When I wrote last, I was reaching the point where Odette, Swann's love, was really getting on my nerves; not only did she have an air of immoral repute around her, regardless of her elegance, she was a liar, too. I was also getting a little overwhelmed with their love affair in general. Nothing seemed to happen, no progress was made, and Odette continued to take advantage of Swann. I read a little more, however, and soon the narrative changed pace. A new setting, a party Swann attends on one of the few nights he "goes back into society," since his preoccupation with Odette often leaves him desiring only her company or the company of people who know her, breaks the monotony. Odette's lack of presence, both in the minds of the people at the party and in the party itself, leaves the narrative free to discuss new characters, sentiments, ideas. I really enjoyed reading the observations Swann made regarding the people at the party, like comparing the men wearing monocles, himself included. The party allows the reader to see, after the "bohemian" and bourgeoise company that surrounds Odette, the manners of the aristocracy, represented in the conceited and condescending character Princesse des Laumes.
This party is pivotal to the story, as it allows Swann to see the futility and mistake in investing so much love and effort in Odette. It happens, ironically, when the song that helped to cement his love (a piece he and Odette listened to frequently that, to Swann, physically embodied and represented their love) is played, and Swann is overcome with the knowledge that the happiness he once felt with Odette is lost forever. Where as once he courted her with a slight indifference and needed to find resemblances to her in paintings to like her appearance, and where she loved and preferred him, now he is being made to suffer through her coldness, absence, and infidelity. After this, things start to really fall apart. An anonymous letter reveals to Swann the many affairs Odette has been having, even with women, accusations that Swann has a hard time believing. That is, until he puts together stories she has relayed and comments she has let slip that reveal just how base the woman really is.
One of these women she had affairs with is Mme. Verdurin, the hostess of those ridiculous parties where Swann went to meet Odette on most nights (until he was replaced by another man, de Forcheville). After suspecting this, there is a moment in the novel where Swann really disengages from Odette as he tries to find out the extent of her immorality.
"Now the memory of Mme. Verdurin's affection had suddenly come to join the memory of her unseemly conversation. He could no longer separate them in his mind and saw them mingled in reality too, the affection lending something serious and important to the jokes which in turn caused the affection to lose some of its innocence. He went to Odette's house. He sat down at a distance from her. He did not dare kiss her, not knowing whether it would be affection or anger that a kiss would provoke, either In her, or in himself. He said nothing, he watched their love die. Suddenly he made up his mind." (375)The series of short sentences in this passage really struck me; they seem like the shortest sentences in the novel thus far, and, at least in this section, one of the most important. For the next twenty pages of Swann in Love their affair continues to slowly break down, ending with a dream that Swann has in which many of the players of the situation (Odette, Swann, Swann as a younger man, some of Odette's lovers) appear. Swann wakes up and, as the last words of the section, exclaims his regret:
"To think that I wasted years of my life, that I wanted to die, that I felt my deepest love, for a woman who did not appeal to me, who was not my type!" (396)
Well, this post is getting to be quite long, so I will say only a few more things about the last section, then end with some quotes and such. In Places-Names: The Name, the narrator's perspective returns as he talks about some more of his desires at a young age, desires to travel, learn new places. Here, the writing that characterizes Combray, full of lengthy, sensitive, insightful discourses on stained-glass, flowers, smells, and church spires, returns. This time it's discussions on storms, the seasons, the weight of names, and love. For Marcel is in love with Swann's daughter, Gilberte. An interesting thing to note are the similarities between the narrator and Swann. They share the experience, important to them both, of being disappointed when, expecting to see the woman they love, she is not there. They search around, Swann in shops and cafés, Marcel in the Champs-Élyséees, but are overcome by the despair they feel at not finding her; then they know they are in love. Suddenly, when least expected, when all hope is lost, she arrives.
The novel opens with Marcel's terror, his anxiety of separating from his mother for the night without saying goodnight. He lays in bed, imagining the people who get to be with her in his stead, enjoying dinner with her as he waits in his room upstairs. This is very similar to Swann's suffering over not being where Odette is. He is constantly preoccupied with labeling things according to if they are part of Odette's life, part of his love for her, or if they are separated from it, thus undermining the validity of his love for her. When she travels where he cannot (because she forbids him to join, no less) he aches, knowing he cannot be where the cure to his illness is.
Though figurative language is often utilized when comparing his love with a disease, Swann actually gets sick from how in love he is with this woman. Not only do people note it in his features, he himself finds that "a lump" has formed. Marcel, too, is passionate enough that his body reacts to it in a negative way. When wanting to visit places like Florence and Venice, he gets so worked up that he catches fever and is given orders to refrain from any travel at all.
Anyways, I will end (finally!). I will post again really soon...I started a new book :).
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