The Proustian Quest

CHAPTER 5 The Prison

CHAPTER 5 The Prison fappelle id amour une torture rkriproque. (Ill , 109 ) Le corps enferme Vesprit dans uneforteresse. . . . (Ill, 1035 ) While Proust' s nove l continue s Balzac' s depictio n o f the huma n comedy, la Recherche is also a divine comedy , th e spiritua l autobi ography o f a soul. I t i s the stor y o f paradise los t an d regained : a child loses his will at Combray, experience s years of wandering i n the ari d socia l deser t i n pursuit o f mirages, an d finall y i s rebor n and ascend s t o a state o f time regained . Success , however, come s at th e price o f a long an d difficul t struggle . I n th e prison sectio n of the novel, the main question becomes whether o r not th e Nar rator wil l fre e himsel f an d regai n hi s los t will . A la recherche du temps perdu here has resonances o f its alternate meaning , namely , temps perdu as wasted time or a lost life. Proust's young , naiv e narrato r believe s i n absolute s an d thinks tha t h e wil l find i n th e worl d th e idea l representatives o f beauty, love , and socia l prestige.1 Instead , a s he struggle s t o find his way throug h th e labyrint h o f life, h e encounter s vanity , cru elty , and othe r evil s that caus e him sufferin g an d contribute t o his dystopian vision . Amon g th e grea t reversal s tha t occu r i n th e novel are his loss of will and the discovery that th e values of society ar e th e opposit e o f thos e hel d b y hi s mothe r an d grand mother . Value s are also reversed in his exploration o f the world o f 93 94 TH E PROUSTIAN QUES T sexuality: lov e become s tortur e an d temple s ar e th e scen e o f satanic rites. The underworld is the world of his childhood day s at Combray turne d upsid e down : "le s vrai s paradis son t le s paradi s qu'on a perdus" (III , 870). Midway through the novel, in the section called Sodome et Gomorrhe, the Proustia n ques t become s a tour o f hell before th e Narrator ca n find his way home again: "Le poete est a plaindre, et qui n'est guide par aucun Virgile, d'avoir a traverser les cercles d'u n enfer d e soufre e t de poix, de se jeter dans le feu qui tombe du ciel pour en ramener quelques habitants de Sodome" (III , 206). Proust explained to Robert d e Montesquiou tha t his purpose in present ing the differen t world s o f his human an d divin e comed y was as follows: Sodome et Gomorrhe was intende d t o b e totall y differen t from th e volumes that preceded it in order to present "ce t emou vant contrast e entr e un e poesi e d'ede n e t un e poesi e d'enfer." 2 This descen t int o th e underworld i s usually obligator y fo r every perso n wh o undertake s th e quest , whethe r h e b e name d Ulysses, Aeneas, Dante, Leopol d Bloom , o r simpl y the Narrator . A voyag e into hel l i s a prerequisite t o th e joyful ascensio n a t th e end o f the novel in Le Temps retrouvL Th e exploratio n o f hell, th e elements o f which are often though t t o be beautiful a t first—soci ety will prov e t o b e a wasteland an d lov e a trap—is a n essentia l part o f his experience , on e tha t eventuall y allow s him t o en d hi s apprenticeship i n life an d formulate a n aesthetics an d a n ethic s as he begin s t o regai n tim e lost. A t th e en d o...