The Fugitive

In many ways, The Fugitive contains all the emotional action and catharsis that the reader wants all throughout the Search, and the effect is surprising. Marcel, who previously in the novel would often have strong emotional reactions to small things, finally experiences real emotional trauma: first, Albertine leaves him (at the end of the Captive, then she dies, then his suspicions of her homosexual infidelities are confirmed. This is truly a bad ending to the relationship. Marcel’s reaction is surprising, though; instead of having an over-emotional reaction to much of the bad news, he instead is struck dumb and doesn’t know how to react. The effect that such a lack of a reaction causes is more emotional than his previous emotional scenes; we the readers feel stunned with the emotionally fragile Marcel, and are fully sympathetic to his feelings. This makes sense, for a typically emotional reaction to such tragedy would include Albertine’s death among a series of events that includes missing concerts in Balbec and going to see Berma at the theater. Therefore, Marcel’s anti-climactic reaction to the climactic events of the first half of The Fugitive seems much more real than the emotional reactions of previous volumes, and marks a step in Marcel’s evolution as a character and young man.
Ironically, just a few hundred pages after the total devastation of Albertine’s death etc., Marcel realizes that he is completely over Albertine and oblivious to all feelings about her. To me, this realization is more shocking than learning of Albertine’s death; Marcel claims that Albertine means nothing to him anymore because of the destructive nature of time. However, this realization makes the stakes of Marcel’s Search even higher; in regaining time Marcel is attempting to regain significance of past events in his life. Without such significance of the past, it is impossible for the character to develop and change; the lack of meaning of past events means a lack of meaning of current and future events. Therefore, while the Albertine that is long gone may mean nothing to Marcel, the Albertine in the past still does, and in his memory Marcel can find this Albertine and appreciate her significance. Nostalgia is for the developing Marcel quite important, for in recognizing where he once was he can judge where he is now. This dependence on time is of course a major if not the major theme of the novel, and it comes out even more in the next volume.
On some level, I see The Fugitive as a turning point in Marcel’s evolution as a character in the Search. Throughout previous volumes it was quite clear that the young Marcel is a fairly weak character, and that the older narrator-Marcel has a distaste for him. How, then, does the young, slightly unlikable Marcel become the older wiser Marcel? The Search is in some ways the story of a young man finding himself as a writer; something has to happen to him to make him see himself as such. In previous volumes Marcel outlines much of his intellectual and social foundation, but through most of the book Marcel is an emotionally underdeveloped person, because he is emotionally malnourished. The Captive and The Fugitive, on the other hand, provide him with quite a traumatic entrée for his emotional meal; by the end of the fugitive Marcel seems to begin to transform into another person. I have a feeling that in the final volume I will see the rest of the transformation, but the beginning of it finds its place in the action of The Fugitive.
Tonight and tomorrow through the day I am going to finish Time Regained, and tomorrow night I will write my final reflective entry for the Search. I have quite a bit of reading and writing in front of me still, but the end is certainly in sight. Now, on to the rest of Time Regained.