to Zelten. The police have been warned of his plan but no one expects a coup d'etat until Zelten's birthday. It is known that he "always" waits until that occasion to attempt any major action: On contlnuait k craindre un complot. ... Les inquietudes n'etaient pas encore si vives, car Zelten remettait tou jour s les grandes entreprises au 2 juin, jour anni- versaire de sa naissance, et le 2 juin prochain risquait d'Stre charge car. ... Zelten avait ce jour-lk k com- mencer son livre sur 1'Orlent-Occident, k engendrer enfin un fils, et k faire plomber cinq dents. (pp. 83-84) These segments of narrative in which Zelten's eccen tricities are recounted illustrate Giraudoux's penchant for subjecting his secondary characters to rigid patterns of behavior derived from overstatement. The elaborate constructions which result often have little to do with the main plot. Despite the lengthy passages devoted to Zelten in Siegfried et le Limousin, he remains curiously detached from the central action. In the course of the novel the reader is informed that he has acquired a false Canadian passport for the narrator. Meanwhile he is busy organizing a major insurrection, but no details concerning these activities enter the narrative. Even when the narrator surprises Zelten in a mysterious meeting with Siegfried's nurse, the encounter merely gives Zelten an opportunity to explain how he and the narrator became such close friends. The resulting passage depends heavily upon a literal use of hyperbole: Because of a prolonged illness Zelten was con fined to the family estate during his childhood and adoles cence. Consequently the "only" people he met during his youth were elderly servants and aged relatives. This arbitrary pattern is reinforced by the further addition of coincidental details: the statues on the estate represent ing youthful personages were weather-beaten and a nearby pavilion had been converted into a municipal rest home: 136 Tu sals comment m'eleva mon grand-pfere. Je vlvals etendu, k cause de ma coxalgle, et de ma nalssance au jour de la guerlson je n’ai apercu un jeune visage. ... Ce n'etait pas que mon grand-p&re l’eflt voulu, mais le precepteur, la cuisini&re, les valets etaient de son dge, et l'on ecartait tout enfant pour que je ne souf- frisse pas de sa vue. On ne me promenalt que dans le pare, ou les statues de personnes que mon mattre me disalt jeunes, Proserpine, la relne Louise, offralent une tSte sans nez et decreplte, — et jusqu'au pavilion du Grand £lecteur, convert1 lul aussl, mala par la munlci- pallte, en aslle de vlelllards. SI blen que les elements de la beaute humalne etaient pour mol des yeux uses et laves, une volx algre et sourde, les cheveux blancs et le craquement des genoux. (p. 114) Zelten then recounts that when he was cured at the age of eighteen he Immediately went to a masked ball In Munich. In his Impatience to see a youthful face he unmasked the person nearest to him. This person happened to be the nar rator, who was a visiting student of German at the Univer sity of Munich. Thereafter the narrator personifies youth for Zelten and they become lifelong friends. The rhetorically stylized quality of the narrator’s relationship with Zelten is repeated in his associations with the principal feminine characters of the novel, whose eccentricities also create episodes which deviate sharply from the main thread of the narrative. Only once in the course of the narrative does Giraudoux exploit the fact that the first of these, Genevieve Prat, had been married 137 to Zelten before the war. It is made known to the reader that the two had arranged a meeting, while Zelten was In Paris, but no consequences ensue from It except for a letter containing Information on Siegfried which Genevlbve transmits from Zelten to the narrator. Though Genevieve figures quite prominently In the action when she goes to Munich In the latter part of the novel, she never en* counters Zelten there. Instead, the phases of the narra tive related to her, like those concerning Zelten, are largely devoted to eccentric behavior patterns based on literally Interpreted over-statements. When Genevlfeve meets the narrator she Is the bearer of Zelten's letter containing Important Information regarding the missing Forestier, however their conversation consists almost entirely of whimsical digressions on the peculiar nature of her love affairs. Throughout her youth Gene vieve's great problem had been that she could "never" find an eligible man her own age. The men she lived with were either too young or too old: --Avant Zelten, j'avals eu des amis, mais qui alter- naient tous dans cet ordre: un homme mQr, un tout jeune homme, un homme mQr, un tout jeune homme. Jamais un homme de mon dge. Tous les dix-huit mois, j'etais assuree de regagner la barbe blanche des collectlonneurs 138 d'Outamaro et de Van Goyen, pour retomber, au bout de dix-huit mois, & 1'extreme jeunesse et aider mon ami h preparer son bachot. (p. 52) Here again we see how Giraudoux *s unique use of over statement leads the reader to accept his characters' unusual actions. No psychological explanation is given as the cause of Genevieve's particular problem. On the con trary, everything related about her personality elsewhere in the novel seems to indicate that she possesses an extremely even disposition. The rhetorical pattern appears to have been imposed upon Genevieve's conduct entirely for the sake of novelty, and to prepare the reader to accept without surprise her marriage to Zelten simply because both have the same birthday: Vous pensez de quel coeur j'ai decide d'habiter avec Zelten: il etait ne le mSme jour que mol, nous n'avions qu'un anniversaire k nous deux. Il m'a suffi de le voir sans vetaments pour deviner que tous les grands evenements qui eprouvent l'enfance, la mort de Bismarck, la mort de Jules Ferry, la visite k Tanger, Dreyfus et 1'exposition des Munichois, nous les avions ressentis au mSme jour de notre vie. Je crois seulement qu'il etait du matin, moi du soir, mats tous ces mots: h3tres, so lei 1, topinambours, t ref les incamat, qui me causaient avec les autres un malaise terrible, je les sentais calmes en moi aupres de lui. (p. 53) This use of overstatement to stylize behavior does have the effect of completely freeing Giraudoux's charac ters from conventionally motivated actions. But when their 139 behavior Is as rigidly controlled as It Is In Siegfried et le Limousin, the novel becomes what Albert Thlbaudet so aptly described as svstematique A rebours.^ So much of Siegfried et le Limousin Is devoted to description of the habits of minor characters who conform to precisely formulated patterns of behavior that the nar rative consists mainly of a sequence of digressions based upon Individual eccentricities. A typical example of this gratuitous type of digression arises when the narrator resorts to the Influence of Prince Heinrich von Sachsen Altdorf, an old friend who Is a prominent member of the German nobility, In order to gain entrance to Siegfried's private villa. The Prince's connection to the main plot Is slight; nevertheless a lengthy passage Is devoted to a rhetorically Initiated description of his characteristic habits and those of his family: Le prince, ... etait ne le m@rne mois que l'empereur, et avait etudle en m&me temps que lul A Bonn. ... Depuls, ... chacun des actes de Guillaume etait reprodult ou devance dans la semalne ou l'annee par un acte cor- respondant du prince, qui etait, aux yeux de la vraie Allemagne le desaveu. Le mois ou Guillaume eut epouse cette lmperatrlce peu radleuse, on annonpa les flan- callles d*Heinrich avec Annette Blensen, fille du 2 Reflexions (Paris, 1938), p. 84. 140 romancier, relne de beaute du Schleswig, et la meilleure nageuse du continent, ou plutdt des mers envlronnantes. Ses robes, mSme de cour, etaient conpues de telle sorte qu'elle pflt se lalsser tomber en n'luporte quelle clrconstance dans la rlvlbre, l'etang ou 1*avenue d'eau sur les bords desquels on passalt, y dlsparalssalt comme une ondlne, et seul Roosevelt, pendant son sejour b la cour Imperials, essaya de la sulvre. ... Pour chaque prince adlpeux et terrestre que Guillaume engendralt, Heinrich ajoutalt b sa llgnee un nouveau baron de Alt- dorf, honnSte, candlde, qui, dbs qu'on put voler, se lalssalt tomber dans l'alr conme sa mbre dans l'eau. ... (pp. 85-86) Giraudoux's use of overstatement, which results In rigidly stylized human conduct, Is Ideally suited to a satire of the proverbial German mania for precision; the manner In which Forestier has been cared for as an amnesia victim Is an Imaginative parody of their obsession with closely regulated behavior and exact specification of design: ... je venals de lire aussl la clrculalre du medecln- major de Stralsund sur 1'Inflrmlbre-type que dolt trouver b son chevet le soldat allemand amneslque dont la cons cience s'£vellle. ... Pas de brunettes, pas de Lorraines rleuses, ecrivalt le major-chef Schlffl, mals 1'Image m£me de la patrle. Il est strlctement prescrlt qu'elle porte ses cheveux en longues nattes blondes et si pos sible jusqu'b la chevllle, que sa poltrlne solt haut placee et qu'elle pulsse l'effleurer en se courbant du menton, que son telnt solt de nelge, de sang, avec un mllllbme de safran, et telle d'allleurs que le type par- falt cl-contre, dont neuf photographies dans 1'annexe reprodulsent les prlnclpales poses reservees aux regards du blesse. (p. 88) 141 Later, when the narrator observes Forestier's nurse her description and behavior exactly follow the specifica tions of the manual (pp. 88-89). The inability of Giraudoux to fit his secondary charac ters into the continuity of the main plot because of the predominance of overstatement in the formation of their behavior is also strongly apparent in his fourth novel, Juliette au pays des hommes. In the opening chapter he immediately absolves his young heroine from any conven tional family ties. She has just one close relative, an uncle, whom the author capriciously announces he will treat in a summary fashion. The uncle has "only one" distin guishing trait, his passion for erecting statues to illus trious traitors: ... il [Juliette's uncle] n'avait d'autre originalite que son affection pour les traitres celebres. II leur avait reserve son pare. La plupart des allies en etaient denommees d'aprfes ceux qui ont trahi avec quel- que eclat le devoir, la patrle, la religion, et chaque annee il llevait dans quelque rond-point, choisi au prix de gros sur le catalogue d'un marbrier funeraire, un monument, (pp. 20-21) Once established this pattern can be extended accord ing to the suggestions of Giraudoux's prolific imagination: 3 Juliette au pays des hommes, p. 19. 142 A drolte du banc des becasses c'etait, par exemple, la stkle brisee de Jean de Ligny, qui livra Jeanne aux Anglais. ... Sur l'tle, entre les ifs, le belier egyptien dedie au Connetable de Bourbon, le plus res- pecte et le plus choye, car il £tait originaire du pays ... au lieu des dmes incolores des reprouves, volaient des faisans, que l'oncle felicitait tout haut d*avoir trahi les Indes, des paons, infidkles k la Perse, et plusieurs fois l'an l'oncle de Juliette, president de philharmonique, y faisait jouer des polkas et mazurkas de sa composition intitulees Waterloo ou Azincourt. ... Car les defaites etaient pour lui des trahisons du sort. ... (pp. 21-22) The way in which such rhetorically engendered idio s y n c r a s i e s can lead to singular reactions on the part of Giralducian characters is illustrated later in the narra tive when Juliette visits the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. There she is astonished to find that statues can be erected to people other than traitors; seeing a monument dedicated to a poet is a unique experience for her: Ce n'£tait pas lago, ce n'etait pas Ganelon, c'etait Theodore de Banville. Elle se leva. Elle caressa le premier visage de pierre qui personnifiait pour elle une vertu. ... La race des hommes de pierre etait soudain regeneree. La race des hommes de chair y gagna. Chaque §tre vivant assis ou debout sur la terrasse parut un petit monument eleve k lui-m&ne. (pp. 47-48) There is no further mention in the novel of the effects of the uncle's eccentricities on Juliette. But the ensuing episodes which concern Juliette's adventures in Paris are primarily a sequence of confrontations with individuals whose actions are determined by overstatement. These encounters again illustrate Giraudoux's tendency to impose symmetrical schemata on his characters' conduct. Such patterns are often built around a fancifully scien** tific or academic interest in a particular class of objects which has been exaggerated to the point of mania. The ex clusive interest and fixed behavior pattern related to it then form the basis for an eccentric manner of acting which replaces accidental happenings or conventionally motivated conduct as material for the narrative. In fact early in the novel Juliette herself provides an excellent example of restrictively patterned behavior. As was demonstrated previously, she has come to Paris in order to find the scattered young "Juliettes" given to the men with whom she was infatuated as an adolescent. The first of these was a trainer of exotic animals. Juliette's interest in him led to a preoccupation with rare fauna that affected her behavior throughout adolescence: Tel etait le hasard qui avait lie Juliette, plus que toute autre jeune fille, aux animaux feroces. Tout le long de ses etudes secondaires, h cause de Rodrigue, le tigre, le jaguar avaient trotte comme les animaux de Perrault le long de ses etudes primaires. Les pre mieres lemons d'art, ... servirent seulement pour elle h embellir, h fortifier dans son imagination les formes, 144 les fourrures et les gri£fes des fauves. Toute la nourriture genereuse que lul donnalt la pension Formot profitalt k une menagerie immense. Toute cette pression de science qui elargit aux yeux des elkves Balzac, Hugo, et Napoleon, pour elle gonflait k eclater les onces de Neron et le lion d'Androclks. (pp. 34-35) Despite the intensity of Juliette's infatuation for the animal trainer, she has never discovered his family name. Upon arriving in Paris she is advised to go to the £cole Normale Superieure to gain information about his identity and whereabouts. In the course of her search she becomes involved with an assistant in natural science. He flirts with her in a unique manner by attempting to divert her interest from the animal kingdom to the realm of vegetation. In this episode Giraudoux fancifully, and with deliberate incongruity, uses erudition to detach his characters from conventional conduct: Juliette lui posa sa question sur les eleveurs d'animaux bizarres, mais il essaya de la detourner vers le regne vegetal, feignant d*entendre par animaux bizarres les animaux les moins mobiles, comme le brochet ou l'huitre, et, par analogie, les vegetaux migrateurs. C'est ainsi, lors de 1'agregation, que son maitre 1'avait lui-mime detoume de la zoologie vers la botanique, et il tenta de convaincre Juliette. ... (pp. 41-42) Juliette is impressed enough with the assistant to enter his name in her notebook, but she is still determined to find the animal trainer. Giraudoux adds humor to the 145 passage by giving her departure an exaggerated anthro pological Interpretation: Juliette se leva, non sans la pensee qu'il serait doux, dans une dizaine d'annees, de rechercher, de retrouver ce jeune et charmant botaniste. Elle nota son nom sur le carnet, s'arracha au petit jardin avec 1'energie du premier animal quand il cessa d'dtre plante, et partit. (P. 44) Next Juliette goes to la Societe d'acclimatation where she meets three elderly naturalists who proceed to inform her with quixotic spontaneity of why they have failed in life. Each of their summaries is based on overstatement: — J'ai manque ma vie par ma faute, avoua M. By. Il m'etit suffi peut-Stre, pour 3tre heureux, de consulter les statistlques. Mais avec une femme anemique, j'ai accepte un poste dans le departement ou meurent le plus de pulmonalre8. Avec un fils audacieux, j'ai solicite mon changement pour le departement ou l'on compte le plus d'accidents de montagne. ... La statistique m'a vaincu. — J'ai manque ma vie, dit M. Guillet, parce que je n'ai jamais traite un seul £tre au monde comme il l'aurait fallu. J'ai traite par exemple les hoimnes comne on traite les femmes, et inversement. ... J'ai traite les chats comme on doit traiter les chiens. ... J'ai fait le malheur de ma vie. ... Celui qui ne sait pas se conduire exactement vis-k-vis de chaque espfece est perdu. — Dans les repertoires des vies de heros depuis saint Louis, dit h . son tour M. Du Loas, je crois que les Loas, entre toutes les families de France, revendiquent le plus fort pourcentage. Mais ils ne peuvent etre que heros. Des qu'un Loas admet un rythme moins rapide, ou une conception moins tendue de 1*existence, il doit se rendre au Mont de Piete et donner des lemons. ... L'in- tens ite d'honneur, de temerite, de vertu qu'il m'a fallu porter et maintenlr au rouge pendant trois mois, simplement pour passer mon baccalaureat, m'a decourage pour toujours. (pp. 55-56) 146 Such a sequence of gratuitous eccentricities combined with the novel's total lack of continuity lead one to suspect that the title In all likelihood was Intended as a paraphrase of Alice In Wonderland as It appears In French: Alice au pays des mervellles; the Implication being that the world of men Is every bit as odd as that of the looking glass. The novel evolves almost entirely out of the bizarre behavior of the Individuals whom Juliette en counters In the course of her attempt to seek out the people she has noted down In her adolescent diary. The only connection the naturalists have with the main plot Is the Information they provide to end Juliette's search for the animal trainer: they sadly Inform her that he recently died from a snake bite In the jungles of Brazil. The solemnity of this moment Is attenuated by a humorously metaphoric exaggeration of the repercussions of this event in Juliette's life. From that moment on, the fauna of the world are "cast out" of her mind: ... C'est ainsi que la faune du monde fut ecartee de la vie de Juliette. C'est ainsi que par la mort de Rodrigue, — de m&me que l'ami in time de Citroen, volt l'univers sillonne, non plus de messages amicaux, mais de tacots indifferents, — s'Iteignirent en l'dme de Juliette toutes ces parentes qu'elle croyalt avoir avec les bStes. (p. 64) 147 Giraudoux's stylization of his characters' behavior by means of literally interpreted overstatement occurs in its most extreme form in the next episode of Juliette's adventures. One of the men to whom the heroine had given a "Juliette" was a handsome convalescent whom she glimpsed briefly during a visit to a hospital. Her notebook con tains the following cryptic account regarding the en counter: "18 octobre 1914. Passe avec tante salle 72 hopital 145. Dans lit 41 le plus beau blesse connu. ... Donne ma main sans qu'il s'en doutdt. Pas une dent ne manque. Temperature 39°, 9. Norn: Emmanuel Ratie. Veritable heros, dit major & tante, mais le plus vicieux, ajoutet- il tout bas, de la ville la plus riche en vices, de Chantilly. ..." (p. 72) Juliette is tempted to discover the sin of which Emmanuel Ratie is guilty. Thinking that perhaps she can help him, she locates his address in Chantilly and goes to visit him. Everyone in Emmanuel Ratie'8 household appears to be under a mysteriously malignant spell, and ths moment Juliette meets Ratie himself, she understands the nature of his sin, which is pride. Through rigid, hyperbolic styli zation all his thoughts and actions reflect his egotism: ... Emmanuel resta un instant immobile avant de des- cendre et de venir vers Juliette. II avait un tel mepris pour le sens observateur ou le jugement des 148 hommes, qu'aprks chacun de ses gestes 11 lalssalt im Intervalle vide qui leur permit de la contempler. ... II ralentlssalt done sa vie k peu prks d'une moltie. Chacune de ses joumees comprenait, alternant avec douze heures de vie courante, douze heures d'orgueil physique absolu. ... A chacune de ses pensees aussl 11 ajoutait cette seconde de satisfaction, de beatitude, et chacune etait separee de 1*autre par un abtme de volupte. Le spectacle de cette vie etait aussi penible k suivre que celul d'un cardiaque dont saute une pulsation sur deux, (pp. 86-87) The episode derived from Ratie's idiosyncrasies is perhaps the best example of Glraudoux's tendency in his early novels to make the actions of his secondary charac ters evolve primarily from restrictive rhetorical patterns. In the eleven pages of narrative stemming from Juliette's encounter with Emmanuel Ratie only one paragraph has a bearing on his relationship to her, and even this contains a manifestation of his pride. Ratie mistakes Juliette for a girl from the south of France whom he once rescued from drowning. He is proud that the girl he saved does not have a southern accent: II la fit asseoir, la questionna, fut etonne de son langage pur. Celui-lk n'est pas le premier venu qui des flots de Falavas trouve le moyen de sauver une fil- lette sans accent du Midi. ... Tout ce qu'elle avait en elle de clair, son teint blanc, ses yeux bleus lui prouvait que son sauvetage avait une valeur symbolique, et qu'il 1*avait emporte sur je ne sals quel demon meridional. Un grand mepris du Languedoc le prenait. Subitement 11 n'eut pas assez de haine pour les cheveux noirs, pour la Mediterranee. ... Un profond degout le prlt de Gambetta. ... (p. 90) 149 By involving Ratie in a fanciful relationship with a succession of historical personages Glraudoux avoids the unpleasant human contacts which would normally result from such a defect of character. The name of Gambetta suggests a new hyperbolically determined pattern of behavior. Ratie not only despises the famous southern politician but "all" great men the moment he passes their age. The narrative then consists of a lengthy enumeration of the eccentric actions which result from this peculiar outgrowth of Ratie's mania. The following excerpts illustrate the rigidly structured quality of this fanciful code of con duct: Un profond degotit le prit de Gambetta. II eliminait d'ailleurs, peu & peu, de son admiration, tous les grands hommes dont la carrikre avait commence k un dge inferieur a son dge. Tous ceux dont la gloire 1'avait le plus attire autrefois, Hoche Alexandre, le jour ou il eut l'dge auquel ils etaient morts, le jour ou ils furent ses cadets, lui parurent des enfants stupides et leur fortune meprisable. Depuis longtemps il n'avait deja plus de souvenirs de Chenier, de Neron. ... Parfois Urbain devait decrocher du mur un portrait de ces hommes qu'Emmanuel avait jadis pris pour modules, Byron, Lucullus: c'est que son maitre venait d'atteindre l'dge auquel ils avaient publie leur chef-d'oeuvre ou auquel ils etaient morts. ... II allait avoir a la fin de cette semaine mdme l'dge auquel Napoleon etait mort. Toute une epopee tremblait en lui, tout un decor qui allait diman- che s'abattre. II appreciait Napoleon pour la derniere fois aujourd'hui. (pp. 90-92) Beginning with the novels of the Fontranges cycle, Bella. Eglantine, and Les aventures de Jerome Bardini, secondary characters appear to be better integrated into the main flow of the narrative, and are less episodic. However, this refinement of Giraudoux's anti-realist tech niques in no way alters the motives which originally inspired him. In order to fulfill one of his principal personal reasons for writing, he continues determinedly to contradict and negate the conventional situations of realist fiction. Because literally interpreted overstate ment is one of the most effective instruments in accom plishing this, the restrictive patterns which are a fre quent outgrowth of this form retain a prominent place even in his more mature work. An episode in the romance between Bella Rebendart and Philippe Dubardeau offers an outstanding example of Girau doux's later use of restrictive overstatement to create situations paradoxically opposed to those devised by real ist writers. Since the realist novel nearly always pre sents illicit love as an evening activity, Giraudoux has his lovers meet exclusively in the morning. Here we see one of the chief needs for hyperbole in the Giralducian 151 style. In order £or the paradox to attain maximum effec tiveness, the antithesis with normal behavior must be com plete. In this case even an occasional evening meeting would mar the opposition and with It the distinctiveness of the relationship. Beginning the account of his love affair with Bella by the statement, "Mon amle ne trouvalt de liberte cju'i l'aurore," Philippe Dubardeau Initiates an unusual sequence of amatory experiences: Mon amle ne trouvalt de liberte qu'a l'aurore. ... Les joles reservees aux amants dans la vllle dejk fatiguee et sursaturee, elles nous venalent dans une heure ou nous etlons seuls, mon amle et mol, k nous aimer dans Paris. ... Chaque orme du square, chaque tllleul de cour, le Bols, le pare Monceau nous avalent, par douze heures d'aspiration et de distillation speclale, prepare l'alr le plus pur dans lequel k Paris deux amants se solent embrasses. ... Nous nous etrelgnlons non pas dans 1*at mosphere de la Bourse, dans les relents du change, des courses, dans les nouvelles d'un jour dejk gdte pour les hommes qu'annoncent le Temps et 1'Intranslgeant. mals dans les grandes lumlbres nouvelles qu'apporte le matin. ... Une nult d'une heure se ranlmalt pour nous, bdtie de tout ce que l'aurore et le solell pouvalent offrir de plus eclatent.^ As a result of this technique Glraudoux's characters exhibit a regularity of behavior which is not only excep tional in itself, but which lends itself ideally to ex ploitation along antithetical lines. The opposition to Stella, pp. 29-31. 152 conventional behavior Implicit In Glraudoux's use of hyper bole then becomes an explicit and symmetrical difference between two characters or groups of characters. Such an antithesis occurred Incidentally In Simon le pathetlque where Simon's uneventful formative years were contrasted with the adventurous childhood of Anne. In Bella the same device Is used on a much broader scale to establish the unifying motif of the novel, the conflict between the Dubardeau and Rebendart families. In this way Giraudoux achieves a more cohesive plot than in his two previous works, Siegfried et le Limousin and Juliette au pays des hommes. This motif is of additional Interest because the characters involved were based on prominent contemporary political figures. The novel was inspired by the quarrel which occurred between Philippe Berthelot, Glraudoux's protector, and Raymond Poincare, the man who forced Berthelot to resign from his position as Secretaire General of the Quai d'Orsay in 1922.^ In keeping with his determination to thwart rather than create conventional displays of passion or enmity, ^Alberfes, Esthetique et morale chez Jean Giraudoux. pp. 170-171. 153 Giraudoux avoids any violent encounters between the two contending parties. By a lengthy description of the habits of both families, he gradually builds an entertainingly ritualized opposition between them. The members of the two families are subjected to completely different patterns of motivation, both of which possess great singularity, and which permit a constant intervention if irony and humor to mitigate the harshness of the conflict. Throughout the first chapter of Bella, which is de voted to a study of the Dubardeau family, their conduct is moulded along hyperbolically whimsical lines which are meant to contrast picturesquely, not only with normal be havior, but with the equally exaggerated protocol of the Rebendart family. Rene Dubardeau is described by his son Philippe as "the only diplomat, with the exception of Wilson, who would have recreated Europe with generosity, and the only one, without exception, who could have done it competently" (p. 7). Rene Dubardeau has five brothers, "all" of whom are characterized by a passionate devotion to scientific in quiry. This quality makes them "inhabitants of France in general, and perhaps also of the earth" (pp. 15-16). 154 Because of their extreme modesty they delight in sharing their knowledge with one another, as well as with the younger members of the family: Pas de secret8 dans cette famille. Nous etions, des qu'arrivalt l'dge de comprendre, au centre du plus vif cercle de clarte qui ait ete dirige sur les evenements et les hommes. C'etaient des secretaires perpltuels de l'Academie des sciences qui repondaient conscienci- eusement et sans se lasser k nos pourquoi d*enfant. Ils aimaient aussi le soir, sur la terrasse, unissant leur experience, k nous donner, en sages chinols, les definitions de la sagesse, de la bonte, de la popularite, de la vertu. ... Pas un seul des secrets de seconde main dont vit la conversation et le monde qu'ils n'aient revise k notre usage, (pp. 22-23) The Dubardeau brothers do not like seclusion and "only" make their discoveries with boisterous, youthful representatives of humanity in their laboratory: ... nous avions le droit d'amener nos camarades. Le bruit des jeux et des disputes leur importait peu. Oneles et pere travaillaient dans le tumulte, ne fai- saient leurs decouvertes q u e bouscules. ... Leur esprit de recherche et de decouverte baignait dans cette jeunesse. ... Cette danse devant l'arche scientifique qu'ils portaient, ils aimaient la voir executer par les pages de la science, et installaient des dancings dans le laboratoire. Nous valsions autour de cornues celebres par leur contenu et leur passe, (p. 23) All of these habits are diametrically opposed to those of the rival Rebendart family. The trait of the Dubardeau brothers that brings Rebendart's wrath upon them is the untimely quality of their experiments and innovations, 155 which causes them to make enemies in influential circles: Telle £tait ma familie. ... Par certains, elle etait cralnte et detestee. ... Tout prenait d'ailleurs aisement un air de defi dans leur conduite, a leur insu. Ce fut le jour ou la Bertha commenea de bombarder Paris que l'oncle Antoine se mit k installer dans des vitrines une collection de petits objets en verre fil£. ... C'est le jour du raz de maree de Biarritz que l'oncle Emile prit sa premikre lecon de natation. ... Ce qui leur valait le plus de haine et aussi le plus de devouement, c'est qu'ils ne croyaient pas que la science, le de- tachement des honneurs, la loyaute dussent les eloigner de la vie publique. ... Ils se mSlaient k tous les grands remous sociaux avec l'k propos de l'oncle Emile k son premier bain, apprenant la politique dans 1'affaire Dreyfus et la banque dans Panama, (pp. 26-27) The second phase of the hyperbolically engendered antithesis deals with the habits of the Rebendart family. They are as illustrious as the Dubardeau family; they have "exactly" the same number of statues erected in their honor and an equal number of streets and fair grounds baptized with their name (p. 51). Whereas the Dubardeau brothers have "all" specialized in creative experimentation, the men of the Rebendart family have "all" become lawyers. Ironi cally, the Rebendarts' constant involvement with crime and contention has caused them, rather than the Dubardeau brothers, to personify justice and integrity for the French: ... les Rebendart, tous avocats, avaient choisi pour atmosphkre le criminel et le contentieux de la France ... 156 les Dubardeau, bien que lies dans le souvenir des ge nerations au venln qu'ils avaient vaincu, au gaz qu'ils avalent domestique, k la doctrine qu'ils avaient liberee, personnifiaient beaucoup moins aux yeux des mmicipalites et des classes bourgeoises la justice et l'integrite que les Rebendart, dont le nom evoquait presque uniquement les causes crlminelles qu'ils avaient defendues, de Madame La£argue k Ravachol et k Landru. (pp. 51-52) The greater part of the background narrative concern ing the Rebendart family is devoted to a presentation of the strict pattern of behavior which insures their politi cal reputation. The actions of the entire family are governed by a formula which enables them to transform self- righteousness and hypocrisy into professional virtues. According to Philippe Dubardeau, the men of the Rebendart family have been divided into two distinct categories. The first type of Rebendart is the one known in Paris. They are "all" teetotalers, incorruptible, and physically and professionally intransigent. The second category of Rebendart8 is made up of drunks, profligates and debauch ees, but they are "never" allowed to leave the Champagne region: Au-dessous des Rebendart seuls connus a Paris et dans la vie publique, tous buveurs d'eau, tous integres, tous intransigeants avec leur sante et leur travail, ... vivait k Ervy une troupe k peu prks egale de Rebendart qui ... etaient prodigues, ivrognes ou debauches. ... 157 La Champagne s'£tait habituee k cette situation. Elle la dis8imulait hypocritement k tout homme d'fitat etranger k la province qui venait y visiter les Rebendart, mais aussi les Rebendart veneres exigeaient-ils des Rebendart parias qu'ils ne sortissent jamais de leur terre ma- temelle. ... 11 y a de quo! bourlinguer entre Reims et Romilly. De sorte que les Rebendart ministres n'avaient pour leur rappeler leur vices que la Champagne, et leur splendeur le monde entier. (pp. 55-56) Once Giraudoux has succeeded in imposing two such radically stylized behavior patterns on the rival Dubardeau and Rebendart families, when the direct conflict does arise between them later in the novel its bitterness is consider ably reduced by the humorously ritualized quality of the actions which have led up to it. This is another of Girau- doux's unique literary devices for changing revolvers into cigarette carriers: By stylizing the conduct of formidable or menacing characters he transforms their actions into a tamed expression of rhetorically controlled idiosyncrasies. Glraudoux's consistent efforts to contradict the motivational patterns of realist fiction by means of hyper bole results in what Marie-Jeanne Durry calls an inability of his characters to suffer.** Even the problems which "L'Univers de Giraudoux," L'Arche (March 1944), No. 2, p. 116. Cited by Alberfes, Esthetique et morale de Jean Giraudoux, p. 269. 158 his protagonists face, In what are for them adverse cir cumstances, are often of such a whimsical nature that they free the reader from anxiety rather than disturb him. This characteristic is particularly prominent in the romances of the later novels. The rhetorically engendered difficulty which arises in the course of the love affair between Molse and the heroine of Eglantine is an excellent example of this type of Giralducian "problem."^ The "problems" faced by Malena Paz and Jacques Brisson in Com bat avec l'ange also originate in a hyperbolically con structed antithesis between the two lovers' respective backgrounds. By means of a typical sequence of literally interpreted overstatements Giraudoux completely detaches Malena from conventional causes for worry or frustration. She comes from a Latin American country where the daughters of prosperous citizens are raised and their marriages planned "to keep happiness in the family." This is done with an aristocratic purposefulness one normally associates with the retention of monetary wealth or political power: Ses soeurs, ses amies et elle-m&ne avaient ete vouees au bonheur, des leur enfance, d'une fapon aussi ^Chapter II, pp. 77-79. 159 offlcielle et Irremediable que les filles d*Europe sont vouees au menage ou k 1'amour, et elles avaient accepte sans songer a la molndre resistance les marls ftges ou jeunes, gros ou malgres, pustuleux ou llsses que a lol de leur race et de leur continent leur avait Imposes. Celul qui etait begue, le tartamudo, n*avait mSme pas eu besoln d’achever sa phrase, la premikre syllabe de sa declaration avait su£fl. Pas un de ces mariages, dont 1'apparence m&me etait quelque£ols mediocre, qui ne con- solidftt au-dessous du pays, ... le plancher du bonheur. This conceit Is established with such literalness that it becomes organically Impossible £or Malena to experience unhappiness: Les organes qui servent a etre malheureux etaient d'ail- leurs atrophies chez elles; elles ne voyaient pas les bossus, les borgnes, les pauvres, et c'£tait doomage, car elles etaient bonnes et charitables. De leur emploi du temps elles avaient aussi expulse le degoQt, la pitie, et mdme la vanite ou la jalousie. Elles ne tenaient pas a leurs bijoux ou a leur luxe coome y tiennent les Ameri- caines du Nord, pour primer les autres, et coome k un merite personnel, mais coome une £illette de pensionnat tient k son uniforme. ... (p. 33) The completeness with which this pattern is imposed upon Malena enables the author to establish an Imaginative rhetorical opposition between her background and that of Jacques, and to direct the lovers' actions along extreoiely fanciful lines. Jacques, being European, feels tied to a profoundly unhappy heritage: g Combat avec l'ange, pp. 31-32. 160 Comme elles me paraissaient exsangues, menacees, les quelques personnes qui m'avaient sembl£ jusqu'lcl pres de mol poss£der le bonheur! Elles avaient l'alr de collectlonneurs d'une denree Introuvable. ... Ces ex peditions de bateaux complets d*Stres heureux que nous exp£dia l'Amerique du Sud dks la fin de la guerre comme si le blocus du bonheur etait enfin rompu, la vraie armee de secours, n*avaient pas suffi. C'£tait une manie, une contagion. ... On supportait partout en Europe une parade de gens nus, mais un mondme arborant des pan cartes avec 1'inscription: "Nous sommes heureux," ... y aurait ete severement charge par la police. Moi-meme je ressentais comme un scandale d'avoir, pour arriver k Malena, k me naturaliser, a me naturaliser heureux. (pp. 33-35) As a result of this antithetical construction both lovers have "problems" which are of purely rhetorical origin. Because Malena is completely innocent of Europe's suffering, Jacques decides he must try to conceal from her his liaison with the unhappy continent: ... je partis vraiment vers Malena comme le jeune chretien vers la palenne, decide k tout lui avouer, k lui reveler qu'il s'etait forme dans le monde une congre gation dont tous faisaient k peu pres partie, excepte elle, et dont le mot d'ordre etait 1*inquietude et la souffranee. ... Mais k mesure que j'approchais de sa mai- son, je perdais de mon assurance. Peu h peu j'etais envahi par la persuasion que j'allais non pas vers le seul Stre ignorant mais vers le seul Stre sain. ... La donner a la guerre, a la pitie, c'ltait tout simplement me l'enlever. ... Subitement partisan achame de la propriete individuelle, je repris au sort commun mon bon heur, mon plaisir, ma douleur personnels, et, quand mon visage se pencha sur le visage de Malkna la souffrance de l'univers n'ltait plus qu'un de mes secrets, (pp. 48-50) Malena*s "problem" arises after her accidental meeting with Jacques near the Seine. It results in her paradoxical 161 quest for unhappiness which forms the main plot of the novel. Giraudoux's last novel, Choix des 6lues also contains a number of fanciful patterns of behavior derived from overstatement. A considerable refinement of the device may be noted if we compare its use in this work with its earlier, more gratuitous applications in the narrative of Siegfried et le Limousin and Juliette au pays des hommes. In Choix des £lues the behavior patterns which arise from overstatement frequently grow out of concepts that the characters have of one another instead of being arbitrarily introduced by the author. For example, if we examine the actions of the heroine's daughter, Claudie, we find that her behavior and the unusual motives behind it are largely derived from attributes which her mother assigns to her. When accepted as completely literal, Edmee's overstatements regarding her daughter endow Claudie with talents which would be the envy of anyone seeking to acquire occult powers by means of ordinary magic. The stylization of Claudie's behavior begins with a sequence of emphatic statements regarding her birth. Until Claudie's arrival Edmee had "never" known a feeling of 162 security; "no one," not even her husband, had succeeded In making Edmee feel genuinely secure: Elle (Edmee) n'avait connu son frfere que malade, sa mkre que consentante, ses oncles que veules. ... Il n'y avait eu dans sa maison que des bonnes laches ou des chlens hospitallers qui la lalssalent touj ours face k face avec l'ogre ou le mendlant. ... Pierre ne 1*avait pas pro tegee davantage. ... Jacques ne 1'avait pas protegee davantage. Il etait ne rlslgne h sa premiere heure. ... Elle avait ressentl sa nalssance comme l'arrivee au monde de ce qu'il y a de plus falble. ... Le jour ou etait nee Claudie, au contralre, un repos, un bonheur etaient nes aussi, dont elle avait trouve le nom le solr m&ne, qui etaient la securite.^ This unusual reaction Is Imposed with such a degree of literalness that as Claudie grows older she becomes con scious of her powers and the narrative of the relationship between Claudie and Edmee assumes a totally paradoxical character, the daughter becomes the protectress of the mother: Avec les annees, Claudie avait prls conscience de son rdle. L*enfant talisman qui protegeait Edmee des grands maux du monde la protegeait aussi, h l'aide de tapettes, de trappes ou de fruits empolsonnes, des dangers que ses premlferes lectures ou la salson deslgnalent comme les plus redoutables, mouches, tlgres du Bengale, ou solell. Quelquefols, Edmee devalt enjamber, pour entrer dans sa chambre, des rubans tendus ou des trainees de sable colore, c'£tait la protection contre les fourmls ou contre les corsalres. Claudie protegeait des accidents: ^Choix des flues, p. 144. 163 avant chaque sortie elle inspectait sa mfere d'une Inspection qui semblait porter sur la poudre de riz, le rouge, la ceinture, mais qui en fait rendait inof fensive s la cohue et les voltures. (p. 145) The consistent Invention of stylized behavior patterns through hyperbole Is one of the distinctive features of Glraudoux's novels. By enabling him to free his characters from commonplace or conventional motivations and to provide them with fanciful Incentives for their actions, this device proved to be one of his most effective means of disassociating his work from the narrative techniques in spired by psychological realism. The resulting divorce between Glraudoux's systemati cally paradoxical fiction and that of other novelists even sets his work apart from as sensitive and poetic an author as Marcel Proust. One might readily illuminate Glraudoux's use of overstatement as a basis for eccentricity by imagin ing how an episode from A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, such as Swann's suspicious nocturnal return to Odette's apart ment,^ might be treated by Giraudoux. No doubt in the imaginary Giralducian version of the incident Swann ^Marcel Proust, A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, I (Paris, 1954), 272-275. 164 would not be acting out of jealousy at all, but would per haps be attempting to surprise Odette because he has found that he Is "always" more successful with women when they are not expecting him. The overstatement would then re quire the presentation of a series of Incidents from Swann's life Illustrating his successful application of this eccentric theory. CHAPTER V NARRATIVE DERIVED FROM AN INTERPLAY OF RHETORICAL AND FANCIFUL CONCEPTS Though the frequent use of behavior patterns ritual" ized through hyperbole would, in itself, set Glraudoux's novels apart from the work of other authors, the increased influence of other rhetorical devices on the characters of the later novels greatly magnifies the distinctiveness of their conduct. In these works hyperbole serves as a basis for antithetical constructions and at the same time facili- tates the application of metaphor to the narrative. Aside from its use in the broad, restrictive behavior patterns studied in the previous chapter, hyperbole is often an intrinsic feature of the metaphoric concepts which Giraudoux uses to subject his narrative to the intervention of fancy and detach it from the impingements of conven tional psychology. The readiness with which metaphor and hyperbole combine is evident in Philippe Dubardeau'8 final 165 166 comment concerning his matInal rendezvous with Bella: "Nous echappions A tous les regards, roules dans l'aurore. Although this Is obviously a lyric rather than a factual statement, It Illustrates how these two devices are com bined to make Imaginative concepts a topic for narrative. If we exclude Suzanne et le Pacifique. where the nar rative is derived mainly from the application of rhetorical concepts to nature, the Giralducian style appears to be most effective in the latter phase of his writing, begin ning with the publication of Bella. Here the characters display considerable spontaneous interaction rather than exhibit isolated idiosyncrasies. Narrative derived from hyperbole and personification, which has been discussed previously, continues to have a prominent place in the development of these later novels. In particular, the function of overstatement must not be underestimated; be cause this device is more frequently combined with other elements of rhetoric it appears to be less prominent, while actually its use is even more effective. A substitution of serious and lengthy romantic in volvements for the brief, episodic flirtations of the first Stella, p. 32. ! stylized novels is the most significant outgrowth of the sustained and rhetorically complex relationships of Girau doux’ s later works. Beginning with Bella all of Girau doux's novels have romance as a prominent feature of the plot. In each case the narrative is totally subjected to an interplay of rhetorical and fanciful motivations which contrast with the behavior of Simon and Anne in Glraudoux's first novel, which was only partially stylized. These later romances are more prolonged and better integrated into the over-all structure of the plot than are the frag mentary relationships between men and women in Siegfried et le Limousin and Juliette au pays des hommes. In Bella the main events of the narrative include the relationship between the young lovers, Philippe Dubardeau and Bella Rebendart, who are in a situation not unlike that of Romeo and Juliette: they belong to two rival families which are engaged in a major political struggle. Eglantine recounts the heroine's whimsical romances with two elderly gentle men, Fontranges and Molse, who figured less prominently in the previous novel, Bella. The second of the three parts of Les Aventures de J^rdme Bardini relates the runaway hero's romance with a young American girl in New York. 168 In Combat avec l'ange Jacques Brisson, without any £lesh and blood rivals, has his love affair with the wealthy South American, Malena Paz, complicated by her paradoxical quest for unhappiness. Choix des £lues, the last novel, Is a uniquely Glralduclan treatment of marital Infidelity, a theme favored by realist authors. The length of these later romances In no way lessens the Influence of rhetoric and fancy on their development. From the start these relationships are governed by criteria so singular that the protagonists are literally Incapable of conventional behavior toward one another. Although the sentiments which they experience are those of traditional romance— love, for Instance, frequently occurs at first sight— the expression of these feelings is extremely fanci ful and often deliberately paradoxical. The later romances have three significant features in common. In each instance, Giraudoux*s application of rhetoric to the actions of his protagonists permits them to behave in a manner which is systematically opposed to the kind of conduct which the reader has been lead to expect by his exposure to other works of fiction. Secondly, there is a tendency on the part of the protago nists to avoid direct expression of emotion. Imaginative 169 and euphemistic means of giving vent to passions replace direct and violent manifestations of emotion. Lastly, major portions of marrative are given over to a literal development of metaphoric concepts. Conceits, often graphically projected, are expanded in scope by combination with hyperbole. They assume such prominence that lengthy sequences of events develop in which vicissitudes origi nating in the mind of a character seem to detach themselves from their cerebral origin and become central to the nar rative. Ideally Glraudoux's romances begin with a state of incognito. This automatically removes one of the chief obstacles in the path of imaginative romantic behavior: the family. He even goes to the extreme of isolating his lovers from mutual acquaintances. In this way there are no parents to meet, no social conventions to observe, and none of the customary obstacles to overcome. Disparity of economic and social position, and differences in religious background, which were popular sources of romantic com plications in turn-of-the-century novels are of no conse quence to his characters. Because Glraudoux's protagonists always meet in situ ations which detach them from normal familial or social 170 ties, It Is never necessary for them to win one another*s affection by discovering experiences or attitudes which they hold in common. Instead of "getting to know one another" they often strive to keep their identity a secret. Preservation of incognito, one of the significant mani festations of Giraudoux*s reaction against realism, is a prominent feature in three of the later romances. When Philippe Dubardeau keeps his identity hidden from Bella during the period of their idyllic morning rendez vous, it might not be a contradiction of normal behavior, but a purely practical measure in view of the rivalry between their families. However, in the case of the two romances which followed, the protagonists keep their identities from one another solely to preserve the poetic nature of their relationship. Molse and the heroine of Eglantine mutually ignore one another's backgrounds as do Stephy Moeller and Jerdme Bardini in the first episode of his adventures in America. In both these romances the protagonists are seeking what Giraudoux aptly terms, "une r\ detente sans etat civil." They are constantly aware of Eglantine. p. 60. 171 the necessity of preserving the anonymity Which makes pos sible their poetically motivated behavior. They avoid statements concerning their backgrounds and even feel threatened by any circumstance Which might provide an accidental clue to their Identities. When Eglantine nearly reveals her name and place of birth through Inadvertence, Molse reacts as If she were about to be branded: Un solr, entendant une volslne qui en une seule phrase avait h peu pres tout devoile de sa vie: — Mol, je suls nee k Langres le 29 aofit 1890 ... , elle [Eglantine] se tourna en sourlant vers Molse, et comnenpa. ... ——Mol. ... Deja Molse avait un serrement de coeur. Ce nom de vllle, cette date, ce mllleslme alialent s'imprimer sur elle au fer rouge. Elle allait regagner la foule des autres femmes, le bagne. ... Mais elle acheva: — Mol, j'al vlngt ans. (p. 59) When Stephy meets the hero of Les Aventures de Jerome Bardlnl in Central Park, her fear of Identification is ex pressed by a similar dramatic metaphor: Cette premiere entrevue que Stephy avait ima^lnee comme une confidence, comme un aveu de toutes pensees, comme un echange de prenoms, d'histoires de famille, ou se seraient devoiles les noms des animaux favoris, c'etait au contraire un pacte de mutisme, une declaration de silence. Elle sentait que cet homme entendait ne 1*ac cepter que sans nom, sans sumom, sans prenom, sans passe.' ... Le neant, c'£tait la dot exigee. L'enveloppe h son nom dans son sac pesait h Stephy comme la marque & laquelle elle allait 8tre reconnue pour une de ces 172 jeunes filles qu'on appelle, auxquelles on ecrit. ... Ses initiales repartles aur ses vitements la brOlalent au fer rouge, (pp. 76-77) The Instinct which keeps both Eglantine and Stephy from revealing their Identities Is only one of a number of remarkable attributes possessed by the fully stylized Giralducian heroine. Their unique blend of naivete and sophistication enables them to transcend the conventional notions of realistic human behavior derived from traditional fiction. The difficult code of conduct which the reader grows to expect of the Giralducian heroine is expressed by Jerdme Bardini: Si cette femme-lk [Stephy] consentait seulement k ne jamais questionner, ne jamais parler, ne jamais faire deux fols le mime geste, si elle s'engagealt k ne pas le solgner quand il serait malade, k garder au comble de l'intimite ce rdle d'inconnue qu’elle jouait depuis un mois; k se priver d’amour pendant des mois entiers, k rester vierge dans les outrages, k ne jamais confier une de ses pensees, k ne pas concevoir, k ne pas vieillir, k ne jamais souffrir, alors ce serait peut- itre k voir! Il ignorait que c'etait le programme exact de cette enfant.3 In his ardent desire for perfection Bardini reflects an attitude fundamental to the author himself. Biraudoux O Les Aventurea de Jerdme Bardini. pp. 109-110. 173 abhorred the realist authors' obsession with the baser pro cesses of life. He could not accept their explanation of human actions In terms of vulgar motives or dogmatic psy chology. A statement quoted by Claude-Edmonde Magny per haps best expresses his feelings toward realism: "Ce n'est pourtant pas tellement attrayant, la vie humalne, avec ces mains qu'il faut laver, ces rhumes qu'll faut moucher, ces cheveux qui vous quittentl”^ Having separated his couples from familial and social situations found In realist writing, Glraudoux then scru pulously sought to eliminate any motivations habitually associated with a love affair from his account of their relationship. In Bella the romance between the heroine and Philippe Dubardeau begins with a parody on the typical be havior of young lovers In a rustic setting. Through over statement Glraudoux deliberately purges their country promenades of Incidents which usually bring about an emo tional union: Pas d*Episode, pas de revelations dans notre ami tie. II ne nous arrivalt jamais ces incidents qui marquent pour les dmes plus civillsees le debut et la croissance i | 4 Claude-Edmonde Magny, Histolre du roman francais depuls 1918 (Paris, 1950), p. 227. 174 des liaisons. ... Un Instinct nous menait aux prairies plates, aux plaines de betteraves. ... Pas d'averses brusques, plus d'orages. Jamals rien dans la nature ne se heurtait et ne nous provoquait ... tous ces contacts amenes electriquement entre des corps amoureux par un loup cervler qui crache aux yeux de la jeune fille, par la comellle qui casse une nolx, par le ramier saisi par la buse, nous n'avions pas h les subir. (pp. 74-75) Glraudoux is equally skillful at endowing the pro tagonists of his romances with a capacity to dismiss any thing sordid from their lives by means of rhetorical artifice. Molse, the Levantine banker, is very gifted in this respect. His immense wealth and unimpressive physique constantly make him prey to the vulgar machinations of unscrupulous women. Molse's manner of escaping this prob lem is an outstanding example of how Glraudoux's characters transform situations by applying imaginative subjective criteria to them. Molse is able to maintain satisfactory relations with the most deceitful of women by accepting at face value the image which they create to please him. The image remains completely real as long as he ignores the woman's background and true feelings: Ferocement curieux en ce qui concernait les hommes et pourvu k leur egard d'un service de renseignements qui etait son luxe, Molse aimait par contre ces doubles que secrktent, dans toute atmosphere lgnorante d'elles, les femmes les plus precises. 11 encourageait meme ces ombres aux depens des femmes m£mes. II savait que ces doubles gagnalent en dignite et en inter@t k Stre 175 traites independamnent d'elles; 11 savalt que les femnes les plus egolstes possedalent en dehors d'elles, pour celul qui Ignore leur ftge, un coeur qui peut saigner, une vrale jeunesse, et que les lames, la fidelite, revlennent aux plus dures et aux plus hypocrites, si l'on ne salt pas leur vral p r e n o m . * Here Molse presents a code of behavior In which over statement and metaphor take on completely literal meaning. By acting on these concepts In subsequent Incidents of the narrative, he behaves In paradoxical opposition to the pro cesses of normal psychology. In this respect the radical difference between the characters of Proust and those of Glraudoux are again evident. Molse's lack of inquisitive ness in matters of love is totally opposed to the morbid curiosity of Proustian protagonists. In La Fugitive the curiosity of "Marcel,” the narrator, drives him to pay for information about Albertine after her death; whereas Molse goes to the extent of hiring an agent named Chartier, not to uncover sordid truths about his feminine acquaintances, but to keep any such revelations from him: Si, dans sa banque, Molse entretenait un service celbbre de fiches [, sic] pour sa vie personnelle, au contraire, 11 estlmait qu’il devait eviter tout ce qui est denonci- ation, revelation, et c'etait Chartier qu'il avait charge Eglantine, p. 50. 176 d'6carter de lui, non pas la verite, mais Is renseigne- ment. Depuls dlx ans, la plupart des secrets de Molse etaient des secrets mSme pour Molse; Chartler les ab~ sorbait, les consumait, sublssalt les entrevues ou se revelalent les vols, les avortements, les haines, ac- caparalt les correspondences, et ne laissalt passer f e Molse, de ses amles femmes entre autres, que des images depoulllees de venln, foul1lees par la police du coeur et presque inoffensives, (p. 58) Eglantine proves to be an ideal companion for Molse, as the fragments of narrative analysed in the preceding chapters have demonstrated. The criteria upon Which she bases her actions are as imaginative as those of her bene factor. The accidental meeting of these two quixotic per sonalities initiates a relationship in which an interplay of whimsical and paradoxical concepts dominates the narra tive. The young American girl, Stephy Moeller, and Jerdme Bardini, whose romance forms the central episode of Les Aventures de Jerome Bardini. are equally adept at sepa rating their lives from routine and mediocrity. He meets her accidentally in Central Park. This meeting, like that of Eglantine and Molse, is an ideal Giralducian encounter because the two protagonists are disengaged from their familial and social ties. Likewise, Glraudoux displays as much virtuosity in the invention of humorous details 177 to free their encounter from banality as he does in the meeting of Eglantine and Molse. Stephy first sees Jerdme as he casually walks on the other side of a hedge which separates him from the bench where she is sitting in Central Park. His idle gait sug gests the conceit which Giraudoux uses to express Stephy*s sudden attraction to him: the handsome passerby has the deceptively idle appearance of spies who cut telegraph and telephone lines. Stephy suddenly feels paralysed, as though he has severed her nerves: Tous ses gestes et ses pensees de jeune fille, ses reflexes de douce marionnette divine l'abandonnaient, k mesure qu'approchait cet homme, de l'air faussement desoeuvre, en effet, des espions qui coupent tellgraphes et telephones, et il ne lui restait plus soudain qu'un coeur et un corps sans commandes. ... (p. 61) When Jerdme walks by, unaware that he is in a maze which leads to Stephy's bench, he observes her "as one looks at a girl from a train or a boat." Stephy*s heart beat8 faster; her ears hum. A second conceit develops from the symptoms of her emotional agitation: the sounds of the city suddenly acquire a rhythm; the world, which previously had been a giant phonograph record that turned without emitting any sound, at last has come in contact with a needle: 178 Son sang battait, ses orellles bourdonnaient, la rumeur de la ville prenalt un rythme; pour la premiere fois, sur ce disque de la terre qui avait jusque-lb toume h vide, une aiguille s'btait posee et de grands eclats en sortalent. ... (p. 63) Dizzy with excitement, Stephy is upset with a city official named Feuchtwanger who has done away with the backs of the park benches so they will not aggravate the spinal ailments of elderly governesses. Later when j£rdme sits down beside Stephy he leaves them "the amount of empty space that the hardiest of seducers always leaves, allowing room for a child or a thin husband." Then she humorously expresses her gratitude to Feuchtwanger for the backless benches because they make it impossible for Jerdme to detect her accelerated heartbeat (p. 68). Initially Stephy's spontaneous attraction to Jerdme lacks the elements of paradox found in Eglantine. She responds to Jerdme because he is young and handsome, while Eglantine is drawn to Molse because of his age. But rhetoric and fancy soon lead to another type of paradox which plays the dominant role in their relationship. Stephy is quick to express her emotions through imaginative associations and immediately starts to ritual ize her behavior. As with Eglantine both overstatement and 179 metaphor are vital to establishing these rituals. Because Stephy has "never" been touched by a man, Jerdme*s holding o£ her right hand during their first meeting makes It a sacred object to her. She decides that all commonplace duties must henceforth be done by her left hand. If ever she has a fiance, she will "only" allow him to hold her left hand (p. 72). Later, when Jerdme takes her left hand, she Is forced to abandon this protocol. During their second meeting, she decides on an even more stringent code of conduct which profoundly affects her subsequent actions. With a typically Giralducian abhorrence for the conven tional, Stephy senses that j£rdme expects from her a re lationship based on the strictest Incognito: "le neant, c'etait la dot exigee" (p. 76). This Idea alone would cause Stephy to behave un usually, but her conduct Is made even more peculiar by a further eccentric notion. Nineteen-year-old Stephy does not suffer from the romantic delusion that an intense passion is necessarily an eternal passion. Displaying a degree of sophistication normally associated with women of more advanced age and experience, she knows that her idyllic love affair will be of limited duration and plans i 180 to get it out of her system with as little contamination of her normal life as possible. As a result of this second concept Stephy's behavior is doubly paradoxical. She keeps her comically middle class German father and friends from Jerdme, not because she is ashamed of them, but because she wishes to protect them from the contamination of her in tensely emotional relationship with Jerdme, and herself from the pain of remembering Jerdme in that milieu after their affair is over: Cet avenir d'expiation qu'elle se reservait, aprks le depart de 1'Ombre, elle aurait prefere qu'il ne lui ftit pas ravi. C'etait malgre tout un avenir. La reprise des quartettes et des discussions sur l'origine des bassons, les trois coups du bdton & cirer avec lequel les Goldstein imposaient le silence vers quatre heures de la nuit quand leur provision de boules Qulks etait epuisee, toute cette vie et ces actes mediocres nourris par Bach et Beethoven, elle n'entendait pas y renon- cer. ... Pourquoi n'est-il pas possible & une jeune fille de rassembler sur quelques mois tout ce qu'elle aurait eu k eparpiller sur sa vie entiere en desirs de sacrifice, en revoltes, en joies non terrestres, en degoClt des heros et des habitudes, et de s'en debarrasser ainsi pour toujours? (pp. 110-111) From this unusual combination of ideas comes a lengthy segment of narrative in which the heroine's reactions are consistently opposed to the normal behavior of a young girl in love. A complicated interplay of rhetorical devices sustains her paradoxical conduct. 181 Because of Stephy's unusual attitude any circumstance which tends to break down the strict compartmentalization of her life becomes a cause for alarm. Ideally love affairs should occur on boats or rafts, she feels, because these can be abandoned when the affair is ended, saving lovers the pain associated with later experiences in the locale of their romance: Pourquoi tout n'avait-il pu se passer sous l'arbre du pare, ses fiancailles, sa nuit de noces, le depart ou la mort de son compagnon? On ne devrait s'aimer que sur tin navire, un radeau; on le laisse aller, tine fois tout fini, et tout le reste du monde est sauf. ... (p. 82) Stephy's intense feelings in this matter are used to introduce overstatement and metaphor into the construction of the narrative. When Jerdme invites her for a walk in the city, she is reluctant to accept because she regards the promenade as an intrusion on her other life. The account of her walk with Jerdme is filled with verbal forms derived from a hyperbolic and metaphoric exploitation of this idea. As Stephy walks through the streets of New York with Jerdme, whom she refers to as The Shadow, she conceives of their promenade as an "invasion" and is upset that so many sections of the city are being added to the domain of their passion: 182 Sa seule peine etait de constater que le domaine de son amour ne se llmiterait pas, comme elle avalt pu l'esperer, au coin du Central Park, mats que toutes les rues, helas, toutes les boutiques etalent annexees par lui sur leur passage. A cause de cette prevision constante de ce que seralt sa vie aprfes son amour, elle en eprouvalt une vrale souffranee, (p. 81) In a subsequent passage she metaphorically describes their walk together as a contamination of the city, which she would have preferred to limit to the area of Central Park: Conme Stephy aurait prefere continuer le martyre de son amour au coin du pare, ne corrompre dans cette grande corruption que les hortenslas, les cygnes, les gardlens ... alors que d&s malntenant allaient y £tre compromls pour toujours, dans cette cage les bouvreulls milanals, dans cette autre les ecureulls romalns, et lk-bas les pompiers de New-*York qui passalent, et l'lncendle, et le feu! (p. 82) At first Stephy tries to protect certain favorite areas of the city, but horrified at her own egotism, she decides to "sacrifice" everything to her lover. By "un leashing" her love in the streets of New York, she "indelibly stains" all of her favorite sights: II [Jerdme] se demandait pourquoi elle le jetait dans cette avenue brillante, puis le conduisait par des passages, puis, apres avoir contoume cette vieille egllse, l'obligealt a y penetrer, a entendre l'orgue. ... C'est que decidement elle lui sacrifiait tout, e'est qu'elle ldchait son amour sur toutes ses rues, ses bou tiques, ses promenades preferees, c'est qu'elle marquait d'une tache indeleblle tout ce qu'un egolste edt pieuse- ment garde intact. (pp. 82-83) 183 Stephy's feelings gain In Intensity, causing the pas sage to culminate In a quick succession of conceits. The walk becomes a rallye: and by evening, when they have covered the entire "course," she has "given away" every thing she possessed of New York, except the section of the city where her home Is located. During her promenade she has "spawned a thousand regrets" which she will have to face later when they are "full grown": Dechatnee dans son rallye, elle marqualt pour toujours la piste sur laquelle la future grosse Stephy poursul- vralt, chaque dlmanche, la Stephy heureuse et lamentable. Le solr, elle ne possedalt plus gufere, & elle, dans cette vllle, que son quartler m£me et sa malson. Dans tout le reste de New-York elle avalt ldche, comme ces eleveurs d'alevlns, des milllers de petlts regrets, de souvenirs enfants, toutes les douleurs en oeufs. ... II ne leur restalt plus qu’k grandlr, on verralt plus tard. (p. 83) The passages above Illustrate how the fanciful pre occupations of Glraudoux's protagonists may be dramatized and extended by rhetoric. Nearly all the "events" con nected with this episode stem from Inventions of the heroine'8 Imagination. Her Interpretation of a simple urban promenade In terms of "Invasion," "contagion," and "sacrifice" elicits a succession of colorful verbs, and transforms that promenade Into an epic occurrence. 184 Stephy's idea that she must protect her mediocre middle-class future from the incursions of her passion for Jerdme is so intense that later in the novel when Jerdme suddenly tires of their seraphic love affair and proposes marriage, Stephy's reaction is again paradoxical. To her "The Shadow'8" talk of marriage is like the proposal of a liaison by one of her middle-class boy friends: St£phy ne s'y retrouvait plus.' Cette proposition de mariage lui apparaissait presque comme une offense, comme un deni de leur morale. ... Le mot mariage prononce par 1'Ombre, c'etait le mot liaison prononce par Rudi. Elle se rendait compte que dans son existence tout s'accor- dait, devenait clair, pur, et vraisemblable, si l'on y introduisait quelques mois de vie inhumaine, une saison d'enfer, et que rien n'en etait plus normal ou expli cable, si ce noyau infernal en etait retire.' (pp. 110-111) Jerdme's wish to meet Stephy's family creates a new "emergency" which provokes unusual reactions on her part. Like an adulteress she goes home each night by a circuitous route, and later is forced to find a substitute father. This leads to another whimsical episode in which she pre sents Jerdme to her false parent (pp. 113-121). When Stephy accepts Jerdme'8 proposal of marriage, she arranges to have the ceremony performed by a fake clergyman as easily as she organized a false family. No problems are associated with these activities, and the couple 185 goes north to spend their honeymoon In a quiet rustic setting. The narrative resumes when Stephy, after thirty-six days of counterfeit marital bliss, decides to desert Jerdme to return to the city and the mediocrity of her family. Her decision has not been brought about by any material difficulties or any disturbing differences of temperament. Instead, in the intimacy of marriage, Stephy discovers to her chagrin that Jerdme's determined quest for detachment has been all too successful. She desires to make their love a means of establishing a communion with nature but finds that Jerdme, by severing his connections with hu manity, has also cut himself off from any ties with nature and other living things. As she watches him sleep, he appears blatantly human in his state of isolation: Voir ce dormeur etait aussi funeste aux doctrines de metempsychose qu'aux theories du passage de la grenouille a l'humaln. Stephy cherchait en vain sur lui les raccords A la vie animale et A la vie celeste. Que n'eflt- elle pas donne maintenant pour que son mari, par un geste, par un sourire, la fit parfois penser, conme tous les autres amis, k quelque insecte, a quelque oiseau! ... Sous des yeux pereants qui n'avaient jamais rlen du lynx, sous des caresses qui n'avaient jamais rien de felln, elle avalt dd reprimer en elle cette joie de son corps qui la poussait k se donner au monde entier, et faire de 1'amour une operation terriblement particulifere, une operation humaine. (p. 128) 186 In the later works where Glraudoux'8 characters emerge from rhetorical Isolation, another unusual effect occurs. The more imaginative they become, the more their relations are determined by purely accidental factors. As in the passage above, the rhetorical constructions of one pro tagonist are often projected literally onto the behavior of another person; consequently, the more prolific his charac ters become in their inventions, the less control they have over the course of their relationships with one another. Their inventions arise spontaneously in a manner which can only be interpreted by the reader as accidental. Sometimes they are favorable to the development of the romance, but they may just as readily affect it negatively. Though the trials and problems faced by Glraudoux's later protagonists are nearly always of a fanciful subjective origin, they must be coped with as if they had arisen accidentally, since they are not presented as figments of the protago nists ' imaginations. The last episode of Stephy's romance is largely derived from such projections. The heroine's imaginative powers of interpretation are applied to the actions of her husband. In this way he is endowed with character traits 187 and behavior patterns which are detrimental to the romance despite their fanciful origin. In any but a Giralducian context the reader would regard Stephy's presentation of her husband's actions as the exaggerated fantasies of an overly suspicious woman. But so much of what he has accepted so far is predicated on a literal interpretation of fanciful concepts that the reader finds he must concur with Stephy in her presentation of Jerdme's actions as ob jectively valid and must regard her plight as real rather than imagined. Through rhetoric Glraudoux gradually involves his heroine in a marital problem that is entirely subjective in origin but which appears in the narrative as an observed fact rather than a product of Stephy's imagination. By literally imposing her inventions upon Jerome's behavior, Glraudoux involves the couple in a rapport with the world around them that is rich in poetic overtones; nevertheless, the narrative remains as unpredictable in its vicissitudes as that of any traditional romance. Stephy is also upset because Jerdme has even severed their rapport with inanimate objects. Again the literal strength of Giralducian rhetorical construction transforms 188 her fancl£ul notion into an observed, rather than an imaginary occurrence: Ce n*etait pas le don de la patrie qui lui manquait, mais le don de la terre. Certains dtres, en entrant dans la salle oil les autres causent et rient, arrivent par le froid de leur seule presence, k faire de chaque personne un dtre isole: Jerdme arrivait k obtenir cela des objets. Tables, lampes, tasses etaient dechus en sa presence de leurs qualites de compagnons, et devenaient des tasses, des lampes, des tables. II petrifiait la pierre, il changeait le bois en bois. (p. 137) Once a concept is established as a motivating force in the narrative neither protagonist can control the extent of its effects. Next Stephy realizes that jlrdme is gradually separating himself from her as well. Although he continues to behave toward her in a most affectionate manner, every thing he does is construed by Stephy as- a symptom of his imminent departure. Without the couple becoming involved in a single argument, the romance, which began so idyl- lically, moves inexorably to its conclusion: Mais ce n*etait pas pour cela que Stephy avait decide de fuir Jerdme ... il lui etait venu un jour, comme une illumination, l’idee que Jerdme disparaitrait bientdt. ... Il lui sembla que la dose d'inconnu qui etait en Jerdme s'epaississait encore. Cela ne se traduisait pas par des impatiences, des nerfs; tous les mouvements de j£rdme au contraire revelaient plus d'aisance, de tran- quillite, l'aisance des oiseaux qui ont decide de s'en- voler tout k l'heure. ... Elle le sentait se retirer de cette vie doucement, par un reflux lent et propre. Le silence augmentait entre eux, mais ce silence par- ticulier pendant lequel on essaye d'ouvrir sans bruit 189 une porte, ou de denouer un noeud, ou de chausser des patln8 sans que les parents entendent. Jusqu'au bruit de ses pas etait plus sourd. Il marchalt avec la len- teur des gens qui vont tout k coup prendre le galop. (pp. 142-144) The term escapist, used to criticize the work of Glraudoux, Is only partially correct. His novels must not be confused with the fiction of authors who disguise the grim realities of life by extricating their characters from difficult circumstances through the Improbable Intervention of chance or resolving antagonisms by miraculous changes of heart. Glraudoux Is an escapist author only If we understand by this term one who creates characters who possess a genuine Inability to react to unpleasant situations In a normal manner. It Is even possible to arrive at a general Giralducian formula for the treatment of unhappiness or suffering: If one of his characters is "suffering" the un happiness nearly always has a paradoxical cause. When, on the other hand, the Giralducian character Is faced with a situation which would conventionally cause suffering or unhappiness, his reaction is conditioned and his plight mitigated by the intervention of rhetoric which alters his response to the events in which he is involved. 190 Since Glraudoux ended only one of his romances with a felicitous union of the lovers, he frequently found It necessary to stylize the behavior of his protagonists at critical junctures of their love affairs to avoid displays of turbulent emotion or melancholy. This Is particularly evident In the later stages of Stephy's romance with Jerdme where the love affair Is terminated without a single alter cation or scene of recrimination between the lovers. In Glraudoux's other novels this device Is consistently applied whenever the situation might provoke an Intense or uncontrolled display of emotion. In Bella when the heroine accidentally discovers that her lover, Philippe, belongs to the Dubardeau family, she breaks off their relationship. However, when mischievous friends of the two, the Orgalesse brothers, seek to generate a scene by bringing them face to face at a Jockey Club luncheon where Bella is accompanied by her father-in-law, the arch-enemy of the Dubardeau brothers, Glraudoux intervenes with the application of several favorite devices to prevent an explosive display of emotion. The "events” of this meeting, as recounted by Philippe Dubardeau, consist of a succession of whimsical conceits which transform what would otherwise be a scene of bitter I 191 antagonism into one of secret reconciliation between the lovers. As its first essential element the scene contains a note of paradox. When Bella sits with her back to Philippe, this action is not interpreted by him as an affront or an act of cold indifference; by analogy with her attire and her coiffure, "all" of Bella's feelings and her resistance are attached from behind, so she is all the more liable to succumb to the attraction of Philippe: Elle etait ployee, elle m'offrait le fermoir de son collier, le lavage de sa robe, le noeud de ses cheveux, les boutons de sa tunique, car elle aimait dtre bouton- nee par derri&re, jamais par devant ou par cdte. Elle sentait mes regards sur elle, elle sentait que tous ses sentiments, toute sa resistance avaient leur fermoir derriere elle, j'avals sous les yeux tout ce qui pouvait la rendre nue et defaillante. (p. 141) The seating arrangement of the diners, which might have led to an antagonistic reaction between Philippe and his father's bitter enemy, becomes instead the basis for a precious metaphoric construction. When Bella does not lean in either direction during the luncheon, Philippe realizes that she is deliberately blocking his view of Rebendart: Elle etait & peu prfes immobile. Elle savait que si elle s'inclinait d'un cdte ou de l'autre, elle me devoilait la tdte de Rebendart. ... Penchee comme une proue, comme ma proue, Bella tout ce repas fendit le fleuve de mes maux, cependant que Rebendart, nouvelle sirene, tentait de l'attirer dans la jurisprudence et l'histoire par de fines attaques contre Tacite. (pp. 142-143) In characteristic fashion the protagonists, rather than express their emotions directly, act them out sym- bolically in game-like behavior involving commonplace objects. When Bella orders a cup of coffee, Philippe does likewise in a loud voice. This makes her shudder because she knows that coffee is harmful to him. Though they are seated apart, Philippe watches her and lifts his cup at "exactly" the same time as she does, in order to establish a unity between them. When Rebendart is called away to the Chamber of Deputies after Philippe orders a second and stronger cup of coffee, he credits this stroke of fortune to the coffee, which seems to have acted as a philtre (pp. 143-145). The Orgalesse brothers then succeed in bringing about the reunion of Bella and Philippe. The narrative of Eglantine in its ensemble reveals the fullest and most varied application of the principles con cerning the response of Glraudoux's characters to critical situations. Essentially Eglantine is the story of a roman tic rivalry between two elderly men for the affections of a young girl. Chapter one revealed the rhetorical basis for Eglantine's unusual attraction to both Molse and 193 Fontranges.6 The rapport between Eglantine and Fontranges, de veloped in the first chapter of the novel, represents a considerable feat of stylization. Eglantine acts out her affection for Fontranges by doing an early morning panto mime in his bedroom before he arises. In this ritual she centers her attentions on the objects and furnishings in the room, while Fontranges pretends to be sleeping. In this episode Eglantine's actions are intended to contrast whimsically with the more promiscuous conduct generally attributed to young servant girls who dally in their employer's chambers. Indeed, a situation more divorced from the conventions of realism than the "bedroom scene" between Eglantine and Fontranges can hardly be imagined. Not only do the two romantic protagonists succeed in expressing their attraction for one another without uttering a single phrase, but the symbolic con notations of their actions are so effectively communicated that they need not exchange even a glance: Rassuree par le faux sonmeil de Fontranges, le de jeuner sur la table, elle reculait le moment de tirer ^Chapter I, pp. 52-53. 194 les rideaux, elle fldnait. Fontranges l’entendit toucher les objets sur la commode. ... Tous les bruits que la jeunesse pouvait provoquer, dechatner dans cette chambre, Fontranges les entendit, dans une tendre gradation de genitifs, le claquement du poignard arabe qu'on remet au fourreau, la pluie des perles de 1'abat-jour, le bruit du bouchon du carafon de l'eau de fleurs d'oranger. ... Tous ces objets offerts par de mediocres intermediaires, mais venus d'une histoire illustre, furent effleures par des yeux et une main qui epargnaient Fontranges seul, mais il sentait que la raison de leur attrait, la condi tion de ces ebats, c'etait sa presence, (pp. 11-14) Fontranges quickly becomes a party to the game and a lengthy development ensues in which both he and Eglantine become involved in an increasingly elaborate ritual. Fontranges' preoccupation with the game causes him to reverse the entire order of his day; the daytime becomes a prelude to the act of retiring in the evening. He changes the springs on his bed so as not to disturb Eglan tine's pantomime and announces to his family that he is taking a number of art objects out of storage for examina tion, so that they will be in his room for her to touch (pp. 15-20). One day, however, Eglantine cuts herself on an Arabian dagger and runs out of the room. Shortly thereafter she is called to Paris by Fontranges' daughter, Bellita. But the ritual does not end at this point. Fontranges has occasion to go to Paris and reside with his daughter. He visits 195 Eglantine's room in the early morning and the ritual is resumed, this time with the roles reversed. Eglantine becomes conscious of Fontranges' visits and prepares the room for him by changing and replacing the objects around her (pp. 22-31). Throughout this initial phase of their relationship the stylization of their behavior is so complete that Eglantine and Fontranges "never" converse or even exchange glances during the day. The episode ends when Eglantine falls ill and needs a blood transfusion. As no profes sional donors are available, Fontranges volunteers. Be cause, in a sense, he and Eglantine have "never" looked at one another, the momentousness of the transfusion scene does not stem from the fact that the heroine is near death but because when Eglantine regains consciousness, "for the first time" she and Fontranges look into one another's eyes. Even here Giraudoux exploits the humorous possibili ties of the situation. Fontranges, one of France's most prominent aristocrats, has to worry for a moment about his blood because he is not certain that it is the right type for the transfusion: Il avait bien fallu, & l'aube, puisque les elements professionnels etaient en vadrouille, accepter l'offre 196 de ce brave hotnme, malgre son dge, et l'on avalt examine son sang. Jamais Fontranges n'avait ete aussi inquiet sur le sang des Fontranges. ... Ce serait vraiment trop b£te qu'k cause de Jean XXXVI de Spa et de ses scrofules, il dfit quitter la place de l'Alma comme il ktait venuJ ... mais par bonheur il convenait. Ni les globules de Xaintrailles, ni ceux de Beatrice d'Este, ni ceux de Marthe de Coligny ne se refusaient k sauver Eglantine. ... Eglantine ne quittait plus de ses yeux les yeux de Fon tranges. Pour ne pas lui deplaire, il regardait aussi ses yeux. C'etait ce qu'ils connaissaient le moins l’un de 1'autre, et parfois ils baissaient les paupikres sous ces regards etrangers. (pp. 37-39) After the transfusion scene Giraudoux suspends the relationship between Eglantine and Fontranges by con veniently removing the latter from Paris for a time. An entirely new phase of the novel begins with the chance meeting of Eglantine and Molse. For a while their adven tures eclipse her relationship with Fontranges. However, after a lengthy episode filled with rhetorical motifs, chance intervenes again, this time to the disadvantage of Molse. He is called to Constantinople on business, and this trip marks the end of their love affair. In the episode which ensues, Eglantine's betrayal of Molse is a systematic parody of the way in which realist writers tend to depict promiscuous relationships between elderly men and young girls. Eglantine does not seize the opportunity offered by her elderly companion's departure 197 to succumb to the attentions of a young lover. Instead, out of loyalty to Molse, she turns to the companionship of young men to protect herself from thoughts of Fontranges: Dix jours passkrent ainsi. Pour evlter de penser k Fontranges, ... elle sortit avec le jeune homme du Pont des Arts, elle s'amusa. Elle acceptait toutes les invitations, tous les jeux de ceux dont elle n'avait rien k redouter, des jeunes gens. (p. 151) However, her simple daily actions take on a pattern indicative of her changing emotions. Paradoxically Eglan tine betrays Molse by the seemingly insignificant events of her daily life even as she attends parties as an act of devotion to him: Soiis son masque habituel, celui de la modestie, la fatalite travaillait passablement dejk dans la maison de Molse. Les menus d'abord avalent change: langouste, foie gras, daubes, ces instruments de libre arbitre, Eglantine les ecartait peu k peu pour en revenir a ses menus de Fontranges, et le fromage k la crkme, deteste par Molse, avait reparu, -- infidelite — sous la forme de coeur. (p. 156) After undergoing these whimsical changes, Eglantine receives a dinner invitation from Bellita, Fontranges' daughter. Thereupon she decides to forsake Molse and re turn to the Fontranges family. Her behavior in this epi sode indicates how the same imaginative attitudes which bring the Giralducian protagonists together so spontaneously can bring about a disintegration of their relationship. 198 However, even in these fins de liaison, the characters are not capable of consciously disagreeable behavior toward one another because of the fanciful motives which provoke their actions. Nowhere are the three fundamental features of Giral- ducian anti-realism more evident than in the last two novels: Combat avec l'ange and Choix des &lues. In par ticular the third characteristic of his later style, a tendency to expand the significance of subjective phenomena by means of rhetoric, grows increasingly prominent. Major portions of the narrative are devoted to the literal de velopment of metaphoric concepts which are expanded in scope through combination with hyperbole and graphically projected into the narrative. The events which transpire between Malena and Jacques Brisson, the protagonists of Combat avec l'ange, illustrate how the literal use of metaphoric concepts profoundly alters the tenor and contents of the narrative. In the introductory episode the hero "cuts himself off" from all his earthly possessions, as well as his mistress, in preparation for a major national crisis.^ When he enters ^For an analysis of the rhetorical contents of this passage see Chapter I, pp. 17-28. 199 his office at the ministry that day he discovers, much to his surprise, a very attractive woman waiting to see him. She Is Malena Paz, a wealthy South American. In character istic Glralduclan fashion, the social tie which provokes her visit Is a tenuous one: she has come to see Jacques at the request of an old friend, Jean Chouteau, who lived In Argentina and Chile. Admittedly she is a little late: Chouteau has been dead for ten years. Since his death Malena has tried twice to get in touch with Jacques: by sending a post card of a llama when she was a little girl and by having his name called on the loud speaker of the casino at Biaritz some years later. Malena is married, a fact which might be disturbing to any but a Glralduclan hero. Certainly her status would normally create complications in the development of a romantic relationship. Any such consequences are entirely precluded by a series of metaphorically inspired "events" for which the hero is responsible. Although Jacques is immediately attracted to Malena, he is not the least bit perturbed by her marital status. Instead he worries if Malena is another "Annie" in disguise: ... encore fallait-il m'assurer, en regardant, en ecoutant Mallna, si Annie ne s'itait pas glissee sous 200 ce masque et si, — cela aussi etait possible— , toutes les femmes pour moi ne seraient pas desormais Annie. Que cette femme me prouve qu'une Annie attenuee ou amplifiee ne se reformerait pas dans quelques mois der- rikre cette apparence neuve, et l'on verrait. Tout pourrait recommencer pour moi, et dfes aujourd'hui, si ce n*4tait pas un recommencement, (p. 23) The first episode in the romance between Jacques and Malena consists of these expanded interpretations given by Jacques to Malena's actions during her presence in his office. With behavior identical to Stephy's during her romance with Jerdme, Jacques projects dramatic inventions into his relationship with Malena almost from the moment he sees her. When he left Annie, he feared that "all" the women he met would be engaged in a conspiracy to avenge her: Tant que je n'assaillerais pas k nouveau l'une d'elles de mes ongles, de mes genoux et de ma salive, assaut qui ferait A nouveau de moi k leurs yeux 1'auteur de l'ange de Reims, des tableaux de Raphael, de Werther et de Dominique, tant que je vivrais dans cet isolement d'elles qu'elles croient le mepris d'elles, les femmes n'al- laient plus Stre qu'une societe secrkte chargee de me reprocher le manque de conscience des fabricants de bas de soie, la prostitution et le fibrome. Je pensais que la visiteuse etait la premikre deleguee de ce chantage, (pp. 19-20) The principal importance of Malena*s visit then centers about Jacques' notion that she has come to thwart this imaginary plot: 201 Mais, quand la porte s'ouvrit, je comprls que j'avals une bien trop haute Idee de la solidarite des femmes. La vue de ce visage Innocent ne laissait aucun doute: celle-la venait les trahir. ... Son sourire, son empressement, sa coquetterie, sa parole un peu emue et vollee temoignaient que, de la minute ou elle avait paru, le monde ne vivait plus sur 1 ' axiome de mon insensibilite, de mon dedain, mais sur celui de ma generosite, de ma tendresse, de mon audace ... je voyais tout son corps convaincu du tort d'Annie, convaincu de mon innocence et empresse k me le dire. De tous ses reflets, de tous ses froissements, de tout son eclat, il etait mon avocat auprfes de moi, 11 m'absolvait de ce manque d'dme auquel j'avals ete prSt a croire moi-meme. (pp. 20-21) In gratitude he invites her to attend a concert and she accepts. For a time the romance progresses smoothly. During this initial phase of their affair, Jacques' conception of what happens between them continues to determine the con tents of the narrative. His transformation of personal feelings into "events" which appear to happen independently of his own volition lends a poetic scope and significance to the relationship, while imperceptibly detaching the protagonists from the concerns and obstacles which custom arily occupy the center of a narrative: Alors que chacune de mes precedentes aventures m*avait surtout rapproche de 1'ensemble des femmes, celle-la m'isolait d'elles toutes. Quelle liberte! Quel repos.' Pour la premiere fois j'aimais dans une femme autre chose qu'une entremetteuse. Un vernis, un brillant etait soudain tombe de toutes les autres. Elies etaient tou jour s aussi belles ou aussi fardees, mais je les voyais 202 ternes. ... Mais du plus loin j'apercevais, k travers brouillard ou cohue, le visage de Malena frotte de son phosphore, et tous les soirs je m'unissais, en la retrouvant, k une illumination. Nous etions vraiment sortis de la file; nous aimions vraiment pour notre propre compte, et sans avoir k prendre, sur cet amour, en pitie, en exaltation ou en complications sentimen- tales cette ran$on que l'univers m*avait reclamee toutes les autres fois, pour je ne sais quelle cagnotte. (pp. 51-52) In evaluating these effects, it is important to bear in mind that a removal of normal events precludes the de velopment of any conventionally motivated actions on the part of Giraudoux's protagonists. Romantic complications arising from events which are purely rhetorical in origin may then lead to reactions deliberately opposed to what the reader anticipates. Malena and Jacques' first problem stems from the anti thetical nature of their respective milieus: Malena has been oriented to happiness, and Jacques must hide the fact Q that he belongs to an "unhappy continent." He is success ful until the accidental meeting on the bridge over the Seine. Here he and Malena surprise each other by appearing with an imaginary "rival"; that is, each is promenading with the idealized image he has of the other.^ ®Chapter IV, pp. 158-161. 9Chapter II, pp. 81-82. 203 This source of conflict, which is so completely divorced from the conventional causes for anger or jealousy, provokes a totally paradoxical reaction on the part of the heroine, as compared to the romantic aspirations of young women in traditional fiction. In order to measure up to the noble stature of "the other Malena” whom she saw walk ing on the bridge with Jacques, Malena realizes that she must "suffer,” and begins a quest "to find unhappiness.” Because of the obstinate interference of her servant Amparo and the timely message received by Jacques from the throat of a toad,Malena's ultimate plan to sacrifice herself is thwarted. In this ironic fashion Combat avec l'ange is the only one of the later Giralducian romances which ends "happily." In each of these later novels the departure from realism, which began in Simon le pathetique, becomes pro gressively more pronounced. In Combat avec l'ange a mar ried woman carries on an affair with a lover, without any mention being made of her husband's involvement. In Choix des 6lues the husband again plays a small part, while the 10Chapter III, pp. 123-124. 204 lover who Is central to the narrative, Is actually an imaginative creation of the heroine. The three principles of Glralduclan anti-realism are again systematically applied from the beginning of Choix des £lues. First, he deliberately makes his characters behave in paradoxical opposition to what the reader antici pates; secondly, he stylizes their actions euphemistically in any critical situations; and lastly, he relies on the transformation of whimsical subjective impressions into objectively ascertainable "events." Paradox, the first element in the Glralduclan tech nique, is evident in the rift between husband and wife. Usually the inability of a husband to measure up to his wife's ideal of manliness, social success, or intellectual prowess is presented as a cause for marital difficulty. The contrary is true of the Giralducian menage. Pierre, Edmee’s husband, is tall, handsome, and intelligent. And while he admires men of similar stature and prowess, his wife instinctively seeks out the company of men whom he regards as nondescript: ... 1*education qu'avait voulu lui donner son marl sur les hommes n'avait pas atteint son but. Edmee n'arrivait pas, malgre les lemons, k distinguer aussi nettement que 205 lui les hommes ldches, paresseux, travailleurs, et meme — c'est a cette distinction qu'aurait peut-6tre le plus tenu Pierre, qui etait grand et beau, — les petits et les grands, les laids et les beaux. Elle ressentait vis-a-vis de tous une espece de bonne volonte, de fra- temite, qui se traduisait fort bien, dans les soirees au clair de lune, par une promenade avec le plus gros ventre, ou (malgre la lune elle ne le voyait pas), avec le crdne le plus chauve. Pierre souffrait de cette impulssance de sa femme k le distinguer de ses subal- temes en apparence et en force, plus encore que de 1*ignorance, d'ou rien n'£tait parvenu & la tirer, de ses merites de polytechnicien et d'ingenieur. (p. 27) From the onset the "rift" between Edmee and Pierre has a paradoxical basis: her attraction for insignificant men. Much of their "unhappiness" steins from a cause so whimsical that the reader is amused rather than disturbed by what transpires, just as he is in reading other critical situ ations in Giraudoux's novels. To avoid the incidents and circumstances normally associated with so tense a theme as marital infidelity, the author must continue to develop the rift in a delightfully contradictory manner. Notably absent are the usual scenes of recrimination and jealousy. The intervention of several rhetorical devices effectively euphemizes the ensuing events. As is true throughout the work of Giraudoux, Pierre is never confronted with a specific rival. Though it is mentioned that at parties Edmee inevitably may be found 206 walking in the moonlight in the company of the man with the most prominent stomach or the baldest head, the narrative never focuses on any precise incidents. Instead, Pierre becomes jealous of himself. He assumes that because Edmee is attracted to men not for physique or intellect, she must have married him simply because he was "the first man who entered her life." Cette femme l'aimait, non parce qu'il etait beau, courageux, intelligent, — les concours de polytech nique ne sont pas des preuves infaillibles, mais si vous Stes classe premier k 1*entree et premier k la sortie, on ne saurait quand mSme parler de coinci dence, — mais parce qu'il 1*avait le premier demandee en mariage! C' etait lk le premier des hommes pour cette jeune fille extraordinaire: le premier qui l'in- viterait k monter dans son lit. Si lui, Pierre, etait arrive un mois plus tard, cela aurait pu Stre le lit d*un bkgue ou d'un bossu! (p. 28) Pierre's reaction becomes the basis for a further paradox; he wishes he had a rival to vanquish. In addi tion, he has the bizarre experience of being made a cuckold by himself: Parfois, il souhaitait la voir remarquer un homme, se plaire avec un homme. Alors il aurait eu un ennemi. II edt pu vaincre. II eflt vaincu. Mais que pouvait- il contre cette masse ou il etait le premier confondu, et ou il se trompait avec lui-mSme? (p. 30) It is interesting to note that Giraudoux's reaction to the conventional situations of realist fiction was so 207 emphatic and sustained that protagonists in his last two novels become their own rivals: Malena in Combat avec 1 *anee and Edmee's husband in Choix des £lues. Pierre's manner of reacting to this "betrayal" creates another euphemistic pattern of conflict. A new antagonism develops, but no parties outside the family are involved in the dispute. As an act of retaliation against his wife's passionate interest in nondescript men, Pierre cultivates an interest in great historic figures, and displays their portraits in his study. His preoccupation with these per sonages replaces other sources of misunderstanding. Not only does Edmee consider them her in-laws, but they are a whimsical substitute for one of the harshest and most frequent causes for dispute between husband and wife in realist fiction: a mistress. The fact that some of the illustrious historical personalities are women provides the basis for an ingenious conceit: Pierre betrays his wife with Charlotte Corday, Louise Labbe, and Madame du ChUtelet: C'est ainsi que peu k peu, dans il ne savait quel instinct de defense, il avait ete amene k prendre le parti des grands hommes contre cette fenme, qui, dans un mutisme inexplicable, s'obstinait k decliner leur presence. Les murs de son bureau etaient illustres de portraits authentiques des grands musiciens, des grands 208 ecrivains, et l'on pouvait meme voir parmi eux, moins authentiques evidemment, les auteurs de grandes oeuvres qu'Edmee eOt triomphe de savoir anonymes: L'Odyssee, la Bible et la Chanson de Roland. Il y avait mime ajoute le portrait de Charlotte Corday, pour prouver qu'il etait aussi de grandes femmes. C'£tait la seule trahison qu'il se fOt jamais permise; il trompait sa femne avec Charlotte Corday, avec Louise Labbe, avec sa collfegue Mme du Chdtelet, la mathematicienne. Edmee admettait cette galerie, c'etait les portraits de sa belle famille. ... (p. 34) In the interplay of rhetorical motifs contained in the ensuing narrative, the most radical anti-realistic effects are achieved through a literal projection of metaphoric concepts, derived from the moods of the heroine, onto the objects of her environment.^^ This device is reminiscent of the technique which Giraudoux used to alter and enliven Suzanne’s island environment in Suzanne et le Pacifique, his first completely stylized novel. By the same means, in Choix des £lues, Giraudoux transforms one of the most hack neyed tum-of-the-century fictional situations, the drame dfadultere, and makes it a source of poetically animated 12 narrative. 11 Chapter I, pp. 34-37. 1 2 Chapter III, pp. 125-129. CONCLUSION EFFECTS OF RHETORIC AND FANCY ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE NARRATIVE The preceding chapters, which elucidate the mechanics of Giraudouxfs narration, demonstrate that any complete comprehension of his unusual style must be based on an awareness that the salient events of the narrative have been Inspired primarily by an Intense desire to contradict the notions of behavior associated with realist fiction. It Is almost axiomatic that Giraudoux's characters will react In a manner whimsically or paradoxically opposed to the expectations of a reader familiar with realist novels. In the execution of this design Giraudoux*s chief re source was an original use of hyperbole, antithesis, and metaphor. When applied with literal force to the narra tive, either separately or In combination, these devices enabled Giraudoux to invent exceedingly fanciful motives for his characters' actions. By this means he succeeded 209 210 In transcending the laws of behavior which nineteenth cen tury positivism had bequeathed to the French novel. However, a final evaluation of this unusual use of rhetoric and fancy necessarily depends on an examination of its effect on the over-all structure of the narrative. If we compare the outstanding episodes of these novels with one another, they have a significant feature in common: the tendency of the characters to conform to precisely formu lated codes of conduct. In substituting rhetorically in spired behavior for the motivational patterns found in realist fiction, Guraudoux employed a system of causation more rigid than the one he replaced. It was this quality which caused Albert Thibaudet to describe Giraudoux*s style as systematique k rebours.^ And in 1940 Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a revealing study of the peculiar results of this substitute system of causation in Choix des filues. He notes the curious fact that Giraudoux's fiction has many characteristics in common with the private world of the schizophrenic: ... dfes que l'on ouvre un de ses romans, on a 1'impres sion d'acceder h . l'univers d'un de ces rSveurs eveilles ^Reflexions sur le roman, p. 84. 211 que la medecine nomne "schizophrknes" et dont le propre est, comme on salt, de ne pouvolr s'adapter au reel. Tous les traits princlpaux de ces malades, leur raldeur, leurs efforts pour nler le changement, pour se masquer le present, leur ^eometrisme, leur goflt pour les syme- trles, pour les generalisations, les symboles, pour les correspondances maglques k travers le temps et 1'espace, M. Giraudoux les reprend k son compte, les £labore avec art, et ce sont eux qui font le charme de ses livres. Sartre does not criticize the novel on this basis, but accepts It as a self-contained fictional creation. He objects to It only because It Is almost entirely devoid of accidental or spontaneous change, and contends that It presents a ’ ’ ready-made" world In which any Interplay of random circumstances Is prohibited. The unpredictable con catenation of events which comprises "the present" in fiction, according to Sartre, is almost entirely banished from the world of Giraudoux. The extraordinary conse quence, he argues, is that no "real events" occur In Choix desjfilues: On volt ce qu'est le monde de Choix des tilues: un atlas de botanique, ou toutes les espkces sont soigneuse- ment classees, ou la pervenche est bleue parce qu'elle est pervenche, ou les laurlers-roses sont roses parce qu'ils sont laurlers. La seule causalite y est celle des archetypes. Ce monde ignore le determinisme, c’est k dire l'efficience de l'£tat anterleur. Mais vous n'y 2 Situations (Paris, 1947), p. 82. 212 recontrerez pas non plus d'evenement, si vous entendez par lk 1*Irruption d'un phenomkne neuf, dont la nouveaute mfone depasse toutc attente et bouleverse 1'ordre des concepts. II n'y a gukre de changement que ceux de la matlkre sous 1'action de la forme. (Situations, pp. 86-87) This criticism of Choix des £lues Is somewhat Ironic when we consider that Giraudoux's primary purpose was to Introduce novelty Into his narration by systematically contradicting conventional notions of behavior. Neverthe less, Sartre's complaint Is valid with regard to a dis turbingly large percentage of the events In Giraudoux's novels. Once the author has established a rhetorical design as a basis for a character's behavior, normal causation Is suspended. Since any "event" recounted Is necessarily a manifestation of the particular conceit which occasioned Its Invention, accidental happenings rarely occur. In the course of the novel, therefore, most changes which take place are dictated by the rhetorical formulae which successively govern the progress of the narrative. Sartre's observation regarding the predetermined nature of events In Choix des tilues becomes all the more significant when we apply It to several of the episodes of Giraudoux*s other novels. The scene from Combat avec l'ange which served In the first chapter as an example 213 of Giraudoux*s rhetorical technique Illustrates this sort of determinisme h rebours. When Jacques Brlsson recounts the three losses Which he suffers at the beginning of the narrative, he Is not the least bit disturbed by what has happened, a strange reaction If we regard the losses as the result of a normal chain of cause and effect. Instead of seeking to understand these losses, as one would If they were accidental, Jacques offers an Imaginative formula to o explain their occurrence. As soon as we accept his theory that objects detach themselves from him "on their own," none of the losses can be regarded as chance happenings. Rather than upset the order of the protagonist's life, they serve to exemplify a concept which he wishes to impose upon events. In fact, one senses that these losses are only consequential insofar as they serve to support this con cept. Such formulae need not require a special aptitude on the part of the character, such as Jacques' unique ability to arrive at crises unemcumbered. In a number of Instances circumstances alone are responsible for the development of an eccentricity. Often it takes the form of a habit 3 Chapter I, pp. 18-19. 214 arbitrarily imposed by the author. Giraudoux used this type of overstatement in his first novel, Simon le pathe- tique, to create colorful behavior patterns without appar ently being fully aware of its potentialities. However, even in these comparatively simple early applications of overstatement, we may observe the peculiarly rigid quality of the behavior which it creates. An excellent example of this type of construction is contained in Simon's statement that his family traveled "only" to funerals.^ Normally one might expect this information to be included in a descrip tion of the hardships of Simon's early life. But Giraudoux has not mentioned this detail to show that Simon's family had little money; instead it serves as a basis for an unusual reaction to railway stations. It is this reaction which gives his behavior its uniqueness, not the fact that his family was poor. A more realistic description of his background might reveal that occasionally Simon's family did travel for some reason other than a funeral. However, since the author has established the behavior pattern so that it will be accepted literally, it is most unlikely 4 Chapter II, p. 67. 215 that he will Introduce any information which might contra dict it. This is equally true of the more elaborate con structions based on overstatement in the later novels: if any specific incidents are narrated, they must be intro duced to support the hyperbolic pattern, rather than attenuate it. The following significant consequences, then, may be derived in connection with Giraudoux's use of hyperbole to fashion his characters' behavior. The introduction of such concepts forces his protagonists into patterns of conduct characterized by strict adherence to preconceived formulae. The prevailing pattern is never probed; there are no con flicts or vacillations of mood, since all actions conform to the hyperbolic construction, rather than contradict it. Elaboration of specific incidents is rare because estab lishing the pattern, not developing the incidents which illustrate it, is the author's paramount concern. Another important feature of these constructions is their temporal extension. Simon, for instance, did not acquire his abhor rence for railway stations from one incident in his child hood, but from a succession of uniform experiences. As was demonstrated in Chapter III, patterns based on overstatement are particularly evident in the treatment 216 of certain minor characters, notably those which figure episodically In the early novels of the twenties. In Juliette au navs des hommes the principal activity in the life of the heroine's uncle is the building of statues to illustrious traitors. Such a concept has Inherent novelty, by virtue of the fact that the uncle's purpose for erecting statues is diametrically opposed to convention. However, in order to maintain the full effect of the paradox, the character must act in strict accordance with the eccen tricity initially attributed to- him. Not only the uncle himself, but every situation in which he is Involved must comply with the formula in some way. In such developments the author's entire inventive energy is devoted to a whim sical elaboration of the original conceit. Even the pea cocks which reside in the park where Juliette's uncle has his statues are made to conform to the pattern. Because they have deserted the country of their origin, they too are traitors.^ Occasionally whimsical deviations from the pattern arise. By attaching his dog to the statue of Judas, ^Chapter IV, p. 141. 217 Juliette's uncle unwittingly changes it into a symbol of fidelity: Dominant la cressormikre, le monument de Judas, petit obelisque en granlt des Vosges, h oreillettes de fonte auxquelles il attachalt son chien, le transformant d'ailleurs ainsi en monument de la fidellte. But, as Sartre observes, these occasional variations have significance only in relation to the formula they con tradict : ... la revue generale avec exception poetique ou gentille ou comique est un de ses procedes les plus familiers. Mais cet irrespect dont il [Giraudoux] fait montre a l'egard de l'ordre etabli ne peut avoir de sens que par rapport k cet ordre m£me. Chez M. Giraudoux, comne dans la sagesse des proverbes, 1'exception n'est lk que pour confirmer la rkgle.7 The literalness with which Giraudoux imposes these patterns on his characters is evidenced on several occa sions by the fact that they even effect serious physio logical modifications. When Macques, the narrator in Siegfried et le Limousin, describes his meeting with Zelten after the war, he notes that only the left side of his Q friend's body was affected by the four year ordeal. ^Juliette au pays des hommes, p. 21. ^Situations, p. 85. g Siegfried et le Limousin, pp. 25-26. 218 In Combat avec l’ange Malena Paz's aptitude £or happiness has been so thoroughly Ingrained that she Is organically Incapable of experiencing any contrary sensations.9 No doubt Emmanuel Ratie In Juliette au pays des hop""*>« Is the most extreme example of a Glralduclan character corporally affected by hyperbole. Since his every action Is Inter rupted by a moment In which his body assumes an attitude of pride, he appears to suffer from a pathological nervous condition. Giraudoux's hyperbolic concepts often Involve more than one person. Once established, they appear to expand Independently of the characters' volition. The morning rendez-vous of Bella Rebendart and Philippe Dubardeau Illustrate the seemingly magical pervasiveness of such constructions. The pattern begins with Philippe's state ment: "Mon amie ne trouvait de llberte qu'h l'aurore."^ Characteristically, the author's purpose precludes any mention of the causes for this restriction. It also ^Chapter IV, pp. 158-159. ^Chapter IV, p. 147. ^Chapter IV, p. 151. 219 eliminates any actions on the part of the lovers which would disrupt the uniformity of their behavior. Perhaps Bella and Philippe go out at night occasionally, but it would be pointless and even detrimental for Giraudoux to mention any such activities. Actually most of the condi tions which Philippe describes in the episode are projec tions of his own lyric mood. They are the "only" lovers in Paris who embrace at such an early hour, and "each" tree in the park gives them its maximum fragrance. The whimsical effects of the initial paradox are also sustained by many of Philippe's observations. He comments that Bella is able to use the workers' half fare to go to their meetings. And his walks to these rendez-vous involve an equally peculiar circumstance. Traditionally a man going to meet his mistress considers purchases in antique shops, jewelry stores, and rare book establishments; when Philippe walks to meet Bella, the "only" thing offered in the shop windows is sunlight. Cette marche h . cremaillere vers leurs amantes qui tnbne d*habitude les amants par des boutiques d'antiquaires, de perles ou de livres rares, je l'accomplissais tous les jours par des rues h magasins fermes, tous les jours par un dimanche. C'£tait la seule heure ou l'on entende les cloches sonner dans Paris. Le soleil seul se dis- tribuait sur les devantures closes comne la seule denree, 220 le 8eul vStement, la seule antiquite k vendre. J'ache- tals tout sans concurrence. * In such passages Giraudoux's preciosity is particu larly evident; any invention in the course of the narrative is devoted to an ingenious perpetuation and elaboration of the prevailing construction. Even the major events of the world fit into the established pattern: Nous nous etreignions non pas dans l'atmosphkre de la Bourse, dans les relents du change, des courses, dans les nouvelles d'un jour dejk gdte pour les hommes qu'annoneent le Temps et 1*Intransigeant. mais dans les grandes lumikres nouvelles qu'apporte le matin, tremble- ment de terre au Japon, revolution au Bresll, ou nau- frages de cuirasses, (p. 30) It is not surprising then that throughout their rela tionship, anything accidental is banished from the narra tive. When Bella brushes against a worker, the smudge of plaster which remains is described by Philippe as her only make-up: Elle debarquait au metro des Champs-Elysees, la station k cette heure aussi la plus select, presque reservee aux macons et aux plfttriers dont elle portait parfois le pldtre sur sa robe, son seul fard. (p. 31) Obviously the encounters with the plasterers are not truly accidental occurrences, since they have arisen in the 12Bella, p. 30. 221 author's mind as further means of developing his original conceit. Hyperbole Is not always Imposed upon characters by circumstance; because of Its effectiveness as an antl- realist device, Giraudoux often used It to endow them with a peculiar aptitude for organizing their own lives along lines dictated by overstatement. By these patterns he gives the impression that his characters have discovered a secret law which, If followed explicitly, will lead to the successful fulfillment of whatever alms they seek to accom plish. In such Instances, hyperbole evolves from a single device for expressing emotional enthusiasm into a precise and efficient design for living, a kind of magical formula which banishes unpredicted happenings from the lives of the protagonists. A certain penchant for devising such formulae is displayed by the characters in Simon le pathe- tique. During the latter part of his European tour Simon discovers his ability to travel in accordance with "the world's true schedule." He is able to time his arrivals in foreign countries to coincide with the occurrence of 222 1 1 major events in each location. Later in the novel Simon* 8 girl friend, Anne, tries to organize their courtship in accordance with a whimsical but regulatory concept: — J*ai fait dejh avec vous le tour de Paris; h mesure que sera reconnue notre amitle, nous £largirons le cercle, nous ferons l'an prochain le tour des cathe- drales. dans deux ans les chdteaux, dans trois ans les cdtes. It is interesting to note that Simon interprets her precise plans for their future travels as an attempt to create "false ties" between them. "C*est ainsi qu*h nouveau elle s'ingeniait k enlacer de faux liens autour de nous, alors que je la tenais dans mes bras" (p. 180). By means of hyperbole Giraudoux creates characters which possess an amazing variety of whimsical aptitudes. This enables them to re-arrange their lives on the basis of poetic principles; however, the very efficiency of their formulae often results in behavior regulated by an in flexible design. From the standpoint of the narrative it matters little whether this design is imposed by the author 13 Chapter II, p. 70. 14 / ■ Simon le pathetique, p. 179. 223 directly, or by one of his characters. The persons in** volved tend to become prisoners of the very concepts which originally released them from prosaic motivation. A com parison of the hyperbolic behavior apparent in two inci dental figures, Frank Warrin in Choix des filues and Nancy Rollat in Combat avec l'ange illustrates this. Frank Warrin*s life demonstrates a paradoxical truth: chance encounters, if regarded with the proper degree of poetic insight, can be more intense than prolonged human relations in which emotional rapport is dulled by routine. For some mysterious reason beyond his control, every satis factory romantic episode in his life has been of brief duration. Le caractere des aventures de Frank avait toujours ete d’etre imprevues et de ne durer qu'une seconde. D c » celles qui avaient dure plus d*une seconde 11 n*avait pas lieu d'etre trks satisfait; mais, d'un tram h 1'autre, dans une gare, d'un autobus h . un taxi arretes par le meme agent, d'un bateau montant A un bateau descendant, 11 avait eu une serie d*intrigues ful- gurantes, qui comportaient l'eblouissement, 1'accord, 1'adieu, avec la femme qu'un courant de monde inverse au sien amenait fugitivement k sa hauteur. ^ Paramount in Nancy Rollat's life is her constant struggle to "keep out of the way" of the destructive powers Choix des £lues, p. 160. 224 of destiny. Everything she does is an effort to avoid these forces. Tous ses actes, qui en apparence etaient les mouvements naturels d'une jeune femme riche, legkrement portee k la solitude, reprksentaient en realite une lutte forcenee pour la sauvegarde des biens et pour 1*existence. Sous le masque de la docillte, de la complaisance, de l'en- jouement, Nancy avait entrepris contre les catastrophes du monde humain un combat personnel, conscient ou demi- consclent, par lequel s'expliquaient ses moindres decisions. ® The most striking feature of this construction is the unusually high conceptual plane on which It enables her to live. If her fears were unreasoned or her actions hys terical, there would be nothing paradoxical about her be havior; it is the rhetorical, secretly ordered quality of her conduct which makes her unique. In reality she is living out a pattern of behavior which, though capricious in appearance, is actually dictated by her systematic adherence to her peculiar beliefs. Si elle n'accompagnait pas Bellita k Trieste, ce n'est pas qu'elle detestdt les crolsikres, c’ltait que les aiguilles sismiques y avaient donne un signe d'agitation. Si elle avait vendu sa proprietl de Meaux, c'est qu'elle en avait assez des invasions, et non pas, comme elle le disait, de la chasse. (p. 82) 16 Combat avec l'ange, p. 81. 225 The events which concern Nancy Rollat, though color ful, are necessarily stripped of the kind of contingencies which would cause them to appear spontaneous. Perhaps the greatest weakness of this type of construction is the uni formity of behavior which it necessitates. The characters endure no emotional vicissitudes, nor are they able to develop on the basis of their experiences. In many ways, antithesis is an almost inevitable out growth of Giraudoux's use of overstatement. Because he tends to group his characters' actions into static patterns of behavior, there is rarely a chance for conflict or change except by this means. As Claude-Edmonde Magny points out, Giraudoux uses antithesis to combat the mo notony of hyperbolic constructions. L'antithfese prend ainsi chez Giraudoux une fonction nouvelle, romanesque cette fois: elle est le proc£de dont il se sert pour essayer de rendre vivants ses personnages. ...” Giraudoux introduces this device in two ways: as a source of conflict between individuals and as a means of metamorphosis in a single person. The dynamic possibili ties of antithesis allow a more dramatic development of ^Precieux Giraudoux, p. 59. 226 the narrative than overstatement alone. The romance between Eglantine and Molse includes an excellent example of the expanded use of antithesis as a whimsical source of conflict in the later novels. The principal difficulty of the lovers stems from the fact that they do not conduct 18 their lives "on the same level." Despite the novelty of this kind of opposition as a source of conflict, the background of both protagonists must be rigidly controlled to insure an effective applica tion of antithesis to the narrative. The fact that Holse has "gravitated earthward" is the principal "event" nar rated in each of his love affairs. Any distinctive psy chological effects which the individual relationships might have had upon him are excluded in favor of an imaginative elaboration of this conceit. Likewise, in the case of Eglantine, although a considerable number of facts are related concerning her behavior as a young girl, any activity narrated is devised solely for the purpose of establishing a pattern of behavior opposed to that of Holse. ^Chapter II, pp. 76-79. in These antithetical constructions may have as great a prolongation as those of simple overstatement. This is evident in the genealogy of the Font ranges family.^ Vari ations within the antithetical patterns are as impossible as in designs based on simple overstatement. Fontranges' genealogy results in another mechanical pattern; any event in the family history is included to support the anti thesis. Instead of developing an opposition between two indi viduals or groups, antithetical patterns may bring about a complete change in one particular individual. An outstand ing example is the metamorphosis which takes place in Molse after his meeting with Eglantine. After several encounters with Eglantine, Molse discovers that he is becoming hand some. Molse prenait de l'dge, mais aussi de l'apparence. Les banquiers ses contemporains, qu'il avait depasses k trente ans en influence, k quarante en fortune, k cin quant e en generosite, voilk maintenant, aux abords de la soixantaine, qu'il les laissait sur place en beaute.^O We must constantly bear in mind that Giraudoux's primary motivation is to make his characters' conduct ^Chapter I, p. 39. ^lSglantine, p. 71. 228 dramatically contradict what the reader regards as normal. Therefore the switch from one type of behavior to another must be striking and instantaneous. In the case of Molse*s transformation Giraudoux presents a situation which totally contradicts conventional notions of reality: normally men do not grow handsome at the age of sixty. To accomplish this, the change from one type of behavior to another must be striking and instantaneous. As soon as the "metamor phosis" has occurred, Giraudoux presents a lengthy segment of narrative composed of details chosen with the sole pur pose of intensifying the contrast between the "old" and the "new" Molse. Ever since childhood Molse*s conception of himself as repulsive has consistently affected his behavior. Enfant, Molse croyait que l*on s’habille parce que le corps est laid. Avec quelle hdte, le soir, au coucher, il passait de ses vStements h la nult! Cela ne lui faisait par jour qu*tme seconde de laideur et il aimait dejk 1*ombre comme son plus beau vetement. II aimait la nuit comme la moitie de la joumee oil l'humanite est belle, (p. 72) Characteristically, this section of narrative includes no deviations from this attitude, no incidents in which Molse experienced ambivalence about his unpleasant appear ance. It would be just as pointless for the author 229 to probe the causes of the change, since this would seriously weaken its magical quality. From a state of affairs determined by Molse’s ugliness, the narrative jumps to one in which every event narrated is dependent upon his being handsome. La vieillesse raffermissait ses chairs, assechait les sources de furoncles, ses rides d'enfance se comblaient. ... II se surprit, rue de la Paix, arrSte entre deux magasins de bijoux, devant le miroir, miroir etroit dans lequel d'allleurs son reflet n'edt etonne jadis en lui disant qu'un jour, alors que le plus beau rubis de l'univers etait en vitrine deux metres & sa droite, la plus belle perle deux metres h sa gauche, 11 pr£fererait s’attarder k considerer sa propre image et la nouvelle tallle que la providence faisait de lui. (pp. 72-74) Even if one regards Molse's meeting with Eglantine as the accidental cause of his metamorphosis, everything which ensues seems to transpire independently of her influence, once the event has occurred. Molse etait en bonne fortune avec Molse. Il le con- duisait dans des restaurants plus secrets, lui com- mandait une cuisine plus subtile. ... Il s'estimait de ne plus se sentir, dans les beaux spectacles, devant les belles emotions, une surcharge trop hideuse. Dans les concerts, il etait fier d'apporter h Mozart, au lieu de sa puissance et de ses millions, un corps qui ne faisait plus craquer le fauteuil, un corps anonyme. ... Ce sar- casme qui s'ltalt toujours interposl entre lui et la beaute, ou plutdt, comme il disalt maintenant avec plus de politesse, entre la beaute et lui, s'attenuait Tou jours, devant Naples ou le Niagara, Molse avait pense: — Comme tout cela serait beau, si je n'ltais pas lb! Voilh qu'il ne se jugeait plus deplacee au pied du Grand Cafion ou des Pyramides, qu'il pouvait St re ce voyageur 230 anonyme que les pelntres de la Malson Carrie ou de Tivoli placent dans 1*angle de la toile, presque une signature humaine. Il ne s'Icartait plus des monuments, les jours ou 11 Italt sensible, comae des depdts d'une electricite pour lui funeste. (pp. 75-76) As long as antithesis predominates, Molse'8 every action is dictated by it; and in this respect, he is a typical Giral- ducian character. The accidental occurrences in the lives of the protagonists who are involved in antithetical constructions are as limited as they are when the charac ters are governed by simple overstatement. Chance happenings are more frequently introduced into the narrative through metaphor than by antithesis. With out depending on a lengthy, habitual pattern, they enter the narrative quite spontaneously, supported only by the characters' aptitude for figurative thought. An early example of this penchant occurs in Simon le pathetique when Anne accuses the hero of not personifying anything for her. Her use of this criterion for evaluating her friends comes as a complete surprise to Simon. This preoccupation precipitates an incident in which Simon must prove his superiority over Anne's favorite personifications. 21Chapter II, p. 83. 231 In combination with hyperbole, the most quixotic meta phoric effects are achieved. There is a hint of this in the thoughts which Simon attributes to Anne: "Elle se taisait, elle pensalt A l'inconnu, entrevu sur une im- periale ou dans une foule, ami supreme" (p. 118). Because of the incidental nature of this remark, it merely fore shadows a significant quality of the later characters: the capacity for imaginative affinities with other human beings and with objects of their environment. In the later novels it is precisely this combination that involves characters with one another on the basis of totally fanciful motiva tions. In these novels a further important transformation results from this combination. Not only does it provide unusual motivations, but it enables metaphoric "events" to happen, apparently independent of the characters' volition. And these events, in turn, form the basis for further be havior inspired by metaphor. The protagonists retain an aptitude for metaphoric thinking, but those constructions which are given hyperbolic "reality" become more than fanciful ways for conceiving of things. The reader is forced to accept the idea that they have "happened"— in a literal sense. 232 These more radical applications of metaphoric concepts in the postwar novels may be seen when we compare the "events" which caused Juliette's departure from Aigueperse with Anne's personifications. Juliette's motives for going to Paris are entirely paradoxical: when she finds that she has become insensitive to her home town, she does not attribute the unhappiness to her provincial environment, but to an "action" which she herself performed in the past: because she "gave" several Juliettes to men who passed through the town when she was an adolescent, she must "reassemble" herself before her marriage to Gerard.^ In the later novels Giraudoux concerned himself with transforming metaphoric concepts into concrete events. One senses that the author's principal objective in such epi sodes is to give whimsical longevity to his conceit, rather than make any profound psychological discoveries. As has been pointed out previously in this study, it is this hyper-literal use of metaphor which distinguishes Girau doux' s style from that of other modern authors who make extensive use of imagery. The uniqueness of these meta phorically inspired episodes and the spontaneity of their 22Chapter II, p. 72. 233 Invention tends to obscure the kind of problems which arise when we carefully and logically examine their relationship to the structure of the narrative. Giraudoux's combination of hyperbole and metaphor creates a set of structural problems totally different from the one8 which arose in connection with hyperbole and anti thesis used separately. Since metaphor is as easily applied to natural phenomena as to the actions of humans, a wide *age of effects was obtained when he applied the devices together with literal force. The power of these techniques applied to nature is illustrated in Suzanne et le Pacifique where the heroine imposes a sequence of unusual notions on her surroundings from the moment she begins her imaginative life as a castaway. The first really significant event of her stay on the island occurs when she establishes the analogy between events there and her situation at home so emphati cally that it appears to be intrinsic to her surroundings, 23 rather than of her own invention. The bird which pecks her on the forehead in the early morning is likened to 23Chapter III, pp. 92-93. 234 the governess who awakens her at home. In the course of her stay, she Imposes a considerable number of these con ceits on the phenomena around her, all of which seem to occur over a considerable period of time independently of her volition. For this unusual effect to be achieved, it is essential that we regard these inventions as having a completely objective reality. However, if we do so, a curious difficulty arises— they appear to be mutually ex clusive— a fact which is not apparent when we consider the episodes in succession. Each one is conceived and de veloped separately. While it is central to the narrative, it is elaborately ramified; but the very intensity and exclusiveness of these developments demands that only one cf them be presented at a time. An examination of two salient episodes from Suzanne et le Pacifique illustrates the confusion which would arise if one were to consider the contingencies usually derived from literally interpreted events. On one occasion Suzanne establishes that the island is an airfield for tropical birds. When the sun strikes the lake at noon, she says, all the birds come in to land. However, in another passage the sun is anthropomorphically described as "cleaning 235 the trees." This sun which effectively helps to impose a domestic image on the island can hardly be the same sun which serves as a mechanical signaling system for the birds' landing. In another lengthy development the objects of the island solicit deification from Suzanne, among them a cloud which passes overhead "at about noon." If a reader ignored the mutually exclusive nature of these constructions, he might ask, "What if the cloud seeking deification were to obscure the sun's rays at noon? Would this interfere with the landing of the birds?" Clearly, the reader cannot proceed in this way. Each new conceit effaces the events that are associated with the previous one. A kaleidoscopic succession of episodes results which have no causal rela tion to one another, and which, for all their complexity, tend to evaporate from the narrative without the slightest residue, once they have been displaced by a new pattern. Suzanne et le Pacifique lends itself more naturally to an externalizing of metaphoric concepts than do the later novels because in it the author is dealing with only one human consciousness. In this way the heroine is able to project her conceits upon a world which is void of human 236 involvements. Though she does not appear to control what happens around her, in reality nearly everything which occurs is dictated by concepts which she moulds more or less at will. The creatures of the island may have in stinctive motivations, but these are easily subordinated to the conceits which the heroine's presence makes possible. When Suzanne shifts her attention from them to an entirely allegorical struggle to retain her cultural background, the island and its inhabitants readily submit to whatever images are imposed upon them. In the episode where she "allows" the nine muses to wander over the island, they en counter tropical birds. ... j’etais prise d'une langueur matemelle, en moi poussaient je ne sais quels germes, et un soir en effet, je me trouvais soudain face k face — mes filles aussi k moi — ... avec neuf persotmes auxquelles j'avals bien peu pense jusqu'ici, avec les neuf Muses. De m$me qu'un enfant prefkre les boltes et les ecrins k leur plus beau contenu, j'£prouvai desormais mes plus grands plaisirs avec les noms seuls des genres et de mes nouvelles com- pagnes. Tragedie, Poesie lyrique, Histoire, aucune ne se deroba, ... et je les l&chai au milieu de mon tie, — premikre fois ou des casoars heurtaient la tragedie, des paradisiers l'6pop6e.^ By introducing such sophisticated concepts on a "savage" environment, she becomes master of the situation. 24 Suzanne et la Pacifique, p. 132. 237 This is true even When she appears to lose control of her metaphoric inventions by granting objects in her environ ment a capacity to annoy her. The effect of Suzanne's stay on the island, therefore, is interpreted correctly by her rescuers who carve the following inscription on a rock before their departure: "Cette tie est l'tle Suzanne ou les demons de Polynesie les terreurs l'egolsme furent vaincus par une jeune fille de Bellac" (p. 203). In the later novels, where Giraudoux uses literally interpreted metaphor in situations involving more than one person, several problems arise which do not exist in Suzanne et le Pacifique. In extended passages of this kind, characters lose their freedom of action and become prisoners of one another's metaphoric conceits. And to the extent that a metaphor contains hyperbole, it results in the same restrictive effects as hyperbole used indepen dently. We are not disturbed when Suzanne imposes a fanci ful pattern on an exotic bird or even an idol. However, just as soon as another human consciousness is involved, we experience a restriction of character development which even disturbs the whimsical effects. In the final phase of Jacques Brisson's romance with Annie, this is evident. 238 In a fin de liaison situation normally one of the lovers is striving to keep the relationship from disintegrating, while the other is seeking to break away. Clearly it is Annie who desires the relationship to continue, yet neither she nor Jacques have any real control over what happens to them. He narrates the events in keeping with his formula which includes the fact that she is "fleeing" from him. Consequently, her actions are also dictated by his pattern. In his later writings, as Rene Marill Alberts ob- 25 served, Giraudoux expresses an increasingly pessimistic attitude toward the existence of human freedom and the ability of imaginative minds to transcend the difficulties of the human condition. This pessimism brought about a complete change in the function of metaphor as a narrative device. In all but the last two of Giraudoux's novels, one has the feeling that the conceptual powers of the charac ters are an asset tfiich enables them to enjoy unusual liaisons and ingenious relationships with their environ ments. Suzanne's island experience illustrates how a whimsical adventure can result when externalized projections Esthetique et morale chez Jean Giraudoux, pp. 291-292. escape the control of the protagonist. Her stay Is made pleasant by her ability to form ties with creatures of her own invention. How this differs from the experiences of Giraudoux's last feminine protagonist, Edmee, whose mar riage is disrupted by an imaginary entity called the Abalstitiel.' The Abalstitlel intervenes in Edmee's life with mischievous independence; if anyone is in control of event8, it is he, and Edmee appears possessed. This situ ation causes Edmee to lose much of her stature as a heroine in spite of her unusual personality. Like Edmee, Malena in Combat avec l'ange is the prisoner of projected Inventions for which she does not appear to be responsible. She is unable to control either the double of herself with which she sees her fiance walk ing, or the succession of imaginative entities which successively prey upon her. In the course of the novel she is stalked by "Jealousy," carries on an equivocal con versation with God, searches for the "Brothers Karamazov," suffers the hostility of Paris, and lastly, engages in the struggle with the angle from which the book derives its title. A vital part of Giraudoux's original purpose is still accomplished through these constructions. Prosaic 240 motivations are banished from the narrative along with conventional displays of emotion and conflict. However, if we regard their relationship to the over-all structure of the novel, a curious dilemma arises: It is extremely dif ficult to give these concepts simultaneous reality because of the confusion that results from the overlapping images; yet the reader must interpret these constructions as having maximum objectivity if they are to form a basis for the anti-realist motivations which are the distinguishing feature of Giraudoux's novels. It is difficult to reconcile the extreme literalness of these constructions and their prominence in the narra tive with the singular way they eclipse one another. Since each successive conceit terminates the existence of the imaginary entities which are related to the previous pro jection, the reader finds himself questioning many of the events which he has come to accept as literal. This lack of durable substantiality for the metaphoric inventions which the author has sought to objectify is another impor tant cause for the tendency of modern critics to dismiss the Giralducian novel as a fragile accumulation of rhe torical artifices. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alberts, Rene Marlll. L'Aveature Intellectuelle du vingtl&me sifecle, 1900-1950. Paris, 1958. . Bilan litteralre du vingtifeme sifecle. Paris, 1956. __________________ . Esthetlque et morale chez Jean Giraudoux. Paris, 1957. __________________ . "fitat present des etudes sur Jean Giraudoux," L'Information Litteralre. neuvifeme axmee, no. 5 (novembre-dAcembre 1957), 190-200. __________________ . La R&volte des ecrlvalns d'au- 1ourd * hul. Paris, 1949. Amrouche, Jean. "L*Inquietude de Giraudoux," L*Arche, II (1944), 125-131. Azals, Marcel. Le Chemln des gardles. Paris, 1926. Baldensperger, Fernand. "L'esthetlque fondamentale de Giraudoux," French Review, XVIII (1944), 2-10. __________ . La Lltterature francalse entre les deux guerres, 1919-1939. Los Angeles, 1941. Beaunler, Andre. "Le slnguller talent de M. Jean Girau doux," Revue des deux mondes, VIII, s£rle 7 (1922), 215-226. Beucler, Andre. Les Instants de Giraudoux. Genfeve, 1948. Bldal, M.-L. Giraudoux tel qu*en lui-m§me. ... Paris, 1956. 242 243 Bosquet, Jog. "Jean Giraudoux," Problfemes du roman. Lyon, 1943. Pp. 141-146. Bourdet, Maurice. Jean Giraudoux. Paris, 1928. Brasillach, Robert. Les Quatre leudis - images d'avant guerre. Paris, 1944. Bray, Rene. 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Leg Chefs de file de la leune generation. Paris, 1925. Du Gen8t, Gabriel. Jeya Giraudoux: ou. un essal sur les rapport8 entre l*^crlvaln et son langage" Paris, 1945. Durry, Marie-Jeanne. L'Univers de Giraudoux. Paris, 1961. Gandon, Yves. "Soliloque sur la colonne de julllet," Nouvelle8 litteraires. August 17, 1929, p. 4. Glde, Andre. Mouveaux pretextes. Paris, 1930. __________ . (rev. of Les Provlnciales>. La Nouvelle Revue Francaise. I (1909), 463. Giraudoux, Jean. Adorable Clio. Paris, 1939. . Les Aventures de Jerome Bardini. Paris, 1930. 1924. Bella. Paris, 1926. Cholx des flues. Paris, 1939. Combat avec l*ange. Paris, 1934. Les Contes d*un Matin. Paris, 1952. L’Scole des indifferents. Paris, 1951. Eglantine. Paris, 1927. Juliette au pays des hommes. Paris, Lectures pour une ombre. Paris, 1930. Provinciales. Paris, 1922. Siegfried et le Limousin. Paris, 1922. I 245 Giraudoux, Jean. Simon le pathetique. Paris, 1926. ______________. Suzanne et le Pacifique. Paris, 1949. Gueguen, Pierre. "Giraudoux ou le style de 1'adolescence," Europe, 25e annee, no. 15 (1947), 27-41. Hatzfeld, Helmut. Trends and Styles in Twentieth Century French Literature. Washington, 1957. H^st, Gunnar. L'Oeuvre de Jean Giraudoux. Oslo, 1942. Humbourg, Pierre. Jean Giraudoux. Marseilles, 1926. Jaloux, Edmond. L* Esprit des livres, Premiere serie. Paris, 1923. _. "L'evolution du roman francais," Problemes du roman. Lyon, 1943. Johannet, Rene. "De quelques tendances romanesques," Les Lettres, decembre 1924, pp. 885-888. _. "Giraudoux et Bella," Les Lettres. avrll 1926. Lafue, Pierre. "Bella, ou les nouveaux jeux de M. Jean Giraudoux," La Revue hebdomadaire, III (1926). Lalou, Rene. "L'univers de Jean Giraudoux," Nouvelles litteraires, 10e annee, no. 473 (1931), 1-2. Lefevre, Frederic. Une heure avec. ... Premiere serie. Paris, 1924. _______________ . Une heure avec. ... Quatri&me serie. Paris, 1927. Lemattre, Georges. Four French Novelists. New York, 1938. Lemattre, Henri. "L'art de Jean Giraudoux," Confluences, 3e annee, no. 16 (1943), 81-85. 246 Le Sage, Laurent. "The cliche basis for some of the metaphors of Jean Giraudoux," Modern Language Notes. LVI (1941), 435-439. . Jean Giraudoux: His Life and Works. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State Uhiversity Press, 1959. . "Jean Giraudoux, Hoffmann et Le dernier r8ve d*Edmond About." Revue de litterature compar^e, XXIV (1950), 103-107. . "Jean Giraudoux, Prince des Pr6cieux,” PMLA, LVII (1942), 1196-1205. . Jean Giraudoux. surrealism and the German romantic ideal. Urbane, 1952. . Metaphor in the non-dramatic works of Jean Giraudoux. Eugene, Oregon, 1952. . L*Oeuvre de Jean Giraudoux; essai de bibliographie chronologique. Paris, Librairie Nizet; Uhiversity Park, Pennsylvania State University Library, 1956. Magny, Claude-Edmonde. Histoire du roman francais depuis 1918. Paris, 1950. ___________________ . Precieux Giraudoux. Paris, 1945. Marker Chris, ed. Giraudoux par lui-mime. Paris, 1952. Martineau, Henri. "Jean Giraudoux," Le Divan, 36e annee, no. 250 (1944), 241-244. McDonald, Ruth E. "Le langage de Giraudoux," IMLA, LXIII (1948), 1029-1050. McLendon, Will L. "Un mutlle de Giraudoux: Simon le pathetique," The French Review. XXXI (1957), 27-41. Messieres, Rene de. "Le rdle de l*ironie dans 1*oeuvre de Giraudoux,” Romanic Review. XXVIII (1938), 373-385. 247 Miomandre, Francis de. "Essai sur l'art de lire un modeme," La Grande Revue. XCIX (1919), 193-205. ___________________ . Le Pavilion du mandarin. Paris, 1921. Mondadcm, Louis de. "Le Grand Prix Balzac du roman: M.M. Giraudoux et Baumann," Etudes, 5 decembre 1922, pp. 580-589. Morand, Paul. Souvenirs. Genfeve, 1948. Hornet, Daniel. Introduction k 1*etude des ecrlvains d'aulourd'hui. Paris, 1939. Prevost, Jean. "L'esprit de Jean Giraudoux," La Nouvelle Revue Francaise. XLI (1933), 37-52. Proust, Marcel. A la Recherche du temps perdu. Paris, 1954. Raimond, Bernard. 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Creator Cox, Robert Stanley (author)

Core Title Rhetoric And Fancy As A Basis For Narrative In The Novels Of Jean Giraudoux

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program French

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Literature, Modern,literature, romance,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

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Advisor Belle, Rene F. (committee chair), Berkey, Max Leslie, Jr. (committee member), Traff, Richard L. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-283528

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