While reading the first assigned section of “Within a Budding Grove” I started to notice many similarities between how the narrator was presenting himself and the way Swann was presented in “Swann in Love.” \u00a0This makes sense as we’ve discussed in class how early in the Combray section of the text the narrator mentions how he feels Swann would most understand or is most similar to himself.<\/p>\n
The first time I noted this was on page 398. \u00a0The narrator states, “…our imagination is set going by the desire for what we cannot possess…” \u00a0Swann was not interested in Odette in the beginning of their love affair, when she was completely willing to seeing him any time he wished, and only after she began to become more unavailable did his obsession truly flourish. \u00a0The narrator is swept up by desire for these quick glimpses of women, though he questions if the time in their presences were longer his attraction would be as strong or exist at all. \u00a0They are both caught by this inability to have and desire that which is still shrouded in mystery. \u00a0In this the reader is also reminded of the theme of seeking. \u00a0In “Swann in Love,” Swann has an episode where he searches through many restraints for Odette, but there is an admittance that it is not really about finding her, but instead the inability to call of the search. \u00a0He is turned on by the act of seeking, or searching, of the chase. \u00a0This is echoed in “Within a Budding Grove” on page 404 when the narrator posses the girl (though immaterially) and she loses her mystery and he, his desire.<\/p>\n
Another similarity addressed on page 402; where the narrator states, “But it was not only her body that I would like to attain…” \u00a0When it comes to romantic feelings both characters express a need to possess the love interest. \u00a0It is not enough to meet the other character on equal ground; they feel the need to lay claim or feel dominion\/ownership over another. \u00a0This is echoed on page 404 when the word “possession” is used multiple times. \u00a0There is also an interesting correspondence brought up on 403; the narrator doesn’t truly want to know the girl for who she really is. \u00a0He wants to maintain this idea of her that he has formulated in his mind, as he has with all “peasant girls.” \u00a0This is correlated to how Swann denies the truth of Odette’s personality, lifestyle, and type in favor or a fantasy he has concocted.<\/p>\n
There is another strong link towards the end of this section, on page 495 and the few pages preceding this. The narrator discusses Saint-Loup’s love affair with his mistress. \u00a0He explains how she changed him, and in many ways made him a better man. \u00a0He cares for her a great deal and less for the superficiality of “society.” \u00a0Then abruptly, the reader gets the line, “It is true that he had already drawn from her all the good she was capable of giving him; and that now she caused him only incessant suffering…” \u00a0Just as with Swann, Saint-Loup is lost in the blindness of his love and obsession and clings on. \u00a0She has become disinterested and even cruel, even informing of him when he can and cannot return to Paris as Odette controlled Swann’s movement and “feathering her nest” with the money he sends her.<\/p>\n
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While reading the first assigned section of “Within a Budding Grove” I started to notice many similarities between how the narrator was presenting himself and the way Swann was presented in “Swann in Love.” This makes sense as we’ve discussed… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1162,"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\/585"}],"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\/1162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}