Throughout In Search of Lost Time the narrator spends most of his time in the company of upper-middle class and high class people, people who would have been aristocrats if the aristocracy was still intact, and often times discusses the importance that French Society, an Western Society in general, puts onto people of “good” standing, or people who are incredibly successful and wealthy. In The Captive, the narrator again comes to this notion of popularity and social standing as being the most important thing in a persons life. The narrator talks about the death of Swann and reads a paragraph from his obituary in a newspaper:

” ‘We learn with deep regret that M. Charles Swann passed away yesterday at his residence in Paris after a long and painful illness. A Parisian whose wit was widely appreciated, a discrimination but steadfastly loyal friend, he will be universally mourned, not only in those literary and artistic circles where the rare discernment of his taste made him a willing and welcome guest, but also at the Jockey Club of which he was one of the oldest and most respectful members. He belonged also to the Union and the Agricole. He had recently resigned his membership of the Rue Royale. His witty and striking personality never failed to arouse the interest of the public at all the great events of the musical and artistic seasons, notably at private views, where he was a regular attendant until the last few years, when he rarely left his house. The funeral will take place, etc.’ ”

This passage does its best to talk about Swann as a person, noting that he was very loyal to his friends and that he was witty and had a striking personality but the bulk of the paragraph actually focuses not on things that Swann did in his life or who Swann was but of what social groups he was a part of or of how the public viewed Swann at parties and events that he attended. One could argue that this things are what Swann did and who he was but as we have read, Swann lead quite the mysterious life in his earlier years, and more importantly there is no mention of Swann’s wife, Odette, or child, Gilberte, which can almost be guaranteed to be because of Odette’s social standing. If Swann truly did nothing of note besides going to these parties and being a part of these clubs then why is he such an influential person? It seems to me that, like a celebrity in modern times that isn’t actually a part of any profession, Swann is well known for the novelty of the public having someone to be well known in there midst, for that drama and intrigue that a public figure can bring to a society in a post-aristocratic era.

Unfortunately, the less well kept one’s title is in Paris, the less fondly remembered they are:

“From this standpoint, if one is not ‘somebody’ the absence of a well-known title makes the process of decomposition even more rapid. No doubt it is more or loss anonymously, without any individual identity, that a dead man remains the Duc d’uzes. But the ducal coronet does for some time hold the elements of him together, as their moulds held together those artistically designed ices which Albertine admired, whereas the names of the ultra-fashionable commoners as soon as they are dead, melt and disintegrate, ‘turned out’ of their moulds.”

It is in this passage that the narrator seals in that even though the aristocracy is technically dismantled, a aristocratic mindset still plagues Parisian society. It is proven here that in the eyes of the public, people without titles and wealth do not remain in this world after their passing, regardless of who the were as people and that even those with higher positions in society are not really remembered for who they were or even what they did but of who they knew and how they were seen.

The narrator falls into this category as well, unable to escape viewing Swann after his death as the public does instead of as he knew him.

“I felt that everything that had been told to me about the Verdurins was far too crude; and indeed in the case of Swann, whom I had known, I reproached myself for not having paid sufficient attention to him in a sufficiently disinterested spirit, for not having listened to him properly when he used to entertain me while we waited for his wife to come home for lunch and he showed me his treasures, now that I knew that he was to be classed with the most brilliant talkers of the past.”

Throughout In Search of Lost Time the importance of the technically unimportant aristocratic class is a major point of interest for the narrator and is explored in The Captive in a way that makes French society seem rather similar to American society in how it treats deceased celebrity and public figures in a manner that, more often than not, does not focus on who the person was or what morals they held but of who they knew and how they were viewed by the public.