I was fascinated by Swann\u2019s opinions about a woman\u2019s appearance. \u201cHis desires had always run counter to his aesthetic taste\u201d (317). In the past, Swann had pursed women that did not resemble his favorite paintings. \u201cDepth of character, or melancholy expression would freeze his senses, which were, however, instantly aroused at the sight of healthy, abundant, rosy flesh\u201d (271).<\/p>\n
As Swann falls in love with Odette everything changes. He begins to obsess with the fact that Odette resembles a Botticelli painting of Jethro\u2019s Daughter. This, \u201csimilarly enhanced her beauty, also, and made her more precious\u201d (316).<\/p>\n
I think more than anything Proust reveals yet another mystery of love. Whoever we fall in love with begins to embody our \u201cideal attractive\u201d. Of course, this might not be true for everyone; it is true of my personal experience and seemingly Swann\u2019s here.<\/p>\n
Earlier in Combray, in the narrator\u2019s dreams he imagines Mme de Guermantes to be physically stunning. When he sees her he is instantly disappointed and finds her repelling. Then he decides that she isn\u2019t ugly, just different than he had imagined. \u00a0In the next couple pages he proceeds to reconstruct her beauty in his mind. \u201cAnd at once I fell in love with her\u201d (250). The narrator had succeeded in completely changing his previous idea.<\/p>\n
I have constantly been trying to figure out the difference between the character of Swann and the Narrator. It seems that the narrator has an easier time adjusting his preconceived notions. Swann has a hard time recovering or adjusting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was fascinated by Swann’s opinions about a woman’s appearance. “His desires had always run counter to his aesthetic taste” (317). In the past, Swann had pursed women that did not resemble his favorite paintings. “Depth of character, or melancholy… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}