The Captive
The Captive and The Fugitive are the two volumes that could serve best as their own mini-novel, although I suppose that even they wouldn’t be miniature compared to anything else besides the Search. In the Captive, Marcel’s obsession and suspicion of Alberine reach ridiculous proportions. Apparently there is a movie that is roughly based on The Captive and The Fugitive, and hopefully Depauw will show it early in the semester, perhaps along with the movie adaptations of “Swann in Love” and Time Regained. Fittingly, the other section of the Search that functions best on its own is “Swann in Love” from Swann’s Way; The Captive parallels the early story in many ways. Both portrayals of love are fairly anti-romantic, and both protagonists have a weakness for jealousy. On another note, I think it’s interesting that the English translation of the title The Captive may be more meaningful than the French, since the English doesn’t have the feminine gender and can therefore imply that both Albertine and Marcel are captives in their own ways throughout the volume.
Although the feelings and actions of both Marcel and Albertine throughout the volume seem realistic if emotional, the situation of the volume does seem a bit of a stretch. Albertine’s staying with her unmarried lover alone is definitely a bold move in pre-World War I France, especially since her parents know about it. Similarly, Marcel’s parents allow the stay, even though they disapprove. In one passage in the volume, the narrator discusses the reasons why Marcel’s mother allows the girl to stay with Marcel; she feels that since the girl’s mother is alright with it, then she should allow it too. I suppose that this logic makes sense, if it isn’t quite convincing; also, Mme de Bontemps could allow Albertine to try to win a husband of a higher class by allowing her to stay with Marcel. Nevertheless, these sorts of reasoning are altogether unconvincing. In Proust’s life, however, the basis for Albertine, a man, could have stayed with him without as much open disdain. Unfortunately, the situation doesn’t transfer as well to Marcel of the Search. Nevertheless, after getting over a speck of realism, I think that The Captive was particularly moving.
Since The Captive seems to be the most straightforward volume of Proust so far, I think I will return the comparisons of Proust and Joyce that I mentioned in my first entry. Both are considered the premier modernist novelists, yet their styles are very different from each other. Still, I can see the similarities. Both the Search and Ulysses address epistemological issues about the way that we see the world and construct meaning of our lives. Ulysses does this, among other ways, by eliminating the continuity of style and perspective throughout the novel, abandoning the previous approaches to writing novels. In contrast, Proust takes the nineteenth century model for writing and extends it to its absurd extreme, incorporating three first-person narrators into the story. In winding these multiple narrators through the already snake-like story, Proust plays components of character and plot against each other, showing differences in perspective, particularly the perspective afforded by time. Both authors show perspective as an obstacle in regarding truth or reality, and both question the existence of objective knowledge. Proust’s display of these obstacles is more subtle, however; he tries to show them through the normality of one person’s life, while Joyce tries to alienate the reader to the variable perspective of one person’s day. It’s interesting that the two competing works for “greatest novel of the 20th century” try to shrink or magnify something; Ulysses magnifies a day into an epic, and the Search tries to capture a life (to a certain point) into a book. I think that the scopes of the two are similar, though; the change in size is much the point of the scope, raising epistemological questions.
I apologize for the tangent; in my entry on The Fugitive I will more directly address the relationship between Marcel and Albertine, which is a huge theme in itself. I’m just about done with the volume; it moves quickly. Tonight it’s on to Time Regained; the end is in sight, just in time for the beginning of the semester.
Although the feelings and actions of both Marcel and Albertine throughout the volume seem realistic if emotional, the situation of the volume does seem a bit of a stretch. Albertine’s staying with her unmarried lover alone is definitely a bold move in pre-World War I France, especially since her parents know about it. Similarly, Marcel’s parents allow the stay, even though they disapprove. In one passage in the volume, the narrator discusses the reasons why Marcel’s mother allows the girl to stay with Marcel; she feels that since the girl’s mother is alright with it, then she should allow it too. I suppose that this logic makes sense, if it isn’t quite convincing; also, Mme de Bontemps could allow Albertine to try to win a husband of a higher class by allowing her to stay with Marcel. Nevertheless, these sorts of reasoning are altogether unconvincing. In Proust’s life, however, the basis for Albertine, a man, could have stayed with him without as much open disdain. Unfortunately, the situation doesn’t transfer as well to Marcel of the Search. Nevertheless, after getting over a speck of realism, I think that The Captive was particularly moving.
Since The Captive seems to be the most straightforward volume of Proust so far, I think I will return the comparisons of Proust and Joyce that I mentioned in my first entry. Both are considered the premier modernist novelists, yet their styles are very different from each other. Still, I can see the similarities. Both the Search and Ulysses address epistemological issues about the way that we see the world and construct meaning of our lives. Ulysses does this, among other ways, by eliminating the continuity of style and perspective throughout the novel, abandoning the previous approaches to writing novels. In contrast, Proust takes the nineteenth century model for writing and extends it to its absurd extreme, incorporating three first-person narrators into the story. In winding these multiple narrators through the already snake-like story, Proust plays components of character and plot against each other, showing differences in perspective, particularly the perspective afforded by time. Both authors show perspective as an obstacle in regarding truth or reality, and both question the existence of objective knowledge. Proust’s display of these obstacles is more subtle, however; he tries to show them through the normality of one person’s life, while Joyce tries to alienate the reader to the variable perspective of one person’s day. It’s interesting that the two competing works for “greatest novel of the 20th century” try to shrink or magnify something; Ulysses magnifies a day into an epic, and the Search tries to capture a life (to a certain point) into a book. I think that the scopes of the two are similar, though; the change in size is much the point of the scope, raising epistemological questions.
I apologize for the tangent; in my entry on The Fugitive I will more directly address the relationship between Marcel and Albertine, which is a huge theme in itself. I’m just about done with the volume; it moves quickly. Tonight it’s on to Time Regained; the end is in sight, just in time for the beginning of the semester.
posted by Michael at 7:37 PM
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