Simone de Beauvoir as Dramatist: Les Bouches Inutiles

Simone de Beauvoir as Dramatist: Les Bouches Inutiles JUDITH ZYKOFSKY JONES AND JANELLE REINELT 1 In his Italian Chronicles, Sismondi reports that during sieges fighters sometimes disposed of the "useless mouths" by casting the women, the old people, and the children into the trenches. Simone de Beauvoir, intrigued with the dramatic possibilities inherent in these accounts, patterned her only play, Les Bouches Inutiles (Useless Mouths, 1945), on an analogous situation: she merely transposed the action from Italy to Flanders, where similar practices had taken place. I Although the play is seldom produced and has never been translated into English, Les Bouches Inutiles deserves careful study because it sheds light on the writer's evolving perspective on women and stresses the existentialist underpinnings of de Beauvoir's feminism. By focusing on the familiar existentialist themes of freedom and responsibility, as well as on the relationship between means and ends, the writer dramatized key feminist themes in Les Bouches Inutiles a number of years before she formalized her position in The Second Sex (1949). Although she credits Jean-Paul Sartre with drawing her attention to the woman question in 1946,2 the play reveals that de Beauvoirhad already formulated several major concepts describing the role and place of woman in Western society. II Vaucelles faces a difficult dilemma: its food supply is almost exhausted by a year of siege. The town cannot hold out through the winter, but reinforcements will not arrive before spring. In the midst of impending famine, Vaucelles's citizens take pride in their challenge to the old order. The people have revolted against the despotic rule of Simone de Beauvoir's Les Bouches Inutiles the Duke of Burgundy and instituted representative government; they regard their Town Council of elected officials as a model for other communities. The severity ofthe current situation puts their fledgling political structure to the test: the Town Council must devise a solution. The play unfolds in eight scenes which balance the public life of the community against the personal life ofa key family. Louis D'Avesnes is one of three Chief Councilmen responsible for finding a solution, his leadership and vision having led Vaucelles to its present political position. Catherine, his wife, their children Clarice and Georges, and their orphaned niece and nephew Jeanne and Jean-Pierre Gautier face a series of family crises when the Town Council decides to throw the women, children, and old people outside the city walls in order to save the town. The Council's decision calls into question Catherine's belief that she has a real voice in the conduct of public affairs, Louis's conviction that Vaucelles's future can be isolated from the fate of half the town's population, and Jean-Pierre's refusal to make choices for fear of hurting others. Louis and Catherine also face personal tragedy when they discover that their son Georges is plotting to seize power and that he has assassinated their niece Jeanne after she discovered his perfidy. In the closing scenes, Louis and Catherine come to see that each has abused a leadership role. Louis reconvenes the Council and, together with Jean-Pierre, persuades the citizens to reverse their decision. Vaucelles will stand united against the Burgundians in a final confrontation between autocratic rule and true confraternity. III Simone de Beauvoir uses dialectical characterization to give a concrete dimension to the problem of freedom and responsibility. In Les Bouches Inutiles, she juxtaposes characters who refuse to assume responsibility for their own destinies with those who all too willingly supersede the limits of their freedom. The governing officials, the members ofthe Town Council, are among those who abuse the responsibility which lies in their hands. These officials make it their job to select the "useless" members of the community and condemn them to die, and in so doing they abrogate the rights ofhalfVaucelles's population. During a tender moment between Louis and Catherine, de Beauvoir emphasizes the injustice of the Council's decision: LOUIS Ne me demande rien, Catherine. CATHERINE Y a-t-il jamais eu un secret entre nous? Silence. Si tout est perdu, s'il faut mourir en tentant une sortie sans espoir, ne crains pas de...