Stephanie Zavas<\/p>\n
In Search of Lost Time<\/p>\n
04 May 2015<\/p>\n
On Madame de Villeparisis and Aristocratic Women (244-249)<\/p>\n
Mme de Villeparisis in this selection serves as a stark comparison to Guermantes, who holds and maintains a higher position in the French aristocracy but lives in constant anxiety over the conducting herself properly within her position.\u00a0 Women it seems, if they address their individuality publicly, are much more likely to be caste-down (I\u2019m imagining the scene earlier in the book where Mme Guermantes is acting like a silly servant girl inside her house, but wouldn\u2019t deign to exhibit that character anywhere in the eyes of society, however, as the narrator exhibits, she is always under watch by someone else, like everyone, even if it\u2019s a boy looking outside his window).<\/p>\n
De Villeparisis is characterized by the narrator\u2019s postulations on how she came to meet her defamation.\u00a0 What secret scandals, now hidden from the children of her once-peers (even the word peer would suggest observation and not so much camaraderie) was she involved in?\u00a0 What mal-temperament, misconduct, social no-no did she commit to lose her place in society?\u00a0 Marcel talks about her sharp-tongue, which, though her conduct now does not exemplify, may have been a cause.\u00a0 In writing her memoir she may have taken on those airs of kindness and charm which she was not bestowed with in her natural character, that women were more well-received by adhering to a strict form, something rather than someone, which lent itself to the foundation of those fancy people\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n
I found this passage to be, probably appropriately for its time, markedly sexist.\u00a0 Of de Villeparisis\u2019 character the narrator writes:<\/p>\n
Instead of the character which it possessed [referring to the character of de Villeparisis\u2019 generation of aristocratic women], one finds a sensibility, an intelligence which are not conducive to action\u2026(245) it was this intelligence, resembling rather that of a writer of the second rank than that of a woman of position\u2026that was undoubtedly the cause of her social decline. (246)<\/p>\n
This, among several other statements in the passage (there is one about her lacking the ability to comprehend the genius of certain artists, the discourse later when Marcel equates de Villeparisis\u2019 memoir to work of frivolity because it is not academic; he calls her a bluestocking woman which implies this attempt at an equality with men\u2019s conduct within her role as an aristocratic woman)serves to emphasize that a fancy lady\u2019s role in that world is to do what is proper, with little merit for their actual personality if it shies away from what is typical or trivial too much.<\/p>\n
Moreover, this passage is a depiction of the importance and delicacy of social functions in the aristocracy, as when the narrator hypothesizes that it may be (or in addition to her taunting less educated guests) that because she disregards the class distinction and favors individuality more (inviting the handsome man, or the funny guy, or the way too-cool one), eschewing the tenet of exclusivity as a measure of success, that is her downfall.\u00a0 This is critical because it makes me wonder more about Odette and Madame Verduran\u2019s success at navigating this social construct.\u00a0 What fortitude and reservations did they develop and overcome to be the stock people they are?\u00a0 And Guermantes, she who\u2019s secretly afraid of being this marvelous title, how does she compare?\u00a0 One thing I know I got out of reading this passage is that de Villeparisis, for all her individuality, was unsuccessful in society because she wanted to be a person and not a host (and I mean that in a parasitic weird sort of way).<\/p>\n
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Stephanie Zavas In Search of Lost Time 04 May 2015 On Madame de Villeparisis and Aristocratic Women (244-249) Mme de Villeparisis in this selection serves as a stark comparison to Guermantes, who holds and maintains a higher position in the… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910"}],"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\/1180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/losttime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}