The Irony of Stendhal's Narrator in The Charterhouse of Parma
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Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma, irony, narrator, Fabrice, romantic reverie, literary analysis
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Abstract
This passage from The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal explores the irony of the narrator as he describes Fabrice's romantic reverie in prison. The narrator's irony punctuates the passage, highlighting Fabrice's lack of relevance and daydreaming in his cell. This analysis delves into the characteristics of Fabrice's romantic reverie and how it is diminished by the narrator's successive interventions.
Extract
[...] There is a personification in the long time of nature. For this, the narrator plays on the inanimate, which becomes the subject of the verbs, and the animate, contained in the semantics of the verbs: bright orange-red sunset was drawing perfectly', 'There was the moon that day, [ . ] it was rising', 'this horizon that was speaking to his soul'. He personifies the birds, lending them human characteristics: Fabrice sees them 'greeting' and 'he hears them singing'. These elements reactivate a topos romantic: that of the beautiful nature that gives itself to be seen by a contemplative subject. [...]
[...] It is solely through observation from this window that he falls in love with her. This over-precision of the window creates a blind bridge over everything around it. It sets up an optical device in which Fabrice sees nothing but through it. L'The text superimposes two voices: that of the narrator, who proposes a description of the scenic device, and that of the hero, who abandons himself to daydreaming in his cell. A paradox arises in this text: that of the happy prison. [...]
[...] The footnote by Michel Crouzet at page 4072 informs us that the Venetian adventurer Casanova (1725-1798), upon his arrival in the Venetian prison 'is struck [ . ] by the size of the rats': Stendhal would have thought of this passage when writing this episode. This implicit comparison that the reader must grasp leaves us to understand that Fabrice takes himself for Casanova, at least for a great hero, and that this imprisonment is not just a plot twist for him. In fact, since the beginning of The Charterhouse of Parma, he sees himself, imagines himself, and thinks of himself as a heroic man. [...]
[...] Then the narrator delegates his vision to that of Fabrice. The scene is marked by a reprise of topos you locus amoenus, an "agreeable place", which Fabrice himself grants to his prison cell. The reader expects a realistic description of the cell, but the narrator's gaze lingers on the view given by the window, dreaming in front of the vast landscape that stretches before him, so that this place of confinement, of deprivation of liberty thus becomes the place of wonder. [...]
[...] The apodosis of the period mentions Fabrice as 'moved and delighted'. The narrator attributes to the hero the term 'delighted', from the word 'delight', past participle of the verb 'to delight' whose primary sense is that of abduction. So to speak, Fabrice is captivated by the vision. The contemplation of the landscape and the ecstasy it provokes detach him from his prison. He is outside of time and detached from the place where he is. The text introduces the sublime as beyond the perceiving subject. [...]
