.

 

. . l

y.- 01 .51

W3».

3%.

 

.11
um? V

 

 

 

Ar! .
ffihs‘cv iflfln .
K. .3? '1 a
ti, 4?E,
.431 V

”dc:

.rtflvhnni,

‘0

.. .
r b v
I. ‘5‘".- u an”
3.24... 3.? .
. sir $5433.. _

flavmvhuélzu
la...
.1.

1.3“ ..
\\.....I..:.
DI :31W‘ «6
'4 15!: u
. until) . “Wk“.
. £215.. u 1%....)8.
. .33....2§ _ ‘
1 E... .
(1.}

 

THES!S

(HOME

illlliHllIllllllilllllllllilllllllHllHlllllllllllllllllili

31293 01766 5146

This is to certify that the

dissertation entitled

Feminist Advocacy in the Novels 0]" George Sand

presented by

Shawn EiZean Morrison

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph. D. degree in French

W W flzZ?

Major professor

 

 

Date AK /75( c: 4/ //72F

 

MS U is an Afflrmatiw Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0- 12771

 

LIBRARY
Michigan State
University

 

 

 

PLACE IN RETURN BOX
to remove this checkout from your record.
TO AVOID FINES return on or before date due.

 

MTE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1/98 WWW“

 

 

 

FEMINIST ADVOCACY N THE NOVELS OF GEORGE SAND
By

Shawn Eilean Morrison

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department Of Romance and Classical Languages

1998

ABSTRACT
FEMINIST ADVOCACY IN THE NOVELS OF GEORGE SAND
BY

Shawn Eilean Morrison

George Sand has been considered by many critics as a pioneer in
feminist thought. Two of her novels best known tO critics, |_r_1_g_i_ag§ (1832) and
l_._é_li_a (1833 and 1839) contain strident condemnation of women‘s subordinate,
dependent role in society. George Sand continued her advocacy for women's
rights in the majority of her other novels, yet these novels remain mostly
unknown to critics.

Of George Sand‘s sixty-five full-length novels, the sixty-two that feature a
female protagonist constitute the corpus of this study. Each novel is analyzed
for its representation of women, their role in society, the possibilities and
restrictions they face, and their own views concerning their lives. Sand's
feminist advocacy is seen to be both prescient and persistent. Her message is
consistent throughout her career; it is not limited to a particular time in her life,
nor tO the political atmosphere in which she was writing. The approaches
presented here reveal a previously unseen agenda for feminist advocacy, one
that spans Sand's vast corpus of novels. The majority of them communicate
Sand's beliefs and message, yet she used various methods to present her point
of view. It is hoped that this study will encourage others to (re)-read Sand's
lesser-known novels, which reveal her all-encompassing, never-ceasing

advocacy for women.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

introduction

Chapter 1 : Questionable Feminism
Leone Leoni

Le Compagnon du Tour de France
Jeanne

Isidora

Le Péché de Monsieur Antoine

Lucrezia Floriani

Les Dames vertes

Flavie

Chapter 2: Hidden Feminism
LaDerniére Aldini

L'Uscoque

Teverino

Mont-Revéche

Les Amours de l'age de l’or

Chapter 3: Sympathetic Feminism
Indiana

Valentine

Lélia

Jacques

André

Horace

Franeois le Champi

Le Piccinino

Chapter 4: Systematic Feminism
Simon

Le Meunier d'Angibault

La Mare au diable

Le Chateau des Désertes

La Filleule

Les Maitres sonneurs

Chapter 5: ldealistic Feminism
Le Secrétaire intime

Mauprat

Consuelo/La Comtesse de Rudolstadt
La Petite Fadette

Conclusion

Notes

Works Cited

1
17

Narcisse

La Famille de Gerrnandre
Valvédre

Mademoiselle la Quintinie
Mal grétout

La Tour de Percemont

54
Les Beaux Messieurs de Bois-Doré
Tamaris
La Confession d'une jeune fille
Césarine Dietrich
Francia

77
Adriani
Constance Verrier
Elle et Lui
Jean de la Roche
Le Marquis de Villemer
Antonia
Flamarande
Les Deux freres

1 20
L'Homme de neige
Monsieur Sylvestre
Pierre qui roule
Le Beau Laurence

Ma Soeur Jeanne
Marianne

1 46
LaDaniella
La Ville noire
Mademoiselle Merquem
Nanon

173
176
184

introduction

George Sand, one of the most prolific nineteenth-century French women
authors, has been considered by most critics as a pioneer of feminist thought.
She incorporated her philosophy of equality for women into her many novels,
plays, and essays. Her characters expound upon the virtues of equal
education, equal rights under the law, and the misogynist nature of arranged
marriages. ‘ Her pastoral novels paint the portrait of an idealistic society, where
women quietly maneuver and control the destinies of their families, and in the
majority of her novels the female protagonist marries for love. Because of her
obvious interest in women's role in society, and because she was a woman
author, any study Of her work must address the feminist issues inherent in it.
There are many schools of thought among feminist critics, each bringing its own
background, agenda, and interpretation to its study.

Feminist criticism of Sand, however, raises several problems. Feminist
critics differ in their evaluation of Sand, they focus on only selected portions of
her work, and they either overlook her shifting positions or do not evaluate them
dispassionately. NO overview of Sand's fiction from a feminist perspective has
yet been attempted.1 Such a survey will reveal the full significance Of her
challenge to culturally conditioned gender roles, and the persistent restrictive
effect of such stereotypes.

Some of the major schools of feminist criticism that have been applied to
Sand's novels include "I'écriture feminine" (Cixous), psycholanalytic criticism
(Chodorow et al), and cultural feminism (Donovan). All these approaches can
be fruitfully applied to Sand, and in the last two decades they have formed the
bulk of Sandian scholarship.

The concept that best applies to the majority of Sand‘s female
protagonists is androgyny, as defined by Carolyn Heilbrun. She calls it a
"condition under which the characteristics of the sexes, and the human
impulses expressed by men and women, are not rigidly assigned. Androgyny
seeks to liberate the individual from the confines of the appropriate" (x). George
Sand's society expected women to behave in certain ways; they were to be
passive, dependent, and obedient; they were supposed to accept their life and
not complain; they were to accept the double sexual standards without
challenging them. When they defied those gender-restricted expectations they
were seen to transgress. Many of Sand's heroines transgress and her novels
explore the possible outcomes. George Sand was such an all-encompassing
author that it is difficult to determine one approach that invariably works. When
her work is studied comprehensively, it becomes evident that she used many
different means to achieve her end. Portions of her work fit into each of the
major schools of feminist criticism; her novels, when seen as a whole,
demonstrate that George Sand saw the problems inherent in her society. She
not only addressed those problems, she suggested solutions to them as well as
alternative ways of seeing the world and women.

Three recurring themes, evident across all five decades of her writing,
lend themselves particularly well to feminist interpretation. Most prominent of
these is a woman's need to maintain a good reputation. Each of Sand's female
characters lives with constant reminders of the fragility of her reputation.
Another key theme is that arranged marriages based on money, social status,
and birth are usually inimical to a woman's happiness and result in what she
termed legalized prostitution or slavery. The third major theme in Sand is her
assertion that women should be educated in the same way as men; the

traditional education given to women is seen as inadequate and tending toward

keeping women in a child-like state.2 Most of Sand's heroines either have an

unusual, masculine education or else they decry their lack of it.
Despite a few major, well-known feminist novels, the majority of Sand's

narrative fiction does not meet obvious, all-encompassing feminist standards.3
Most Sandian critics agree that George Sand's feminism can be debated.
Those who call her anti-feminist refer to what she said and did or did not do in
the political arena of nineteenth-century France.4 Those critics who study her
fiction see a more clearly defined, albeit limited feminism in her works.5
Claudine Chonez explains, "la liberté que défend George Sand se iimite
généralement a celle de la femme vis-a-vis de I'amour, vis-a-vis du mariage Ou
elle est presque toujours exploitée . . . elle se contente de protester contre
I'Oppression ou la brutalité maritales" (77). [All ellipses are mine unless
otherwise noted]

Instead of the expected liberal use of female narration and perspective,
the majority of Sand's novels are written from the male protagonist's
perspective and voice. Only five novels consistently adopt the first-person
female voice: M (1859), agonfessiorfigne jeurne fille (1864), Césarine

Dietrich (1870), Malgrétout (1870), and Nanon (1872); all of these novels are

 

either letters, personal joumais, or memoirs intended for the fictive writer's
family members. Other novels include but are not dominated by a female voice:
Jagues (1834) is an epistolary novel where the female protagonist's letters are
included; Leone Leoni (1834), while framed by a third-person narrator, has as
its core the first-person narration of the female protagonist. All the other novels
are either third-person narration or told from a male perspective and with a male
voice.

The repertory of female characters in her novels illuminate Sand's

sociopolitical agenda. For this study I have emphasized sixty-two novels, most

of which have not received much critical attention, particulary in the area of
feminist criticism. I have chosen not to treat Mam (1832), Len; (1833/1839),
g Pet_ite Fggette (1849), Consuelo (1842), and La Comtesse ge Rudolstadt
(1843) as extensively as the others, since each has already been thoroughly
analyzed and labeled feminist. Instead, I have included a brief synopsis of the
major feminist criticism for each Of them. I have omitted Les Maitres mosai'stes
(1837), Spiridion (1838), and Un Hiver a Majorgue (1841), because they
contain no female protagonists. My desire is to highlight the feminist advocacy
in Sand's lesser-known body of work, as well as in those novels which, while
known to the public, have received relatively less attention from feminist critics.

I have approached each novel with the following questions:

1) With which characters does the reader identify?

2) What roles do the female characters play in the novel?

3) Do the female characters have any power, i.e., do they effect change in their
own lives or in the lives of their community?

4) How do the female characters conceive their place and role?

5) How are the female characters' issues resolved at the end of the novel?

In addition to my own comments regarding these questions I have cited
pertinent criticism concerning feminist aspects of each work. I have chosen not
to discuss any in-depth psychoanalytical or biographical aspects of Sand's
fiction in the body of this dissertation; that has been ably done by many critics,
whose works are noted in the bibliography. I wished instead to focus on the
texts themselves. I have arranged this study into five chapters, each treating
one approach utilized by Sand to communicate her message of the unfair
practices of her society toward women. Advocacy of the rights of women forms
the basis Of my definition of feminism as it pertains to George Sand's fiction.
The categories I have created reflect the various tools and methods I believe

she used to communicate her message. The aspects of Sand's feminism
discussed here include neither "écriture feminine" nor separatist feminism;
Sand's feminism corresponds most closely with today's equity feminism,
aothough it is not entirely identical. Because Of her society's lack of vision and
understanding, Sand used her fiction to encourage others to see the inequities
that she did. She made feminist statements throughout her career in both
negative descriptive ways, showing how unfair society can be to some women
and how unbearable their lives are, and in idealistically prescriptive ways,
showing how different women's lives could be if they were allowed to act on
their ideas and emotions, and if they were to fight against society's restrictions
on them. Despite a few questionable circumstances and situations in some of
them, the body of Sand's novels as a whole can be seen as advocating her
particular brand of equity feminism. As Francoise Massardier-Kenney states,
"Sand's literary critique of patriarchal culture, specifically of marriage, sex, and
family structure, is accompanied by the need to change the subject, the female
subject as well as the male subject" (12). Carolyn Heilbrun states that "the great
novel," (or in this case, I believe, novelist), "beyond convention, anticipates
undreamed of complexities and becomes symbolic in a universe unknown to its
author " (or, in Sand's case, her society), "and (the novelist's) intentions" (57).
Indeed, Sand's works did influence her society and the world. She has
been praised as "the most important writer of the epic age in terms of worldwide
effect” (Moers 31). George Henry Lewes called her "a poet . . . uttering the
collective voice of her epoch” (quoted in Moers 31 ). Among the intellectuals of
her time she influenced and impressed Walt Whitman, Turgenev, Dostoevsky,
Marx, Taine, Ruskin, Mary Gaskell and George Eliot, among others. Elizabeth
Barrett Browning wrote two poems about her, and both Flaubert and Hugo
counted among her many correspondents. She was active in the politics of her

time, particularly in the revolutionary government of 1848. Her participation
was, according to Ellen Moers, "a first for women's history" (30). She received
both criticism and acclaim for her novels: some dismiss them as sentimental
love stories; others commend them as didactic, socialist, and revolutionary. In
her day she was ranked with Balzac and Eugene Sue as "one of the most
popular authors in France" (Laird 8). She baffled her male contemporaries and
inspired her female contemporaries. Unlike the mediocre novelist some called
her, Sand created energy, positive and negative, in her readers; most Often in
correlation with their gender.6

The British reactions to her work have been well-documented by Patricia
Thomson. They range from "admiration" to "moral outrage" (Thomson 11).
Some critics called her "a woman of genius," others labeled her "the anti-
matrimonial novelist" (Thomson 13). After a series of scathing reviews which,
according to Thomson, "did George Sand's reputation in England much
damage," (15) critics nevertheless began to understand the true message of her
novels: "It is against, and not for, license, that Sand is contending; for the right of
a woman to belong to the man she deems worthy, and while she deems him
worthy" (Francis Burdett, quoted in Thomson 17). In the 1850's Henry Lewes
wrote, "For eloquence and depth of feeling, no man approaches George Sand"
(quoted in Thomson 27). George Sand impressed her contemporaries; both in
the convictions expressed in her novels and in her ability as a writer. One critic
claimed: "never, surely, was style carried to a greater perfection . . . so clear,
pure, keen, we seem to breathe some mountain air, first delightful, then almost
trying to our organs" (Francis Burdett, quoted in Thomson 17). Male and female
British writers were influenced by her style and ideas; comparative studies show
how many of their novels, and how many different types of writers, reflected this
influence.7 Sand also strongly influenced the Russians. Dawn Eidelman has

studied the importance Of Sand's works to both male and female nineteenth-
century Russian writers. There was "a veritable cult in appreciation of the fiction
of George Sand . . . so pervasively did Sand's work influence Tsarist Russia that
a special term was coined to describe the literary phenomenon:
zhorzhzandism" (21 ). While the Official Russian government press labeled her
"shameless, immoral, immodest, indecent, insidious and machiavellian," the
people eagerly read her works (quoted in Eidelman 20). Pauline Viardot wrote
to Sand, "la-bas tous vos ouvrages sont traduits a mesure qu'ils paraissent, tout
le monde les lit du haut en bas de l'échelle, les hommes vous adorent, les
femmes vous idolatrent et vous régnez sur la Russie plus souverainement que
le Tzar" (quoted in Karp 151). The intellectuals read her works as well, and she
is credited as being the "mother of Russian realism" (Mirsky, quoted in Karp
153).8 Sand's influence on Italian writers has been ably documented by
Annarosa Poli; Hugh Harter has studied her reception and influence in Spain.
Her influence was also felt in America: according to Leland Person, "reading
and writing about Sand compelled [Henry] James to reexamine gender
questions" (516). James was intrigued by Sand's "ease of living by
improvisation-most compellingly the ease of constructing one's gender"
(Person 516). Sand's revolutionary ideas concerning gender roles and
personalities made an impact on James' personal life as well as his writings.
She was an international figure: not only a recorder of her time, but a prophet,
philosopher and leader. She has been called the "greatest feminine genius
known to literature" (Howe xiii). She is one Of only three women listed in most
histories of French literature published between 1848 and 1968; Colette and de
Beauvoir are the others. (Holmes xi).

She did not receive acclaim from everyone, however; her male

contemporaries criticized her because she broke the tradition Of "women's

writing," such as it was in the nineteenth century. Yet Lucy Schwartz maintains
that Sand was a part of the tradition of women's literature, although she
changed it significantly and permanently. The catalogue of Sand's library
includes almost 150 titles of novels, letters, and "memoirs written by women and
biographies of famous women" (Schwartz, "Roman," 20). Sand read the works
of Mme de Sévigné, Mme de Lafayette, Mme de Steel, and Mme de Genlis,
among others (9A 1: 627—629). The "roman intime" as defined by Sainte-
Beuve is a lOve story, composed of emotions. The majority of these novels,
according to Schwartz, "include love triangles" and "Obstacles," and typically
"end tragically as society triumphs over love" ("Roman" 21) They are usually
written "by upper class women for other women to entertain, while preaching
traditional virtue, respect Of the status quo and the dangers of passion"
(Schwartz, "Roman," 22). Sand's innovations are obvious when compared to
this type of novel: she writes that passion is important, and should overcome
socity's barriers; most of her heroines do accomplish their goals despite
society's restrictions. Sand's break with tradition is clear in her heroines‘
outlook on their expected roles: whereas women in the traditional roman intime
"never question the value system of the prevailing society (Schwartz, "Roman,"
25), Sand's characters openly challenge it. This is why her novels caused
such conflicting emotions in her readers, and why she is considered a pioneer
in so many ways.

Sand broke with the literary tradition of Romantic male authors also.
Peter Dayan has convincingly argued that in Flaubert and other Romantic
novelists, "the heroine falls in love with a man who cannot satisfy her inner
longings," which results in "the kind Of tragedy that fuels the Romantic feeling
that nothing ideal can be found in life." Sand's heroines, however, "fight off that

feeling; they acquiesce in change," which demonstrates "George Sand's anti-
Romantic willingness to accept love without barriers." (Dayan 418). Dayan
notes that, by creating heroines who refuse to accept the limitations placed on
them by society, Sand shows "an acceptance of change, an espousal of the
natural flow of time, . . . a refusal of absolutism and a vaiorization of positive
actions, positive choice, and co-operation with other people" (419). Jean
Larnac's 1929 study of women's fiction in France offers a completely different
interpretation and view of Sand's writing. In an interesting combination of
admiration and misogyny, Larnac calls Sand "incapable de reproduire la vie
telle qu'elle est," which, in his opinion, explains her success (213). He saw her
fiction as "l'illusion de vivre ses désirs et ses reves, de meme elle donnait a
[ses] lectrices surtout l'illusion de la vie qu'[elles] eussent désirée" (213).
Sand accomplishes this new world view by giving to her female protagonists
"qualities of intelligence, initiative and integrity [that] refuse to fit into a
subservient plot" (Holmes 36).

These contrasting arguments apply not only to her fiction; even Sand's
own words concerning her works and her motivations and intentions can lead to
differing opinions. Her letters, journals, essays, and prefaces contain many
statements that have been considered contradictory, as have been her novels.
Whether she changed opinions, copied the ideas of her lovers, or wrote what
was necessary according to her intended audience and current situation, Sand
was as complex, and her ideas as richly varied, as her novels. Michelle Perrot
calls Sand's feminine identity "subie, assumée, revendiquée ou contestée; les
masques de Sand sont multiples, elle en change selon les époques et les
circonstances" (41). Sand's seemingly contradictory statements can be
reconciled, however, when they are taken as a whole, in the context of her

entire life and body of writing, just as her novels serve together to form a unified

statement. One example of a reconcilable contradiction is her belief about male
and female characteristics. In a letter to Edouard de Pompéry on December 23,
1864, Sand writes: "la femme peut bien, a un moment donné, remplir .
d'inspiration un rOle social et politique, mais non une fonction qui la prive de sa
mission natureile: l'amour de la famille" (gm. 18: 629). She continues, "Ie
coeur est-ll destiné a changer? Je ne le crois pas, et je vols la femme a jamais
esclave de son propre coeur et de ses entrailies. J'ai écrit cela maintes fois et
je le pense toujours" W 18: 629). Three years later in a letter to Flaubert she
writes this seemingly contradictory statement in reaction to his use of the term
"vieil hystérique" for himself in a letter dated January 12, 1867:

pourquoi une telle maladie aurait-elle un sexe? Et puis

encore, il y a oeci pour les gens forts en anatomie: il n'y a qu'un

sexe. Un homme et une femme c'est si bien la meme chose que

l'on ne comprend guere les tas de distinctions et de

raisonnements subtils dont se sont nourries les sociétés sur ce

chapitre-la. (92g. 20: 297)
One can interpret all these statements as expressing Sand's belief that women
are naturally inclined to care for their families; that does not preclude their
working, they will merely "do it all." Women are no more prone to hysteria then
men--it is an individual characteristic; the supposedly separate, definable
character traits that society has predetermined for men and women do not exist
in reality. Concerning Sand's statement that "les sexes n'expriment qu'un
emboftement d'organes nécessaires a la jonction fécondante, (Impressions
261) Alison Guidette-Georis states that "par contre a la voix populaire au dix-
neuvieme siecle, Sand, du moins dans le monde fictif de ses romans, n'admet
aucune autre difference réelle entre l'homme et la femme" (48). All of Sand's

statements concerning the differences or lack thereof between males and

10

females coincide with and support her novels; androgyny is part of everyone;
men and women share common characteristics that really should not be
separated by sex. in her letter to the Central Committee, Sand writes: "ll ne m'a
jamais sembié possible que l'homme et la femme fussent deux étres
absolument distincts. ll y a diversité d'organisation et non pas difference. ll y 'a
clone égalité et non point similitude" ( "A propos" 20). Toril Moi writes of the
"destructive nature of a metaphysical belief in strong, immutably fixed gender
identities" in the nineteenth century. In a statement that could be made about
Sand, Moi describes Virginia Woolf as "reject[ing] such gender identities
because she has seen them for what they are. She has understood that the
goal of her feminist struggle must precisely be to deconstruct the death-dealing
binary opposition of masculinity and femininity" (13). George Sand (also) did
much to aid in the deconstruction of these set personality traits, both in her life
and in her works. Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Guber claim that Sand
attempted to "solve the literary problem of being female by presenting [herself]
as male." They also believe that she and George Eliot "most famously used a
kind of male-impersonation to gain male acceptance of their intellectual
seriousness" (65). By choosing a male name, "a woman writer could move
vigorously away from the "lesser subjects and lesser lives [that] had constrained
her foremothers" (Gilbert 65). This advantage is considerably diminished once
the true identity of the writer is known. George Sand was identified as a female
soon after the publication of mm; the name was not an effective mask.9
Instead it was a rejection of her husband's name, a self-chosen identity based
on another male name, her lover Jules Sandeau, yet with her own personal
twist. Throughout her life, Sand never rejected (enlightened) men; she simply
wished to be allowed her own identity and to do as she pleased.

11

Her fiction is ample proof that she desired equal education, rights, and
opportunities for women. Her characters' lifestyles and choices are testimony to
that. However, none of her characters does what George Sand did: they do not
participate in revolutionary governments, they are not promiscuous, they do not
write political pamphlets, letters or articles. Sand's fiction is intended for the
average female reader; Sand herself was extraordinary. She was a female
writer speaking out against injustice toward women. Her non-fiction is more
obvious, emphatic and damning than any of her fiction, yet her fiction served the
same purpose, in a less threatening way. Francine Mallet calls her feminism
"reflechi." Sand "espere éviter aux femmes moins bien armées qu'elle, les
difficultés qu'elle a eus" (188). Society does not help "les opprimés, en
particulier les femmes," and Sand "contribuera de toutes ses forces a la
changer" (188). Sand has "done it all": she has shown that "une femme pouvait
a la fois étre amante et mere, jouer un rOIe social, gagner sa vie et créer" (Mallet
188). The major areas of Sand's concern were the right to education and
divorce for women.10 She spoke openly on this subject, in her non-fiction and
her novels. She told Lamennais that in her writing she wishes to "y faire entrer
des questions relatives aux femmes. J'y voudrais parler de tous les devoirs, du
manage, de la matemité, etc." (gm. 3: 712). She specifically mentions divorce:
"pour vous en dire en un mot toutes mes hardiesses, elles tiendraient a
reclamer le divorce dans le mariage" (99; 3: 713). Her own personal
experience, as well as the abuses she sees around her, give her the passion for
divorce that men do not have and do not need, due to the sexual double
standard of the day. George Sand used her non—fiction writing to highlight the
political/legal status of women; she used her fiction to bring her (male) readers
insight into how women feel about their situation. André Maurois writes that

George Sand "pensait que la servitude cu l'homme tient la femme détruit le

12

bonheur du couple, qui n'est possible que dans la liberté" (362). Concerning
women, George Sand wrote: "on les maltraite; . . . en amour on les traite comme
des courtisanes; en amitié conjugale, comme des servantes. On ne les aime
pas, on s'en sert, on les expioite, at on espere ainsi les assujetter a la loi de
fidelité" ("Fauvette," quoted in Maurois 368). George Sand believed strongly in
equality in marriage and love, in what Paul Chanson calls "equation conjugaie"
(222). She stated repeatedly that arranged marriages were wrong: "les
mariages de raison sont une erreur ou l'on tombe, ou un mensonge qu'on se
fait a sci-meme" (QA 2: 33). She also clearly stated her purpose for writing:

j'ai écrit l_rldi_ar3 avec le sentiment profond et légitime

de l'injustice et de la barbaric des lois que régissait encore

l'existence de la femme dans le mariage, dans la famille et la

société. . . je ne suis ni le premier, ni le seul, ni ie dernier

champion d'une si belle cause, et je la défendrai tant qu'il me

restera un souffle de vie. (Preface to jn_di§fla_, 1842 edition 46-47)
Her defense of this cause continued in her letters and other writings, as well as
most of the rest of her novels. Her most explicit, undeniable explanations of her
intentions are found in her letters. In 1837 she writes to a friend:

le monde trouve fort naturel et fort excusable qu'on se

joue avec les femmes de ce qu'il y a de plus sacré: les

femmes ne comptent ni dans l‘ordre social, ni dans l'ordre moral.

Oh! J'en fais le serment, et voici la premiere lueur de courage et

d'ambition de ma vie. Je releverai la femme de son abjection, et

dans ma personne et dans mes écrits. (gm 4: 18)
She continues, "que l'esclavage féminin ait aussi son Spartacus. Je le serai,
ou je mourrai a la peine" (99114 19). Arlette Michel believes that Sand "va plus

loin que Balzac dans sa protestation contre l'institution du mariage et les

13

mentalités collectives qui en regient les rites. Non seulement elle critique, mais
elle recuse" (36). Her desire to help women in general is clear here; what is not
stated specifically here and elsewhere is what exactly she wants other than the
right to divorce for women in relationships. Many people think she is claiming
the right to the same sexual freedom that men have, and that she wants
everyone to live in a state of "free love." Her position on the issue of free love is
less clear, and can be debated, especially when her own life is included in the
discussion. Simone de Beauvoir believed that George Sand "réclame le droit a
I'amour libre" (1: 194). Paul Chanson finds her instead insisting on equal
treatment for both sexes, that they both need "equation prenuptial, equation
conjugal, [et] equation héroique" (222). He has argued against Sand's belief in
"l'amour libre," using several of her novels to attempt to prove his point.11

Whatever her attitude toward sex outside of marriage, her writing, both
fiction and non-fiction, shows a determination to address the question of
marriage itself and she used both negative and positive examples to make her
case. Sand's negative portrayals of arranged marriages are more than
balanced by her depictions of happy, tradition-defying marriages in which the
man and woman choose each other. Annabelle Rea calls Sand "the eternal
optimist [who] was calling for social change through her pleas on marriage as a
union of equals, a woman and a man who compliment each other, both sharing
traditionally masculine and feminine qualities" (47). This type of equal
relationship between men and women appears in the majority of her novels: it is
Sand's strongest statement, lasting throughout her career.

Social and educational equality were the cornerstones of Sand's writing:
"Elle écrit par besoin de s'exprimer et de communiquer . . . parce qu'elle est
poussée par le sens de la justice," (Makward 536). She protests in her writings

"contre la subordination économique, sociale et politique de la femme"

14

(Makward 536). Her intentions were misunderstood and misinterpreted by
some of her contemporaries, including women. She was forced to baidly state
her opinion on women's sufferage and women in politics when a group of
women nominated her for the National Assembly without consulting her. In her
famous letter, shocking to today's feminists, yet entirely reasonable for her time
and in keeping with her fiction, Sand declared that women were not yet ready to
vote or hold political office because "la femme étant sous la tutelle et dans la
dépendance de l'homme par le mariage, il est absolument impossible qu'elle
présente des garanties d'indépendance politique" (Send, "A propos," 22). In
this long letter Sand highlights all the atrocities of the laws: women treated as
children, men who can commit adultery freely yet emprison their wives if they
commit adultery, and the absurdities of other inequalities in mariage. She
unequivocally states, "pour que la condition des femmes soit ainsi transformée,
il faut que la société soit transformée radicalement" (Sand, "A propos," 22). The
transformation of the condition of women and of her society is the message in
Sand's work; these are the ideals she wished to share with her world. Her
message was heard by the women born after her death; her attempt to change
the world was successful, even if she did not live to see the outcome.

Mme de Steel and George Sand, "rares femmes qui [ont] joué un rOle
dans l'histoire de la France au dix—neuvieme siecle" (Maurois 365), helped
women see the inconsistency of the demands placed on them and the
unfairness of their inferior place in society. Sand's financial and critical success
and acceptance encouraged other women to write also. Those who came
immediately after her were attacked by male writers who felt threatened by
them. In 1878 Barbey d'Aurevilly published Les Bas-bleus a collection of

 

articles critical of women writers; Albert Cim and others continued that
misogynist tradition into the twentieth century.12 Sand's call for equal

15

education for women was heard and her desire realized in 1881 when
secondary education was opened up for girls. Soon after, women began
winning university degrees, law degrees and graduate degrees. Between 1896
and 1929 over three hundred women writers were awarded literary prizes by
the Academic Franr;:aise.13 Sand opened the way for other women by her
tenacity and by writing according to her convictions. Annarosa Poli calls her "un
chef defile" due to "Ie retour a la psychologie, a l'étude des moeurs eta
l'analyse attentive du moi considéré dans ses rapports avec les autres"
("Critique" 100). Sand was an artist who chose to show "individus, tous égaux,
dans cette aptitude infinie a etre différents, qui fait la saveur du monde humain"
(Ozouf 182). To this day she remains controversial: critics debate the merits of
her feminism, her socialism, and her literary talents. No one can make any
universal claims about her, however, unless they first consider her entire body
of work; it is a microcosm of both the world in which Sand lived, and her vision
of what it could be.

The goal of this study is to explore and highlight the most basic aspect of
her novels: her message to women and about women, their rights and

responsibilities, and Sand's advocacy of their equality with men.

16

Chapter 1: Questionable Feminism

The novels studied in this chapter contain some problematical situation,
outcome, or implied attitude that does not lend itself to a positive feminist
reading. They are classified here as "questionable" because there is no
observable or discernable advocacy for equality or self-determination for
women. These novels appear throughout Sand's career; there is no obvious
biographical or historical explanation for their lack of feminist vision or projects.
They include women who give up all self-determination for a man who makes
no promises to marry them, women who are entirely passive and dependent,
relying on fate or others for their happiness, and women who become
completely absorbed by their husband's beliefs and life-style. Many of these
novels have led feminist critics to question Sand's feminism. They make up a
small percentage of her fiction, however, and should not be judged apart from
the rest of her work.

Leone Leoni (1834) examines a role reversal of men and women and is
George Sand's speculation on what would happen if there were a male "Manon
Lescaut." 1 His name is Leone Leoni; he spends his entire life seducing, using,
and betraying women.

The young woman whose story is told in Leone Leoni is Juliette, from a
well-to-do family. She falls in love with Leone Leoni and runs aways with him.
When asked why she sacrifices her reputation for him she recounts that before
she met him, "Je n'avais pas l'idée des passions. On m'avait élevée comme si
je ne devais jamais les connai‘tre; ma mere avait été élevée de meme et s'en
trouvait bien" (15). She knew how to be the typical decorative bourgeois

woman: "je touchais le piano d'une maniere brillante, je dansais a merveille, je

17

peignais I'aquarelle avec une netteté et une frai‘cheur admirables" (15). She
obeyed her parents in all things, and was prepared to marry whomever they
chose for her: "je m'en remettais aveuglément au choix de mes parents, et je ne
désirais ni ne fuyals Ie mariage" (16).

Her passive acceptance of life is shattered by Leoni. She is conscious
for the first time of her situation as a woman whose parents are matchmaking
when Leoni looks at her. He has been made aware that Juliette's parents are
interested in him and she understands that her "rOle de fille a marier était un
peu ridicule . . . et pour la premiere fois de ma vie peut-étre je rougis et sentis
de la honte" (18). It is Leoni's look: "il y avait quelque chose d'ironique dans
l'admiration de son regard" (18) that causes her first shame-a foreshadowing of
all the shame in her life that he will cause.

He continues to affect her burgeoning emotions of pride, shame, respect,
and love. He courts her in the usual manner, but he also brings her novels:

c'étaient de beaux et chastes livres, presque tous écrits
par des femmes sur des histoires de femmes . . . ces apercus d'un
monde ideal pour moi eleverent mon ame mais ils la dévorerent.
Je devins romanesque, caractere le plus infortuné qu'une femme
puisse avoir. (25)
Even when she realizes that he is a fraud, that he has no money, has gambling
debts, and has stolen all her jewels and money, she continues to love him. She
refuses to claim responsibility for her emotions, saying:
Leoni avait désormais sur moi plus qu'une force morale,
il avait une puissance magnétique a laquelle je ne
pouvais plus me soustraire. . . je n'étais plus qu'une machine qu'il

poussait a son gré dans tous les sens. (78)

18

Without any strength or will power left, she allows herself to be ruled by Leoni.
She becomes involved in various criminal actions, lives incognito with criminals
in hiding, and makes no attempt to save herself. When Leoni abandons her she
is sheltered by a man who loves her and is good to her, yet she leaves him as
soon as Leoni comes back into her life.

These emotions and their consequences are similar to those depicted in
Prévost's Manon Lescau_t. But the sex of the main protagonists is reversed.
Manon, as the seductress, does not need to ask for marriage. She offers herself
as mistress, and that is enough. Leoni must Offer proof of birth, rank, and
fortune in order to marry for wealth. He must use imagination and cunning to
convince his female victims and their families that he is wealthy and that he
loves the women for themselves and not their money. He need not fear any
retribution from the women he dupes; they are powerless, and are so ashamed
and "ruined" socially that they do not ask their families to prosecute him. Unlike
Manon, jailed and punished for her crimes, Leoni roams freely among various
high society groups in Europe. Their victims' fates are also different. Des
Grieux can return to his normal life; Juliette, branded forever as a fallen
woman, cannot return to her former life. She can live only with other outcasts,
and is totally dependent on men for her survival.

As in Prévost's Manon Lescault, the first-person narration is told to
another person, who interrupts and frames the story with action. The difference
is that Juliette tells her story to a man who loves her and even attempts to
murder moni. In the end he realizes that he has killed the wrong man, and that
Leoni is still alive. Unlike Manon, who dies as if to expiate her sins, Leoni is
allowed to live and perpetuate his crimes in a society in which men and women

are not treated equally. It is Juliette whose life can never be the same.

19

What is problematical about this novel is that George Sand, while
successfully depicting the gender inequity in her society, does nothing to
"redeem" her female protagonist from a feminist perspective. Juliette chooses
to remain with the man who demeans her and mistreats her; she rejects the
man who loves and respects her. At the close of the novel, Juliette and Leone
are together again. Nothing has been resolved, nothing has changed. Juliette
allows herself to be Leone's victim.

According to Larry Riggs, this novel "relativizes the entire social semiotics
of class and gender" and "undermines the categorical laws . . . of society" (50).
Juliette defies her society by choosing "the freedom of masquerade over rescue
and reintegration in the social system" (54). Riggs claims that the relationship
between Juliette and Leone is "more affirmative than any available alternative"
(57), and that Bustamente's love for Juliette represents the traditional,
bourgeois prison for women. As Kathryn Crecelius states:

clearly, for Sand, . . . marriage is not a satisfactory ending
. . . Sand has rewritten Manon Lescaut from a doubly
female perspective, for both the protagonist and the author are
women. In so doing, she has not only given Juliette a far different
destiny from either Des Grieux or Manon, but she has also sharply
distinguished her novel from its two sources, Prévost's work and
women's novels of the previous generation. (125)
Crecelius believes that Juliette's choice shows a "repudiation of the fatherly,
overprotective father figure" that is Bustamente "for the heroic Leone." (126).
There is nothing heroic about Leone, however. He has mistreated Juliette
already and will most likely continue to do so. She is not free because as a
woman she cannot live on her own. Her choice of lover/husband is not the most

advantageous for her, yet, as Kristina Wingard Vareille suggests:

20

la figure de Juliette tient plutOt du fantasme; elle

représente, dans l'oeuvre de Sand, quelque chose comme
I'attirance du gouffre . . . [elle choisit] de vivre la passion dans
l'abjection . . . Leone Leoni . . . confirme la . . . scission qui oblige
la femme a choisir entre la passion et le statut de sujet . . . une
telle alternative est insupportable [pour Sand]. (243)

The ambivalence towards love and marriage demonstrated here is typical of
Sand's early novels, and will not continue throughout her career. At this point,
however, she cannot seem to find, because it does not yet exist in her
experience, an acceptable alternative to dependency on a man. The self-
abasing yet revolutionary choice of Leone is perhaps not the best, but it seems
preferable to a safe life with a man Juliette does not love.

The women in Le Comggnon du Tour de France (1841) are not
particularly noteworthy, although each one represents a different class in

society. La Savinienne, of the working class, is a poor widow with children who
is revered by her husband's former co-workers. She is considered honorable
and saimly because she is chaste. The bourgeoisie is represented by
Josephine, a wealthy factory owner's daughter who is now a widowed
marquise. The aristocrat in this novel is Yseult de Villepreux, a young woman
who reads books and poetry and who believes in the equality of people's souls
despite their social class. Each woman in this novel is totally dependent upon
and submissive to society's rules and expectations for them; none is allowed to
achieve true happiness.

La Savinienne is not even called by her own name. Her husband, an
inn-keeper, had been called Ie Savinien by his friends, so she is called by the

feminine form of his nickname. Her identity is completely subsumed by his,

21

even though he is now dead. She is not even considered a real woman
because she has been deemed holy and sacred by the men in her life. When
the narrator compares La Savinienne to the bourgeois woman who married into
the aristocracy, he commands the reader:
ne pense pas que cette Marquise. . . soit un etre aussi
beau, aussi pur et aussi précieuse devant Dieu que la noble
Savinienne, avec sa resignation, sa fermeté, son courage, sa
reputation sans tache, et son amour maternel . . . voila de grands
attraits, pour nous autres surtout, qui ne voyons ces beautés. . .
qu'a une certaine elevation au-dessus de nous, comme nous
voyons les vierges . . . dans les égiises. (59)
She has no real name, and no real personality in the eyes of the men; she is
untouchable like the statues and stained—glass women in church. Bernadette
Segoin writes that La Savinienne "occupe une place privilégiée. Son
rayonnement est extraordinaire" (194).

She is in love with a young, impoverished carpenter, Le Corinthian, who
is not financially secure enough to marry her. Her one defiant gesture against
society is to reject the marriage proposal of an older, wealthier man, and leave
her home with her children to go where Le Corinthien is working, placing
herself and her reputation in jeopardy. Her salvation comes in the form of
Yseult, who takes pity on her and offers her the job of "repasseuse" for the
chateau. Yseult helps la Savinienne become independent, yet she herself is
not independent. She is in love with Pierre, the intelligent, noble-minded main
protagonist, yet when her grandfather forbids the marriage, she obeys. Her
only attempt at defying society is her intention to marry whom she chooses. She

tells Pierre:

22

je reconnais qu'il faut que nous nous quittions pour

quelques mois, pour quelques années peut—étre . . . j'ai

envers mon a'ieul des devoirs de toute la vie . . . je me

soumettrai a toutes ses volontés, excepté a celle

d'épouser un autre homme que vous (325).
All her education and all her "liberal" ideas are meaningless when faced with
reality. Pierre, while obviously much poorer than she, is a skilled craftsman who
could support a family. Yet she is unwilling to break the rules. Lucette Czyba
claims that the relationship between Yseult and Pierre "donne a lire la nature
complexe des rapports du féminisme et du socialisme dans l'utopie sandienne"
(26). Even the name of the heroine is significant: "Yseult" is a name assiciated
with forbidden love, one "dont un interdit barre le destin" (Czyba 26). This
barrier is contemporary society, both the fictional one of Pierre and Yseult, and
that of George Sand. According to Czyba, "les limites que le text assigne ainsi
aux revendications d'inspiration féministe ne signifient pas toutefois une
prudence excessive de la part de la romanciere. Elles temoignent plutOt de son
sens des réalités contemporaines" (26). Pierre and Yseult are representatives
of Sand's ideal, "condamnés a attendre et a espérer ce qui n'est pas encore de
ce monde" ( Czyba 28). The worker and the aristocrat are equal in mind, spirit,
outlook, and desire. Yet they are condemned by their society to remain apart
indefinitely.

Yseult's grandfather represents his society, that which forbids their union,
so they must wait for him to die; once he and the society he represents are
gone, couples such as Yseult and Pierre will be allowed to marry. Class
differences will not be an obstacle, neither will patriarchal power over a

woman's right to choose.

23

 

Josephine knows society's rules well. While she would never marry a
working-class man, she does have an affair with Le Corinthien. When the affair
is discovered, Josephine quickly repents: "elle se déclara si bien guérie de son
amour, qu'elle y renoncait et priait son oncle de l'aider a le rompre" (308). As
long as her actions are hidden, she can maintain the illusion of compliance with
the rules. When forced to choose, however, she will sacrifice her own desires
and feelings in order to please society.

The only truly strong character in this novel is the Count, Yseult's
grandfather. He claims to believe in equality for all, yet does not allow his
grand-daughter to marry the man she loves, one who could be, by the count's
own admission, an exceptional man in any class. The women in this novel
obey society's rules; society, in this novel as in most others, being embodied by
an old, wealthy aristocrat who refuses to change his ways. Rather than attempt

to challenge his authority over them, they acquiesce.

ln _Je_a_rme (1844), the main protagonist is, according to George Sand, the
type of ignorant, chaste, Jeanne d'Arc woman who became her prototype for Q
Mare au diable (1846) fr_ancois le Cha_mpj, (1847) and La Petite Fadette
(1849) (28). According to Mireille Bossis, Jeanne is the first solidified example
of a type of female protagonist she calls the "femme pretresse" (250). She is the

 

representative of the "forces souterraines" in the novel and she neither looks at
others, nor hears them (253). All this leads to the fact that Jeanne "n'est pas de
la meme race" of the others (254). She lives in her own world, with her own
view of reality and her own opinions. She is the object of desire of the three
men in the novel, yet she never desires any of them or any other part of normal
life.

24

Jeanne is a young shepherdess who believes in the magic and
superstitions of her class. She has taken a vow of chastity because when she
was a child, three coins mysteriously appeared in her hands while she was
sleeping on a large rock. She believes she was given this money by her
"fades," or female spirits, which means that she is somehow special and
different from the other women in her village.

The money is, in fact, placed in her hand by three young aristocrats.
Mersillat leaves her a coin and grants her the wish, "je te souhaite un gaillard
vigoreux pour amant, "Boussac wishes her "un protecteur riche et généreux,"
and Sir Arthur leaves her a wish for "un honnéte marl qui t'aime et t'assiste
dans tes peines" (39). Each of these men will, himself, fulfill his wish for
Jeanne.

Jeanne is considered a helpless dependent woman when she is taken in
to Boussac's home years later. She is not, however. She defies everyone's
wishes, clinging to her own superstitions and vows. Even when confronted with
thech about her three coins, she refuses to relent. The three wishes are
ironically granted when Mersillat attempts to rape her, Boussac rescues and
protects her, and Sir Arthur asks her to marry him. She resists all three and dies
of injuries suffered in her escape from Mersillat.

Such strength of character is exhibited only in Jeanne. The other female
characters in the novel play the traditional role of women. They are considered
normal, and Jeanne is the "other." As does the strong "autre" Jeanne d'Arc, the
virgin who sees visions, this Jeanne refuses to yield to society's rules. Her
religious beliefs help her resist the expectations of society. Jeanne believes in
God, yet instead of the Catholic church and the Pope, "le grand pretre," she
believes in "les fades" (84). The "fades" are "des femmes qu'on ne voit pas,

mais qui font du bien ou du mal" (84). With the exception of God, her entire

25

religious reference is her dead mother, her "fades" and Saint Mary, whom she
calls the "grande fade." She has no male authority figures and she lives by her
own rules. Her promise of chastity was made to God and the female figures she
worships. Her complete adherence to these vows leads her to reject paternal
authority; under no circumstances will she yield to men, those who wish to help
her as well as those who wish to harm her. This rejection of male authority
leads to her death.

In l_s_i_d_or_a_, (1845) George Sand presents a tug-of—war between two
women who represent the male-generated opposition of prostitute and
"Madonna." 2 They are fighting over Jacques, a young man attempting to write
a definitive treatise on women. The action in the novel parallels the research
that Jacques is undertaking. lnterspersed with his journal and the narrator's
accounts of the story are Jacques' notes on his observations of women. He
decides to become acquainted with Isidora, the courtisan, because she is a
representation of "un nouveau type do femme" (77). During one of their
discussions on women and their role in society, she asks him, "que feras-tu de
la passion dans la république idéale? Dans quelle série de mérites rangeras-tu
la pécheresse qui a beaucoup aime?" (77). Due to the delicate nature of this
discussion they switch immediately into metaphors for women; the pure "vierge
qui n'a point aime encore" and the "matronne a qui les soins vertueux du
ménage n'ont pas permis d'étre . . . émue et enivrée de l'amour d'un homme"
(77) are called the camelias, and her type of woman is the rose. According to
Jacques, "la rose est enivrante . . . mais elle ne vit qu'un instant." (78). He
wants to give to the rose "la persistence et la durée du camélia blanc, symbole

de pureté." (78). But Isidora believes that she and her kind are "l'élite des

26

femmes . . . les types les plus rares et les plus puissants" (78). They have "les
dévouements les plus romanesques, les instincts les plus héro'iques" (78).

It is the camelia, however, who performs the acts that change the lives of
everyone. Isidora and Alice de T. are in love with Jacques, and he believes he
loves both of them. Alice is a young widow who has promised her dying brother
that she will befriend and protect Isidora, his former lover. Alice renounces
Jacques because, according to Eve Sourian, "soeur spirituelle de Lelia qui
cherche l'infini dans la creature, elle ne lui pardonne pas d'avoir succombé a
isidora" (30). She refuses to accept the word of a man who is not sure if he truly
loves her: "s'il m'aime, et qu'il se laisse distraire seulement une heure, je ne
pourrai jamais le lui pardonner" (147). Requiring exclusive love, she sends
Jacques to the woman who has never known any true love at all.

Yet after living with him for awhile, lsidora also renounces Jacques,
writing to Alice that she is "guérie de l'amour" (163). At this point Jacques
disappears from the novel and Isidora retreats from society, eventually adopting
a young girl and devoting herself to raising her. As often in the Sandian
universe, women can be "redeemed" through maternity. It is their mission and
purpose in life; if a husband is not available, a child can be adopted.

Eve Sourian suggests that Alice has also been completely subdued and
controlled by society: "Instrument du systeme patriarchal dont elle avait été
victime elle-meme, Alice l'aristocrate, la castratrice a rempli sa fonction: lsidora
est maftrisée, neutralisée, elle n'est plus un danger pour la famille du Comte de
S." (35). And she is no longer a danger to the rules of society. The free-spirited,
independent woman has been tamed, broken, and reigned in by one of her

OW“: a woman.

27

The "péché" in Le Péché 99 Monsiegr Antoine (1845) is, technically, his
daughter, Gilberte. She is the result of her mother's affair that has been a secret
all her life, from Gilberte and everyone else. Gilberte leads an uncomplicated,
happy, innocent existence until she falls in love with the first man to enter her
life, Emile Cardonnet. She is deemed too poor by his wealthy bourgeois father
until Emile is named the heir of a local wealthy marquis.

The women in this novel are all ineffectual and dependent.

Gilberte enthusiastically espouses her father's ideas and beliefs, she is loved
and treated with respect by her father and the servant who has raised her.
Emile's mother, on the other hand, is not happy. She is completely dominated
by her husband: "la bonne madame Cardonnet manquait totalement de ressort .
. . et l'espece de stupeur dont son ame était a jamais frappée se traduisait chez
son fils par un invincible mélancolie" (91). Her husband treats her as a child.
She has no knowledge of his business and, as a result, is unable to share in his
life.

Gilberte's mother is notable for her literal absence. She is the long-dead
wife of the marquis; her portrait is kept in a locked room, seen by no one. She
has paid for her adultery by her death and by her daughter's complete
ignorance of her existence. She is never acknowledged, never understood,

never forgiven. She has been erased by her society and her family.

Lucrezia Floriani (1846) is a psychological examination of two
incompatible people who, in spite of being in love, make each other miserable.
it is the story of how jealousy, possessiveness, and selfishness can destroy love
and slowly poison the life of a woman who has always "lived for love." It also
contains many comments by the supposed male narrator not only on love and

psychology, but also on how he, the narrator, has chosen to tell the story, and

28

on how we, the readers, will react to and predict certain aspects of the story.
Alex Szogyi claims that Sand is following the narrative practice of several of her
contemporaries, yet she "struggles with the high passion of the Romantic novel,
wishing to temper it and analyze it, thereby taming it and creating a new genre"
(191). This genre is less a psychological study of idividuals than of
relationships and Of how men and women view, feel, and act on love. Szogyi
believes that the gender of the narrator is neutral when helshe "speaks directly
to the audience," but that "when she tells the story per se, her instinctive feminist
approach . . . forms the stuff of her analysis" (195).

A precursor of Colette's La Vagabonde (1908), Lucrezia Floriani is a
thirty-year-old actress who has retired from the stage to raise her four
illegitimate children. She has been honored and respected as an actress and
playwright. She has had a succession of lovers, yet "sa maison était agréable,
et sa conduite tellement honorable et digne . . . que des femmes du monde la
frequenterent avec sympathie et non avec un certain sentiment de deference"
(36). She is George Sand's perfect woman in a perfect world; free to live as she
pleases, yet honorable and respected. Lucrezia understands her unique
position in the world and attempts to explain it:

Diriez-vous que je suis une courtisane? Je ne crois pas,

parce que j'ai toujours donné a mes amants . . . diriez-vous que je
suis une femme gaiante? Les sens ne m'ont jamais emportée
avant le coeur. . . Suis-je une femme de mauvaise vie, de moeurs
relachées? . . . Je n'ai jamais aimé deux hommes a la fois, je n'ai
jamais appartenu de fait et d'intention qu'a un seul pendant un
temps donné, suivant la durée de ma passion . . . Toutes les fois
que j'ai aimé c'a été de si grand coeur, que j'ai cru que c'était la

premiere et la derniere fois de ma vie (37).

29

This is Lucrezia's defense against attacks on her reputation. It is also an
attempt to explain why a woman can be something other than a "madonna" or a
"prostitute." 3 She is truly in love with each of these men while she is with them.
When, at the end of her life, she thinks back on these relationships, she realizes
that they have not loved her the same way, and that she has been deceian
herself. Lucrezia leaves the stage after her fourth child is born. She is
prepared to spend the rest of her life loving only her children, and returns to a
life Of secluded maternity in her childhood home. This maternal oasis is
invaded by a friend, Salvatore Albani, and his friend, the Prince Karol de
Roswald. Karol is cold, weak, and virtuous. He has loved only one woman, to
whom he was engaged, whom he never really knew, and who has died. She
was the ideal, pure woman whom he believes is the only woman he can love.
Lucrezia is so different from his ideal that he is at first disgusted by her. When
he falls ill she insists that he stay at her home and she cares for him as if he
were one of her children.

Through her maternal actions and care he sees what a woman can be
and he begins to fall in love with her. Bernadette Segoin believes that George
Sand understood better than anyone "Ie type do mere idéale, veritable models
de femme universelle, obéissante a une mission humanitaire, et investie de la
responsabilité de promouvoir une société nouvelle" (181). it is this maternity
that leads to Karol's love; when his health returns he is unable to disengage
himself from the power Lucrezia has over him (Segoin,185). As she nurses him
back to health, he sees her as a mother figure: "il vit Lucrezia dans sa chambre,
au milieu de ses enfants endormis. ll la vit partout grande par nature at
dégradée par le fait. ll se sentit transir et bruler" (83). At this change of
sentiment and apparent reversal of moral guidelines, the narrator again

intervenes with a question to the reader: "pourquoi t'en étonnerais-tu, Iecteur

30

perspicace? Tu as bien déja deviné que le prince de Roswald était tombé
éperdument amoureux a la premiere vue et pour toute sa vie de Lucrezia
Floriani" (85). Following this observation is a long discussion by the narrator
concerning why opposites attract, and then he adds, "c'est ce qu'il y a de plus
vraisemblable dans mon roman, puisque la vie de tous les pauvres coeurs
humains offre pour chacun une page, sinon un volume, de cette experience
funeste" (85). The words "éperdument" and "funeste" foreshadow that this
romance is doomed to fail.

Lucrezia is not prepared for Karol's declaration of love and resists him for
awhile. When she finally yields they have a happy two-week period together
while Salvator is away. They are alone with the children; no one from
Lucrezia's past comes to visit. Karol has forgotten her previous lovers; she is all
his, and she loves only him. The nuclear family is a whole, complete unit, and
everyone is happy. As soon as their islolation is disrupted by Salvator‘s return,
Karol is reminded of Lucrezia's past and jealousy becomes his major emotion.
He imagines that Salvator and Lucrezia are together. He begins to think about
the fathers of her children. He is suspicious of all and any men in her life.

When Lucrezia goes to the bedside of a dying old man, Karol becomes
consumed with jealousey:
Karol quitta le jardin, courut s'enfermer dans sa
chambre, et s'y promena, poursuivi par les Furies. Cette ame, tout
a l'heure si magnanime et si forte, n'était plus que le jouet des
plus misérables illusions. Ou'était-ce donc que le Boccaferri si
intéressant aux yeux de Lucrezia? (139)
As Karol continues his destructive tendancies, Lucrezia is unable to see or
understand them. She loves one man at a time, completely. She has never

betrayed anyone's trust. She is proud of her independence and considers

31

herself an honorable person. The narrator insists on this aspect of her
personality:
La Floriani, qui le croirait? était d'une nature aussi chaste que
l'ame d'un petit enfant . . . quand elle aimait, tout ce qui n'était pas
son amant était pour elle, sous le rapport des sens, la solitude, le
vide, Ie néant. (169)
Upon discovering the extent of Karol's jealousy Lucrezia is shocked and
confronts him, declaring her innocence. When he apologizes, "La Floriani se
contente de cette fausse reparation . . . mais en cela elle eut grand tort, et se
précipita d'elle-méme dans un ab‘ime de chagrins" (241).

The narrator comments on their two very different personalities and asks,
"que devient l'enthousiasme, que devient l'amour, quand celui qui en est l'objet
se conduit comme un maniaque" (244)? The inevitable conclusion is that, "une
nature riche par exuberance et une nature riche par exclusiveté, he peuvent se
fondre l'une dans l'autre. L‘une des deux doit dévorer l'autre. et n'en laisser
que des cendres. C'est ce qui arriva" (251 ).

During their tumultuous ten-year relationship, "jamais femme ne fut plus
ardemment aimée et en meme temps, plus calomniée et plus avilie dans le
coeur de son amant" (266). When there is no one for Karol to be jealous of he
begins to criticize her opinions and actions, including the way she raises her
children. She hides her unhappiness and remains with Karol, however. On her
fortieth birthday she finally realizes that "elle n'aimait plus Karol" (269). He has
killed not only her love for him, but her capacity to love at all. Once she is no
longer able to experience and enjoy love she begins to die: "l'amour était sa
vie: en cessant d'aimer, elle devait cesser de vivre" (270).

Her obstination in remaining with a man who is making her miserable is

lauded by the narrator, yet her independence and self-direction seem to have

32

ceased once she falls in love with Karol. She refuses to marry him because she
is too proud and knows the derision a "mésalliance" can cause, yet she allows
him to ruin her life. Why does a woman who is so strong in every area,
including love, allow this to happen? Why does this love affair last ten years,
even when she knows it is killing her?
As in other Sandian novels, there is a distinct pattern in this relationship.

Karol is one of many Sandien men who are weak and effeminate.4 His hands
are like a woman's hands, he is sickly, and his friend refuses to fight with him
even in anger, explaining that he is not a man. His relationship with Lucrezia
begins as a mother-child one. He is sick, she puts her maternal arms around
him. At one point in his initial delirium he asks her whether she is his dead
mother. She is six years older than he and has responsibilities: a home,
children, and a father to support. Karol has no responsibilities at all. He is
definitely the child in the relationship. His immaturity poisons it because he is
incapable of true, adult love, the only kind she has ever felt. This novel
condemns Karol's jealousy and his inability to accept her as she truly is. The
narrator's insights into and explanations of his personality make this clear. Yet
there is also a sense of martyrdom and pathos here when Lucrezia realizes that
all of her other lovers have disappointed her as well. She decides that it is time
for her to renounce hope in love:

je ne demanderai plus l'idéal sur la terre, la confiance

et l'enthousiasme a l'amour, la justice et la raison a la nature

humaine. J'accepterai les erreurs et les fautes. . . avec le désire

de les atténuer et de compenser, par ma tendresse, le mal

qu'elles font. (262)
She blames herself for believing that she could find happiness: "elle se dit que
c'était une faute de sa part d'avoir caressé un si beau réve, apres tant de

33

déceptions et d'erreurs" (262). It seems from Lucrezia's example that women
00th be happy in love as long as men do not share the same ideas and
understanding of what love is. Until a man can accept that a woman has been
with other men and still love only him, until he can allow her to be independent
and proud, until he can allow her to be herself, he will kill her; if not literally, then
psychologically. What is questionable here from a feminist viewpoint is
Lucrezia's lack Of self-preservation in allowing him to remain in her home and in

her life, knowing he is destroying her.

Les Dames vertes (1857) is full of legends, alleged ghosts, and romance,
yet in the midst of this gothic story lies a very real fact of life for women: they are
totally dependent on men, and have little legal authority. The chateau where
Just is staying on business is supposedly haunted by three young women who
had been poisoned. He is there as the lawyer of the woman who is in the midst
of a legal battle for control of the estate. Just is not optimistic about his client's
claim. He informs her that legally, as a woman, "vous étes en puissance du
mari" (61 ). She understands this, responding, "ii a sur ma fortune plus de droits
que moi-meme" (61).

While Just is in the chateau, the three ghosts appear to him. The next
night he sees another female ghost at the fountain, and she gives him a ring.
He falls in love with this ghost and decides to live his life waiting to die so that
he can meet her again. The single female ghost is really Félicie d'Allaine, who
has been ordered to play this role by her father who is fighting with Just's client.
He is hoping that the sight of the ghosts will influence Just not to work on his
client's behalf. Félicie is completely obedient to her father even though she
feels she has fallen in love with Just and does not want to deceive him. After
several months during which Just retreats from society to dream about the ghost

34

he has seen, Félicie is allowed to meet him. She informs him of the hoax and
asks his forgiveness. They declare their love for each other and live happily
ever after. .

The women in this novel are completely dependent and powerless.
Félicie makes no attempt to make contact with Just, waiting for her father's
permission, which comes only when Félicie's brother suggests a match

between them.

M (1859) is a short epistolary novel. It is one of the few George Sand
novels that contain a female first-person point of view; however, like most such
novels by Sand, it is in the epistolary form. Letters and journals seem the only
forms in Sandian fiction in which the reader can hear the woman's perspective
directly.

Flavie is writing to her friend about her prolonged stay in Italy with her
father. She is quite charmed by the mother of a young man who is is love with
her, so much so that she tells her friend, "oui, ma chere, je crois que j'épouserai
Malcolm a cause de Lady Rosemonde" (9). This frivolity of spirit is the basis of
her nature; she is a flirt, and, according to a rapidly disenchanted Malcolm, "elle
n'aime rien qu'elle-meme" (147).

Her selfishness and shallowness lead her to pursue the one man in her
life who is not impressed by her. When she talks to him of marriage he refuses
to discuss it. Having never been denied anything in her life, she falls ill, hoping
to shame him into relenting. When he does not, she is forced to reflect on her
life and, after some self analysis she realizes that "mon passé ne vaut rien. . . je
ne suis plus Ia meme" (174). Instead of reflecting on what she has learned
about herself, however, she soon finds another man to marry. She does not

love him with the same passion she felt for Emilius, but she tells her friend, "j'ai

35

pour lui une amitié réelle et en lui une confiance absolue" (178). The former flirt
has become serious; she values what is important in a man now: "Ie mérite d'un
homme n'est ni dans ses habits, ni dans ses chevaux, ni dans sa maniere
d'entrer dans un salon, ni dans aucun de ces riens dont, sans en convenir,
j'étais éblouie" (177).

This new wisdom does not, however, allow her to marry for love. She
knows that Emilius will never love her, yet she decides, "j'aime mieux qu'il reste
dans son nUage comme un esprit mystérieux dont je ne souhaite pas
I'apparition, mais dont le souvenir me reste doux et dont la benediction me
portera bonheur" (179). She seems destined to live her life in peace, but
without the passion of love. She has decided to accept second best and make
her life as meaningful as possible.

This is a very practical, unromantic statement on George Sand's part;
there is no real happy ending, there is no marriage of love. The feminist
message of this novel is questionable; it is not known whether Flavie is shallow
and selfish because of the traditional education given to women or because
such is her basic personality. The female protagonist, denied her first choice of
a husband, immediately finds another. A marriage based on love is not seen as
the most important aspect in her life; being married seems more important than
being happy.

In Narcisse (1859), the female character is mostly passive and
ineffectual. The narrator, M. E**" , recounts the events of the story. He is the
confidant, the father figure for the main protagonists, Narcisse and Juliette.
Juliette is a wealthy aristocrat who maintains and runs her own convent. She is
not a nun, yet she lives like one. She spends her life helping others and
attempting to bring them to her idea of God and religion. One of the people she

36

helps in the novel is an actor, M. Albany, whom she knew as a child. The crisis
of the novel develops when both Narcisse, a good, honorable, worthy man, and
M. Albany, a selfish, womanizing man, declare their love for Juliette. She has
feelings for both of them, yet she truly does not wish to marry. She is happy in
her convent, and feels that she is contributing to society. When faced with
society's insistence that she marry she resolves her moral conflict by falling
deame ill, rejecting Albany and marrying Narcisse before she dies. It seems
that, from society's point of view, it is better for a woman to be wed and to die
than remain single, happy, and alive.

As she is on her deathbed she analyzes her actions and motivations,
declaring, "je me suis accusée seulement d'avoir manque le clairvoyance. . . et
d'avoir attache trop de prix a une sympathie qui he valait rien, tandis que je
laissais souffrir une amitié qui eat on étre tout pour moi" (306). She realizes
that, of the two men, she should love Narcisse because he is more deserving,
and she feels she should marry him to make him happy. However, M. E“
Observes that "elle était nee avec l'instinct du célibat, instinct providentiel peut-

etre, puisque la seule pensée de l'amour terrestre brisait sa vie" (309).

In inmille ge Germa_n_gre (1861) there are two women, an aristocrat
and a peasant, who fall in love with men that society will not allow them to
marry. Hortence, the aristocrat, falls in love with a farmer. His sister, Corisande,
is in love with Octave, an aristocrat. Both women know that there is no
possibility for marriage, yet neither one plans to do anything about it. They are
passive and resigned to not being able to marry.

There is one possible solution for both couples: their grand-uncle has left

his title and fortune to whichever family member can open a treasure chest he

37

has designed. Fortunately for everyone, the farmer opens the chest. He and his
sister inherit the title and fortune; the two couples may now wed.

The message in this novel is unclear. The female characters are in love
with socially unsuitable men, yet they are not prepared to challenge society's

rules. They helplessly wait to see what will happen.

Valvedre (1861), like many of Sand's novels, is a study of different types
of women. Alida is a beautiful, traditionally-educated, shallow, neglected wife.
She is married to a well-respected scientist, Valvedre, who is intellectually
superior to and emotionally distant from his wife. Adelaide Obenay is over-
educated (for a woman), pure-hearted, and chaste. She is the sister of
Valvedre's assistant, Henri, and is extremely interested in science. Henri's
childhood friend, Francis, the protagonist of the novel, falls in love with Alida.
They run away together and she becomes ill. Valvedre arrives at her bedside in
time to forgive her, and she dies.

As the traditional object of men's desire, Alida attracts Francis the first
time their eyes meet, and he tells himself that she is vain and demanding: "elle
leva lentement ses yeux sur les miens, comme pour me dire, 'eh bien, vous
décldez-vous enfin a voir que je suis la plus parfaite creature que vous ayez
jamais rencontrée?‘ " (47). He finds himself immediately obsessed by her: "tout
était déja consommé dans ma pensee et dans ma conscience, avec ma
destinée, avec moi-meme; j'appartenais aveuglement, exclusivement, a cette
femme, a cette inconnue, a cette magicienne" (49). He believes that she has
performed some kind of feminine magic that renders him completely under her
control: he therefore excuses himself from blame for his actions or emotions.

This magical beauty affects other men who see her as well. Another man

who is in love with Alida tells Francis, "les femmes n'ont pas de coeur. Elles se

38

servent du mot vertu pour cacher leur infirmité, et avec cela elles font encore
des dupes" (64). Alida speaks honestly with Francis, however. She tells him:
"j'ai un reve, un ideal, que vous contristez, que vous brisez affreusement.
Depuis que j'existe, j'aspire a l'amitié, a I'amour vrai . . . je cherche une
affection a la fois ardente et pure" (106). She blames her husband for her
unhappiness, claiming, "moi, je suis une femme, une vraie femme, faible,
ignorante, sans valeur aucune. Je ne sais qu'aimer" (114). She adds that her
husband never really loved her: "ii voulut etre mon mari afin de pouvoir etre
mon aman " (114). At first Alida fights her inclination to become Francis' lover.
She reminds him of the sacrifice she would make, the damage to her reputation
and her life. In an attempt to convince Francis and herself of her role in life she
tells him, "je suis femme: ma destinée est d'aimer mon mari et d'élever des
enfants" (254). Unlike most of Sand's female characters, however, Alida is not
satisfied with her maternal duties and seems to lack maternal instincts. She
abandons her husband and her children.

When she finally submits to her passion and runs away with Francis, they
do not find the joy they had anticipated. Lucy M. Schwartz considers the
example of Alida as part of Sand's theme of "condemnation of passion, that is,
of desire without love or transcendence" ("Limits" 51). She also believes that
Alida is one of "Sand's most interesting negative female characters" ("Limits"
51). Alida claims to want "l'amour vrai," yet "she does not understand it herself:
she is completely selfish and passive, waiting for love to come to her and [for] a
lover who will devote his entire life exclusively to her" ( Schwartz, "Limits," 52).
Such expectations are contrary to Sand's concept of a happy marriage, which
"involves extraordinary effort by two people, each of whom has something more
to do in life than to love" (Schwartz, "Limits," 52). Alida is unable to accept her

husband's interest in science; she leaves him for a man who abandons

39

everything for her. Yet his devotion is not enough. The relationship is doomed
from the start and Alida dies.

Francis does not have to pay the same penalty for his sin. He works for
seven years, then returns to the friends he left behind. He is forgiven, and
becomes interested in Henri's sister, Rosa. She is not as scientifically inclined
as Adelaide, but, "moins instruite, elle l'est assez pour une femme qui a les
goats du manage et les instincts de la famille" (351).

Adelaide is not the same sort of woman. Francis admits: "j'avais toujours
trouve mauvais que les poetes fissent du raisonnement ou de la philosophie, et
que les femmes eussent d'autre souci que celui d'etre belles" (235). He thinks
that Adelaide is "une femme supérieure, c'est-a-dire, une espece d'homme.
Elle ne sera pas longtemps belle, il lui poussera de la barbe" (235). She is only
"un hybride denature par I'éducation, un écolier qui sait bien sa lecon et qui
mourra de vieillesse en la répétant, sans avoir aimé, sans avoir inspire l'amour,
sans avoir vécu" (236). But Francis is incorrect in his assumption that an
educated woman cannot feel love. Adelaide and Valvedre eventually marry, as
do Francis and Rosa. Sand provides a happy ending for both her traditional
and non-traditional female characters who remain chaste and follow society's
rules for female comportment, yet she chooses to punish Alida, whose sin,
more than that of leaving her husband, was to abandon her children; a much

worse sin in Sand‘s universe.

Mademoiselle la Ouintinie (1863) is a study of religion and philosophy
framed by a love story. Lucie la Ouintinie is obedient, "croyanta," and traditional
in her behavior and expectations; her only rebellion is in falling in love with a
"non-croyant." Emile Lemontier is the son of a well-known philosopher feared

and hated by the established church. The couple will debate throughout most

40

of the novel on the relative merits of religion and rationalism. The obstacles to
their marriage are Lucie's father and her confessor, who forbid it due to the
reputation of Emile's father. .

in contrast to this more erudite couple is the couple made up of their
friends, Henri Valmare and Elise. They are traditional: their marriage is
approved by both families and there are no uncertainties about their shared
beliefs or complementary roles in life. During a discussion of his fiancee, Henri
tells Emile:

Elle se taira. Tu penses bien que, si je ne m'étais assure
d'etre toujours le maitre avec elle, je n'aurais jamais cédé au désir
de l'épouser. . . je suis l'homme de la société. . . le mari doit etre le
maitre, mais le seui moyen de i'étre réellement, c'est d'avoir de
l'esprit at de Iaisser croire a la femme qu'elle jouit d'une
entiere independence. (196)
Henri totally controls Elise's life and destiny, and he believes that it is his role to
do so. Elise has no thoughts or beliefs of her own. She obeys her mother, who
wants only a "good" marriage; she will obey her husband. There is no
indication that this subservience is troublesome for Elise; she believes it is her
natural position in society, and she seems to have no concerns.

Lucie has thought about her role in society: she believes that society's
rules are given by God and are therefore correct. She tells Emile, "je crois at
croirai toujours a la grace, c'est l'action de Dieu en nous. . . elle me montre la
vie de la femme glorieuse at douce dans le sanctuaire de la famille" (198). But,
since "la famille" for her is to be that of Emile, she breaks with her previous
beliefs concerning organized religion and its power over her. She has decided

that "jusqu'a ce jour, ou la religion m'a trompée, ou je me suis trompée sur la

41

religion . . . je ne veux plus d'autre interpretation, d'autre direction que la vOtre,
si vous devez etre mon mari" (198).

She has the choice between obeying her father and her confessor, or her
husband. Her sex allows her no other honorable or financial options. Simone
Vieme has written that George Sand "sait bien . . . que le pouvoir du directeur
de conscience at confesseur sur l'esprit des femmes est immense" (20). The
subversive power of the Catholic church is what Emile and his father are
attempting to expose. Whether or not Lucie la Ouintinie agrees with their view of
the Church's misuse of power, she cannot marry Emile without her father's
permisison, and he will not give it if the priest withholds his.

Lucie and Emile marry only when her father and her confessor give their
permission, Emile's father having patiently and with reasonable arguments
destroyed their fears of him. Lucie and Emile's marriage is possible not
because Lucie valiantly fought for her rights to marry a man she loves, but

because she has won the approval of patriarchal society.

l_.e9ernier amour (1866) is told in the first person by a man, yet it is a
psychological study of a woman and her sexual passion. Félicie is a "fille
perdue." She tells the narrator, Sylvestre, "je dois tout a mon frere . . . il m'a
pardonnée ce que personne dans la famille et dans la contree ne me
pardonnera jamais. A quinze ans j'ai été séduite par un étranger qui m'a
abandonée. Mon pare . . . m'a chassée" (46). She has dedicated her life to
taking care of her brother: "je ne veux pas me marier, je ne veux pas etre aimée,
je ne veux pas etre heureuse, je ne Ie dois pas" (58). She believes, as society
does, that she does not deserve happiness because she has given in to her
sexual nature. She lives with her older brother, who is also single, and her

younger cousin, Tonino, whom she has raised.

42

Sylvestre and Félicie eventually marry. There are some nagging doubts
in Sylvestre's mind about Félicie's feelings for Tonino. He believes he has seen
expressions of more than maternal love on her part, and Tonino has reacted to
their engagement with an outburst of jealousy. When they are discussing the
idea of other men being interested in her, Sylvestre warns Félicie, "je ne verrai
jamais cela avec indifference, mon amie, a moins que vous n'encouragiez ce
regard lascif, qui vous souillerait a mes yeux at aux vOtres" (139). Sylvestre
also makes a chilling prediction: "si jamais vous aviez la fantaisie de faire servlr
le masque expressif de Tonino a cette prétendue épreuve. . . prenez garde . . .
je vous dédaignerais profondement l'un at l'autre" (141). Félicie is a passionate
woman, and expects Sylvestre to be as passionate as she is. When she asks
him if he would ever be so passionately jealous that he would kill her and her
lover and he answers that he would not, she responds, "Vous ne m'aimez pas. .
. vous parlez de passer en un jour, de l'adoration au mépris" (141). This has
been a purely theoretical discussion, yet it shows the types of personality each
has, and it foreshadows how they will both react when this situation actually
occurs.

Félicie attempts to convince herself that she loves Sylvestre exclusively,
yet her love for Tonino is more than maternal, and Tonino knows it. When he
asks for permission to marry, he tells Sylvestre that Félicie will not grant it
because "elle est jalouse de moi" (162). This statement, along with Félicie's
unusual attachment to Tonino leads Sylvestre to suspect that she and Tonino
are having an affair:

ll y avait des jours cu je croyais voir clair dans toute cette intrigue:
Tonino feignait d'aimer la Vanina pour irriter Félicie et l'attirer

dans ses bras, lascifs at incestueux. . . Félicie en proie a je ne sais

43

quel fatal vertige était d'autant plus prete a tomber dans le piege

qu'elle s'en éloignait avec terreur ou le bravait avec audace. (165)
Sylvestre eventually discovers letters which reveal to him that: "Cette passion
datalt de son enfance. Félicie avait eu a la réprimer eta la combattre durant de
longues années. Elle I'avait redoutée at ménagée, elle an avait eu peur, non
seulement pour moi, mais pour elle-meme" (204). Sylvestre understands that
his suspicions were correct: "La fievre de Tonino s'était allumée en elle depuis
longtemps déja quand elle m'avait aimé d'une affection plus digne at plus
morale, mais déja souillée par des appétits secrets d'une apreté invincible et
fatale" (204).

Félicie has never been able to control her sexual desires; she is seduced
as a young girl and then has an affair with her cousin while both are married to
others. Sylvestre believes that Félicie has always been in love with Tonino, and
that "la rivale de Vanina avait horriblement souffert de voir Tonino épris de cette
pauvrette" (217). He also believes he knows what precipitated her first act of
adultery with him: "la jour cu Tonino avait d0 lui dire, 'je n'ai jamais aime que
toi' elle avait ate enivrée et sédult" (217).

She has raised Tonino since he was a child. Sylvestre realizes that
Tonino is a creation of Félicie: "c'est elle seule qui eut pu le rendre chaste,
sincere et désintéresse. Elle n'avait pu lui donner la droiture et la chasteté
qu'elle n'avait pas" (252). His suspicions that she has always been in love with
him, that her sexual appetite is socially unacceptable, are proven in a letter he
finds from Félicie to Tonino:

Rappelle-toi les premiers temps de notre bonheur, [ii y a]
un an. . . Dans ce temps-la ja n'avais pas plus da

conscience qu'une fleur, pas plus de scrupules qu'un

44

Oiseau. J'étais ivre. ll y avait tant d'années que le feu

couvait sous la cendre et que j'avais soif des voluptés

que tu m'as données. Je les ignorais. (231)
She is, indeed, so "ivre" with Tonino's love, that she risks everything to be with
him. She is also extremely jealous, and verges on the edge of insanity when
she thinks he may not love her. Tonino does not seem to love her in the same
way she loves him. His love is much more casual; hers is exclusive and
fanatical. She warns him, "Aime-moi, tout est la . . . sinon, je me tuerai . . . T ant
que j'aurai de l'espérance je ferai taire le repentir; mais, si tu me brises, si tu
m'abandonnes, je me hairai moi-meme et je ne supporterai pas la vie" (232).

Félicie is once more under the control of her passion; once she has

fulfilled her desire, she realizes that she can no longer repress it or live without
it. She is a passionate person who has just released her feelings and acted on
them; she cannot understand why her husband does not feel emotion as she
does. When she learns that Sylvestre knows about her affair, she begs him,
"Sylvestre! Un mot de colere, je t'en conjure, un seui mot de haine contre
Tonino at de jalousie contre moil Sois un hommel Maudis ton rival et punis ta
femme! Je croirais alors que tu m'aimes et je t'adorerais!" (294).
Sylvestre is a dispassionate man, however, and he merely treats Félicie with
polite coldness. He has, as he had predicted, ceased loving her. Félicie
attempts for one year to regain his love; she falls. Without her husband's love
and with Tonino sent away, Félicie is forced to live without the one emotion she
must have: passion. She explains to Sylvestre in her suicide note, "j'ai sans
doute commis un grand crime; mais a quoi bon s'humiliar, puisque rien ne peut
l'effacer? La mort seule" (305). She commits the ultimate sacrifice, hoping to
earn Sylvestre's love again, since she has deemed it impossible to live without

it.

45

After her death Sylvestre learns that Félicie's sexual passions have led to
even more unacceptable behavior. A neighbor tells him, "Cette femme avait
des passions terribles; elle avait deja ate a moi avant d'etre a Tonino eta vous.
Je voulais l'épouser; c'est elle qui m'a refuse en me mettant au défi de la trahir"
(308). She has tried to fulfill her desires all her life; she finally finds the one
man who can satisfy her, but the circumstances are not favorable. Again, as in
most of George Sand's novels, the main female protagonist who is guilty of
adultery must die for her sin. Mireille Bossis, in her introduction to the novel,
states that, "pour la femme, et cela ressort de tous les romans de George Sand,
en dehors meme de la problématique adultérine, tout égarement sensual est

coupable, qu'elle en soit ou non responsable, il est impardonable a priori" (13).

Malgrétout (1870) is the name of the farm purchased by the main female
protagonist. The novel consists in a long letter from Sarah Owens to her
childhood friend. Sarah is the older daughter of two. She is so responsible and
dependable that she takes charge of her father's life and fortune and purchases
a piece of land, Malgrétout, where her father can peacefully live out his days in
seclusion and where she can care for her sister's child. Sarah tells her friend,
Mary, that she is interested in marriage, but, for Sarah, marriage seems only a
means to an end: "j'avais toujours senti battre mon coeur a l'idée de tenir aussi
dans mes bras un char baby, vivante image d'un époux chéri et respect " (15).
The baby, not the man, is what attracts her to the idea. She must sacrifice her
own desires, however, to help first her father, and then her selfish, insensitive
and unmaternal sister, Ada, who gives her child to Sarah to raise because she
is too busy in society.

The first time Abel sees Sarah is in a maternal setting: she is singing a

lullaby to her niece under a tree. As Sarah and Abel begin to fall in love she is

46

hesitant to commit until she is sure he loves her. He is reluctant to marry, as he
has no money. He is a well-known musician, yet he has not yet made his
fortune. They agree to wait for one year; Sarah, so that she can be sure he
loves her; Abel, so that he can make a name and fortune for himself.

Sarah's happiness depends on her servitude to others. When she finds
herself alone and without her niece for a period of time she confides to her
friend that "la vie de famille est nécessaire a la femme; c'est ce qui fait notre
grandeur. Sans le dévouement de tous les jours et les sacrifices de tous les
instants, nous ne comprenons plus notre raison d'etre, nous ne savons que
faire de nous" (95). Without her niece to care for, Sarah feels depressed and
restless. Without Abel at her side, she begins to doubt her feelings for him.

She is still convinced that she must marry for love, and breaks off her
engagement to Abel when she discovers that he has been seen with women on
his tour. She is further distressed when she believes he is in love with a
Spanish nobiewoman named Mlle d'Ortosa, who relishes her ability to
emotionally (but not physically) seduce the most resistant men. She and
Sarah's now-widowed sister have become friends and, according to Abel, have
set out to seduce him. He tells Sarah, "votra charmante petite soeur fera tout au
monde pour vous détourner de moi, non qu'elle veuille de moi. . . mais parce
que toute femme coquette voit avec dépit I'amour dont elle n'est pas l'objet"
(132).

Upon learning that her sister may have feelings for Abel Sarah remains
consistent in her desire to sacrifice her own happiness for others. When she
tells Abel that she wants her sister to be happy he asks her, "que feriez-vous si
j'etais assez lache pour épouser votre soeur au lieu da vous" (133)? When
Sarah answers, "je resterais pres de vous, j'éleverais vos enfants, je tiendrais

votre manage," he responds, "vous n'aimez pas, Sarah, c'est trop d'abnégation

47

. . . vous ates folle at vous me brisez" (133).

Sarah is so confused about her feelings for Abel that she vacillates
between claiming that she loves him and swearing that she wants nothing to do
with him. Abel cannot understand her and decides to force the issue. He
deliberately gets lost during a trip with her, claiming that he wants to elope with
her. She refuses, telling him, "vous voulez me compromettre, m'Oter cette
bonne reputation que devrait faire votre orgueil, at qui est la seule dot que je
puisse etre fiere de vous apporter" (135). Her reputation is the only part of her
that she feels has worth, as well as her maternal instincts. As long as she has a
child to care for she is happy and seems to have no need for a man's love.

Her last hope for happiness is shattered, however, when her sister takes
the children away. Finding herself alone again, Sarah goes back to her favorite
place in the garden. She recounts:

Je . . . revis le Dane 00 j'avais recu les serments d'Abel.

J'étais au bout de mes forces at . . . je pleurai comme

pleurent les personnes . . . qui se trouvent . . . écrasées . . .

Tout pleurait an moi et autour de moi, je souhaitai ne me

relever jamais et mourir Ia. (173)
It is only at this point in her life, when she has no one to care for and nothing to
do, that Abel can convince her that he loves her. Sarah realizes that now, "je
cherchais le souvenir de ses torts, et, soit que ma tete fut affaiblie, soit que la
puissance immediate d'Abel sur moi fut de celles qui s'imposent fatalement, je
ne me souvenais plus d'avoir doute de lui" (175). She finally agrees to marry
Abel, telling herself, "at toi aussi, il taut que tu sols une femme, une mere" (175)
She feels no illusions of eternal happiness with Abel. She is prepared for any
future sorrows, knowing that she is adept at self-sacrifice and suffering. She

48

identifies herself only with maternity and, since her sister has reclaimed her own
children, Sarah must marry and have her own.

She seems capable of happiness only with the promise of children to
care for; all she is can be is a mother. Ruth Carver Capasso has written a
psychological study of this novel based on the Adlerian method of interpretation
and comparing it to a Freudian analysis. These approaches suggest that Sarah
needs to take her mother's place. Capasso believes that adult sexuality
frightens Sarah, yet that she "felt in herself an immense need for its natural fruit,
a child, probably because it would help confirm her identity with the mother"
(31). She needs a central role in the family structure to feel important, and in a
family the only way the woman can have power is as the mother. Capasso
believes that Sand "may have created this character to assert a femininity and a
maternity which she sometimes embraced, sometimes reject " (39). Even as a
older woman Sand seems to realize that, despite all her attempts to liberate
women from their gender-specific, cultural roles, women still have no real
options, and that, for a woman to be able to use her skills and gifts, the only

viable place is still the family.

La Tour de Percemont (1875) continues the well-established and
documented literary tradition of contrasting types of women. One is evil, selfish,
and, worst of all in the Sandian universe, unmaternal. The other is a very
maternal virgin. One is the aggressor, the other the victim. Only a wise,
benevolent man can save the victim, and he is willing to do so only because
she is indeed pure.

Alix de Nives is the stereotypical step-mother to Marie de Nives. The evil
step-mother plots and schemes to disinherit her step-daughter, the chaste,

49

noble-hearted victim of her malevolence. Fortunately for Marie, she has a sort
of fairy godfather in the person of the narrator, the wise lawyer M. Chantebel.

In the tradition of her society, Marie's reputation is her most vulnerable
asset, and it is attacked first. Alix informs M. Chantebel that Maria is "une nature
échevelée, capable de tous les egarements" (41) and that, "malgré la
claustration du couvent, elle a trouve le moyen d'avoir plus d'une fois des
relations coupables" (41). She is hoping that this accusation will render Marie
unable to claim her father's inheritance.

When M. Chantebel counters that this is not enough of a reason to
disinherit her, she attempts another smear on Marie's reputation:

A onze ans . . . elle ne s'embarrassait pas . . . d'exposer sa
vie dans les exercices les plus périlleux des garcons. Dans les
pres elle sautait sur les chevaux en liberté et galopait sans selle ni
bride . . . elle grimpait aux arbres, elle tombait, elle revenait
déchirée, souvent blesséa. La était le delire, l'emportement d'une
nature Violante. (47)
These activities, properly reserved only for boys, should be, in the mind of Alix
de Nives, enough to prove that Maria is not "fit" to inherit; there is something
wrong with her because she does not act as a girl should. In spite of society's
shock at this comportment, M. Chantebei, representing legal authority,
proclaims that this is still not enough to disinherit Marie.

In a last attempt to provide damaging information against Marie Alix
claims, "elle ne pourra jamais s'astreindre a aucune regle, . . . elle a des
attaques de nerfs qui frisent l'epilepsie, elle crle, elle veut tout briser, elle
cherche a se tuer. On a peur d'elle, on est force de l'enfermer" (53).
"lnconduite," un-ladylike behavior, and accusations of insanity are not enough

to bring legal action against her. The most damaging evidence is that she has

50

escaped the convent with a man and is in hiding, most undoubtedly living with
him.

This is the only charge that M. Chantebel takes seriously. He has
decided to see for himself what kind of woman Maria is; if she is not chaste he
will not help her. if she is, than he has decided not to act for Alix. Through an
unlikely series of events, M. Chantebel discovers that Maria is the friend of his
nephew and niece, as well as his son. The four young people are honest,
chaste, and obedient to M. Chantebel. To reward their compliance with
propriety Maria is granted her inheritance. They "buy" her half-sister from Alix,
Marie maries M. Chantebel's nephew and they raise her half-sister, while M.
Chantebel's son marries his cousin. Everyone lives happily ever after; M.
Chantebel arranges everything.

He has allowed the two couples to be happy only because the women
are traditional and obedient. The men are not held to the same standards; they
are even encouraged by M. Chantebel to hide the truth of their past from their
wives. M. Chantebel advises his son that:

ii ne faut pas faire de confessions a sa femme . . . ii faut
résolument nier tout, c'est humlllant, c'est la chatiment de nos
fautes . . . [ta femme] ne te I'lmposera jamais. . . elle a une grande
notion de l'egalité voulue entre époux; elle se dit que l'homme. . .
est le guide naturel de la femme . . . et que la femme par sa
reserve, sa pureté, s'éleve jusqu'a lui at mérite le respect de son
maitre. (237)
This wise, adept man is still part of patriarchal society. He believes that he and
his son and nephew are superior to their wives. Their wives are worthy of their
love only because they are "pure." Without proof of their innocence and virginity
their husbands would not have married them. They represent "good" woman

51

and are loved, cherished, and protected by their men. Alix de Nives represents
a "bad" woman. In addition to her cruel attempts to disinherit her step-daughter,
she is also not pure. She has seduced, married, and been widowed by two
elderly husbands so far. She has given up her child in order to seduce a third
husband.

Unlike Alida in Valvedre (1861), Alix de Nives does not suffer
consequences for abandoning her child. She is an example of how some
women cope with their lack of social, economical, and political power. They
must many in order to survive, yet they marry for money, using whatever means
they can to accomplish their goal. If it means abandoning their children, they
will do so. The other women in the novel represent how the rest of the women of
their time cope: they remain chaste and blameless, find the protection of a male,
and live in marriages in which they are loved, yet considered unequal and
inferior. The only recognizable Sandian principle remaining in this novel,

written a year before her death, is that they all, except Alix, marry for love.

These novels raise some questions regarding the extent and authenticity
of George Sand '5 feminism. She does not condemn the passivity and
dependence exhibited by many of the female characters in these novels; their
lack of self-direction does not prevent them from making good, loving
marriages; and if they are unhappy they are blamed, not society.

Naomi Schor calls the example of Mme Cardonnet's unhappiness in Le
Péché ge Monsieur Antoine "a shocking regression in comparison with
_i_r_1_d_le_r1a_,Valentine, and eerie in that it places the burden of guilt for wifely misery
squarely on the wife's shoulders" (189). There are several other unusually
harsh sentences placed on the women in these novels; the deaths of Félicie in

Le Dernier emogr, and Alida in Valvedre do not serve as much of a feminist

52

purpose as similar deaths do in other novels. The negativity in the female
protagonists' lives does not prove a point, and no optimistic alternative is given.
If any feminist advocacy is to be seen in these novels, it is in Naomi Schor's
belief that the contradictions themselves make Sand a feminist because they
reflect her awareness that the condition of women is problematical no matter
what they do: "if Sand is a feminist, it is in the sense that she bodies forth and
articulates these contradictions and not to the extent that she resolves them in a

more or less satisfactory fashion" (76).

53

Chapter 2: Hidden Feminism

The following group of novels contains situations and events that call into
question society's traditions, beliefs, and practices concerning women. While
some statements critical of society are made by the characters or the implied
authors, these novels are noteworthy for their use of negativity in female
characters' lives to make their point. They have been placed in the category of
hidden feminism because the feminist advocacy seen in other works is not as
Obvious; no omniscient narrator comments on or decries the fates of these
females, it is left mostly to the reader to see, understand, interpret, and
potentially react to the injustice portrayed. As with the questionable feminist
novels, the novels with hidden feminist messages appear within each decade of
Sand's literary career; they do not fit into any one time period of her life, but they

are an on-going attempt to question and educate her society.

La Demiere Aldini, (1837) is the story of a couple in love who are forced
apart by society. It is the first-person narration of Lélio, an actor telling his
friends about his doomed relationship. When he was a young man he fell in
love with an older, aristocratic woman, for whom he was a servant. Blanca had
been married to a cruel man whom she did not love. She and Lélio are not
allowed to wed, due to their differences in social rank. She is threatened with
the loss of her child to her husband's family; since women had no legal right
over their children, she would have lost her daughter to them had she remarried
against their will. Even though she is convinced that this is her one true love :
"c'est Dieu qui m'a permis d'aimer Nello, et qui désormais me commande de
l'aimer jusqu'a la mort" (45), she does not fight society: "elle n'avait pas l'ame

assez forte ni l'esprit assez éclairé pour s'élever au-dessus de l'opinion. Elle se

54

plaignait de la morgue des autres, mais elle donnait a cette morgue une valeur
réelle par la peur qu'elle en avait" (59). Lélio leaves her to her "monde" and
loses all contact with her. _

Years later, when they are reunited, Lello realizes that he still lOves Bianca,
even though she has remarried. Society has kept them apart; yet instead of
spending the rest of her life alone, Bianca has remarried; she has repeated the
pattern of an arranged, loveless marriage because she was denied marriage for
love. She is not condemned for this in the novel, and there is no rallying cry for
change: the novel is merely a descriptive portrait of a woman forced to chose
between marrying for love or following society's traditions. As she has no legal

rights, there is really no choice.

L'Uscogue (1838) is George Sand's version of the same story told by
Byron in "The Corsaire" and "Lara" (1814). Carol Mozet has done a
comparative study of the two author's versions of the story, and claims that "leur
creation littéraire est fortement marque par leur attitude sexualle . . . George
Sand, feministe, se met du cOté des femmes" (62). The main character, Orio
Soranzo, is loved by two very different women, both of whom feel an all-
consuming passion for him, and reject everything to be with him.

His wife, Giovanna, is the representation of the pure, saint-like woman
who cannot resist him. She rejects a more worthy man because of her passion
for Orio, telling her fiance: "pardonnez-mol. . . Ie mal que je vous fais, et priez
Dieu que je n'en sols pas punie; car je n'ai plus ma volonté, et je cede a une
destinée plus forte que moi" (51). She recalls the day she met Orio as "Ie jour
fatal," (51) and insists that she has no control over her own destiny, that he has
some magical power over her. This power begins with the announcement of

his name: "Ca nom me fit tressaillir," then the sound of his feet, "je tremblal de

55

tous mes membres quand j'entendis le bruit de ses pas," than his eyes,
"fascinée par 06 regard magique . . . je rastai clouée sur mon fauteuil, sans
pouvoir me lever ni détoumer la tete" (52). The usual power of the seductive
gaze has been preceded by sounds: his name, his footsteps.

This magical attraction has affected many other women, and Orio uses it
to his full advantage. The third-person narrator defends Giovanna's weakness
by affirming that, "Orio . . . connaissait les femmes et le pouvoir qu'il avait sur
elles" (53). She becomes totally "subjuguée" to him on their first meeting and
breaks off her engagement to another man the night before her wedding.

Giovanna lives with Orio on the pirate-filled island where he is the
governor. She remains in this desolate place, practically abandoned by her
husband, and grows increasingly melancholy and ill. It is not until she discovers
that he is the famous "uscoque," the murderous pirate, that she accepts his real
nature and vows that "elle n'aime plus rien sur la terre" (99). If she cannot love
Orio, she will love no one. Even after hearing him boast of his exploits, she
refuses to ampt that he is a completely evil man, or that he married her for her
uncle's money. She concludes that he loved her once, but that, "la passion des
hommes n'est que du désir, at ils se lassent aussltOt qu'ils possedent" (55). Her
stubborn loyalty remains, up until the night he realizes that she has discovered
his secret and stabs her to death.

The other woman in Orio's magnetic hold is Naam, Giovanna's
opposite in every way. She had been a concubine, who had fallen in love with
Orio and murdered her master to help him escape from prison. She dresses
herself as a boy and becomes his servant and constant companion. She is
involved with his pirating, yet is also blind to his real character: "elle savait bien
qu'il mentait aux hommes; mais elle ne pouvait imaginer qu'il voulut mentir a

elle aussi" (122). This oblivion on her part is due to her love for him: "elle aime,

56

elle se croit aimée" (97). Naam knows of his treachery to everyone else,
including his wife, yet she chooses to believe that he loves her and would never
treat her in the same fashion. ‘

She stays with Orio as he successfully returns to Venise society, passing
as a grieving widower for whom only gambling is enjoyable. His next "project"
is to win the love of a woman who hates him for killing her brother. This
audacity is stoically supported by Naam, who is still dressed as his boy servant,
and who still follows all his orders. When the woman's brother comes back,
claiming his intention of exposing Orio as "I'uscoque," Orio commands Naam to
murder him, and she does. Orio's joy is short-lived, however, when he
becomes a suspect in the crime, and he changes from praise: "6 admirable fille .
. . viens dans mes bras, O toi qui m'as deux fois sauvé," (182) to accusations:
"Naam, vous avez fait une insigne folle, un crime gratuit. . . vous avez menti, je
ne vous ai rien commande du tout" (183).

Even this brutal betrayal is not enough to discourage her love and
loyalty. He denounces her and she is put in prison, determined not to betray
him. it is only when she discovers that he has attempted to poison her that she
finally accepts him as he is. She comes to his trial, telling him,

j'ai beaucoup de choses a te dire, et ii taut que je te les

dise devant ces hommes, puisque tu as détruit la sécurité

de nos tete-a-tete; puisque ta méfiance, ton ingratitude et ta

mechanceté ont brise la pierre de ce sépulcre ou je

m'étais ensevelie vivante avec toi. (207)
She confirms that she would have done anything for him, that "ii n'est pas de
bourreaux avides de sang, at de tortures qui eussent pu m'arracher un mot
contre toi" (207). Her love could not overcome his last offence, however: "j'ai

pleura ta femme, et j'ai juré sur son cadavre que la jour ct‘l tu voudrais me traiter

57

comme elle, sa mort serait vengee" (209). She does avenge Giovanna's
murder, and Orio is finally punished for his crimes.

The two women, opposites in every way except their overwhelming
passion for Orio, are finally equal in the end. Together they punish the man
who betrayed them. Naam uses her words as a live witness, and produces the
written words of Giovanna as a witness from beyond the grave. As Giovanna
had sworn never to love another man, so does Naam. She spends the rest of
her life alone, dressed as a man, doing charitable works.

Both women blame their passion for Orio on destiny. Both experience
this love as so overpowering that nothing matters but being with him. Neither
woman takes responsibility for her own actions or feelings. Neither woman
decides to leave him or denounce him because of his actions. Neither woman
admits that he does not love anyone but himself. Both allow him to ruin their
lives. George Sand does not stop with these two women, however. At the end
of the novel the woman who hated him, who knew he was responsible for killing
her brother, begins to fall in love with him also and is preparing to marry him.

Despite some questionable choices on Sand's part concerning the
female characters' insistence on their lack of responsibility for their actions,
there is an interesting hidden feministic statement here: Naam's exoneration.
She has committed as many murders and robberies as l'Uscoque, yet she is
allowed to leave the country, while he is hanged. The male who domineered
and controlled is punished; the weaker, dependent, victimized woman is
excused.

Teverino (1845) is a story of two couples in love. One couple belongs to
the noble class, the other couple are peasants. The main protagonists of the

noble class are Léonce and Sabina. They are in love with each other, but she

58

is married and will not leave her indifferent husband; nor does she wish to risk a
scandal by having an affair with Leonce. Their life is filled with bored joking and
innuendos, preserving an apparently never-ending status quo. Madeleine and
Teverino, the two peasants, have a different sort of existence because they are
poor and have no family or social expectations concemlng whom they marry.

In an effort to shake Sabina out of her deadened state, Leonce
pursuades Teverino to dress in nobleman's clothes and pretend to be an
aristocrat. Thinking him her social equal, Sabina finds herself momentarily
attracted to Teverino. When she loses her self control and kisses him, she tells
Léonce, "j' étais un étre passif, dominé, entrainé, une femme, en un mot" (157).
According to the narrator, she is also acting like a woman when she becomes
jealous of Madeleine: "toute femme du monde est nee jalouse. . . at I'attention
accordée a toute autre creature de son sexe. en sa presence, devait
infailllblement lui sembler une sorta d'outrage" (114). Sabina ceases to feel
any emotions for Teverino once she realizes that he is only a peasant. This
momentary passion has allowed her to express her feelings for Léonce, and
they declare their love for each other. Yet Sabina returns to her husband and
she and Léonce continue their chaste relationship.

Hidden in this study of class differences is an example of the tragedy of
arranged marriages. Sabina, unlike many other aristocrat women in similar
situations, chooses not to have an affair; she lives a life completely without
passion; she is able to spend time with the man she loves, yet they must guard
against physical expressions of love and must therefore shut off their emotions.
She become cynical and jaded, caught in an unresolvable situation. Her
unhappiness and wasted life are intended to serve as a negative example of

the realities of life for many women in Sand's time.

59

Mont-Revéche (1852) is about what one woman is capable of doing to
ruin the happiness, and even take the life, of another woman. The social
problem Sand addresses here is that of the fragility of a woman's reputation,
and of what women will do to prevent its loss.

Nathalie Dutertre is the oldest of three daughters, and is extremely
jealous of her young, beautiful, saintly step-mother. Through a series of
deceptions, lies, and false accusations, Nathalie suceeds in causing her father
to doubt Olympe's love and faithfulness. After Olympe selflessly rescues
Nathalie's sister from a horrible scandal and loss of reputation, Nathalie distorts
the incident to cause Olympe's loss of reputation.

When Nathalie's father believes that Olympe has been with another man,
he tells her, "tout ceci est la faute de ma confiance insensée, de mon optimisme
aveugle. Je vous devais plus de surveillance, de protection. . . je vous croyais
Ia force des anges. Je vous croyais plus qu'une femme" (233). The narrator
adds "ll ne suffit pas de quelques heures pour vaincre la vertu d'une femme
longtemps pure" (233). Despite his love for his wife, despite her unblemished
past, he immediately susmcts her, refusing to see his daughter's deception.
Olympe is so innocent that she cannot bear to live surrounded by those who
despise and mistrust her. As soon as she realizes that her husband chose to
believe his daughter instead of herself she ceases to resist the poisonous
atmosphere she has been living in, becomes ill and dies.1 She has not only
compromised her reputation to save Evelyn's, she has sacrificed herself to
allow "la féminization et la socialisation des trois jeunes filles" (Sourian,
"Maratre," 34). Olympe has been the object of the lust of all the men in the
novel. While she is completely innocent and unaware of their feelings, she

unwittingly deflects their desire away from those toward whom it should be

60

directed. Her death allows the younger men to place their affections where they

should be; all three couples are married and live happily.

Les Amours de l'age de l'or (1855) is Sand's version of the beginning of
humankind in the garden of Eden. This story, which she calls the "conte
d'Evenor at Leucippe," is, according to her preface, the first part of "l'histoire de
l'amour a travers tous les ages de l'humanité . . . tout aussi bien le
développement du sentiment maternel que celui du sentiment conjugal" (2).
The two main female characters represent these two kinds of love: the goddess
who adopts two orphans and dies as soon as they are happily married, and her
human daughter who falls in love with her adopted brother.

The story line is interrupted and framed by the implied author‘s Opinions
and impressions. The goddess' voice is also given many opportunities to speak
"the truth" to her children. Most of her comments concern motherhood,
marriage, and love. She blesses their union, saying that "la vie solitaire est une
vie anormale" (195). But she also warns that marriage can be difficult and that
many trials will test their love. One of these is the male human's lack of fidelity
once his wife's youth and beauty begin to fade. She tells Evenor, "[ta femme]
ne sera pas toujours aussi splendidement belle . . . tu [vas] raster plus
longtemps jeune et agile. Garde—toi donc de te croire un etre mieux doué
qu'elle et de vouloir dominer sa faiblesse par l'autorité du fait. Leucippe est ton
egale" (192). She continues to warn him that, if he ever proclaimed, "cette
femme et ces enfants m'appartiannent" without adding "j'appartiens a ces
enfants et a cette femme," the consequences would be severe: "le lien céleste
serait brisé, et, au lieu d'une famille, tu n'aurais plus que des esclaves" (193).

Her advice to women is to avoid listening to other men's flattery, which

can destroy love. She explains that, "Ie coeur de la femme est un autel d'une

61

exquise pureté, cu ne doivent brt‘ller que des parfums choisis" (188). Each
woman has "un instinct de pudeur" that warns her to "distraire les regards et la
pensée de [l'homme] de I'ardente contemplation de sa beauté enivrante" (210).
According to this goddess, men are the aggressors and connot be trusted to
control their passion. it is the woman who must constantly be vigilant, and
whose chastity must be preserved at all costs, even that of killing an aggressor
(315).

Most of the goddess' advice, as well as her statements concemlng
human behavior, conform to the values and practices of George Sand's society.
The feminist contribution lies in her disagreement with society's refusal to allow
women the power that knowledge brings, including knowledge of sex.

Leucippe is instinctively cautious about sensual passion, yet she is not ignorant:
"Leucippe n'ignorait pas les lois de l'hymenee . . . l'lgnorance absolue des
vierges est un resultat factice de l'éducation, une nécessité toute relative de nos
moeurs corrompues" (216). Hidden in the midst of an idyllic fable, where there
is no overt opposition to the practices of her society, George Sand has included
one suggestion: teach young girls about sexuality. She is not advocating

promiscuity; she is merely asking for equality in education.

Les Beaux Messieurs de Bois-Doré, (1858) has four main female
characters: three peasant women and one nobiewoman. Of these women, it is
the three peasants who have the most control of their own destiny. They are
independent and self-supporting. They have no men to provide for them or
protect them. At the end of the novel they all have the reward they deserve; not
because they are women, but because of the choices they have made and the
lives they have led. The noblewoman's only self-direction is in refusing to marry

62

men her father chooses for her, and in remaining true to her protestant beliefs, a
risk in the France of 1622.

The aristocrat Lauriane is a 15-year-old widow. She had been. married
as a child, lived apart from her husband, and then became a virgin widow. Her
life is spent in isolation in the country, with her father and a 70-year-old marquis
as companions.

As the events of the novel unfold, Lauriane remains dependent on her
father and the marquis. To please her father she agrees to marry either the
marquis or his nephew, Mario, in seven years. By the end of the novel, she is 23
and Mario is 19, and they declare their love and marry. The narrator states that:
"La noce fut splendide. Le marquis ouvrit la bal avec Lauriane, qui, heureuse et
reposée, ne semblait pas avoir un jour de plus que le beau Mario" (II: 307).

In spite of her dangerous religious affiliation, Lauriane has always had
the protection of her father or the marquis. She is protected, yet dependent and
unable to do as she wishes. At one point she exhibits frustration at her
limitations, blaming them solely on her sex: " Ah, que ne suis-je un garcon. J'y
courirais a cheval a toute heure, je serais le camarade et l'ami de ce pauvre
enfant, et je lui pourrals témoigner mon amitié sans avoir un lien suspendu sur
ma fete cu un reproche a encourir" (II: 235). Noblewomen are unable to act
independently. They must be "served, distracted, and defended" (ll: 70).

The peasant women, however, have no such protection or limits. They
can serve in armies of brigands, travel the country as fortune tellers, spy on and
murder people. Pilar is a deformed, abused gypsy girl who escapes her abuser
by murdering him. She then joins another woman, Belinda, and they make a
living as a dancer and a fortune-teller. Both women choose this profession,
refusing offers as domestic servants. Mercedes, another peasant woman, is

also without male protection, yet she chooses to obtain work as a servant, thus

63

remaining "honorable" and eventually marries a fellow servant with whom she
is in love.

The differences among these working-class women seem to fall along
the lines of choices they make within their limited options. The choice is
whether or not to work in an honorable position. Those who choose honorable
servant positions, as did Mercedes, may achieve a secure albeit hard-working
life. Those who do not choose established positions must necessarily face
hardship and uncertainty. The two gypsies choose to lead a life of crime, which
leads to disastrous results, and for which they are punished by society. The
feminist statement in this novel is implied in the limited choices offered to
women of all classes. Here they involve the choice of an approved husband for

the aristocrat and the choice of honorable or dishonorable work for the peasant.

M (1862) is the name of the villa where the female protagonist
lives. Mme Martin, who is really a marquise, is the typical chaste, decent,
proper woman, "une jolie femme tres douce et tres aimable" (29). She is a
widow with a sickly child, and she has determined to spend the rest of her life
caring for him in relative isolation. The narrator, an unnamed single doctor,
assumes that she is in love with La Florade, a handsome marine officer. He
tells himself that a woman must necessarily fall in love with the first eligible male
she meets, and since "elle est seule, . . . elle a besoin d'aimer, c'est fatal: elle
aimera des qu'elle sera aimée" (91).

The Marquise surrounds herself with appropriate male company and
never trespasses society's rules. She and the other traditional parent figure in
the novel, the doctor, marry once they have solved the problems of all the others

in their circle of friends.

64

There are two other female characters who trespass against society‘s
rules; one, in displaying her emotional vulnerability, the other by openly
committing adultery. The overly emotional female character is Nama Roque,
the illigitimate daughter of a Frenchman and a Creole. She is described as
"éprise de La Florande et n'aspir[ant] qu'a etre aimée de lui" (97). Her honesty
causes concern for her morality, for which the doctor vouches, telling the
marquise, "Mile Roque est pure mais elle est trop dépourvue de toute idea des
convenances pour que sa passion he vous suscite pas quelque désagrément"
(97). Nama learns to control her emotions and follow the sage advice of the
marquise, who befriends her. Once she has submitted to the values of proper
conduct for young women, she conforms completely with society and is
eventually rewarded.

The third female protagonist does not obey conventions. She commits
adultery, than kills herself when she discovers that her lover, La Florande, has
written a love letter to another woman. She admits her own weakness to the
doctor: "vous ates un homme sage. . . si, au lieu de lui, je vous avais aime, vous
ne m'auriez pas fait manquer a mes devoirs, ou. . . vous m'auriez aidée a m'en
repentir. . . tandis qu'il m'a abandonnée" (154). Rather than be a faithful wife
and devote herself to her children, La Zenovise prefers to live for romantic love,
and dies rather than live without it.

By the end of the novel, order is restored: the unrepentant adulterer has
committed suicide and her cuckolded husband has asserted his male identity.
He challenges La Florande to a duel during which La Florande falls into the
ocean. The doctor finds him and brings him back to life. La Florande marries

Nama, and the doctor and the marquise marry.

65

This is a traditional storyline: the female adulteress dies and the male
lives. However, George Sand has added a feminist caveat to this: the male

adulterer is punished.

La Confession d'une jeune fille (1864) has as its implied audience a
"Monsieur M.A.", whose identity is not revealed until the and of the novel.
Lucienne de Valengis is writing him the story of her life before she answers an
unknown question that he has asked her. This mystery is followed by other
mysteries. She often refers to terrible things that will happen to her long before
they occur. A sense of foreboding and doom throughout the novel ls intended
to pique the reader's interest.

Lucienne is a passive victim; she was kidnapped from her grandmother
as a baby, and returned four years later. Her mother, living in England, died of
shock at the kidnapping. When her grandmother and father die, her identity is
questioned and she is forced to relinquish her inheritance and her name.

There are two men in her life; her cousin who lives with her, and their
tutor, a young man named Frumence. When Marius leaves, Frumence is no
longer able to tutor her, and she is given a governess.

She realizes the difference between education given to women and that given
to young men immediately, and writes now, from the vantage point of time, " je
crois que l'éducation d'une femme he doit pas etre dirigee exclusivement par
des femmes. . . et je ressentis bientOt la privation de cet ailment plus male et
plus large que m'avait procure jusque-la l'enseignement de Frumence" (l:149).
Lucienne's grandmother believes, however, that "une demoiselle de mon rang
ne devait pas etre une personne sérieusement instruite, mais une petite artiste"

(l: 149). Lucienne steals romance novels from her governess and begins her

66

investigation into the meaning of love. She blames these novels for misleading
her in her understanding of it:

ce n'étaient pas de mauvais livres a coup sur, mais

c'étaient de bien mauvais romans . . . certes il y a de bons

romans . . . mais sans doute Miss Agar les savait par coeur, et ll

fallait a son cerveau émoussé ces excitations vulgares, comme il

faut de grossiers condiments aux appétits biases. (I: 155)
Reading these novels leads her to begin thinking romantically of Frumence, and
she finds herself committing those embarrassing acts that most adolescents do
when they believe they are in love. She soon realizes her folly and asks
Frumence to help her: "les bonnes lectures sont I'unique defense de la jeune
fille contre les vaines imaginations qui la soliicitent" (l: 183). She and
Frumence conduct many intellectual debates on passion versus rational
thought.

As a young woman, Lucienne has few options available to her. Marriage
is the only possible recourse for those in her class, yet she vacillates between
thinking she loves Frumence and thinking she loves her cousin. She tells
Jennie, her new governess and devoted friend, "j'ai trop de clairvoyance
masculine, tu I'as dit; je veux revenir a mon sexe at croire bétement au
bonheur." (II: 228). In this novel, education and logic are masculine; feelings
and blind trust are feminine.

She is not to receive much "bonheur," however. Her step-mother has
disinherited her and the lawyer sent to investigate her birthright, Mr. Mac-Allen,
has declared his love for Lucienne. She finds him interesting, but is distressed
to find that he was her step-mother's lover at one time. Mac-Allen leaves for
several years, and returns with proof that, while she is indeed the same baby

who was kidnapped, she is not her father's child.

67

She is still not ready to marry Mac-Allen, however, because she feels
she must prove to him that she never really loved Frumence or her cousin. This
despite Mac-Allen's confession that he has had many lovers in the past. He
asks her, "a present que vous avez tant grandi dans le malheur et que je me
suis tant purifié dans la souffrance, ne sommes-nous pas dignes l'un de
l'autre?" (II: 312). In an unusual double double-standard, Lucienne forgets his
past romantic Iiasons and doubts her own emotional past: "dois-je dire que je
vous aime encore? Non, je ne le puis ni ne Ie dois, car je ne sais pas si mon
ame est assez vierge de toute affection pour accepter votre confidence illimitée
dans le passe" (II: 312). Not only must the woman be a virgin physically, but
now she must be able to state that she has never loved anyone else
emotionally. She is jealous of Mac-Allen's past love-life, but there is no
question of forgiveness on her part. She must assure herself that she is good
enough for him: "suis-je l'etre ideal dont la purete vous enivre" ("2313)?

In addition to soliciting Mac-Allen's approval concerning her past
(chaste) feelings of love, Lucienne is also attempting to communicate who she
is to him. He is the person to whom she is addressing this "confession" after he
has proposed marriage. His reaction will determine whether they wed or not.
He must listen to her; he must validate her "voice."

Lucienne has seen the voices of three other women be completely
rejected, denigraded, and dismissed by Mac-Allen, and she wants to make sure
hers is not. Ruth Carver Capasso believes that this is a study of "the role of
gender in the process of communication" (56). Lucienne's grandmother's
insistence that she is indeed the kidnapped child is dismissed as "l'illusion
d'une tendre a'ieule" (ll: 33). The woman who returned her to her grandmother
writes a detailed account of how she come in contact with the child: her account

is dismissed by Mac-Allen when he asks her, "croyez-vous que votre

68

témoignage et vos preuves puissant servir a quelque chose" (II: 34)? The third
woman whose voice is rejected is that of her mother. She confessed her
infidelity and Lucienne's illegitimacy in the hope that her honesty would ensure
some future for her child. Her husband responds by ordering the kidnapping.
Up until this point in her life, Lucienne has seen only disrespect of and
disregard for a woman's thoughts, ideas, and testimony. If Mac-Allen dismisses
her testimony, and by extention, who she is, she cannot marry him. in his
response to her, Mac-Allen proves that he has read her story, yet our sense of
his acceptance of it as a serious document is weakened when he says, "je Ie
croirai, parce que je vous adore" (II: 315). After all her effort to be taken
seriously, her story is accepted not mcause it is true, nor because she is worthy
and respected enough to be believed, but because she is the object of her

reader's affection.

Césarine Dietrich (1870) is one of George Sand 's few novels in which a
female character narrates the entire story. The story is about the narrator's
student, Césarine Dietrich, and how her life and the narrator's, (her governess,
Pauline de Nermont), are intertwined. This novel examines two types of
women. Césarine is quite untraditional in her character and aspirations.
Marguerite is a typically dependent, subservient, passive woman. Both women
are involved with the same two men, and the actions and emotions exhibited by
them add to the contrast of their personalities.

A third, more subtle contrast can be seen in the attitude of the narrator.
She begins her relationship to Césarine with a high opinion of her and
continues to make excuses for her unconventional behavior. When she first

meets Marguerite, in contrast, she has no respect for her. It is through Pauline's

69

eyes that the reader sees and understands Césarine and Marguerite, and, by
the end of the novel, her opinions of the two young women have been reversed.

Pauline is left without money when her father dies. She cannot rely on
the traditional salvation for women, however: "j'étals laide, et personne ne
m'avait aimee. Je ne devais pas songer au mariage" (2). She becomes the
governess to fifteen-year-old Césarine, who has just lost her mother. Pauline
soon learns that Césarine is very much in charge of herself:

elle avait comme une double organisation, toute la
patience de la femme adroite pour arriver a ses fins, toute
l'énergie de l'homme d'action pour renverser les
obstacles at faire plier les resistances . . . elle est invincible . . .
ceux qui savent dominer souffrent-ils ? (16)
Pauline also senses the need to protect herself: "[Césarine] m'effraya . . . il
s'agissait de savoir si elle était bonne, . . . si elle se servirait de sa force pour
faire le bien ou la mal" (16).

Césarine is aware of her own power and personality, and of the fact that
others have expectations for her that do not always conform with her own. She
tells Pauline that her mother "voulait que je fusse une femme et rien de plus,
rien de mieux. Mon pere vaut que je pense comme un homme. . .
heureusement je sais me défendre, et je saurai me faire aimer de vous comme
je suis" (19).

This strength of purpose becomes clear to Pauline, who soon fears that
Césarine may be what is called in todays' terms a psychopath. She claims not
to know the difference between good and evil. When Pauline speaks to her
about it, she replies, "vous me permettrez, a Page que j'ai, de ne pas savoir
encore ce que c'est que le mal" (21). Pauline adds to this declaration, "et elle

s'arrangeait pour ne pas paraitre le savoir" (21). Césarine consistently

7O

demonstrates lack of remorse in her treatment of her family and friends. She
manipulates everyone into obeying her wishes, yet manages to explain her
actions and words so that she does not appear to be selfish or unfeeling, and
when things go wrong she is adept at turning the blame on others. Unlike her
traditional mother, she has determined her role in society:

je crois que j'aurai un rOIe plus difficile a remplir que

celui de montrer les plus beaux diamants, les plus belles robes et

les plus belles epaules. ll faut que je montre le plus noble esprit et

le plus remarquable caractere. (41)
Césarine's strength of character and her insistence on getting what she wants
lead to the major struggles in her life: obtaining the love of a man who shows no
interest in her, Pauline's nephew, Paul. Paul is controlled, honorable, and self-
determining. He meets Césarine several times and refuses to be manipulated
by her. His resistance is unacceptable to her and she spends all of her time
and energy in an attempt to secure his love. She declares her love for him, yet
Pauline knows that she is incapable of love and wants only to dominate him by
causing him to fall in love with her. She has already ruined the life of another
man, the Marquis de Rivonniere, who is helplessly in love with her and whom
she refuses to marry.

Césarine is more interested in a man who shows no desire for her than in

a man who loves her. Pauline warns her nephew, "je la connais, je sais que
toute resistance l'irrite et que, pour la vaincre, elle est capable de beaucoup
d'obstination" (90). One of her attempts is to purposfully compromise herself
with Paul, assuming he would feel obliged to marry her. She claims, "si je
n'épouse pas cet homme-la, je n'aimerai plus jamais, je resterai fille" (99).
Pauline understands both Paul and Césarine: "Césarine n'a qu'une pensée;

faire que tout lui cede. Paul n'en a qu'une aussi; ne cedar a personne" (101).

71

Césarine continues to abuse the marquis and insist on marrying Paul.
When Paul informs them that he has a mistress and a child, Césarine shows her
displeasure "en se donnant une attaque de nerfs qu'elle obtint d'elIe-meme
avec effort et qui finit par etre reel, comme il arrive toujours aux femmes
despotes et aux enfants gates" (134). in order to attempt to break up Paul and
Marguerite's relationship, Césarine introduces herself to Marguerite and
becomes involved in their lives. Her manipulations continue as the marquis
returns to her and demands that she marry him. When Césarine again out-
maneuvers him, Pauline realizes the extent of her abilities: "Césarine . . . était
féconde en expédients et habile a s'en servir. . . elle croyait fermement a son
inspiration, a son genie de femme, et se persuadait opérer le sauvetage des
autres an les noyant pour se faire place" (168).

Despite all her abilities to manipulate and control, Césarine has one
implacable enemy that she can never overcome. She is a woman in the
nineteenth century, and her freedom is severly restricted. She has foolishly left
herself open to questions about her reputation by leaving the house on her own
and spending large amounts of time unchaperoned. Without a good reputation
she will not be allowed to operate in and manipulate high society. When the
marquis exploits this weakness to push her into marriage she succombs, yet
not until he is on his deathbed and expected to die. As a widow she will have
much more freedom and independence, and her reputation will be more
resilient. She maintains control of her life, however, by forging an unusual
agreement with the marquis. If he lives, he will not be allowed to touch her. If he
does attempt to consummate the marriage, she will file for annulment.

Once married, Césarine makes another attempt at seducing Paul. She
writes a book and asks him to read it and make suggestions. Since both are

now married, Paul sees no risk and begins to spend time with her discussing

72

philosophy and ideas for her book. She succeeds in her quest at winning his
confidence. Pauline notes, "Ia marquise avait réussi la 00 avait échoué
Césarine. . . tout ce que Paul avait jure de soustraire a sa soliicitude, elle le
tenait, et, loin de s'en plaindre, il était heureux qu'elle l'eut conquis" (249).
Césarine triumphantly gloats, "j'ai voulu etre aimée de Paul Gilbert; je Ie suis"
(261). But Paul realizes her misconceptions and informs his aunt:

elle n'est pas si forte qu'elle le croit . . . je suis l'homme

de mon temps, que la femme ne gouvernera plus, a moins de

devenir loyale et d'aimer pour tout de bon. Encore un peu de

progres, et les coquettes, comme tous les tyrans, n'auront plus

pour adorateurs que des hommes corrompus ou éffeminés. (299)
Paul ceases all contact with her when she sends him a note asking him to
spend just one night with her. He tells Marguerite, "sa démence n'a rien de
noble. C'est l'égarement d'une conscience malade, d'un esprit faux, d'un
méchant coeur . . . elle a espéré me punir" (309).

Instead of punishing Paul for resisting her, Césarine finds herself in the
unusual position of losing. Her husband does not die. He returns from his
convalescence and becomes a permanent part of her life. Pauline leaves her to
live with Paul and Marguerite. Realizing that she will never obtain Paul's love,
Césarine quickly replaces him. Paul sees her with the new man and informs his
aunt, "Ie pauvre vlcomte. . . est devenu, en qualité de cible, mon remplacant. . . il
a été moins heureux que moi, et elle lui a passe sur le corps" (317).

This is a woman who must dominate and manipulate. Since she is not
permitted to enter the business world where these traits are common and
valuable, she must use them in the only area allowed her: sex. She uses sex
as a tool; it is never the and result. She accepts this restriction because it is not

really an obstacle. Her strength is in the insinuation and double-entendre of

73

language and situation. She is presented as the opposite of Marguerite, who is
Paul's wife. Marguerite is poor and uneducated. She is seduced and then
abandoned by a man whom she later discovers is the marquis. Paul saves her
from an attempted suicide and she becomes his mistress and then his wife.

She is passive and simple-minded compared to Césarine; she is totally
dependant on men.

At first, Pauline is prejudiced against her and attempts to dissuade Paul
from marrying her. As Césarine continues her machinations, however, and as
Pauline witnesses Marguerite's basic goodness and self-sacrifice, she begins
to feel more compassion for her and less for Césarine. By the end of the novel
Pauline is praising Marguerite and damning Césarine. The "fallen" woman
becomes the heroine and the virgin becomes the villain. The "fallen" woman is
contrite, passive, and obedient. She receives the rewards in life; love,
marriage, children.

The traits Césarine exhibits are usually reserved for male characters;
while they may be despised, they are often the captains of industry, the wealthy
controllers of society. By giving these dubious personality traits to a female,
George Sand has suggested that there are other ways for women to be than
what society expects of them. Some can be just as ruthless and unfeeling as
men, another example of androgynous behavior.2 Instead of accepting the
submissive, loving, dependent role assigned to women, Césarine "ampte
aucune limite. Ce qui l'intéresse n'est pas de communiquer, mais de dominer

. . . rien ne l'intéresse qui parait desirable aux autres" ( N. Mozet, Ecrivain 126).

 

Césarine Dietrich may not be a pleasant person; she is certainly unlike all of
George Sand's other female characters, yet as a female, she is allowed to act
as she pleases; she is granted a personality equal in strength to that of men,

even if her society does not allow her to use it in the same way.

74

3&(1871) tells of a woman driven to commit murder by her
circumstances in life. She is a poor Parisian girl with no family to take care of
her; she cannot make enough money to support herself and her younger
brother. Since there are no honorable jobs available, she is forced to live with
whichever men agree to care for her and her brother. She has been used and
abused by several men by the time she meets the Russian soldier. Mourzakine
is able to seduce her by telling her that he saw her mother in Russia before he
left. Francia has never known her mother's fate, and she clings to the hope that
Mourzakine can locate and return her mother to her, which will allow Francia to
have the protection she so desperately needs. Once they begin their affair she
falls in love with him, both as protector and as possible rescuer of her mother.

Mourzakine knows that her mother is dead, however, and he continues a
series of lies and deceptions, beginning an affair with another women while he
claims to love Francia. When Francia discovers that he has been lying about
her mother and that he has another mistress, the loss of hope drives her insane
and she stabs him in the heart. She is not seen at the house and is never
accused of his death. She becomes both mentally and physically ill soon after
and dies, never regaining her memories of her murder of Mourzakine.

Because she is a woman, and poor, Francia has only two options
available to her if she wants to survive; both involve her body, and both require
her to be dependent on men. She can either marry a man just as poor as she,
who barely makes enough money to support himself, or she can live with
wealthier men and prostitute herself to them. This cruel reality is too much for
Francia to bear, and she escapes into a mental world in her mind where none of
this is true.

Before she dies she sees a vision of Mourzakine and her mother

together. Both of them represent failed protectors for her. She has been forced

75

into the life of a "grisette" with no one to help her. Her society has cruelly
mistreated her, and she has become insane. This is a dark yet accurate

portrayal of reality for many poor women in George Sand's time. 3

It is not surprising that most of these novels have received little or no
attention from feminist critics. The situations in which the female protagonists
live are not positive; there are few happy endings. They are a stark portrayal of
the realities George Sand sees and lives in her society, and they are meant to
be disturbing. They form the smallest group of Sand's novels and they are
relatively unknown. Their powerful message should not be overlooked,
however: they are potentially rich sources of information about George Sand as

a writer, about her message to her society, and about that society itself.

76

Chapter 3: Sympathetic Feminism

The term "Sympathetic Feminism" applies to novels in which the reader's
sympathy for the female protagonist is evoked, encouraging him or her to desire
equality for the women characters in the novel, and by extention, for women in
general. Some of these novels contain outright feminist statements that
highlight the unfair treatment of women; others allow the reader to experience
sympathy for the female protagonists without didactic interference. These
novels span Sand's entire literary career and show a deliberate attempt to lead
the reader into the female protagonist's world, exposing the injustice women

expenence.

mien; (1832) is the first novel written by George Sand without the
collaboration of Jules Sandeau. It was well-received by critics and made her
famous.1 it Is the first in a long series of novels in which George Sand exposes
and condemns women‘s subordinate role in society and in marriage. There is
abundant criticism on this novel, most of which recognizes and analyzes its
feminist aspects, using narratological, psychoanalytical, biographical, social,
and political methods as means of understanding the text Three of the most
interesting points brought out by these studies concern the telling, deliberate
use of a male narrator; the use of dialogue; and the Romantic, Rousseauesque
privileging of nature above civilization.

Pierrette Daly identifies the manipulation of her male narrator as part of
Sand's feminist message. Sand most often uses a male narrator or implied
author to "infiltrate the masculine structures and write of women's experience
through his voice" (Daly, "Problem," 23). Sand uses her male narrator to

emphasize both the men's lack of understanding of women and their refusal to

77

allow them to speak. At times the male narrator chooses not to report or
interpret the words of the female protagonists, leaving their voices unheard. In
one scene in l_n_dia_ng, when the servant, Noun, needs desperately to
communicate her situation (she is pregnant) and feelings (she loves him) to
Raymon, her lover, the narrator declares, "elle ne se servit peut—etre pas des
memes mots mais elle dit les memes choses, bien mieux cent fois que je ne
pourrais vous les rendre" (103). By refusing to relay Noun's words verbatim, the
male narrator reduces her to virtual silence. All she has been able to convey to
the implied reader is that she is "perdue" and that there is no recourse for her
(108). Noun commits suicide; her words are not headed by Raymon and not
transcribed by the narrator.
Indiana, Noun's "soeur-de-lait" and employer, has more of a voice. Her
words are the most obviously feminist aspect of the novel, and the male narrator
does transcribe her heartfelt cries of frustration at her lack of power in her own
life. She falls in love with the seductive Raymon and attempts to leave her
husband to be with him. When Raymon rejects her and she is returned to her
husband she knows the consequences of her actions and defiantly informs
him:
je sais que je suis l'esclave at vous ie seigneur. La loi de ce pays
vous a fait mon maltre. Vous pouvez ller mon corps, garrotter mes
mains, gouverner mes actions. Vous avez le droit du plus fort, et la
societé vous Ie conforme; mais sur ma volonté, monsieur, vous ne
pouvez rien . . . cherchez donc une loi, un cachot, un instrument
de supplice qui vous donne prise sur moi . . . vous pouvez
m'imposer silence, mois non m'empecher de penser. (233)

Due to her second-class role, she has no protection, nowhere to go; life before

her attempted affair was unbearable; it will now be even worse. Indiana's

78

diatribe to her husband is met with one sentence on his part: "j'ai pitie du
derangement de votre esprit, dit le colonel en haussant les epaules" (234).
There is no dialogue between them, no attempt on his part to address her
concerns, not even anger at her attempt to leave him. He accuses her of having
an "esprit dérangé" and shrugs his shoulders, both verbal and physical
expressions of his lack of understanding and his lack of interest in
communicating with her.

Lucy M. Schwartz comments on the use of dialogue within this novel,
noting that it serves two purposes: "a kind of battle of the sexes," and " a method
used by a female writer in a particular historical period in relations between the
sexes" ("Persuasion," 70). The power of dialogue is shown in scenes between
Indiana and Raymon. As he attempts to seduce her, Raymon talks to her and
listens to her, actions lacking in her marriage. George Sand shows a clear
understanding of the male seducer's psyche and methods in her depiction of
Raymon; a woman starving for attention and ackowledgment is an easy target:

l'habitude acquise aupres des autres donnait a ses
paroles cette puissance de conviction a laquelle
I'ignorante Indiana s'abandonnait, sans comprendre que
tout cela n'avait eté inventé pour elle. ll se sentait du goat pour
une femme, et devenait eloquent pour la séduire, at amoureux
d'elle en la sedulsant. (84)
Raymon's atttentiveness in addition to his words attracts Indiana to him; she is
unaccustomed to participating in a dialogue with a man, and his apparent
interest in her as a person leads her to believe that he is in love with her.
The most important dialogue in the novel is the one she holds with her
cousin, Ralph. After her second attempt to leave her husband for Raymon fails,

Ralph and Indiana return to Bourbon, prepared to commit suicide together. In

79

what is to be their final moments together, Ralph honestly communicates his
long-held feelings of love for Indiana and she realizes the idealized love she
has longed for can be found in a relationship with Ralph. They are far away
from the civilized world of arranged marriages and social constraints, away from
the world where women cannot speak for themselves and have few legal rights.
They are surrounded by unspoiled nature, "au bord du lac Bemica" when Ralph
informs her of "le secret de ma vie" (314). Kathryn Crecelius claims that the
setting for Ralph's declaration is also that of their sexual union, that it is a highly
sexualized scene in which "the gorge is decidedly female and the waterfall is a
male image" (65). Once their spiritual and physical love are communicated,
Ralph and Indiana have no more desire to commit suicide and they spend the
rest of their lives on the island, away from the society that condemns both
women and men to arranged, loveless marriages. George Sand's revision of
the novel, which originally ended with the suicide, (9g; 2: 46-48) is an early
indication of her newfound hope for relations between men and women, and
her rejection of society's views on marriage. 2 Crecelius believes that the
addition of the final chapter, in which we discover that Ralph and Indiana have
decided to live together in happiness away from society, is a "positive and
significant addition to the novel, and not the appendage it has been taken to
be." (63). By allowing her heroine to live happily with a man who loves her and
whom she loves, Sand begins the series of positive examples that will extend to
further novels, encouraging her readers to consider the possibilities of self-

assertion for themselves and future generations.

Valentine (1832) was written and published the same year that Indiana

appeared. As in Indiana, there is a loveless arranged marriage. Unlike

 

80

Indiana, however, Valentine does not escape her husband to live happily ever
after in an earthly paradise: Valentine commits adultery and dies.

There are two exposed "fallen" women in this novel: Valentine and her
older half-sister, Louise. The influence of Louise on Valentine is immediately
evident. They have a strong mother-daughter relationship created and
sustained through a series of letters they have exchanged throughout
Valentine's childhood.3 The example Louise sets for Valentine is completely
different from that set by her actual mother. When Valentine and Louise are
secretly reunited before Valentine's wedding, Valentine tells her:

je vous dois peut-etre de n'avoir pas un mauvais coeur;

on a taché de dessécher le mien de bonne heure. . . mais votre

image chérie. . . votre bonté pour moi, avaient laisse dans ma

mémoire des traces ineffacables . . . chacune [de vos lettres]

m'inspira plus fortement la volonté d'etre bonne, la haine de

l'intolérance, Ie mépris des préjugés. (63)
Instead of serving as a warning of the consequences of defying society, Louise
sets an example which Valentine seems compelled to imitate. Kristine Wingard
Vareille claims that there are three different types of women represented in this
novel: Valentine is "la femme pure, la femme esprit," Louise is "la femme faible
et sensuelle," and Anthénais is "la femme frivole at vaniteuse . . . la femme
corps" (77). Vareille classifies these three types according to their response to
sexuality: Valentine "ne succombe a la séxualité que par le fait d'un concours
de circonstances malheureuses . . . et extérieurs," Louise "succombe par
inclination mais regrette sa faute et réussit a se racheter par une conduite flare
at courageuse, "and Athéna’is "ne se pose pas trop de questions at est par la . . .
douée pour etre heureuse" (Vareille 77). Benedict calls Athéna'is "une bonté

toute native, toute vegetale, a la maniere des legumes qui croissant bien ou mal

81

sans en savoir la cause" (36). Athéna’is has no ambition but to marry. Because
she follows the traditions of her society, she is rewarded by a happy existence.
In contrast to Athenai's, Valentine knows exactly what her limitations are,
and they worry her. She knows that her education has prepared her for
nothing:
nous qui savons imparfaitment I'anglais, le dessin at la
musique, . . . sur vingt d'entre nous il n'en est souvent pas
une qui posede a fond une connaissance quelconque. Je ne
sache qu'un état qui leur convienne, c'est d'etre femme de
chambre. (56)

Valentine knows that she has neither been prepared nor intended to be
anything other than wife and mother. Her powerlessness leads to her arranged
marriage with M. de Lansac, an impoverished aristocrat who needs her money.
As the laws of their society allow him complete control over both her estate and
her person, there is no doubt of his intentions when he tells her before their
marriage that he is not yet "votre maitre, c'est a dire votre protecteur" (67).

M. de Lansac succeeds in being her master, yet fails as her protector. In
a scene reminiscent of Tristan and lseut4 and La Princesse de Cleves,5
Valentine begs him to help her resist the advances and temptations of Benedict.
His refusal provides compelling evidence of what Nancy Rogers calls George
Sand's "conviction that marriage in her time is not a viable institution" ("Social
Protest" 67).

Benedict and Valentina had met at the ball celebrating Valentine's
wedding. In a scene eerily forshadowing their future, Benedict, wanting to see
her, "fut force de monter sur un piédestal de pierre brute surmonté d'une croix
fort an vénération dans le village" (45). Benedict will be a sacrifice to his own

love, as he pursues his own passions. Like his climbing on the cross, his

82

seduction of Valentine is an "acte d'impiet " (45) leading to his death. The
narrator's opinion about Valentine and Benedict's love is clearly stated :
cela n'était-il pas selon les dessains de Dieu? . . l'un
était necessalre a l'autre. . . mais la société se trouvait
Ia entre eux, qui rendait ce choix mutual absurde,
coupable, impie. . . la providence a fait l'ordre admirable
de la nature, les hommes l'ont détruit. . . faut-il que, pour
respecter Ia solidité de nos murs de glace, tout rayon de
soleil se retire de nous? (104-105)
Nature, then, according to the narrator, should be obeyed, not society. And
society seems always to act in opposition to nature.

Louise had followed nature when, unmarried, she had an affair and
became pregnant. Her transgressions led to her being severely punished by
society. Her father was killed protecting her honor, she was banished from her
family, and she and her son were forced to live in hiding. Valentine knows that
she, too, may break society's rules, yet, even with Louise as a constant
reminder of what could happen to Valentine if she succumbs to her passion,
she continues to see Benedict platonically. They meet in a secluded pavilion
on the grounds of her estate with Louise and her son until M. de Lansac
discovers their retreat. Though he tacitly allows their meetings, Valentine no
longer wishes to meet there, and Benedict is forced to climb into her bedroom to
be with her alone. When he falls attempting to climb into her bedroom, "vaincue
par la pitié, par I'amour, par la peur surtout, [Valentine] ne s'arracha plus de ses
bras quand il revint a la vie . . . " (Sand's ellipses) (194). Their adultery is the
inevitable, fated result of the choices Valentine and Benedict have made: "ll y a
bien de la temérite a espérer vaincre une passion quand on se volt tous les

jours et qu'on a vingt ans" (194).

83

There is no possible "good" choice for Valentine. Her choices
appear to be the same as for most nineteenth-century French women. She is
given only two--tc live respectably but miserably with her husband, or to
trespass society's rules in an attempt to find some happiness. Her husband and
grandmother seem to expect her to have affairs. M. de Lansac refuses to help
her resist an affair, informing her that:

une femme ne doit jamais prendre son marl pour son

confesseur. . . j'ai assez fait pour vous . . . en fermant les yeux. . .

je ne desire pas trop vous voir rompre cette liason, qui a pour vous

encore toute la beauté romanesque d'un premier amour. Le

second serait plus rapide, Ia troisleme. . . (Sand's ellipses) (185)
M. de Lansac is part of his generation and class. Marriage is for money or land;
it has nothing to do with emotions. He cares not what Valentine does with her
time, only that she be discreet. Her grand-mother sees nothing wrong in an
affair either. She tells Valentine, "aime donc. . . mais ne prends jamais un
amant qui ne soit pas de ton rang" (188). It is expected that Valentine have an
affair; she is only to keep it hidden and within her own class. Unlike Louise,
she is married and any pregnancy will not be suspect. The rules of society are
clear; all she has to do is follow them. What is missing is the idea of marrying
for love. If Valentine could have married for love she would not have had to
break the marriage vows, which she takes very seriously. Vareille suggests that
the main obstacle for Valentine's happiness, and the reason that she is
uncomfortable with the idea of an affair is "la peur de sombrer dans la honte et
le mépris de sol en cédant a la séxualité . . . Valentine ne veut a aucun prix
trahir la foi conjugale" (82).

When she does break her marriage vows she cannot live with the guilt.

Upon hearing that her husband has been killed in a duel (over another woman,)

84

she is filled with fear: "je n'ai pas mérité d'etre heureuse, moi, et je ne dois pas
l'etre. J'ai été coupable; j'ai trahi mes serments; j'ai oublie Dieu; Dieu me doit
des chatiments et non des recompenses" (205). She does not believe that she
should now marry Benedict: her sin should not be rewarded. The woman who
cannot accept love and passion outside of marriage cannot live happily in
nineteenth—century France. George Sand refuses to compromise with this
issue. When Benedict is killed soon after her husband, Valentine dies of
chagrin and shame. She will not live in a society that expects her to live as a
hypocrite, so she chooses to leave it. Vareille's "femme pure" will not live
tainted. The feminist statement here is Sand's condemnation, not of an
adulteress, but of society's creation and allowance of the conditions that force a
"femme pure" to choose between the legalized prostitution of an arranged

marriage and adultery.

Léjg (1833/1839) is George Sand's best-known work to critics and is
"une étape decisive de I'évolution personnelle at littéraire de George Sand"
(Vareille 140). The novel has no definitive genre or format, and has been called
"an unclassifiable novel-poem" and a "failed allegory" (Schor 57), a "novel of
the invisible" (Naginski, W, 107), and "obscure" (Sand, 92% 3: 93). Its
richness involves many layers of meaning, allowing various means of analysis
and interpretation. L_éji_a is the only novel that George Sand changed
significantly throughout (in mm only the dénouement was altered). gig
appeared in two very different versions, six years apart. The differences in the
two versions provide important insights into Sand's developping feminist
agenda.6 There are three telling areas of change: the character and emotional
outlook of Lelia, the role of education for women, and the change from passivity

to action.

85

In the 1833 version Lelia is a female Romantic; she is despondent,
negative and passive.7 She believes that, as a woman, "je n'avais qu'une
destinée noble sur la terre, c'etait d'aimer" (170). It is this belief that causes her
supreme sadness. Unlike Pulchérie, her courtesan sister, Lelia compares men
and women and their capacity and way of loving, and finds that she cannot
accept love that is given differently than is hers. She complains:

l'homme est brutal et ne salt pas Ot‘l commence le

dévouement de la femme, ni 00 ii finit . . . elle offre avec

abandon, elle donne avec joie; puis elle s'arrete étonnée et

méprlse celui qui, étant le plus fort et le plus puissant, n'a pas

rougl de recevoir. L'homme est stupide, et la femme est mobile.

(1 72)
Lelia discusses a past relationship and echoes the age-old complaint of women
when she states, "quand il m'avait brisée dans de féroces embrassements, iI
s'endormait insouciant et rude a mes cOtés, tandis que je dévorais mes
sanglots pour ne pas l'éveiliar" (173). Instead of leaving him to find another
more acceptable lover, Lelia begins to reject all men and all relationships.8
She realizes that, "ii n'était pas en lui de calmer [ma souffrance]; Dieu seui el‘rt
pu Ie faire, s'il el‘Jt daigne amortir la vigueur maladive de mon ame" (175).
She decides that it is love, not her own expectations, and not this particular
relationship, that is at fault. At this point she takes the drastic step that will
determine her fate: "un jour je me sentis si lasse d'aimer que je cessai tout a
coup" (175). She has chosen to deny herself the possibility of happiness and
spends the rest of her life in sorrow and despair.9

In the 1839 version, Lelia becomes less passive and despondent,
placing the blame for her unhappiness on God and society: "La faute en est a

86

Dieu, qui permet a l'humanité de s'egarer ainsi" (385). God is the father of
humanity who has failed to protect his children; specifically, his daughters:
Quel oeil paternal était donc ouvert sur la race humaine g
Ie jour Ot‘l elle imagina de se scinder elle-meme en placant un
sexe sous la domination de I'autre? N'est-ce pas un appétit
farouche qui a fait de la femme l'esclave et la propriété de
l'homme? (385)
Lelia compares woman's role in society with that of a (male) child's and finds
the child in a better position:
La relation de l'homme avec I'enfant est limitée at
temporaire . . . un temps arrive on les lacons du maitre ne
suffisent plus . . . car I'éleve entre dans l'age de
I'émancipation et réclame a son tour ses droits de
l'homme . . . la femme joue le rOIe de I'enfant et l'heure de
I'émancipation he sonne jamais pour elle. (386)
This is a much more strident, politicalized outcry from Lelia than that of 1833;
she is expressing frustration at society here; before she was frustrated with her
own perceived failure to fit into her world.10 The Lelia of 1839, however, has
found a purpose for living; has found meaning in her life, and attempts to make
a difference for others. This would seem to make her the mirror image of her
creator, George Sand. In 1833 George Sand is just beginning to reject
woman's traditional role in society. In 1833 she is not yet sure what to do with
her new-found freedom and her non-traditional role. But in 1839 Lélia and
George Sand have a new purpose in life: social change.
This social change must begin with women themselves, and it begins
with education. As a woman, however, the only voice and power Lelia can

have is as the abbess of a convent. She argues with the Monseigneur that the

87

only good she is capable of is that of instruction: "je veux donner de l'instruction
aux riches. . . vous avez ouvert a leurs fils des écoles liberales, vous avez
encourage le développement de leur intelligence. . . je pourrais et je saurais en
faire autant pour leurs filles" (461 ). Lélia has a definite agenda for what she
wants to teach the students. She wants to expose the reality of women's role in
society, and to prepare them for inevitable disappointment; first, regarding their
chance at happiness: "on leur parle trop d'un bonheur possible at sanctionné
par la societé; on les trompel" (481). They will also be disappointed in their
husbands: "on leur fait accroire qu'a force de soumission et de dévouement,
elles obtiendront de leurs époux une réciprocité d'amour et de fidelité; on les
abuse! " (481). The only way a woman can obtain true happiness in Lelia's
world-view is when she has a nobler goal than happiness: "ll faut qu'on ne leur
parle plus de bonheur, mais de vertu" (481 ). With the blessing of an
unconventional Monseigneur, Lelia is given the chance to express herself and
help others. She holds meetings for women and is considered "Ia premiere
femme qu'on eut entendue parler avec clarté at elegance sur des matieres
abstraites" (507). She is so good at this that "l'intelligence des femmes qui
l'écoutalent s'ouvrait a un monde nouveau" (507).

The new world dreamed of by Lelia is not to be, however, in either
version; society rejects Lelia's attempt to improve the lives of women. In the
1839 version she is falsely accused, banished to a convent in ruins, and dies
with her friend and fellow visionary Trenmor at her side. In the 1833 version her
refusal to accept her role in society is also punished; she ends her life in a state
of resigned sadness, dying at the hands of a lust-filled priest and at the bedside
of Stenio, the man who killed himself because of her rejection.

In the 1839 version Sand has embraced the ideas of social change, yet
society is not yet prepared for her changes. There are several aspects of

88

society present in both versions against which Lelia struggles and by which she
is defeated. One of these aspects is the problem of power. Lucy M. Schwartz
calls _l____é_lie "Ie roman qui détient Ia clef des rapports entre l'homme et la femme
dans les romans de George Sand." ("Persuasion 75). The main obstacle to
happiness for Lelia is the "lutte pour le pouvoir" (Schwartz, "Persuasion," 75).
One of these struggles can be found in a "scene de seduction manquée"
(Schwartz,"Persuasion," 75) in which first Lelia then Stenio attempts to be the
sexual agressor. Since Lelia refuses to allow herself to be dominated in any
way by a male, she rejects Stenio's advances; since Stenio believes that as the
male he should be dominant, he rejects her advances. Their relationship is
never satisfactorily defined, either sexually or platonically. Schwartz calls
Lelia's actions a reversal of "la tradition chrétienne de la femme esclave de
l'homme" ("Persuasion" 76). Lelia refuses to be subservient to a male, wishing
to be his equal. Yet equality with a male is not possible for Lelia; she either
sees a man as her intellectual, moral superior (T renmor-Valmarina) or as her
inferior (Stenio). Lelia is a superior being, an unusual woman for her times.
There is no one with whom she can feel comfortable, no one to whom she can
be an equal.

In the 1833 version Lelia sees no hope for herself or other women; in the
1839 version she attempts to change her society by enlightening other women
and encouraging them to think for themselves and see how their society treats
them. She is banished and her voice stilled, yet she has spoken, her words
were heard, there is hope that her message will bear fruit. It is up to those
women who receive her insight to take it to others and to effect change for

themselves.

89

According to George Sand, Jaguas (1834) is "un Iivre douloureux" (1).
it is an epistolary novel, with four correspondents.11 There is no omniscient
narrator, no editorial voice to explain the characters' motivations and actions;
they all express their thoughts and feelings in their own words. Their
intermingling lives illustrate several themes, among which is the denouncement
of arranged marriages. In this novel, however, it is the male who suffers, not the
female.

Jacques is a victim, but not a traditional fragile romantic male: he is a war
hero and an honorable soldier. He is cold, rigid, and moral, yet despite these
masculine traits, his appearance is unusual and foreshadows his destiny: "il est
plutet petit que grand, et semble tres delicat. . . il est constamment pale. . . il a le
sourire triste, Ie regard melancolique" (7). One of the reasons Jacques is so
melancholy is that he is in love with Sylvia, the illigitimate half-sister of his wife,
Femande. Femande's mother cannot be sure who Sylvia‘s father is, and, as
Jacques' father was one of her lovers, Jacques assumes she is his half-sister,
making her forever unattainable to him.12

Femande's mother, Mme de Theursan, has been shaped by her society.
Kristine Wingard Vareille claims that for her, "la vie est reduite a l'apparance, au
pareitre." She is "Ie produit d'une societe injuste, artificialle et immorele." She
is, in all aspects, "un veritable epitome des vices de la socialite" (277). As the
representation of her corrupt society, Mme de Theursan is the basic cause of
Jacques', Sylvia's, and for a brief period, Femande's problems.

The major problem is presented early in the novel: Jacques is 35 years
old, and his much younger fiancee, Femande, 17 years old. Jacques make it
clear that he is not marrying her for love: "c'est du mariage que je veux vous
parler dans cette Iettre, at l'amour est une chose a part, un sentiment qui entre

nous sera tout a fait independent de la loi du serment" (65). Jacques also

90

promises her that he will follow his own vows to her, which are, "si, malgre mes
soins et mon dévouement, je te suis a charge, je m'eloignerai, je te leisserai
maitresse de tes actions, at tu n'entendras jamais une plainte soirtir de ma
bouche" (68). In addition to the fact that they are not in love, their personalities
are very different, and they do not have a basic understanding of each other.

After the birth of their twins, Sylvia comes to stay with them.

With her is a former lover of hers, Octave.13 Since the birth of their children,
Jacques and Femande's relationship has deteriorated from honeymoon
passion to mere contentment on Jacques' part. He finds it difficult to return to
her bedroom now that she is a mother. Fernanda is unsure of his feelings for
her, and writes to a friend, "Dieu salt, d'ailleurs, si Jacques m'aimerait assez a
present pour etre jalouxl Ah, que les temps sont changes. . . qui a détruit ca
repos? qui a emporte ce bonheur? Je ne puis croire que ce soit moi seule"
(183).

She continues to feel unloved by Jacques and falls more and more in
love with Octave. Her friend warns her of the impending crisis: "Femande, tu te
perds. . . je savais bien que cela devait t'arrlver un jour, avec ton caractere
faible at l'absence de sympathie qui existe entre ton marl et toi" (190). When
Jacques becomes aware of the affair between Fernanda and Octave he resigns
himself to becoming the father figure in the household, allowing the lovers to
remain together as they all raise Femande and Jacques' twins. Once the twins
die, however, there is no reason for Jacques to stay; there is no one left to
whom he can be a father. Fernanda has rejected his paternal affections
towards her for the romantic, sexual affections of Octave; they have even
conceived a child to replace those of Jacques. Maryline Lukacher believes that
in Jacques, "Sand questionne la fonction paternelIe en faisant du pere de

Jacques et de Jacques lui-meme des geniteurs malheureux; l'un ne salt pas s'il

91

est veritablement le pere de Sylvia, et I'autre perd tragiquement ses jumeaux"
(23). Jacques has failed as a father because he is unwilling to be the lover of
his wife. It is his sexual indifference to her that leads to her acceptance of
Octave's advances.

The failure of this relationship is yet another example of Sand's
abhorence of marriage in her time. Her views appear in a letter from Jacques to
Sylvia: "je n'ai pas change d'avis, je ne suis pas reconcilie avec la société at le
mariage est toujours, selon moi, una des plus barbares institutions qu'elle ait
ebauchees" (38). Because Jacques lacks respect for the institution of marriage
he has no fear of disolving his own. As there is no legal divorce14 his "solution
sandienne" (Lukacher, 24) is to stage his own suicide.15 At the novel's end,
Fernanda and Octave are free to marry, as Jacques is missing and presumed
dead. The loveless arranged marriage has been completely erased; a
marriage of love that began in adultery is blessed. Unlike in Valentine (1832),
Antigen 835), and later novels, the female adultresslsexual transgressor does
not die. She is "punished" by having her first two children die, yet the child of
her adultry is healthy and lives. The price has been paid by Jacques, in his
ultimate paternal action. A male has finally sacrificed himself to allow a female
happiness.16 Sand offers an absurd solution to the problems presented in
order to lead us by implication to a more reasonable one: as suicide, even

staged suicide, is not the answer, the obvious choice is divorce.

In A_nge_ (1835) George Sand presents the opposite of the arranged
marriage, a "mesalliance." The heroine and hero fall in love, conceive a child,
and marry against the wishes of his wealthy father. There is no happy ending,
however, owing to Andre's weakness of character and Genevieve's total

dependence on him.

92

Two sets of men and women are represented in this novel. Henriette Is
the town beauty, the "grisette" who is strong-willed and street-wise, and knows
what she needs to do to persuade Joseph, the town's most eligible bachelor, to
marry her. Genevieve is the local florist and is the only "grisette" who receives
any respect, accorded because of her chastity and strict morals. She is
described as "une fille qui vit toute seule enfermeee chez elle, travaillant ou
Iisant Ie jour et la nuit, n'allant jamais au bal, n'ayant peut-etre pas donne le
bras a un homme une seule fois dans sa via" (54). As long as Genevieve
retains her chaste life-style she is respected and protected by all the men and
women in her village.

She loses all this protection, however, by not knowing her place and not
recognizing her vulnerability in society. According to Kristine Wingard Vareille:

le sort de la jeune fleuriste figure aussi une aporie plus

specifiquement feminine . . . rarement Sand n'a si

clairement montre combien la liberte est impossible pour la

femme, meme materiellement independente, dans un systeme qui

entérine l'oppression des femmes at les soumet absolument au

verdict de l'opinion. (255)
It is not Genevieve's libido that begins her demise; it is her desire to improve
herself, to raise herself above her expected place in society, both as a woman
and as a "grisette." She reads botany books to help her in her work of
reproducing flowers for hats and weddings. But that knowledge is not enough
for her. Her first long discussion with Andre consists of him teaching her things
about botany that she does not know. Since this subject is essential to her
profession and is her passion, she listens eagerly and has no fear of him:

Elle l'ecoutait avec avidite; c'etait la premiere fois

qu'elle rencontrait un jeune homme aussi distingue dens ses

93

manieres et riche d'une aussi bonne education. Elle ne songee

donc pas un instant a s'elolgner de lui at e s'armer de cette

reserve qu'elle conservait toujours avec Joseph. (69) Y
He is socially superior to her; she knows that he would never marry her. Secure
in her good reputation, she does not even consider the possibility that he would
try to compromise her. He is also superior to her in education, and more
education is something she wants. Her desire for knowledge increases Andre's
initial admiration for her, and "il se sentit transporte d'enthousiasme a l'idee de
devenir le Promethee de cette precieuse argile. . . il se sentait maitre du feu
sacre qui devait embraser l'eme de Genevieve" (81).

Their mutual enthusiasm and innocence lead to their downfall, beginning
with his first attempt to see her. He wants to see her to teach her what he
knows; he suceeds in compromising her. When he enters her shop there is a
woman there who is thrilled to "pouvoir publier une jolie medisance bien cruelle
sur le compte de la vertueuse Genevieve" (84). Genevieve "sentit Ie danger de
sa position" (84) and has to pretend that he is there for an order.

They meet on various occasions, innocently discussing botany,
astronomy, philosophy; everything that Genevieve wants to learn. Such
intellectual, innocent intimacy between a man and a woman is not permitted.
Society leaves no opportunities for an unmarried man and woman to be alone
together, especially a peasant woman and a wealthy bourgeois. Rumors begin
to circulate, and Henriette has to inform Genevieve that her reputation is ruined.
She had been different from everyone else, and now,

cette gloire acquise au prix de toute une vie de vertu,

cette position brillante cu jamais aucune fille de

94

condition n‘avait ose asperer, Genevieve l'avait perdue a son

insu; elle eteit devenue sevente, mais elle ignorait encore a quel

prix. (94) .
She is vulnerable because she does not understand her society, her position in
that society, and the rules that she must follow to be accepted by that society.
Vareille describes Genevieve's rapid descent in society's Opinion of her by "la
malveillance qui frappe tout ce qui depasse de tent soit peu la norme. Les
habitants de L . . saisissent cette occasion de se venger d'elle, moins parce
qu'on lui croit un amoureux que parce qu'elle est differente" (258).

Henriette knows how people think and she knows how to protect herself.
She tells Genevieve, "tu ne sais pas ce que c'est que la calomnie. Je l'ai appris
plusieurs fois a mes depens. . . mais j'ai su prendre le dessus at forcer les
mauvaises langues e se taire" (96). She attempts to educate Genevieve as to
her place in society and how she should have acted. Had she been like all the
other "grisettes" she would have been safe; but Genevieve wanted to be
different: "voila ton orgeuili C'est cela qui te perdra. . . tu veux trop te distinguer"
(97).

As her situation worsens, she is reduced to living with Andre, since no
one will bring her business anymore, and she has no other way of supporting
herself. Up to this point, she and Andre have remained chaste. Society is
condemning them for what they have not done, yet instead of remaining strong
and defying society, they eventually prove the rumors to be true: "Andre ne
savait pas batailler contre lui-meme; il succomba, at Genvieve avec lui" (156).
Once their relationship moves from intellectual to corporeal, it rapidly
deteriorates. Genevieve sees Andre differently now: "elle sentit qu'Andre lui
devenait moins cher et moins sacre de jour en jour. . . ll n'etait plus pour elle,

comme autrefois, un ami precieux, un instituteur venere; la tendresse

95

demeurait, mais l'enthousiasme était mort" (156). She also loses respect for
herself: she has become like all the other women of her class. Her chastity had
been her defining action; now "elle a I'impression de perdre son identite, sa
raison d'etre" (Vareille 264). Once she becomes pregnant, she realizes that all
is lost. She and Andre many, but, as it is against his father's wishes, "ce fut un
mariage triste et commis en secret comme une faute" (157). She begins to talk
of dying, even after they have moved into Andre's father's house. She cannot
fight the hatred of his father or her mistreatment by the women servants. She
senses that her unborn child has died, and she wills herself to die.

Again, society has punished the women. The cause of Genevieve's fate,
according to the novel, is her attempt to better herself through education. As
Genevieve packs her books, she blames them for all her problems:

la we de ces livres si chars lui fut bien doulerouse. C'est vous qui
m'avez perdue, leur disait—elle. J'etais avide de savoir vous lire,
mais vous m'avez fait bien du mal. Vous m'avez appris a desirer
un bonheur que la société reprouve at que mon coeur ne peut
supporter. Vous m'avez forcée a dedaigner tout ce qui me suffisait
auparavant. Vous avez change mon ame, il fallait donc aussi
changer mon sort. (145)

She looks back in longing at her days of ignorance, and believes that "tous ses
maux dataient du jour of: [Andre] lui avait parle d'amour et de science" (176).
To the end of her life, she blames knowledge for what happened to her. She
cannot see or accept the role her own ignorance of society played. Other
women of her acquaintance have lovers, marry, and live happily. Genevieve
refuses to compromise or live as a hypocrite, and, through her refusal to be like

the others, causes her own demise.

96

This novel highlights the situation for women in George Sand's time; they
are either "femme vierge" or "courtisane." Society's complete condemnation of
any woman who dares attempt to break this code leads to Genevieve's
death.17

The women in me (1841) represent two very different personality
types. Eugenie is a "modern" woman, outspoken about women's rights.
Martha is her complete Opposite, a woman totally dependent on men, with no
apparent self-esteem, who allows herself to be controlled by her emotions. The
novel, in spite of its title, traces the circumstances and events in Martha's life
with as much attention as it describes the life of Horace, and this attention
allows the reader to see how difficult the life of a woman can be.

Theophile, the narrator, describes Martha's life with Horace as "son
esclavage" (167). Horace is the personification of the romantic hero suffering
from "mal du siecle." He is lazy, selfish, egotistical and fickle, never satisfied,
constantly searching for something that will make him instantly happy. Marthe
tries to keep him happy, and although "elle rougissait des precautions
minutieuses at assidues qu'elle était forcée de prendre," (167) when she sees
that Horace is calm and "setisfait de ses sacrifices et fier de son dévouement,
elle se trouvait heureuse aussi; et pour rien au monde elle n'et‘lt voulu changer
de maitre" (167). The words "esclevage" and "maltre" make it perfectly clear
how the enlightened male narrator feels about this particular woman's
condition. His commentaries on this topic are just as feminist as those of his
lover Eugenie. He observes that this state of being, this relationship, "constituait
un bonheur incomplet, coupable . . . car aucun des deux amants n'y gagnait

moralement at intellectuallament" (167).

97

Marthe remains in this relationship despite abject poverty because,
according to Theophiie, it is an "aveuglement, . . . la part d'une certaine
faiblesse . . qui est, chez les femmes, le resultat d'une mauvaise education at
d'une fausse maniere de voir" (187). It is "I'effet d'une absence totale
d'instruction et de jugement dens cet ordre d'idees si necessaires et si
negligees d'ailleurs chez les femmes de toutes les classes" (187). Martha is a
product of her society; ignorant and devalued, she has no concept of equality
with men. In addition to society's lack of education for women, her lack of
awareness is blamed on the reading of novels. She has, as other women, "tout
appris dans les romans" (187). To remedy this insufficient knowledge of life,
Theophile asks a philosopher friend to instruct Marthe "de la vraie destinee qui
convient aux femmes" (187). This instruction is part of what Theophile calls "Ia
rehabilitation et I'émancipation du genre humain dans la personne femme"
(187).

Martha's emancipation, however, comes not from her own philosophy,
beliefs, or any new ideas. It comes in the form of Paul Arsene, a man who has
loved her for years but whom she rejected to be with Horace. When Horace in
turn rejects Martha and her unborn child, Martha is rescued by Paul, who asks
only that she allow him to be with her. When Marthe finally agrees to live with
Paul, she becomes Eugenie's double. Both women now live with men who will
always protect them, which is considered an enlightened state. As Eugenie
explains to Horace: "je ne vols dens Ie mariage qu'un engagement volontaire at
libre. . . Marthe est, je le sais, dans les memes ideas, et je crois que jamais elle
ni moi ne vous parlerons de mariage legal" (134). This idea of a marriage of
conscience and not of law entails other presuppositions. Horace protests,

"pourquoi faut-il absolument qu'entre deux etres qui s'aiment, il y ail un

98

protecteur et un protege? Vous, Eugenie, qui reclamez toujours l'egalite pour
votre sexe. ..." (132)? Eugenie responds:
Oh, Monsieur, je la reclame et je la pratique, bien qu'ellesoit
difficile a conquerir dans la société presente . . . mais savez-vous
en quoi je considere [Theophile] comme mon protecteur legitime
et naturel? Si je tombais malade . . . je trouverais dens son coeur
un refuge contre l'isolement et la misere. Si un homme etait assez
' Iache pour m'insulter, j'aurais un appui et un vengeur. Enfin, si
je devenais mere . . . mes enfants ne seraient pas exposes
a manquer du pain at d'education. (132)
Eugenie implies here that she is not an equal partner in the relationship; that
she needs someone to help her. She never mentions what she could do to
help Theophile in more than an emotionally or domestically supportive way.
There is also no discussion of the fate of these illegitimate children in a society
in which legal marriage is the only way to achieve acceptance and even the
possibility of social status and respect for both the parents and their
oirspring.18 Eugenie has made a fortunate choice in Theophile. Without the
legal obligations of marriage he would be bound only by his own sense of
honor and duty to provide for her and her children if they ever separated.
Marthe has not made such a fortunate choice: Horace, the father of her child,
abandons her and provides no financial support.

This ideal of e non-legal marriage provides no more protection or
security for the women than does traditional marriage. In a protest against
marriage without love, no improvements have been made beyond giving the
woman a greater measure of precarious freedom. Through the use of the male
narrator who is responsible and loving, George Sand effectively demonstrates

the remaining obstacles to women's achieving true happiness and security.

99

Martha is happy and secure only through her relationship with Paul, an
enlightened man who loves her and will treat her and her child honorably. It is
the man a woman choses to be with who determines her destiny. Heronly
control is in her choice of a man.

There are two distinctly different types of men for a woman to choose in
this novel. Marthe chooses Horace first. He is the wrong kind Of man, naturally
irresponsible and week. He seeks out an older, more experienced man who
can teach him how to seduce women and exploit them even more than he has
done with Martha. Much like Meilcour and Versac in Crebillon's [._e_s
Egarements du coeur et ge l'espfl't, Horace finds himself a tutor in the ways of
"le monde." Le marquis de Vernes is "Ie Iibertin superieur, le debauche de
premier ordre" (236). He is a systematic seducer of women whose pattern is
"tromper, soumettre, et conserver" (237). Horace admires the aristocracy and
becomes the marquis' disciple. He asks and receives advice on how to seduce
"une femme du monde," and is advised, "je vous conseille de vous en tenir
pendant cinq ou six ans aux femmes enthousiastes et folles qui se tuent par
amour ou par depit. Ouand vous aurez détruit ou desoie une douzalne, vous
serez ml‘ir pour la grande entreprise. . . d'attaquer une femme du monde" (245).
Martha is therefore considered to be a practice case, leading to a more worthy
goal, a high society woman who is also, however, considered less than human.

This sub-plot enriches the novel's treatment of the woman's condition.
George Sand presents three case studies. One is happily involved with a
"good" man who treats her well and seems to respect her, although they are not
legally married and he is under no Obligation to support her. The other woman
chooses unwiseiy, suffers horribly, and finally conwdes to her reality by
choosing a protector who loves her but whom she does not love. The third

example is that of the vicomtess Leonie, the object of Horace's obsession, a

100

representative of all women who are systematically seduced and rejected by
men who have no feelings of love or respect for them. All three women have
only their choices to ensure their happiness, and it is only the women who suffer
or have the potential to suffer.

In this particular novel it is the male narrator who comments on the
women's condition. He reproduces some of the women's words, yet his is the
only commentary. His unique insight and seemingly impossible knowledge of
others' motivations and actions make him more authoritative than he should be,
and thus suspect. As an enlightened male he is sure to quote Eugenie's
declaration against legal marriage. Yet he never condemns Horace for
abandoning Martha and her child; he feels sympathy for him and lends him
money. This lack of judgment serves to undermine his position in the novel,
and George Sand subtly shows him to be unreliable and flawed.

His is a positive example, however. By showing some of his flaws, Sand
encourages ordinary, normal men to be like Theophile. He is not perfect, yet he
can understand women's enforwd role in society, condemn it, and speak out
and live against it. If he were shown to be completely perfect, he would have
been impossible for Sand's contemporaries to emulate. By choosing to have
Horace, the traditional male, as the object of Theophile's commentary, Sand
has aligned the reader's point of view with Theophiie instead of Horace;
another strategy to alter her current reality.

flencois le Chemgi (1847) is the second of the pastoral trilogy that
includes La Mare au diable (1846) and La Petite Fadette (1849). The role of the
female characters is quite different in each of these three novels; it is the most
unusual in mnmis le Cm. Madeleine Blanchet finds a foundling child,

whom she raises with her own son. She is living in an unhappy, abusive

101

marriage; her husband "buvait beaucoup le dimanche. . . et Madeleine n'aimat
pas le voir guilleret, parce qu'elle savait que le Iendemain soir il rentrerait
enflambe de colere" (45). Her mother-in-law is also cruel to her: "elle haissait
sa bru, parce qu'elle la voyait mellleure qu'elle" (45). Madeleine accepts her
bad treetrnent, however: "elle souffreit comme si cela lui était d0. Elle avait
retire son coeur de la terre, et revait souvent au paradis comme une personne
qui serait bien aise de mourir" (46). Instead of giving into despair she stays
healthy for her son: "elle acceptait tout an we de I'amour qu'elle lui portait" (46).

Madeleine's basic goodness leads her to take in Francois along with an
older woman, La Zabelle, who had raised Francois since he was a baby. Le
Zabelle is very poor, and not very maternal toward Francois. Her poverty has
led her to be "aussi bonne qu'on peut l'etre pour les autres quand on n'a rien a
soi at qu'il faut toujours trembler pour se pauvre via" (37). Despite Madeleine's
own difficult situation, she is selfless enough to help others. But Madeleine's
goodness is met everywhere by cruelty, suspicion, and negativity. Francois is
the only person in her life who seems to share her personality traits; he seems
to "penser comme elle," (46) he returns malice with kindness, and he is, in fact,
becoming a mirror image of her.

After her husband's death, Francois helps Madeleine at the farm; she
considers him an adult, yet still her son. When he is twenty-one she decides it
is time for him to marry, and suggests her sister-in-law, Mariette. Yet Francois
has just overheard Mariette and another woman gossiping about him and
Madeleine and is determined to marry her to save her from the gossip.

Madeleine is so humble and has been so mistreated all her life that she
cannot understand how a young man could find her attractive, nor how she
could be the object of malicious sexual gossip: "je suis vieille et laide. . . cela

me donne le droit d'etre respectée, de te traiter comme mon fils, et de te

102

chercher une belle et jeune femme" (176). Her lack of self-esteem is so
embedded that she must be told several times that she is a possible wife for
Francois, and that he could love her sexually: she tells her friend, "je .
n'imaglnais rien comme cela, at j'en suis encore si étourdie dens mes esprits"
(185). It is at the fountain where she first saw Francois as a child that Madeleine
and Francois' relationship begins anew: after hearing that he is in love with her,
she cannot look at him as a son anymore: "[elle] se trouve du coup interdite et
honteuse comme une fille de quinze ans; . . . [elle] comprit. . . que ce n'etait
plus son enfant Ie champi, mais son amoureux Francois qui se promenait a son
cete" (186).

In a situation not unusual in Sand's literary universe, the female
protagonist is mother first, than women and wife. Yet she is more than just a
maternal figure; she is a human being who deserves love, who deserves a
sexual identity. George Sand's message is clear: if Madeleine's own adopted
son can see beyond her maternal role in life, how much more so should the rest

of her society?

Despite the title LLe Plccinino (1847), the princess Agatha is really the
novel's main character. She is loved by several men, yet remains unmarried
and chaste. She is feared and dispised by her country's leaders and must play
an important game of waiting, protecting her interests, and ruling her empire.
She is adored by her people, and is generous, caring, and giving to them. By
the end of the novel it is disclosed that she had been raped as a young girl, was
married to her rapist, an aristocratic bandit, and then forced to give up her child.
She has remained strong and in control of her life since these events, making
sure that her son's identity is not discovered, which would lead to his murder by

her enemies.

103

La Princesse Agatha is strong, yet maintains traditional feminine
characteristics: "La princesse [avait] ce tact delicat que possedent seules les
femmes" (II: 57). She is able to command respect in even the bandit le
Plccinino, the illegitimate son of her rapist: "Elle le penetra d'un regard Ol‘l la
prudence supérieure de la femme forte l'inspira si bien, que le Plccinino subit le
prestige et s'epercut que le respect et la cralnte se melaient a son
enthousiesme" (I: 275).

While Agatha exhibits both traditional male and female traits, so does le
Plccinino. He is small and looks like a woman: "sa figure était d'une beauté
étrange . . . un sourire fin et paresseux, un charme tout feminin" (I: 234). His
voice is also like a woman's: it is "un son de voix si doux que Michel eut besoin
de regarder le muscle d'acier de sa jambe pour ne point croire encore une fois
qu'il entendait parler une femme" (I: 235). Both are strong characters, both are
leaders, and both share male and female characteristics. Agatha is strong and
self—determining, yet so feminine that all men who meet her fall in love with her
and wish to serve her. Le Plccinino is soft-spoken and delicate—looking, yet is
strong and brave, and is feared by the leaders of the country.

By blurring the demarcation between traditional male and female
characteristics, George Sand is demonstrating what Carolyn Heilbrun calls the
androgynous nature of human beings: each person can be totally male or
female, yet also share traits of the opposite sex. A woman can still be a woman,
can still be honorable and chaste, even if she is powerful and in control of her
own destiny. A man can seem effeminite, yet still be a "normal" man; even, as in
this case, an unusually "masculine man" by his acts of bravery and his exploits
in war and rebellion. When these two androgynous characters work together
they form a partnership so strong that they are able to defeat the malevolent
leaders who have been plotting to kill Agathe's son. As a result of their

104

collaboration, both achieve their goals: le Plccinino has his freedom, Agatha
formally recognizes her son and legitimate heir to the throne, and she is able to
marry the man she has loved for years.

Both the strong male and strong female need each other; their
androgynous characteristics make them stronger than the others, and when
they work together they are able to ensure the happiness of all those dependent
on them. This is a strong, positive statement for allowing women the freedom of
expressing their true nature, whatever it may be. It is a statement and an
example that can be found in many of Sand's novels, and is always presented

in a positive way.

In _Ag_ri_a_n_i, (1854) the female character, Laure de Larnac, lives alone in
an old house isolated from society. After the death of her husband she realized
that what she thought was love for the man was really love for the idea of love,
and that, "elle n'avait connu ni l'amour ni Ie bonheur" (148). Instead of rejoicing
that she has been spared a life tied to a men who does not love her, she spends
her time lamenting "na‘ivement des biens qu'elle n'avait jamais possedes"
(148). She falls in love with the first man she meets after her husband's death,
yet they are forbidden to marry due to their different economic situations.

Laure has decided to fight for what she wants, and she marries him
despite her family's objections. In doing so she loses her fortune and her place
in society, yet she knows she has made the right decision because "l'amour,
c'est la vrai. ll suffit de n'avoir ni ie coeur souille, ni l'esprit fausse, pour savoir
que c'est la loi la plus humaine, parce que c'est la plus divine" (277). Laura is
ready for love; when she finds it it is forbidden to her based solely on society's
ideas of suitable marriages. She refuses to compromise and sacrifices

everything, not for a sexually promiscuous lifestyle or a hidden affair, but for a

105

legal marriage. The reader feels sympathy for Laura because she is a good
person, and has broken no other societal constraints.

Laura's state of mind and situation in life are compared to a garden. Her
garden, like her soul and heart, is wild and unkempt--no one is there to care for
it. Its trees, because they have not been picked, are ripe with fruit. In a passage
that could be describing Laure as well as her garden, Sand writes: "les
branches, chargees de fruits, barraient le passage." (26). As Adriani attempts to
enter the garden, he finds his way barred by neglected yet fertile fruit trees.
Laura and the garden could be metaphors for all women trapped in arranged
marriages. Because love is "la plus divine" law, it should govern marriage, not
social class or financial holdings. This heroine makes a daring choice: to give
up her financial security and social position to marry an impoverished opera
singer. Her willingness to sacrifice is immediately rewarded, however, as
Adriani soon becomes very wealthy. George Sand is encouraging women to

take a chance in love, promising unexpected rewards.

There are three female protagonists in Constence Verrier (1859): "une
duchesse, une bourgeoise, at une artiste" (10). The narrator states: "toutes trois
etaient riches. . . toutes trois etaient libres. . . toutes trois etaient charmantes. . .
toutes trois avaient une existence mysterieuse ou problematique" (10). As each
woman tells her story, the focal point of the novel becomes love:

de quoi parlent et de quoi peuvent parler trois femmes
reunies? Belles ou Iaides, jeunes ou vieilles, riches ou
pauvres, il faut toujours qu'a propos de sci-meme ou des
autres, ouvertement ou a mots couverts, comme c'etait

ici le ces, ce soit question d'amour. (28)

106

These women represent three possible sexual scenarios: the singer has been
with many lovers, yet she has really loved only the first, who took her innocence
and then left her. The duchess experiences unrequited love for her husband
who tells her, "vous etes romanesque. . . il faut vous corriger d'une maladie qui
ne sled pas a une femme mariee. . . je vous prie de raster dans la mesure de
l'affection que nous nous devons l'un a l'autre at de ne pas exiger des extases
de poete at des simagrees de theatre" (91 ). When her husband dies she
carries out discreet romances that in no way jeopardize her reputation.
Constance is engaged to be married and is waiting for her fiance to return from
a four-year absence. The tragedy of this novel unfolds as the three women
reunite after a short separation, only to discover that both the duchess and La
Mozzelli have slept with Constance's fiance, unaware of who he is.

The double standard of sexual faithfulness is put into question when .
Constance finds herself unable to forgive Raoul. She becomes extremely ill
and almost dies; than, in order to save her reputation, as he has been spending
time with her as she recuperates, she agrees to marry him. She will not forgive
him, however, and he vows to win back her love even if he spends the rest of
his life as her "brother" instead of her husband.

She does forgive him within a year, and they have a child and live
happily ever after. If the situation had been reversed, however, it is most likely
that Raoul would not have married her, and that she would have been
disgraced for life. It is the woman's role to remain faithful to one man, and
foigive him when he is unfaithful. The duchess reproaches Raoul about this fact
of society, telling him:

moi doit vous faire reconnaltre une verite que [les hommes]
essaient en vain de supprimer en disant qu'il y a pour nous une

vertu qui n'est pas la leur. Moi, je n'ai pas l'esprit tellement

107

faussée per la resignation aux choses établies que je ne sache
combiencela est faux at injuste. La Iiberté ou la vertu pour tous et
pour toutes, voila mon doctrine. (199)
Raoul defends his actions, claiming, "Constance n'est plus une enfant, et une
enfant seule croit a I'austerite monacale d'un homme de man age, separe d'elle
depuis si longtemps" (192). He is unprepared for Constance's reaction to his
infidelity; his only chagrin is that she has discovered it, not that he has commited
it.

The issue of the double standard is highlighted, discussed, and
condemned in this novel. Lucy M. Schwartz claims that "without ambiguity
Sand is still attacking the double standard and finds male infidelity to be just as
serious and damaging as female infidelity" (53). However, the traditional role of

the woman continues; the male is forgiven and the marriage takes place.

According to Joseph Barry in his introduction to Elle at Lui (1859), "Elle
est George Sand. Lui est Alfred de Musset" (5). This novel has been defined
as the story of Sand and Musset's relationship. Sand was warned by her editor
that she should try to "representer Therese moins parfaite," but that the novel as
a whole is "non une oeuvre de vengeance" (24). Despite the autobiographical
nature of the work and its inevitable bias, the novel as examined on its own,
without knowledge of its real-life counterparts, is worthy of study.19

Therese is a single, independent woman living alone in Paris. She
works to earn her living as a portrait artist. She has a solid reputation as an
artist and as a woman; she has no known lovers, she lives quietly and in dignity.
Her past is shrouded in mystery, yet because she follows society's rules, she is
treated with respect.

108

This tranquil, respectable lifestyle is interrupted by a fellow artist, Laurent.
He has decided that he is in love with her and wants her to be his mistress. He
is the epitome of the eccentric genius; he is moody, unpredictable, and never
satisfied. He treats women as objects to be posessed. As he begins to
pressure Therese into a physical relationship she reminds him: "Vous m'avez
dit cent fois que vous me respectiez trop pour voir an moi une femme, par la
raison que vous n'aimiez les femmes qu'avec beaucoup de grossierete. Je me
suis donc crue a l'abri de l'outrage de vos desirs" (63). Laurent replies that it is
really not his fault: "est-ca ma faute si j'ai vingt-quatre ans at si vous etes belle"
(63)? Therese is the only woman of his acquaintance with whom he has not
had sexual relations; she is a challenge to be met, a change of pace from the
prostitutes and other women he frequents.

When she does succomb it is "a self-sacrifice aimed at saving him from
the loose women who are debauching him and destroying his art " (Diamond
168). Their initial affair lasts seven days. As soon as Laurent achieves his goal
he tires of her. Their trip to Italy ends when he insults her, calling her serenity
and calmness boring and infuriating.

What follows is a series of events in which Laurent verbally abuses
Therese, leaves her, apologizes, asks to come back, and insults her again.
She continues to be devoted to him, nursing him back to health, giving him all
her money, rejecting an offer of marriage from a dependable, loving man.
Therese remains independent, working for a living, yet never knowing when
Laurent will be back. Her reputation is ruined; all of society knows about their
affair. Her life is shattered and the peaceful contentment she had before her
affair can never be restored.

Instead of allowing her female character to suffer for the rst of her life for

her transgression of having given in to Laurent, Sand chooses to allow her to

109

re-focus her love and attention on a more deserving person: her son. Therese
had been married to a cruel man whom she discovered was already married.
When Therese left him and took her son with her, her husband had him
kidnapped and then announced his death. When a friend returns her son to her
she leaves society and takes him to the countryside, happy at last:

Therese alla cacher son enfant, son bonheur, son repos,

son travail, sa joie, sa vie, au fond de l'Allemagne. Elle eut le

bonheur egoi'ste; elle he pense plus a ce que Laurent deviendrait

sans elle. Elle était mere, et la mere avait irrevocablement tue

l'amante. (179)
Motherhood will restore all the joy she needs. As a Sandian woman Therese is
irreproachable in her emotional conduct; she had loved Laurent and given
everything she could for him. When her child is returned to her, she transforms
romantic love to maternal love. She needs to love someone, to mother
someone. Her attempts to love Laurent were blocked by his own
inadequacies}?o Because he was incapable of love, she ultimately became
unable to love him. As a woman in George Sand's universe, the safest, most
rewarding depository of her love is a child. If she cannot have both lover and
child, she will choose the child.

This novel depicts the reality of women in George Sand's time; once they
break society's rules for them, their lives can be destroyed. Laurent suffers no
loss of reputation for being Theresa's lover; she is despised, forced to withdraw
even further from society. She has been mistreated by almost every man in her
life; her only chance for happiness now is the hope that she can raise her son to

treat women as they should be treated.

110

Self-sacrifice and equality in marriage are the main focus of Jean de la
M (1859). Jean de la Roche has been raised in a chateau built right into a
rock, and he finds that the will of the woman he loves is also as strong as a rock.
Love Butler is well-educated, strong-minded, and noble-spirited. She makes a
strong impression on Jean the first time he sees her: "c'etait une physionomie
decidee dont le principal caractere etait Ie courage et la franchise" (41). He
realizes that "cette personne menera son mari, son menage, et ses enfants par
un chemin tres logique, vers l'accomplissement de ses propres volontes. . . elle
sera honnete et juste, mais personne n'aura d'initiative avec elle" (42). This
eneysis proves correct, and foreshadows the action of the novel; Love Butler
will lead Jean into years of sorrow and uncertainty before they can be happily
together.

She has promised her dying mother that she will take care of her father
and younger brother. She has taken on the maternal role for her brother and it
has become so natural for her that she tells Jean, " je ne me rappelle pas ie
moment 00 j'ai commence a m'oublier pour [lui]" (82). She remembers her
mother telling her "il est ne apres toi, c'est pour que tu le serves" (82). Her
mother's death has forced her to assume her maternal role from the age often.
Like Consuelo and Jeanne, Love Butler faithfully keeps her vow to her dying
mother, even if it means indefinite self-sacrifice. In this instance, as in Fremis
le Champi, and other Sand novels, motherhood comes before romantic love;
she is mother before she is woman. When her brother protests her marriage to
Jean she postpones the wedding. It is not until five years later that Jean and
Love are reunited and receive her brother's blessing to marry.

Jean and Love are both non-traditional in their views of courtship and
marriage. Jean believes that:

malheureusement, les conditions du mariage dans les classes

111

aristocratiques sont detestables en France, surtout an province.
Les demoiselles y sont gardées comme des amorces
mysterieuses qu'il n'est permis de connaitre que lorsqu'il est trop
tard pour se reviser. (57)
Once they are married they live according to their own ideas on marriage: "cette
loi bestiale, imaginee par l'humanite primitive et seuvage, qui ordonne a la
femme de servir et d'adorer son maitre . . . fut ecartee de notre pacte conjugale
commme une impiete . . . inapplicable a des etres doues de conscience et de
reflexion" (182). This couple has waited five years for their happiness; they
have sacrificed their own desires to those of their families. They have been
patient and honorable. Their reward is a happy marriage of equals who
appreciate what they have that much more because they earned it.

In this novel, the female character both commands males and obeys
them. She obeys her brother by promising not to marry until he allows her to,
and she commands her fiance by forcing him to wait. This makes her both
traditional and original in her approach to the female role in society. As her
English name attests, Love Butler is completely ruled by love, maternal as well
as romantic. Her marriage to an enlightened male gives her life the promise of

equality and self-direction, the hoped-for future of all women in Sand's time.

Le Marguis de Villemer (1860) is a combination of third-person narration
and epistolary novel in which the woman's voice is expressed in the first person
through a series of letters. Caroline de Saint-Geneix is an impoverished
aristocrat who must earn a living for herself and her sister. She is employed as
1 a secretary-companion to La Marquise de Villemer, who has two sons from two
marriages: the Due d'Aleria and the Marquis de Villemer. She rejects the
advances of the duo, whose only intention is to seduce her, but she and the

112

marquis seem to have common interests and values. As they spend more time
together they begin to fall in love; no emotions are expressed verbally,
however, and their relationship is chaste.

Carolina is excellent in her job. The marquise is pleased with her and
Mgins to treat her as a daughter: "[Caroline] avait une remarquable netteté de
jugement, jointe a une faculte rare chez les femmes, l'ordre dens
l'enchalnement des ideas. Elle pouvait s'absorber longtemps sans fatigue et
sans defaillance" (202). As long as Carolina's reputation is faultless, she can
continue in this family and this profession. However, once a jealous friend
starts a rumor about Caroline and the duc, she is rejected by the marquise and
fired. Eventually, through a series of coincidences, Caroline and the marquis
are reunited. Carolina is absolved of guilt, they declare their love, and are
married.

Her life, as those of all women, is completely controlled by her reputation.
It is not an act which almost destroys her life, it is the suspicion of the act.
Carolina is the epitome of a virtuous woman; she is considered "pure,
genereuse et devouee" (69). Yet , once she comes under suspicion, her
previously spotless reputation is completely ignored and she is given no
opportunity to defend herself. She is another innocent victim of society whose

story strengthens Send's on-going case against injustice toward women.

m (1862) is the name of a rare flower. The novel is the story of a
young woman, Julie. The woman and the flower's fates are intertwined, and, in
the end, the flower even bears Julie's name.

I The flower is presented to Julian, a young artist, to be painted in honor of its
new existence; there is only one of its kind in the world. As Julian is painting it,

he meets Julie, a young widow, who has also just started a new existence.

113

Julian, in an attempt to impress her, breaks the flower from its stem and gives it
to her.

Julie, like the flower, will soon be cut off from her life. Her husband has
left many debts and she is forced out of her home by Julian's jealous, much
Older uncle. He promises her that he will support Julian and his mother if Julie
renounces him and never sees him again. She leaves, and is advised by an
aristocratic woman: "vous avez eu grand tort de ne pas epouser ce vieux riche .
. . personne ne vous blamerait a present, quand une femme n'a plus rien" (296).
Her only escape from financial ruin is marriage. Her mother-in-law invites her to
her home, suggesting, "Nous verrons du monde, ca vous remettra, et peut-etre,
si vous reprenez vos belles couleurs, trouverons-nous un marl pour vous (297).
While Julie is not interested in another arranged marriage, she is also not
willing to marry Julian, knowing he would have both her and his mother to
provide for. As long as she stays away from him, his uncle will continue to
support Julian and his mother.

Julie sacrifices her own happiness, health, and potentially, life, to keep
Julian and his mother out of poverty. Julie is another example of George
Sand's female characters who are willing literally to die for love. Whereas men
proclaim that they will die for their lover, they rarely do: promise without
performance. Women, on the other hand, actually perform this promise, yet they
seek no publicity. Julie hides in the country. Julian does not know where she is
or why she has left; he is unaware of his uncle's theats.

The separation and unhappiness cause her to become ill: "I'ame
s'eteignait et la vie s'en allait avec elle. . . [elle] continue a deperir, lentement,

' sans crise, mais sans relache" ( 273). Julie becomes so ill and feels such

despair that she decides to see Julian one more time before drowning herself in

114

his fountain, a privileged place where they used to meet. Julian, also drawn to
the fountain by his memories, sees her there and persuades her to marry him.

Upon their reunification, Julie becomes healthy again: "la vie revint en
elle comme elle revient a une plante demi-morte qui recoit la pluie" (329). Not
only does Julie regenerate; so does the flower. During its official naming
ceremony, "Julian fit un cri de surprise en voyant I'Antonia Thierrii fraiche et
fleurie dens toute sa gloire" (332). His uncle is so pleased at the regeneration
of his flower that he allows them to marry, promising financial support.

The parallels between Julie and the flower are unmistakable:
Julie and Julian meet; the flower is presented. The flower wilts because it is
separated from its source of life; Julie almost dies because she is separated
from Julien. A second flower blooms from the stem; Julie and Julian are given
another chance at happiness. The flower is oficially named Julia-Antonia
Thierrii, and Julie's married name is Julie Thierri.

This motif exemplifies the woman-as-flower topos. It also demonstrates,
as do many other George Send novels, that women are dependent on society,

yet can be strong enough to will themselves to live or die.

The main female protagonist in Flamarande (1875) is suspected of
commiting adultery. She is never allowed to defend herself; she is never even
accused. Her husband believes that, because there is a possibility, it did occur.
Her life and her children's lives are forever changed because her husband
does not respect or love her enough to discuss the issue.

The narrator of both Flamarande and its sequel, Les Deux freres (1875)
i is the family valet and manager. He is writing an account of the events to show
what role he played in them, and to attempt to justify his actions to himself.
Trouble is foreshadowed at the very beginning of the novel. Charles informs the

115

reader that the comte de Flamarande asks him to spy for him because "ll fut
tourmenté par la jalousie conjugale" (10). Mme de Flamarande is young and
beautiful and has "Ie sourir angelique, le regard franc et doux" (8). She is
honest and chaste. When her husband's friend Salcede first sees her he falls in
love, and, "en un quart d'heure, ce jeune homme avait franchi, sans Ie savoir,
un abime" (19).

This abyss leads Salcede to enter Mme de Flamarande's room, believing
they have left. He is searching for some talisman he can have of her. She is
asleep and unaware that he is there, but when her husband sees him leaving
he assumes adultery. Charles attempts to defend her, claiming, "ou madame
est sans reproche, ou elle est d'un habilite de premier ordre" (59).

When she gives birth to a son, the comte orders Charles to remove him
and tells Rolande that her son has died at birth. The count insists, "je veux
qu'elle Ie pleura amerement, c'est la chatiment, et il n'est que trop doux" (90).
When Rolande gives birth to a second son she is told that everyone believes
her first child has drowned, but that there was no body found. When she begins
to search for him the count threatens to take away her second son if she does
not cease in her efforts. He informs Charles, "qu'elle sache donc que je suis
son juge et sente que je suis son maitre" (176). When Rolande discovers
where Charles has taken him, she visits the child secretly whenever she can,
yet, even though the comte has been living in England with his mistress, she is
a virtual prisoner in her home and can escape only rarely.

In a straight-forward yet uncommented double standard, the husband is
enraged at the mere possibility of his wife's infidelity, yet sees nothing wrong
i with openly living with another woman. Rolande must accept this: she has no
authority or value that would give her the right, either legally or morally, to

object. Charles knows of the counts mistress, yet continues to feel justified in

116

his actions against Rolande because he feels she has (also) committed
adultery.

The husband is allowed to have a mistress and to spend all his'money
on her to the neglect of his wife and child. The woman has never been
confronted with an accusation of adultery, yet she has been tried and convicted,
and must forever deny her maternity to her first child. The end of the first part of
this story is full of unhappiness and injustice for the female character, yet the
male narrator is completely on the side of patriarchal society and does not

condemn its treatment of her.

Les Deux freres (1875) continues the story begun in Flamarande. After
the count's death, Roger discovers the identity of his older brother, about whom
he has heard. The suspicion of his illegitimacy means that his mother's
reputation will be tarnished if he is recognized as her son. Roger informs
Esperance:

Que le soupcon auquel vous avez ete sacrifie soit injuste
ou fonde. . . il renaitra dens l'esprit de tous ceux qui vous
verront repara‘itre, et, au lieu d'avoir des amis
agenouilles devant la vie d'une sainte, nous aurons des
curieux malveillants ou reilleurs a chatier. Nous ferons
notre devoir. . . mais on ne persuade pas a coups d'epee ou
de pistolet, et plus nous ferons du bruit autour de l'honneur de
notre mere, plus ressortira sur sa robe blanche cette tache que
tout notre sang ne pourra effacer. (202)

3 Once again, Rolande's supposed fault is discussed; once again she is not given

the chance to defend herself. Her word is so worthless that it is never allowed

even to be heard.

117

Rolande has never been informed of what exactly her husband believed.
She asks Charles, "suis-je accusee d'avoir lechement cede a la brutalite d'une
surprise infame ou d'avoir trahi sciemment l'honneur conjugal" (8)? She
realizes that, even if he believed she had been raped, he would have continued
in his mistrust and hatred, and she would still have been blamed. Charles
continues to believe she is guilty until he eavesdrops on a private conversation
between Rolande and Salcede and realizes that she is innocent. Roger is also
gratified to hear this; in spite of his pledged loyalty to his mother, the thought of
her adultery had saddened him enough that he had planned to leave her.

Rolande is completely clear of all suspicions now. We would think that
she should finally be able to find some happiness for herself. However, she
must make yet another sacrifice. She knows how jealous Roger is of her love,
and that he would not be able to tolerate her remarriage. When Salcede asks
her to marry him, she says no. Charles writes: "elle aimait donc Salcede et elle
se sacrifialt a Roger. . . elle me parut sublime, et je fus honteux de l'avoir mal
jugee" (250). Her honor and reputation remain intact as Esperance refuses to
become the next Comte de Flamarande.

Rolande will spend the rest of her life traveling between her two son's
homes. She has been a helpless victim her entire life and to avoid losing both
her sons she must allow others to govern her life. Her husband has absolute
control over her during his lifetime, and even after his death. Her reputation is
so fragile that she can never escape his original suspicions and actions. Her
only happiness is in being with her sons, and she tells Salcede, "la mere a tent
souffert an moi qu'elle a me la femme" ( 246).

By demonstrating a woman's complete lack of power and control, George
Snd highlights if not names the deplorable condition of the women of her time.

Worse than a loveless, arranged marriage, wherein a woman can at least enjoy

118

her children, Rolande's situation shows a women without romantic love and
without fulfilled maternal love. Instead of losing a child to natural causes, she
loses him to her husband's stubborn will, with no recourse. Her exoneration
comes too late; she has suffered too much to trust herself to another man in

another marriage, and society has allowed this to happen.

There is a persistent tug at the heart of the reader in all of these novels.
From Valentine's heroic attempts to resist temptation to Rolande's absolute
innocence, the female characters in this group of novels remain blameless in
their actions and motivations. Their attempts at goodness are not rewarded by
society, however. This obstinance pushes Send to attempt a more clear,

systematic method, as can be seen in the next group of novels.

119

Chapter 4: Systematic Feminism

From the very beginning to the very end of her career, George Sand
wrote obviously feminist novels. While some are radical, others communicate a
similar message in a muted way. The novels in this chapter offer a variety of
techniques in making feminist statements, yet all share the same goal and all
have the same unmistakable message: the right of a woman to marry the man
she chooses, not one society or her family has chosen. Instead of the more
subtle technique of sympathetic heroines or hidden messages found in other
novels, Sand clearly states her beliefs in a systematic, predictable way in these

novels.

The marriage in _S_imgg (1836) is a "mésalliance" that works. It works
because, despite their class differences, Simon and Fiamma share similar
values and beliefs. Fiamma is, according to Kristine Wingard Vareille, "la
premiere des heroines sandiennes qui parvienne a reconcilier son besoin
d'amour et sa personnalite forte et independente" (345).

Fiamma represents "la femme nouvelle," and her counterpart in the
novel, Bonne, is the "femme traditionnelle: douce, soumlse, un peu coquette"
(Vareille 347). Bonne follows a traditional storyline; Fiamma does not.

Fiamma is aware of her expected role in society as a woman, and she
does not accept it.1 She informs Simon that in ltaly, "les femmes n'ont pas
besoin de s'appuyer sur un defenseur . . . nous sortons seules at a toute heure
. . . on nous respecte parce qu'on nous aime. lci on ne nous distingue des
- hommes que pour nous opprimer ou nous railier" (65). Simon is an
enlightened male, however, one who will accept Fiamma's non-traditional

attitude and actions.

120

Despite their feelings of mutual attraction there is "un barrier
insurmonteble" that society has positioned between them, and, as a country
lawyer, "il ne devait pas se nourrir d'illusions aupres d'elle" (68). It is these
barriers and that society that Fiamma and Simon work together to reject and
overcome. Nancy Rogers calls their efforts an example of "Sandian sons and
daughters reject[ing] their heritage and turn[ing] elsewhere than to the house of
the father to find harmony and happiness" ("Subversion" 61). In this novel, the
"house of the father" is replaced by the house of the mother: Fiamma turns first
to Simon's mother, then to her own dead mother to help her escape her
patriarchal restrictions.

Simon's mother is Jeanne Feline, a wise old woman who welcomes the
young women, Fiamma and Bonne, into her home. They find peace and
contentment there, as well as the mother's presence both have been lacking.
Jeanne is a simple peasant, yet she shares Fiamma's beliefs. As they begin to
spend time together, "une affection profonde, une sympathie complete s'etablit
entre Jeanne et Fiamma" (73). Once Fiamma has established ties with a
maternal figure she is strengthened enough to reject her step-father's orders.
When he forbids her marriage to Simon, Fiamma turns to another maternal
presence: the letters of her own dead mother. These letters prove the count's
complicity in several crimes and they force him into allowing her marriage.

As a female in her society, Fiamma is limited in her choices; but once she
can change legal male authority from her step-father to an enlightened
husband, she is able to free herself from past sorrows and restrictions and
begin a life with a man who is more her equal. Fiamma represents Sand's new
' woman; one who choses her mate and a new family, even when forbidden to do

so by her society. Together, she and her enlightened husband have overcome

121

restrictive paternal authority and begun their own authority; that of marriage for

love.

Le Meunier d'Angibault (1845) is the story of two couples who are in
love but who face the Obstacles of "mésalliance" Both Of the women are
wealthier than the men; both of the women want to marry in spite of the financial
differences. But both couples can marry only when the women's fortunes are
destroyed.

The only non-traditional female character in this novel is La Bricoline.
Because her parents refuse to let her marry the man she loves, considering him
socially inferior, he is sent away and dies in war. Due to her grief and rage
against her parents, La Bricoline becomes insane, living in the wild, unkempt
and dirty, and wandering around the countryside calling her lover's name.
When she realizes that her parents have forbidden her younger sister '5 choice
for the same reasons, she becomes the Deus-ex-machina in the story; by
burning down the chateau she causes everyone's financial ruin, which allows
the two couples to marry. Tatiana Green calls Le Bricoline's actions "a victory
over her father's destructive authority, and a negation of it" (64).

La Bricoline's role in the novel is to remind the others of what can
happen when one is denied the right to live in happiness. She is also a
reminder of the cruelty of society's rules in allowing only certain alliances. She
is the voice of true love, true passion; indeed, humenkind's basest need for
love. Her act of burning the chateau cleanses society of all monetary and social
differences. Everyone is an equal after the fire, and everyone can marry and live
' happily every after, which they do.

Le Bricoline's madness has been caused by her absolute

powerlessness. Her father has forbidden her marriage, therefore she cannot

122

marry. As this is the case for most women of her time, George Sand uses La
Bricoline as an example of what can happen to any woman of any kind. It is a
warning to society that, if they continue to deny a woman's individual rights,
their society may well suffer the same consequences: they may actually be
destroying themselves. La Bricoline remained harmless until she sees that her
father has not learned from her example. It is the prospect of the denial being
repeated to a younger generation that pushes La Bricoline into a state of
urgency. The only way to stop society from denying a woman's choice is to
remove the artificial barriers. Fire is the great equalizer, as well as a purifier.
George Sand is hoping her society will not need to be purified by fire and

destruction before they make changes.

Women in La Mare au diable (1845) have one role: that of wife and
mother. The two female protagonists are considered by their society to be
incomplete because they are not married; Marie, the impoverished sixteen-
year-old is modest, chaste, and humble; Catherine, a thirty-two-year-old widow,
has money. Germain is confronted with both women and chooses the one he is
not meant to marry, but with whom he is in love.

Maria is a typical peasant girl who demonstrates all the acceptable and
approved characteristics of her place and role in society. If she has one
unusual quality, it is her independence of mind. She is only sixteen, yet she
knows she must work for several years as a shepherdess in order to raise
enough money to support her impoverished mother as well as earn herself a
dowry. She insists that she must do this: "je ne me marierai que quand j'aurai
1 un peu amasse, je suis destinee a me marier tard et avec un vieux" (87). There
are no frivolous, romantic aspirations in Marie; she is poor, therefore she must

manage her own destiny. She does not sway from this conviction, even when

123

Germain declares his love. She firmly announces her plan to work, stating that
he is too old and wealthy for her.

Marie's more traditional female traits are highlighted as well. She loves
children and is good with them. When Germain praises her rapport with his son,
she asks him, "est-ca qu'il y a des femmes qui n'aiment pas les enfants" (53)?
Sylvie Charron Witkin calls Marie "a la fois Ia vierge at Ia mere, la femme pure
mais feconde" (13). There are many allusions to Saint Mary in connection to
Marie, beginning with her name. There are also many references to the color
white, and there is an image of her "a cheval entre le pere et I'enfant ou enlacee
avec le petit Pierre" (Witkin, 13).

As Marie overcomes each obstacle encountered on their journey, she
earns more and more praise and admiration from Germain: "Tu es la fille la plus
avisee que j'aie jamais rencontree . . . elle pleurait. . . en sortant de l'aubergel
Ca ne l'a pas empechee de penser aux autres plus qu'a elle-meme" (75). It is
her maternal attributes that first attract Germain and lead him to see her as a
possible mate: as is often the case in Sand's novels, she is seen as a potential
mother before she is seen as a sexual woman. She provides for Germain and
his son; she sacrifices her own desires to do what she must; and she is
completely honorable. Marie's sense of honor is proven when her new
employer attempts to seduce her. She takes the child with her, refusing his
offers of money, and tells Germain, "cet homme-la n'est pas mon maitre at he le
sera jamais" (121). She throws his money back to him, telling him, "voila,
monsieur, le cadeau que je vous fais" (122).

This honorable young woman is convinced that she is not worthy enough
' to marry Germain. When he first begins to find her attractive, she insists that he
is too old for her. When he tells her he loves her and wants to marry her she

replies, "ne pensez plus a cela; c'est une idea qui vous ates venue dans la nuit,

124

parce que cette mauvaise aventure avait un peu derange vos esprits" (100).
She continues to refuse his offer until it is sanctioned by his parents-in-law.
Once it has been approved by those who have authority in their community she
can finally tell him, "vous n'avez donc pas deviné que je vous aime" (140)?
Maria has been forced to deny her true feelings because she is not an
acceptable match for Germain. Catherine is society's best choice for Germain;
she is of the same age and social class. Seen through the traditional,
chauvinist Germain's eyes, she is a frivolous, shallow woman, yet this obviously
negative portrayal is softened by a reminder of women's role in society, which
serves to explain her reluctance to marry. Germain's negative reaction to this
independent woman is a mirror of society's views regarding women who prefer
to enjoy their independence and wealth rather than many and give it all away.
She has several suitors. Her father reminds Germain that, "la Catherine
a de quoi attirer les epouseurs, et elle n'aura que l'emberras du choix" (104).
Germain is one of four current suitors at her Sunday table, yet:
elle avait une expression de visage et une toilette qui
deplurent tout d'abord a Germain. Elle avait l'air hardi et
content d'eIIe-meme . . . il pense . . . que cette veuve avait
Ia plaisanterie Iourde et hasadardee, et qu'elle portait
sans distinction ses beaux atours (105).2
She has the financial means to dress and behave as she pleases. She has the
option, more than many women of her time, to marry for love. Yet she is seen
through Germain's eyes as conceited and shallow. When one of her suitors
makes remarks that Germain considers "si plates que cela faisait pitie," (107)
' Catherine "en rialt comme si elle eat admire toutes ces sottises" (107). In
Germain's opinion, "elle ne faisait pas preuve de goi‘lt" (107). She is proud of

her position and shows it: "Ia veuve marchait d'un air fier, escortee de ses trois

125

pretendants, donnant le bras tantOt a l'un, tantOt a l'autre, se regorgeant et
portant haut la tete" (107). Her pride continues at the dance, and Germain
continues to be dissatisfied with her. Her attitude and behaviour suggest she is
less worthy of him than is Maria, from Germain's and society's point of view. Yet
her father explains her actions in a way which should justify her comportment.
When Germain discovers that she has been pursued for two years, he asks her
father why she is not yet married. He replies,

Elle ne vaut pas se presser, et elle a raison . . . c'est une

femme d'un grand sens, et qui salt fort bien ce qu'elle fait. . .

Jusqu'ici ma fille a tres bien compris que le meilleur temps de sa

vie serait celui qu'elle passerait a se Iaisser courtiser, et elle ne se

sent pas pressee de devenir Ia servante d'un homme, quand elle

peut commander a plusieurs. (110)
This is the most overtly feminist statement in the novel. The words are uttered
by an older, enlightened, sympathetic male, who understands why his daughter
is avoiding marriage. The person hearing these words is a younger man who is
not enlightened. He does not see marriage as a loss of independence for a
women because he does not believe women want or should have
independence. Demonstrably, for Send, the new generation has not improved
in its views of women; Germain has been told to find a wife, "une bonne ame
bien sage, bien douce et tres portee au travail" (34). Catherine is obviously not
inclined to lower herself to this way of life, whereas it is all Marie knows and
wants. In the end, the status quo remains.

The self-sacrificing, humble Maria is happily married to a man she loves.

. The independent widow is left to her seeming endless cycle of shallow flirtan'on
and an empty life. Sand expresses society‘s lack of sympathy for her by
showing her only from the outside: Maria has many lines of dialogue,

126

Catherine has none. Marie represents the traditional woman who is known
and respected as such by society. Her voice is heard in the novel; her
motivations and state of mind are clear. Catherine represents a non-traditional
woman, unknown to society and misunderstood. Her voice is not heard, her
motivations and state of mind are communicated only through an intermediary,
her father.

Both women are able to choose whom they marry; Maria has found her
perfect choice, Catherine is still searching. Aleksandra Guzinska suggests that
one of the subtle messages by George Sand concerning happiness in marriage
is that "on peut faire un bon mariage mais alors iI faut se parler, se regarder,
s'ecouter et puis voir afin de se connaitre et de se comprendre" (143). Maria
and Germain were able to begin that process on their journey. Catherine is
continuing it with her Sunday dinners and dances. By giving examples of both a
traditional and a non-traditional woman chosing to marry for love, George Sand

is creating an example for her society to follow.

In La Chateau desQesenes (1851 ), a group of young actors and their
friends, male and female, leave the stage temporarily to study and improve their
craft. They spend their time at the chateau reading, writing, and performing
plays for themselves.3 There are four main protagonists who eventually form
two couples. Despite their profession and its perceived lack of morals, the
women are both chaste and honorable.

Célio Floriani and Cecilia Boccaferi are in love, yet Cécilia waits until
Célio proves that he respects her. Célio's sister Stella makes this very clear to
' Adorno, the other young man in the group: "mon frere aime Cécilia, et il faut
qu'II devienne digne d'elle, Tel qu'il est aujourd'hui il ne I'aime pas encore

assez pour la meriter" (144). Célia is determined not to repeat the mistake made

127

by other women: she plans on a happy marriage, which can be achieved only
by mutual respect. Respect is also sought by Stella. She loves Adomo, yet she
insists: "il ne faut pas me tromper . . . j'ai vingt-deux ans; je n'ai pas encore
aime. . . mon premier amour sera le dernier, at si je suis trahie . . . je mourrai."
(143).

In the midst of these demands for respect on the part of the female
characters, the group of actors is working on a production of Don Juan. They
are combining various elements from various representations of the play, most
notably those of Moliere and Mozart, in addition to adding their own
interpretations. The choice of play is not a coincidence in this novel: George
Sand interweaves discussions of the art, philosophy, theater, music, and
psychology surrounding the mythical character of a man who seduces and
abandons women with the discussions of love and respect of the main
characters of her novel. In the notice to the novel Sand claims that is is "une
analyse de quelques ideas d'art plutOt qu'une analyse de sentiments," (31) yet
the juxtaposition of the play with the real world of the characters makes a
salient point: the women in this novel know all too well the "Don Juan" attitude
and behavior of most men towards women. Both of them refuse to accept it and
demand better from the men who claim to love them. Unlike the women in the
plays about Don Juan, these women force the men to wait and prove their
words of love. These two women, actresses in a society that does not respect
their profession, not only disprove the stereotype that actresses are
promiscuous and immoral, but set an example for all women in their society.
Cécilia is held up as a model woman: "elle avait un ideal, elle Ie cherchait et

' savait I'attendre" (147).

128

La Filleule (1853) is the story of secret family relationships, formed and
maintained in direct defiance of society's rules. Morenita is the adopted
daughter of Anicee, who is secretly married to Stéphen. When Stephen found
the child in the forest he brought her to the first house he could find; his
relationship with Anicee started through their parenting of Morenita; like several
other Sandian female characters, Anicee was "mother" before she became wife,
all the while maintaining her chastity and honor.

Anicee and Stephen marry secretly due to society's unaccceptance of
their age and class differences. Nicole Mozet calls them "un couple conjugal a
la fois exemplaire et atypiqueumais tres moderne a certains egards», sans
enfants et sans cohabitation, dans lequel chacun conserve une totale
autonomie de mouvements" (Ecrivain 156). They are "paragons de vertus qui
vivent en marge d'une société avec laquelle ils n'entrent pas en revolte ouverte,

mais dont ils ne suivant guere les regles" (Mozet, Ecrivain, 157). It is not all of

 

society's rules that they thwart, however; it is society's immoral rules-those that
do not allow marrige for love outside class boundaries. The rules of morality
are followed: rather than have her characters live in a "union libre," Sand has
them secretly marry.

It is adherence to certain rules, not to all, that is important to Anicee. -
When Morenita risks her reputation by running away with a gypsy, Anicee asks
Stephen to find her and bring her back. As she is still considered a single
women it would be inappropriate for her to travel to find her; as Morenita's
godfather and guardian, and as a male, Stephen is the logical and acceptable
person to return her home. Anlcee understands her limitations and does not
‘ speak out against them. She fulfills her own (moral) desires by secretly
marrying the man she loves. Society accepts her because she has not openly
transgressed.

129

This is the message she wishes to give her adopted daughter.
Morenite tends to fight society's constraints, yet at the end of the novel she is
married, her wild nature suitably channeled, at Anicee's suggestion, into the
theater. Ani$e is both a positive and negative feminist example: negative
because she is forced to live most of her life in secret, never able to openly
express her feelings for her husband; positive, because she has followed her

own desires, ignoring society's restrictions while remaining a part of it.

I__es Maitres Sonneurs (1853) is one of the "romans champetres," yet it
differs in several ways from the others. Beatrice Didier suggests that it is more
complex than they and is made up of several "contes," which, when likened to
music, make the novel "polyphonique" (110). All the other storylines have one
focal point, however: Brulette. She is a chaste, honorable young woman who
takes in a foundling. When she is maliciously suspected of being his mother,
she asks, "sa mere? Moi, sa mere? . . est-ll possible que l'on pense de moi
une pareille chose?" (419). Brulette keeps the child and raises him well until
his birth parents are revealed and he is returned to them. Once the adopted
child is returned, Brulette marries the man she loves; having been proven
"blameless" as well as a good mother, she is now considered excellent marrige
material.

The role of motherhood by adoption is again celebrated in this novel;
Didier points out that these adoptive mothers "ont quelque chose d'inquietant;
c'est qu'elles ne se conforrnent pas au schema de la succession des
generations, fondement meme de l'ordre" (113). Sand shows a woman who
1 acts on her own wishes-those of raising an abandoned child. Society not only
does not expect her to do so, it reviles her because of it. She continues to

130

follow her own beliefs and is eventually rewarded with society's acceptance
and the husband of her choice.

l__'Homme 1e n_eig_e_ (1858) is about the the mysterious past of the male
protagonist and his struggles to marry a women forbidden to him by society.
The attraction between the male and female protagonists is immediate and
mutual yet they are prohibited from marrying because Marguerite's aunt wants
her to marry a baron, and Christian has no social status. Marguerite never
wavers in her determination to marry Christian, and is willing to give up her own
fortune: "je vous respecte et vous estime, at, si jamais je suis Iibre et que vous le
soyez encore, je partagerai votre fortune, quelle qu'elle soit" (l:195). She has
determined to work for a living, knowing that she could "donner des lecons, ou
tenir des écritures comme tent d'autres jeunes filles pauvres qui travaillant"
(l:195). Marguerite's willingness to sacrifice her fortune and place in society are
rewarded when it is discovered that Christian is the nephew of the baron in
question. In this novel George Sand follows her pattern of rewarding her
heroines who sacrifice and wait for true love. Her message is always clear;
whether they actually live in relative poverty (l__e Megnler g'AngiI3_a_u_lt) or receive
an unexpected fortune (Magi, m marrying for love is the right choice.

Monsieur Sflvestre (1865) is named for the wise old man who helps the
young people sort through their problems. The novel contrasts the various
choices that women make in the nineteenth century. One female protagonist
' chooses honorable, self-supporting poverty, the other chooses marriage without
love. Both have the taint of a dishonorable parent, which adds to their
difficulties; neither has the protection of family.

131

Aldine Vallier begins her life as the daughter of a wealthy yet legally
suspect businessman. She is sought after as an acceptable wife for bourgeois
society until her father's business fails. She determines to support herself and
her sickly servant, yet as a young woman on her own she is extremely
vulnerable, not only to physical violence, but also to loss of her reputation. After
Pierre meets her, he writes to his friend, "Mlle Vallier est une de ces natures
saintement tranquilles que les épreuves de la vie ont armees de pied en cap
contre les pueriles vanites et les tentations mauvaises" (121). She is forced to
work as a governess for a wealthy widower, Monsieur Nunez, who wants to
marry her. Aldine is in love with Pierre, however, and refuses Monsieur Nuiiez'
offer of marriage.

The woman who does marry Monsieur Nunez is Jeanne, a young woman
on her own without family protection, attempting to free herself from the stigma
of her courtesan mother. When Jeanne learns of her mother's profession, "elle
quitta sa mere . . . l'innocence se revolte contre le vice qui lui fait porter Ia peina
de sa honte" (217). By publicly separating from her mother, Jeanne begins the
long process of saving herself.

Instead of seeking honorable employment, however, she chooses to
marry. Her first choice is Pierre. After attempting to flirt with him she realizes
that he is not interested in her, and she attempts to manipulate him into feeling
obliged to marry her. She arranges to fall off her horse, separated from her
companions, outside of his house. Having ascertained her frivolous nature,
Pierre is not duped. He tells her:

Vous n'etes pas tombee . . . voue ates descendue cle cheval
ici . . . vous avez compte que je donnerais dans le piege, que je
m'attendrirais sur l'accident, que je vous porterais chez moi. . .

enfin que je serais assez simple pour vous compromettre; apres

132

quoi, en homme d'honneur, je serais dans la delicieuse necessite
de vous offrir mon coeur et mon nom. (301)
When a woman is seen alone with a man, her reputation is ruined. This societal
restraint can work both ways, however, and Jeanne has decided to use it in her
favor. She admits her intention to Pierre, claiming:
Je suis ambitieuse, je dois I'etre. Si je ne l'etais pas, si
je n'avais pas la volonte et la force de combattre le malheur de ma
naissance, je serais forcée d'etre courtisane ou religieuse. Je ne
serai ni l'une ni l'autre. Je serai riche et consideree, coquette at
vertueuse. (304)
Jeanne succeeds in obtaining a rich husband, Monsieur Nunez. She is not in
love and has no plans to wait until she is: she has accepted society's
expectations for marriage and seeks to find the best possible situation for
herself. Aldine refuses to accept society's views and she and Pierre marry for
love. Both women have obtained the only real security a woman can have in
the nineteenth century, yet one has decided to marry the man she loves
whether or not he is wealthy.

Pierre gui roule (1869) is the first volume of a continuing story, which
concludes with Le Beau Laurence (1869). There are two main female
protagonists who are very similar in their actions, personalities, and merit. Both
women know what they want and accept nothing less.

The male protagonist and framed narrator, Pierre Laurence, is an actor.

. He is not very talented, but he is popular because he is so handsome. He has
chosen this profession only because he is in love with an actress named

Imperia, whose acting troupe he has joined. She is kind to him but remains

133

faithful to the one man she loves, who is unaware of her feelings. Pierre cannot
accept that she is uninterested in him. He believes that:
elle n'aimerait jamais personne; sage at froide comme son talent,
elle avait besoin du cabotinage pour se degeler un peu . . . ce
n'est pas l'art qu'elle aimait, c'etait le mouvement at la distraction
necessaires a son temperament cralntlf et glace. (162)
Since she does not love him, he concludes that, "pour cacher le vide effrayant
de son coeur, [elle] avait invente un amour mysterieux qu'elle n'eprouvait pas"
(162). Society does not accept that a woman can be strong and faithful to one
man. If she does not love Pierre, who is right there and who wants her, he
reasons that she must be frigid and incapable of love. He does not allow her to
have the same unrequited love for someone else that he feels for her! In his
mind, only men are capable of that sort of love.

Plerre's unrequited love is matched by another woman, however, and he
knows that he is the object of it. There is a mysterious woman who is in love
with him and wants to marry him. She asks Plerre's friend if he is in love with
anyone, wishing to remain incognito until she can be sure of her chances.
Pierre overhears the "inconnue" talking to Belamare, but does not see her face.
She discovers that he is in love with Imperia and writes to him: "Vous l'avez
aimee, cela devait etre. Elle ne l'a pas deviné, preuve qu'elle est chaste et que
vous la respectez profondement. N'osez pas dire! C'est la plus grand amour
qu'on puisse eprouver" (165)!

Plerre's "inconnue" is willing to sacrifice her own desires for Pierre so
. that he can be happy. She concludes her letter by saying, "restez ainsi, c'est
ainsi que je vous aimerai, comme une soeur aime son frere, comme une mere
aime son enfant" (166). But Pierre misreads her sacrifice, considering it a

weakness:

134

mon inconnua était la plus vaillante, la plus genereuse des
femmes, mais elle était femme. . . elle ne voulait pas m'aider a me
debattre contre une rechute possible, se donner la peina de guerir
quelque regret mal etouffe. Elle avait eu l'energie de s'offrir, elle
n'avait pas celle de conquerir. (166)
His misogyny resurfaces when he accuses a woman of being unable to feel
what he feels. He now knows that a woman is capable of unrequited love, yet
he continues to deny those feelings to Imperia. He also blames a woman for
being weak, simply because she concedes any possibility of happiness for
herself.

Pierre ceases correspondence with this woman and remains with the
troupe after Bellamare, the older actor and director, tells him, "Imperia est sage
et ne veut pas d'amant. De plus, elle est raisonnable et ne se jetera pas dans
la misere du mariage. Enfin, elle se trouve heureuse dens sa vertu " (186).
Pierre has no qualms about abandonning a woman who is in love with him, and
who has no hope of ever consummating that love, yet he will not accept that
Imperia chooses to remain loyal to another men under the same circumstances.
Pierre remains with Imperia's troupe as they prepare to leave on an overseas
acting tour. As the novel ends they are in limbo concemlng Plerre's feelings for

Imperia and her steadfast devotion to an unknown rival.

Le Beau Laurence (1869) continues the story, starting with the voyage of
Pierre and Imperia's acting troupe. They are shipwrecked on an island and
_ almost die. lmpéria shows her true strength of character by remaining calm and
strong. Her first thought is of her father: "je pense a mon pare; si nous ne
reussissons pas a sortir d'ici, qui le nourrira" (27)? Her steadfast resistance to

panic is noticed and appreciated by the other actors: "Cette fille est

135

certainement a un echelon au-dessus de l'humanite; elle est la comme un ange
au milieu des damnes" (29). She is so noble and self-sacrificing that the men
must force her to eat what few provisions they find until they are rescued.

In spite of all he has seen of her courage and strength on the island,
Pierre insists that she is at fault in not loving him. She cannot make him
understand how she feels, so she must make him see that it is as if she is
married to someone else. She tells him:

Laurence, quand tu me dis que je ne t'aime pas, tu me

fais un mal affreux. Je ne suis pas froide, je ne suis pas

ego'iste, je ne suis pas ingrate, je ne suis pas imbecile . . .

ecoute, Laurence, je ne suis pas iibre, je suis mariee . . .

ce n'est pas vrai par le fait; mais a mes yeux je suis

irrevocablement liee. J'ai engage ma conscience at me

via a un serment qui est ma force at me religion. (101)
This refusal is her final one. Pierre accepts it and, after returning to France, he
leaves the troupe and returns to his home.

After several years, Pierre inherits the title and chateau of his uncle. He
lives there alone and islolated until he meets a new neighbor, Mme de
Valvedre, who claims to be the friend of Plerre's "inconnue," who has died.
They become friends, and Pierre senses that he could love her, except that, "j'ai
contracté dens me via errante une maladie tres grave: le vouloir irréalisable, Ia
fantaisie de l'imposslble, I'ennui du vrai, l'ideal sans but determine, la soif de ce
qui n'est pas at ne peut pas etre" (127). When he realizes that he cannot
. possess Imperia, he dreams of his "inconnue," who is also now unobtainable.

When Imperia and Bellamar return from another trip, they are reunited,
with Pierre and many revelations occur. The first is that Imperia knows who the

"inconnue" is: "I'amie de son inconnua est son inconnua elle-meme" (133).

136

Another mystery that is revealed is the identity of Imperia's secret love, who is
Bellamar himself. Imperia has been in his presence for years, never revealing
her feelings, and never asking for anything in return except to be near him.
Mme de Valvedre has also been in constant proximity to the man she loves,
Pierre, yet has respected his wishes and asked nothing for herself. Both
women have controlled their own destinies. Their single most rewarding virtue
is patience. Each has remained steadfast in her love for one man; each has
spent her life as close as possible to this man; neither woman is concerned with
following the traditional lifestyle for women by being married, even without love.
Both wait until they can achieve their goal, both wait for the right time and
person to marry.

Through the use of the first-person male narrator, Pierre, George Sand
expresses how society unfairly treats women who reject tradition. Instead of
praising them for their independence of mind and their steadfast loyalty, Pierre
and his society denigrate them, calling them frigid and unnatural. This is how
society treats women who dare to chose their own destiny. Yet George Sand
shows the rewards, which make all their patience and determination
worthwhile. She is also attempting to shame and/or quiet those who speak
against them by making them sympathetic and honorable, worthy of admiration

rather than scorn.

Me Sggr Jeemle (1874) could technically be called a story of incest.
The female roles are entirely traditional; however, the narrator's descriptions of
_ their emotions and passions suggest a study of sexual repression and its impact
on women.

Laurent, the narrator, becomes a doctor and is employed as a personal

physician to an Englishman and his much younger wife, Manuela. Laurent is

137

not tempted by her until he learns that she is not really married, and that she is
the same girl that his parents had once considered as a wife for him. When he
first meets her he admits that she is beautiful, yet, "cela ne faisait point que je
fusse amoureux de sa compagnie. Elle me paraissait trop nulle, trop
irresponsable dans la vie qu'elle menait, pour etre aimee autrement qu'avec les
sens" (112).

Manuela is a victim of her society. She has been raised by nuns who
teach their students nothing about life. She knows only what she sees the other
girls doing: "l'art de se coiffer avec la mantelle, de jouer des yeux et de
l'eventail, . . . de deviser sur I'amour avant meme de sevoir ce que c'est que
l'amour. Nos religieuses, ne sachant rien ne nous apprenaient rien" (132).
She is soon consumed by the idea of love and dreams of an ideal man: "je suis
toute a I'impatience de le voir paraitre. J'en ai la fievre, une fievre qui colore
mes joues at rend mes yeux brulants" (133) She meets a young man and
allows him to take her away from the convent. Once she has left the security of
convention she has no recourse. She is suddenly and forever a "femme
perdue." Her father, a smuggler, realizes she can no longer make a "good"
marriage and sells her to a wealthy man. She escapes and comes under the
protection of Sir Richard, an Englishman who cares for her and does not take
advantage. Now that she is safe and treated with dignity for the first time in her
life she believes that she is in love with him: "je l'aimai donc sans me souvenir
d'en avoir aime un autre Ia veille" (142). She is still a virgin, yet her passions
threaten to control her. Sir Richard attempts to find a suitable husband for her,

’ and warns her of the power of her passionate nature: "il faut vous habituer aux
convenances de la pudeur. . . apprenez a vous garder des dangers dont vous

semblez vous jouer" (149).

138

Manuela obeys him, never leaving her apartment, not making any
friends, doing nothing. Her only physical activity is dancing. She and her
servant perform exotic Spanish dances which heighten Manuela's sexual
energy but leave her with no outlet. Laurent witnesses one of these dances and
sees the danger: "en un instant, les deux femmes devinrent comme folles.
Manuela voltigeait comme une colombe ou se tordait comme une couleuvre"
(176). When Laurent chides them for dancing, her servant replies, "a quoi
voulez-vous qu'elle emploie les forces de son beau corps" (180)? This is a
woman who needs love, physical and emotional. Sir Richard is aware of her
tendencies and Laurent realizes, "il n'a pas confiance en elle; il croit qu'elle ne
doit sa vertu qu'a l'isolement cu il Ia tient" (184). This strict, loveless life is not
healthy for Manuela, and Laurent worries that, "Ia fiancee avait trop attendu
pour ne point arriver a explosion" (185).

The "explosion" does occur, and with Laurent. Left alone with her,
Laurent becomes more and more attracted to her and feels her passion for him.
He excuses his weakness by blaming Sir Richard for leaving them alone
together: "Depuis que la monde est monde, un homme a qui une jeune et jolie
femme corlfie ses peines de coeur est un homme tente ou vaincu" (210).
Maneula is so desperate for love that she believes she is in love with every man
she meets. When Sir Richard returns and discovers their feelings he dismisses
Laurent and asks him to wait.

Laurent returns to his sister and mother and begins a practice there. His
sister, Jeanne, is also a woman who is repressing sexual passion. She has
. known since she was young that she is not her parents' biological child. She
has also known from a very early age that she is in love with Laurent. When
she was fourteen she declared her love for him: "je t'aime passionnement. . . je

ne puis avoir de passion que pour toi" ( 36) and she asked him, "si tu voulais

139

me promettre de ne pas ta marier, je ferais de meme,. . . at je t'aimerais, si tu
n'aimais que moi" (35). She responded to his compliments by blushing and
hiding, "comme si la compliment d'un frere l'eut scandalisee ou effrayee" (40).
Jeanne insists that she is not his sister; he refuses to believe her. As an adult,
she begins to find a new outlet for her emotions: "elle était musicienne et jouait
du piano d'une facon exquise" (53).

The longer Laurent is away from home, the more adept Jeanne becomes

in her musical ability. His mother tells him:
cette musique qui l'a enfin passionnee, elle l'a abordee en
tremblant . . . tout Ie probleme a resoudre pour elle, c'est de
trouver l'expression des pensees musicales qui l'oppressent. . .
quand elle a trouve sous les doigts le vrai sens de son rOIe
enthousiaste, elle renait, elle s'epanouit, elle est heureuse. (269)
Jeanne has found a suitable outlet for her feelings of love toward Laurent. As a
child she had at first rejected the idea of passionate love because she had seen
what it could do. Once she has rechanneled her feelings into music, she feels
she has conquered her passion: "moi, j'ai ose regarder en face ce grand
probleme et j'ai dit au dieu malin . . . tu ne me gouvemeras jamais" (281). She
is convinced that she can live her life without sexual and emotional love as long
as she can express herself in her music.

Laurent finds that he is happy with his mother and sister. He rediscovers
Jeanne, finding her to be beautiful, mature, and intelligent. He realizes that, "la
conversation de ma soeur était de plus en plus interessante et comme
. necessalre a me via" (277). He promises never to leave them, and declares his
jealousy at the thought of Jeanne marrying. He finds her embracing Sir Richard
and asks himself, "que se passait-il an moi? pourquoi cette sorta de rage? . .

Jamais je n'avais ete jaloux de Manuela comme je I'etais de Jeanne" (300).

140

When he finally learns that she is not his sister, that she is the illegitimate child
of Sir Richard, he realizes that:
Ici il y a une nuance de plus, c'est que le monde seui est entre
nous et que nous nous sentons libres dans notre affection . . . Je
sais maintenant que Jeanne m'a toujours aime comme je l'aime
depuis mon retour ici . . . et la verite . . . est que j'aimais Jeanne de
toutes les forces de mon etre. (335)
Jeanne has attempted to deny her sexual passions, knowing that she would
feel them only for the one man in the world who is forbidden to her: her brother.
Sir Richard understands the situation and believes that she and Laurent should
marry. He remarks, "Jeanne a beau nous dire qu'elle vaut plus de tendresse
que de passion, elle est tout flamme at tout amour sans Ie sevoir. [Laurent] a
ete le reve de sa vie antlere" (347). Once they declare their love for each other,
they marry. .Manuela has also found a man to love: the doctor sent to replace
Laurent. Sir Richard approves of this relationship, and Manuela is finally
married.

There are many instances of appearance and reality clashing in this
novel. Few people and situations are what they appear. Jeanne and Laurent
seem to be brother and sister, yet they are not. Manuela is thought to be Sir
Richard's wife, yet she is not. She is thought to be a "fallen woman," yet is still a
virgin. Sir Richard is Jeanne's father, yet he cannot declare his paternity
because she is illegitimate. The main female protagonists appear content in
their virginity; society would think that they were. Yet neither is satisfied. One
comes dangerously close to dying, the other becomes a passionate musician
' who can play her compositions for no one.

George Sand is making some bold statements here; in addition to her

usual theme of marrying only for love, she is showing that women have sexual

141

passions that need to be satisfied; yet, due to the double standard of sexual
promiscuity, they must wait for marriage, and a marriage approved by society,
not one of love. While Sand is not promoting sexual freedom for women, she is
acknowledging the existence of sexual desire in women, even "good" Ones.

This is an emotion mostly ignored or denied by patriarchal society.

The female protagonist in Marianne (1875) is a woman who lives in
quiet, acceptable defiance of society‘s expectations for women. She lives
alone, does not seek the company of others, yet "faisait scandale per son
audace a monter seule sur un cheval" (254). Riding alone is her only vice: she
remains obedient to the most basic rule for women, remaining chaste and
enjoying a good reputation. Maintaining a good reputation is difficult, however,
especially for a young woman living alone. While her isolation somewhat
increases the burden of propriety for Marianne, it also allows her a freedom
most women, and many Sandian women, do not enjoy: there is no paternal
authority for Marianne to obey. According to Nicole Mozet: "c'est toujours
l'absence de tout pare tyrannique qui a rendu possible cette redistribution des
cartes du jeu sentimental" (166). Marianne controls her own destiny and she
lives a quiet, respectable life. Her life remains calm and care-free until her
godfather, Pierre, receives a letter suggesting a possible husband for Marianne.
M. Gaucher asks Pierre to arrange a meeting for his son and Marianne, since, "il
ne repugne point au manage, mais ll ne voudrait pas d'une femme Iaide at mal
elevee" (259). He concludes that, "ii verra chez toi Marianne Chevreuse et, si
elle ne lui depla‘it pas, tu pourras engager l'affaire" (259). Nowhere in the letter
- does M. Gaucher even admit the possibility that Marianne may not want his son.

She is a woman, she is available, she has money, therefore she will marry.

142

Marriage is solely the man's decision, depending on whether or not she
pleases him.

Pierre begins to wonder about Marianne's personality, since she seems
content by herself: "Serait-elle capable de souffrir du plus ou moins d'affection?
Oui, si elle était capable d'aimer, mais il n'est pas probable qu'elle le soit"
(268). He reasons that, since "de quinze a vingt-cinq ans, la vie d'une femme
subit l'orage des sens ou de l'imagination," (268) and since, "Marianne a
traverse cette crise redoutable sans dire un mot, sans faire un pas pour s'y jeter
ou s'y soustraire," (268) she must be "une ame froide ou forte" (268). A "normal"
women would not be happy living alone; she needs to be with a husband and
children. Marianne must not, then, be normal.

Despite his hesitations about Marianne's womanhood, he is surprised at
his own emotions at the thought of her marrying. He tells himself that, if he were
ten years younger, he would ask her to marry him. He does not understand his
own confusion and he notices that she seems a bit embarrassed also: "ils
echangerent un bonjour amical un peu gene" (275). Marianne accepts his
proposal to meet the young man. She realizes that "ii faut que je me maria a
present ou jamais . . . plus tard, je ne m'y deciderais plus . . . parce que la liberte
est une chose precieuse et tres douce. Si on y est trop habitue, on la regrette
trop" (282). She knows what marriage will bring: she will no longer be able to
spend time outdoors where she feels the most contentment, she will not be able
to do what she wishes; there will be a husband, home, and children to control
her.

Upon meeting Marianne, Phillipe decides that he will marry her. Pierre
' asks him, "vous ne doutez pas du succes?" and he replies," pas du tout" (307).
He has no doubt that Marianne will want to marry him. He is young and he

wants her; that should be sufficient for any woman. Plerre's mother is not happy

143

 

with the situation; she believes that Pierre and Marianne should marry. He
concedes that he should have asked her six years earlier and that, "elle sent
bien que je ne m'en suis pas apercu, et elle ne me la pardonnera jamais . . .
une femme, si froide et si douce qu'elle soit, ne pardonne pas a un homme
d'avoir ete aveugle" (315). Once again, a man is assuming that he knows what
Marianne wants and will say. He never considers that she may feel and act
differently. She is assumed not to have her own personality and individuality;
she is a woman, and all women are the same.

Marianne rejects Philippe, yet does not reveal her feelings to Pierre.
Pierre also remains mute until he visits her garden. When he sees how she
has planted it, he realizes that she is a kindred spirit: "Marianne aime donc la
nature, se disait Pierre, enivre d'une joie interleure; elle la comprend, elle la
sent comme moi" (345). He is not convinced of her feelings toward him until
she confesses, "j'ai lu ce qu'il y avait dans votre carnet . . . j'ai vu mon nom . . .
j'ai su que vous doutiez de mon affection" (363). She confirms her love for him:
"je vous attendais toujours, moi. . . et sans votre carnet, j'aurais cru que tout était
fini pour moi" (364). As a traditional Sandian heroine, Marianne loves in silence
and self-sacrifice; she is willing to remain alone forever, waiting for the man she
loves to notice her and declare himself. Her individuality is allowed full
expression only in her private garden, which nobody seas. The woman
remains mute; her only expression is through nature. The man's self-
expression occurs through the written word; but also in a private place, not
intended to be seen. When the private space of each is revealed to the other,
their hidden emotions are presented, and they can communicate verbally.

By communicating, Pierre and Marianne realize their long-held feelings
for each other; since they are in the same social class, and since there is no

paternal authority to deny them, the two protagonists in George Sand's last

144

 

novel are free to marry. All that was holding them back is lack of communication.
At the end of her life, George Sand's message is the same. Yet this time the

only obstacles are the two lovers themselves.

As the happy endings in all these novels suggest, Sand prefers to
present her advocacy of women's rights to happiness in an optimistic way.
There are no extreme heroines or situations here; people from all social classes
are included. All the female characters find resolution for their situations, all
achieve their goals for marriage. These novels all take place in France, in
nineteenth-century French reality. By choosing to create such representations
for her readers, Sand is attempting to show that they too, like these female
characters, have options, that they can feel empowered; George Sand has
shown them how.

145

 

 

Chapter 5: ldealistic Feminism

If realistic portrayals of everyday women and situations in nineteenth-
century France are not persuasive enough to encourage her readers to make
changes in their lives and society, George Sand is willing to try yet another
technique to persuade them; the depiction of an idealistic situation, with women
who demonstrate unusual strength of character and experience exceptional
fates. In addition to depicting superior nineteenth-century French women as
role-models, Sand included women from different time periods (the eighteenth
century) and different countries (the Romantic writers' frequently idealized
representation of Italy). Some of these women have superior talents such as
singing and healing disturbed minds, others inherit fortunes that enable them to
transform entire towns. All of these women have several elements in common:
the courage to change what is wrong in their lives, and, like most of the other
Sandian heroines, chastity and honor. These novels display an optimistic,
idealistic advocacy for women's rights; these characters achieve more than
most women expect, yet they work hard to deserve their happiness. By adding
these to her body of novels, Sand uses the complete spectrum of techniques
available (negative through positive) to convince her readers and her society to

work for change.

_L_e_Secreteire intime, (1833) Sand's fourth novel, is her first example of a
self-assured, happily androgynous female character, Ouintilla. Her profession is
. a traditionally masculine one; she is the sole ruler of her principality. Her
personality is quite rich, exhibiting many presumed male traits. It is this richness
of character, this androgyny or gender-trait balance that makes her a strong

leader as well as a strong person.

146

 

 

Ouintilla is a well-loved, efficient and respected ruler, yet she is also a
female, and as a female she is vulnerable to accusations against her reputation.
She is the object of desire for many of the men in her court, especially that of the
male protagonist, a young aristocrat, Louis St. Julian, whom she meets on the
road and makes her personal secretary. He falls in love with her, not only
because she is beautiful, intelligent, and assertive, but because he thinks she is
sexually pure and he places her on a pedestal.

St. Julian can neither understand nor accept Ouintilla's androgynous
nature: during an evening of reading and discussion, St. Julien oscillates
between seeing her as a traditonal, feminine woman and an unnaturally
masculine one:

Ia princesse interrompeit de temps en temps Ia lecture, at, tout en

continuant ses feminines recherches de toilette, contredisait et

redressait la logique du Iivre avec une superiorite si male . . . que

St. Julian ne savait plus a quelle opinion s'arreter. (38)

She shakes his hand "avec l'honnete familiarite d'un jeune homme," (39) and
she has a "caractere viril" (47).

The princess, however, expresses a very clear understanding of
who she is and why she acts as she does. She tells St. Julian, "c'est vous tous
qui ates fous, et non pas moi qui suis folle" (108). She knows that she is
different; she accepts this and believes she can help other women break free
from the restrictions placed on them by men:

j'ose toujours; je pulse mon courage a une source inepuisable,

ma loyaute. Un jour [le monde] me connaitra sans doute, et si ce

jour n'arrive pas, peu m'importe, j'aurai ouvert la vole a d'autres
femmes. D'autres femmes réussiront, d'autres femmes oseront

etre franches, et sans depouiller la douceur de leur sexe, elles

147

prendront peut-etre la fermete du vOtre. Elles oseront se confier a

leur propre force. (107)
Despite her pride in rejecting society's prescribed character traits for women,
she is aware of her precarious position as a single female ruler. Her reputation
is a constant source of worry: "j'ai cherche des amis, et pour les trouver j'ai joue
plus que me via; j'ai expose ma reputation, et Dieu sait si elle a do etre selle et
insulte par ceux . . . qui m'ont prise pour le but de leurs viles ambitions" (107).
As ruler of her small principality, she has absolute authority and power, yet she
must always be aware of how her actions are perceived.

Her enemies could use an alleged affair against her, but have not: St.
Julian, her most trusted male employee, does. Like most men of his time, he
believes there are only two kinds of women. During his adolescence his tutor
had informed him about "les deux sortes d'amour qui souillent ou purifient les
ames" (58) and this vision of women has tainted his entire understanding of
them:

les portraits qu'il me fit de la femme pure at la femme vicieuse
imprimerent dens mon coeur, encore enfant, deux images
ineffacables; l'une divine et couronnee, commas les vierges dens
nos eglises, d'une sainte aureole; l'autre hideuse et grimacante
comme un rave funeste. (58)
This polarization of women serves as an additional obstacle to St. Julian's
understanding and acceptance of Ouintilla. He is constantly attempting to come
to a conclusion as to which of these types of woman she is. If she is chaste he
will respect her; if she is not, he believes he has the right to have sexual
' relations with her. There is no middle ground in his thinking; either no man can

"have" her or any man can, including him.

148

St. Julien has been in love with her since he first met her, but, believing
her to be chaste, he has refrained from attempting to seduce her. After
discovering her in a secret rendez-vous with a man, he becomes furious. He
spends the night "en proie a des angoisses plus vives que toutes celles qu'il
avait deja eprouvees" (139). As he is tossing and turning the narration
exposes the entire unravelling of everything he has thought and felt about her: if
she is not virtuous, she deserves no respect, and he can justifiably act on his
own desires: "decidement il méprisait Ouintilla" (139). He asks himself,
"pourquoi ne s'est-elle pas confiee a moi come elle se confie a Spark? " (139)
He reasons that, if he had known she was sleeping with someone, "une telle
femme ne m'e0t pas inspire d'amour," (139) and he decides that she has been
chaste only with him: "pourquoi ces raffinements d'hypocrisie avec moi . . . c'est
pour moi seule qu'elle s'impose un rOle si magnifique" (140).

In his anger, St. Julian decides he will "have" the princess, and he tells
his friend, "je suis offense. Je veux me venger, voila tout" (142). He enters her
room as she is sleeping and attempts to rape her. She fights him off, being
"aussi grande et aussi forte que lui. . . elle le saisit a la gorge et la lui serra
d'une main si virile, qu'il tomba pale at suffoque a ses pieds" (148). St. Julian's
change of opinion and attempted rape are a result of his lack of knowledge of
and basic disrespect for any woman he deems not virtuous. He does not know
that this mysterious man is actually Ouintilla's husband often years, a man
considered beneath her socially, but whom she loved enough to marry in
secret. Thus, the princess is actually faithful to her husband and therefore pure.
She has been St. Julian's version of a "good" women all along, despite his
. permptions of her. She is both a beautiful, feminine woman, and a strong,
assertive "masculine" leader. She has not changed or wavered in her actions

149

or opinions. She has remained true to herself, her vision, and her beliefs. She
is blameless throughout the novel; it is the men who are weak and deceitful.

Kristine Wingard Vareille claims that this novel "souleve Ie probleme . . .
de la condition feminine, du mariage at de la sexualite at comporte aussi une
reflexion sur la disposition d'esprit . . . qu'exige toute oeuvre de reforme et de
regeneraton sociales" (215). Part of this call to reform is that of changing
attitudes towards women and what they should be. Ouintilla is, as Vareille
states, " la femme nouvelle androgyne" (219). She exhibits characteristics of
both sexes, which makes her "realise donc la potential de l'etre humain,
l'harmonieux equilibre du masculin et du feminin" (220). Ouintilla is an
example of what women could be if they were allowed to express themselves
completely; intelligent, if given the same education as men; able leaders, if
given the authority to rule; faithful, happy wives, if allowed to marry the men they
love, regardless of class.1

Her marriage is the only part of Ouintilla's life in which she has less
authority. She sees her husband as often as possible, but always in secret;
behind masks or dressed as a man. Even a princess cannot openly defy all of
society's rules. Yet, despite her (albeit few) restrictions, Ouintilla remains an
optimistic figure in Sand's fiction. She is the first of many strong, gender-trait-
balanced female characters who show the way to a better future, not just for

women, but for everyone.

m (1836) is, in George Sand's words, a story that paints "un amour
exclusif, etemel, avant, pendant, at apres le mariage" (29). This is the story of
1 Bernard Mauprat and his distant couSin, Edmee Mauprat. Though Bernard is
telling the story, it is Edmee who controls their lives. This strength of character

150

allows her to re-create Bernard into a man she can both love and respect, who
will be her equal.

He and Edmee first meet in tumultuous circumstances; she has been
kidnapped by Bernard's uncles, and he is planning to rape her. When she
realizes his intentions, she has the presence of mind to flatter him into stopping:
"elle vit a quelle brute elle avait affaire, et prenant son parti, elle se retourna
vars moi, jeta ses bras autour de mon cou, cache son visage dens mon sein, at
me laisse baiser ses chevaux" (81). He agrees not to rape her if she promises
to either spend one night with him or marry him. She agrees to marry him, even
though she is already engaged.

Being a woman of honor, she keeps her promise to him. She brings him
into her father's home, informing everyone that he has rescued her from his
uncles. They keep their promise a secret, but she feels obliged to break off her
engagement. She knows that there will be no problem with this, given the
nature of her fiance: "Quanta M. de la Marche, . . des qu'il saura que j'ai passe
deux heures a la RocheMauprat, il ne sera pas besoin d'autre explication"
(144). Once her pledge to her fiance is cancelled, Edmee begins her long,
arduous task of rehabilitating Bernard into the kind of husband she wants.

Edmee is used to working hard for change. She is a strong presence in
her community and is considered a saint by the poor in her village: "c'est une
fille qui donne tout ce qu'elle a, qui ne porterait pas un joyau, parce qu'avec l'or
d'une bague on peut faire vivre un homme pendant un an" (132). She is the
epitome of the heroic noble. She confides to her confessor that, when she

realizes how bad her life has become, she still accepts it: "je disputerai me via. .
i . mais je ne merchanderi pas avec elle un instant si mon honneur ne sort pas
sain et sauf" (141). She has certain standards that she will not lower: "je me

soucie peu du monde. . . je ne souffrirai jamais la tyrannie de l'homme, pas plus

151

l
1
l
i

la violence d'un amant que le soufflet d'un marl" (142). She insists on keeping
her promise to Bernard, although she makes him wait until he has been
educated and "tamed."2

It is Edmee's education of Bernard that makes this novel a feminist one.3
Kristine Wingard Vareille asserts that "assumer a l'egard de l'homme aime un
rOIe maternel equivaut, de la part de la femme, a essayer de substituer a la
domination feminine voulue par la nature, celle que la mere exerce sur ses
enfants" (422). Bernard has no maternal figure in his life; he has been raised by
uncles who are murderers, thieves, and rapists. He is the product of the worst
aspects of patriarchal society gone bad. Edmee needs to re—educate him in
everything, including treatment of women and human equality. She know that,
once she marries him, "elle aura aliene sa liberte pour toujours" (Vareille 430).
She must create for herself a husband who treats her as she wishes: as an
equaL

Bernard is a passionate, natural man. He has not received the same
training by society that all other men have. When Edmee sees his basic
goodness-- he does not rape her, he releases her from her promise-- she
realizes that she has a chance to create the perfect husband. Nancy Rogers
has written that Mauprat "replaces Sand's negativism of the earlier novels by
offering constructive solutions to the problems of marriage, education,
patriarchy, and social equality. Marriage in M is no longer a barrier to
happiness, but a blissful bond, offering eternal joy" ("Protest" 72). Like
everything worthwhile, the education of Bernard takes time: seven years.
. During that time he must undergo many tests to prove that he has actually
changed and that he is worthy of marriage to Edmee.

By the and of the novel they have come full circle; this time, however, it is

Bernard who is the victim and Edmee in the position to spare him: he is framed

152

for an attempt on her life and she recovers from her come just in time to
vindicate him and convict the real criminal, his last surviving uncle. By putting
an end to Bernard's branch of the family and joining him to Edmee's branch,
"Sand does not undermine the entire patriarchal system; rather, she depicts the
demise of its most evil incarnation" (Rogers, "Protest," 73).

EdmeIe is a woman who has had the vision and strength of purpose to re-
educate a man and begin an entirely new chapter in her personal history: that of
a loving marriage of equals. She has not waited for an enlightened male; she
has created one. Edmee is a positive example of the possibilities for all women
in Sand's time. Nadine Dormoy-Savage believes that, in Mauprat, "nous
passons de I'inaction a I'action, du pessimisme a l'optimisme, et de la reverie

abstraite a la philosophie du progres" (168).

Consuelo (1842) and its sequel, gComtesse c_le Rudolstadt (1843),
which will be referred to as one novel in this study, incorporates elements from
two major genres, the gothic novel and the novel of initiation. Gothic novels,
most notably those of Anne Radcliff, to whom Sand made reference within the
text, typically use female protagonists; George Sand's use of Consuelo is
therefore not unusual. It is her use of a female protagonist in the novel of
initiation that makes the novel unusual and which makes it easily definable as
feminist. Critics have identified many noteworthy aspects of this novel,
including the insistence on love and equality in marriage, a woman's right to
expect sexual passion in a marriage, and the importance of maternal influence

in a woman's life.
1 The ideal of marrying for love is a constant theme in Sand's fiction; there
are many quotations that prove her intent. In Consuelo/La Comtesse de

Rudolstadt, the addition of overt female sexuality to the conventional romance

153

l
l

plot is evident and striking. Wanda, the wise old sage in the novel, asks
Consuelo if she loves Liverani, the man who has awakened sexual passion in
Consuelo, but who wears a mask and refuses to speak. When Consuelo, who
plans to remain loyal to the memory of her deceased husband, Albert, answers
in the affirmative yet quickly resolves not to act on those feelings, Wanda asks,
"Dieu. . . a-t-il autorisee a abjurer ton sexe, a prononcer dans le mariage le
voeu de virginite, ou celui plus affreux at plus degradant encore du sewage?"
(3: 320). Here, as in most of her other novels, Sand chooses to allow her
heroine to marry for love, both spiritual and physical. She accomplishes this by
resurrecting the allegedly deceased Albert, the effeminite, sickly, insane man
whom Consuelo had married out of pity on his deathbed, and turning him into
the masked Liverani who is completely virile. In comparing Sand's treatment of
the novel of initiation to that of male authors, Lucienne Frappier-Mazur claims
that "elle en donne une elaboration adaptee a reconnai‘tre la part feminine et
materielle d'elle-meme si bien que, finalement, le parcours initiatique n'aboutit
pas au rejet, mais a l'acceptation de la chair" ("Code" 54). Because Consuelo
feels sexual passion for Liverani and spiritual passion for Albert, the combining
of his two halves, feminine/spiritual and masculine/sexual, allows Consuelo to
experience the ideal marriage, one often denied women of Sand's time.

The combination of Albert and Liverani also adds to Sand's substantial
corpus of androgynous characters, and highlights her belief that androgynous
behavior and sensibilities complete rather than subtract from a'relationship.
Frappier-Mazur calls this symbolization of the duality of human beings "un deni
I fetichiste du feminin, refusant soit directement, soit indirectement, Ia realite de la
difference sexualle" ("Code" 57). Albert/Liverani has both feminine and
masculine traits; Consuelo is in love with both parts of his personality, and

chooses a man who will complement her own androgynous personality traits.

154

 

Consuelo's androgyny is most evident in her strength of character and
independence. She is independent because of her ability to sing. She is not
considered pretty, but her voice surpasses those of all the other singers. She is

a sensation on the stage and is able to earn her living that way. She also
1 shows androgynous traits when she leaves the security of her room to look for
Albert, traversing underground maze-like passageways, showing unusual
physical strength and courage for a traditional woman. Her force of character
allows her to survive other adventures as she goes from one situation to
another. Pierrette Daly has stated that "nowhere in Sand's works is the struggle
with gender and heroic paradigms more elucidated than in the novels of the
cantatrice, where. . . she masculinizes her women and feminizes her man"
("Fiction" 48). Despite Consuelo's androgyny and lack of good looks, she is a
woman, and is therefore subject to the imprisoning prospectives of sexism and
objectification. Her ability to resist the sexual advances she experiences is
directly tied to her deceased mother, to whom Consuelo promised that she
would remain chaste until her wedding. Consuleo's devotion to the memory of
her dead mother is the source of much of her strength. She and Consuelo's
other maternal influence, Wanda, are Consuleo's salvation. Frappier-Mazur
calls the importance of the two maternal figures "une exaltation du maternal, qui
a pour contrepartie l'absence d'une forte figure paterneIIe et le rejet du
patronyme" ("Code" 60). There is no strong father-figure in Consuleo's life: she
does not know who her father is; her voice teacher, le Porpora is tempermental,
childlike, and weak; and Albert is ineffectual both as a person and as a man.
I The rejection of the paternal in this novel is even more clearly evoked since
Consuelo has no last name and never acknowleges her married name,
Rudolstadt. Albert also rejects his father's name, choosing a name from his
mother's side of the family, which he and Consueleo use. By rejecting the

155

 

 

patriarchal traditions of their time, Consuelo and Albert are forging a new kind of
relationship, one of equals. Consuelo is considered an equal to men when she
is initiated into the secret society, The lnvlsibles, which plans to createa new
religion based on social and gender equality. The members of this society
inform her, "nous te traiterons comme un homme. . . nous professons le precept
de l'égalite divine de l'homme et de la femme" (3: 313). The Invisibles
acknowledge the difficulty of treating men and women as equals, given the
differences in education they receive, yet, due to Consuelo's exceptional
"genie" they will allow her to join them.

Sand uses Consuelo as an idealistic role model for women. She also
uses her as a vehicle to portray and share a female point of view. Consuelo is
one of the few novels by Sand in which most of the action is seen through the
female protagonist's eyes. This perspective is especially evident in the
intensely erotic passages invoving Consuelo's awakening sexual desire for
Liverani. Simon Vierne calls Consuelo "un nouveau mythe feminin" ("Mythe"
45). She is "une nouvelle vision de la femme, . . . une femme que son activite,
sa maniere de vivre deliberement choisie, rend libre" ("Mythe" 46). As an
orphan, she is freed from paternal authority to pursue her chosen career;
chaste, she is free of the potential responsibility of children; single, she is free to
do as she pleases. Her artistic ability allows her this freedom, and as long as
she is able to sing, her freedom remains intact. Consuelo continues to be a
new feminine myth after her marriage to Albert: she has married a man for
whom she has emotional, spiritual, and sexual feelings; she cares for her
. children while she works, bringing them with her to the theater; she provides
financially for her family. When Consuelo is no longer able to sing
professionally she continues to use her voice; as Albert's partner she

transcribes his message of social reform, his vision of a more egalitarian future.

156

 

This hope for the future is shared by both Consuelo and Albert, and Consuelo's
voice, formerly used to entertain the wealthy, is now used to inform and educate

the poor. Her voice is not stilled; it is used to better humankind.4

La Petite Fadette (1848) is the story of a young woman who completely
re-invents herself. Among the many themes of the novel, the three most feminist
statements are: a challenge to traditionally supposed gender personality traits;
society's refusal to accept or reward those individuals who contradict its views;
and a woman's ability to change and control her own destiny. The main
protagonists, Landry and Sylvinet, identical male twins, one typically masculine,
the other with feminine traits, and Fadette, serve as examples of how society
treats individuals who do not meet expected gender roles. Fadette is introduced
in the novel as a tom-boy waif: "elle etait petite, maigre, ebouriffee et hardie.
C'etait un enfant tres causeur et tres moqueur, vif comme un papillon, curieux
comme un rouge-gorge et noir comme un grelet" (83). She is informed that she
is not given the respect commonly due a young girl of sixteen because, as
Landry tells her:

tu n'as rien d'une fille et tout d'un garcon . . . Crois-tu que ce soit a
propos a seize ans, do no point ressembler encore a une fille? Tu
montes sur les arbres . . . et quand tu sautes sur une jument, sans
bride ni selle, tu la fais galoper. . . C'est bon d'etre forte et leste,
c'est bon aussi de n'avoir peur de rien, et c'est un avantege de
nature pour un homme. Mais pour une femme trop est trop. (136)
Fadette begins her metamorphosis motivated by knowing that she must meet
. society's and, more importantly, Landry's expectations of her as a female before
she can secure his love. She does not meet society's standards for

appearance, behavior, or demeanor. Michael Danahy believes that this gender

157

trait "confusion" on Fadette's part stems from her lack of positive female role
models: "Fadette is struggling with tensions resulting from the absence [in her
life] of anyone of the same sex who is both successful and happy and after
whom she may model herself" ("Growing up" 51). In the absence of a female
advisor she turns to the object of her affections and the only person she wishes
to please, Landry. She begins her transformation seen only by Landry. Once
she has secured his love and approval she expands her sphere of acceptance:
first, to strangers in another town; then to her own village; and finally, to
Landry's father. According to Naomi Schor, "Fadette must give up her phallic
attributes if she is to pursue the positive destiny of woman, that is, marriage and
motherhood" (146). Fadette has chosen marriage to Landry not out of
necessity, as she inherits a sizable amount of money from her grandmother, but
out of love for him.

Once Fadette has conformed to society, becoming "un peu plus comme
les autres," (137) she continues to transform her life by improving the lives of
others.5 She uses her knowledge of nature to help Landry increase his farming
revenues, she cures the despondency that has been ailing his twin brother,
Sylvinet, and she opens a home for orphans.6 Her ability to conform to
society's gender-based expectations of her enables her to aid Sylvinet in turn to
transform himself. Sylvinet is portrayed in the novel as being extremely
effeminite: he displays negative, stereotypical female personality traits such as
being emotional, preferring inside (women's) work, and using emotional
blackmail to manipulate his family to do as he wishes.7 Mair E. Verthuy

attributes Sylvinet's despondency to the fact that he has "betrayed his sex" by
1 this behavior (201). As Fadette before him, Sylvinet must change his behavior
in order to merit society's acceptance. Fadette aids him in his recovery from a

self-induced illness, and soon after he joins the army: "only through that most

158

 

masculine of activities, war, can he hope to compensate for his effeminite
behavior" (Verthuy 201). Sylvinet is rewarded, advancing in rank and receiving
a medal (242). Gender-based behavioral expectations have been met by both
Fadette and Sylvinet, yet both had to learn how to act; expected gender traits
were not a natural part of their personalities. Sand's use of identical male twins
with different natural propensities highlights her attempts to demonstrate
personalty traits as being unrelated to a person's sex. Naomi Schor calls
Sand's "insistence on the difference before sexual difference, on differentiation
rather than difference the "feminine specificity of her writing" (147). Landry and
Sylvinet's identical sex yet oposlng personality traits show that, for Send,
"sexual difference is arbitrary, not essential " (Schor 145). Despite the arbitrary
nature of personality traits, Sand's society does not allow any digression from
its prescribed mode. Verthuy calls this novel "a cautionary tale about
acceptable gender behavior" (200). Landry, Sylvinet, and Fadette are "either
rewarded or not according to their willingness or refusal to comply with sexual
norms" (200). Sylvinet is rewarded by achieving his family's and society's
respect; Fadette is rewarded by being allowed to marry the man she loves

despite their social differences.

La Daniella (1857) is one of the very few Sand novels in which a woman
is not punished by society for sexual sin. Daniella is an Italian servent who falls
in love with a Frenchman, Valreg. She becomes his mistress, saves his life by
hiding him from the government, and, after becoming pregnant, marries him.

I Danielle's definition of love is that it stands the test of time. She tells
Valreg:
je ne veux pas me marier sans avoir eprouve la constance de mon

amant et la mienne pendent plusieurs annees . . . iI faut que la

159

desir soit grand de part at d'autre. Celui d'une femme n'est jamais
douteux, puisqu'elle risque son honneur. Celui d'un homme peut
bien n'etre qu'un petit moment de caprice, puisqu'il n'y risque rien.
(1 57) 3
She knows the price she may pay for this trial period, however. She reminds
him, "une fille qui aime hors de la pensee du mariage est dechue. Tous les
hommes se croient Ie droit de lui demander d'etre a eux, at si elle leur resiste,
ils Ia decrient et l'insulten " (158). Daniella is proud of her actions, however.
When Valreg offers to marry her she tells him:
je ne le veux pas . . . ne m'Ote pas l'orgueil de ma faute . . . je suis
mille fois trop heureuse . . . la faute est commise at ca n'est pas
d'etre mariee un jour ou l'autre qui m'empechera d'etre notee au
livre de Dieu. (I: 219)
She insists that the happiness of the moment is worth any future sorrow "de la
part des hommes" (l: 219) because they are in love. She loves Valreg enough
to risk society's punishment, and after a series of difficult circimstances, she
succeeds in not only avoiding society's censure, but in triumphing over it.

One way she triumphs over society and its opinions of what women can
and cannot do is her success in keeping Valreg hidden for months in an
abandoned castle. In this ruined symbol of patriarchy at its worst, Danielle and
Valreg forge a new kind of relationship, based on love and mutual need and
respect. Valreg needs Daniella for his very existence; without her food he
would starve to death or have to risk capture by leaving the castle. Her ability to

sneak in and out of town, wander the streets at night and outwit the authorities is
l a testament to the strength and cunning possible in women. By reversing the
roles of rescuer and helpless victim, Sand is showing how gender roles can be

reversed without losing any sexual identity and without changing the basic

160

nature of human beings. When Daniella becomes pregnant they resume their
traditional roles of the male providing shelter and food and the female caring for
the children. A strong, androgynous female can still be maternal and feminine;
a men who allows himself to be cared for by a woman can still be masculine.
The couple who dared to transgress several of society's rules remains part of

society, even contributing in the form of Valreg's art, a new vision for the future.

La Ville noire (1860) was, according to Jean Courrier, one of the first
novels in nineteenth-century France, after another of George Sand's novels, I;
Compagnon du Tour oi France (1840) "a situer ses personnages et son
intrigue au coeur du monde ouvrier, plus de vingt ans avant le toujours cite
Germinal (1885) d'Emile Zola" (vii). It also includes a woman as savior, not of
one man or family, but of a whole town.

Tonine is a village girl from the factory side of town who knows her place
and plans to stay there. She is impervious to the requests of the wealthier men
from the other side of town who went to marry her. She wishes to marry her
long-term fiance, Etienne, who has aspirations to glory and has left town to seek
wealth and position. Upon his return to la ville noire, he hears of "la patronne,"
a bourgeois woman who has control over the whole factory and has made
many improvements in the lives of its workers. He discovers that she is Tonine,
who has inherited the factory because of her "good deeds" and faultless
reputation.

The change of fortune and social position has given her a new

confidence:
. Etienne remarqua un grand changement survenu chez
Tonine . . . avec le changement de position, l'horizon

de Tonine s'etait agrandi. Elle avait voulu entendre de

161

 

son mieux la science et les arts de l'industrle qu'elle
avait a gouverner, et, sans etre sortie de son Val-d'Enfer,
elle s'etait mlse au courant du mouvement industrial at
commercial de la France. (178)
Tonine has been the dutiful sister, mother, daughter, and nurse to everyone
who needed her. She remains humble and beyond reproach. Many of the
improvements implemented are based on the common-sense needs of people:
better, safer roads, education for the children, child-care. Etienne's friends tell
him that the new factory is:
. . . un atelier modele qui rapporte gros, et dont tous les profits sont
employes a donner I'apprentissage et I'education gratis aux
enfants de la ville noire, des soins aux malades, des lectures et
des cours aux ouvriers, des secours et des avances a ceux qui ont
eu des accidents. Tu verras la des bains, des gymnases, des
salles d'etude. (161)
It is a woman who has created and sustained all of these improvements in
George Sand's utopia for the working class.8 She has remained where she is
and used her resources to improve her surroundings. Etienne has had to travel
to discover improvements in manufacturing; Tonine has never left her home.
Sand's choice of Tonine as town savior is telling: a woman, unable to move
freely around the world, can still improve her life. There is no excuse for
remaining passive and dependent Instead of waiting for Etienne to return so
that he could run the factory, Tonine implemented the improvements herself,
with her own self-taught knowledge.9 She is capable of running the factory
. alone and she is good at it. All that remains in order for her to have a complete

life is the love of an enlightened man.

162

 

 

"-i
r
L;

Etienne renews his vows to marry her before he realizes that she is the
"demoiseile" who has inherited the factory. She knows then that he loves her
for herself instead of the money and asks her friends, "croyez-vous que je lui
doive assez de confiance et d'estime a present pour souhaiter etre sa femme"
(176)? They marry in the presence of the entire town, celebrating the fact that
they are equal partners and that together they can improve the life of everyone
in the town as well as their own. George Sand's female character has shaped
her own destiny, choosing a man who will understand her right to continue to do
so, and becoming a living example and role model for all the women who see

her.

Mlle Merg_uem (1868) is the story of Celia Merquem, a single,
independent, well-educated woman. She is loved by all the peasants who live
near her because she has helped rescue many people from the see; she
performs many charitable works and she has a good reputation.

When the narrator, Armand, arrives in town, he is told by his young
cousin that Célie is "affreuse, longue, maigre, sache, pedante, bizarre" (81).
This is the usual description of an old maid, whom Célie, unmarried at thirty, is
supposed to be. Armand is also informed that his aunt is hoping to marry him to
Mlle Merquem. His aunt informs him, "Elle passe pour une femme instruite. . .
elle n'est extraordinaire que sur un point, I'obstination qu'elle a mise a ne pas
connaitre les joies, les peines, et les devoirs de la famille" (85). As is the
tradition, a woman who chooses not to conform to society's expectations of her
I is considered unnatural, and even well-meaning friends and relatives believe
that she cannot be happy or complete without a husband and children.

Armand is immediately attracted to her, however, and determines to

break her engagement to Montroger, a man who has been waiting for her to

163

marry him for ten years. In his frustration at her refusal to marry him, Montroger
asks Armand, "est-ca que vous comprenez une femme sans amour et sans
famille? Elle a tort, il n'y a pas a dire. . . c'est une exception, un anomalie, un
defi jete a la nature eta la societ " (92). In spite of Montroger's pessimism,
Armand believes that, even though she is a "savante," unlike her male
conterparts, "une femme ne peut s'abstralre entierement du besoin de vivre,"
(119) and a women alone is not really "alive."

Armand begins to win her love after he and Celia rescue a child from the
sea together. He continues to impress her when he offers to adopt the child.
He makes this request while she is surrounded by white swans in a scene
reminiscent of Leda and the swans: "Elle s'assit sur un banc de marbre blanc,
au bord du bassln, au milieu de ses cygnes, qui. . . se pressaient autour du
banc de maniere a m'empecher d'y prendre place" (160). The maternal
instincts of the woman are being matched by the paternal instincts of the men,
while white swans swarm and thrust around the woman's legs. Unfortunately,
the sexual tension is felt only by Armand: "elle s'eloigna comme un oiseau . . .
sa grace etonnant m'inondait de volupte, mais elle ne s'en doutait pas" (161).
Claude Holland believes that Célie Merquem "may not originally have had any
inclination toward marriage, but she longed to have children" (178). Armand
has understood this aspect of her personality and wisely begins his courtship of
her through her maternal needs instead of her sexual ones. As in several other
Sand novels, the female character identifies herself first as mother, then as
sexual woman.

. Célie has never felt "volupte" or love. She confides her feelings about
Montroger to Armand in a story typical for young girls of her time. The family
chooses a match for her; if she does not agree to the marriage she is subject to

mistrust and rumors. In an outright feminist statement concemlng marriage,

164

George Sand's heroine states: "Voila pres de quinze ans que dure pour moi ce
supplice de m'entendre repeter que la femme ne s'appartient ni comme fille ni
comme epouse, et que vouloir se soustraire a la domination personnelle est un
attentat contre l'ordre étamellement établi" (225). She has mistaken her
family's love to mean that she has value as a person, and she could not
understand how that could change: "je ne pouvais pas devenir humble,
m'effacer du jour au Iendemain" (226).

Living alone and on her own terms has allowed her to realize that she
does have value:

Je n'eteis plus l'esclave de mon sexe. Personne ne me disait
plus, 'souvenez-vous que vous ates femme et que votre affaire en
ce monde est d'appartenir a quelqu'un' . . . la femme n'est rien. . .
elle se tient prete a subir le degre de capacite de son futur maitre
et an attendant elle se conserve a l'etat de table rase. (230)
Célie has done the opposite of what is expected of her; she has become better
educated than most man, she has used her personality and mind to become
who she wants to be.

Yet this Sandian heroine also believes that a woman is defined and
controlled by her biology. She believes that all women are destined, that it is in
their blood, to be mothers, and that a career-minded woman is not being true to
herself. According to Célie, "c'est en vain qu'elle se soustrait au marriage et se
dispense de se creer une famille. Tout est famille pour elle quand meme. La
femme est nee pour etre mere" (232). Célie has been fulfilling this need by
becoming the godmother to all the new-boms in the village, and by adopting
several orphans and educating and nurturing them in an family she has created

on her own.

165

 

 

These statements, as well as her maternal instincts toward the children
she has adopted, assure Armand that celle is really a "normal," chaste women
who is merely waiting to fall in love to marry. He realizes that, "toutes les
répugnances que j'avais pu concevoir jusque-la. . . disparaissaient devant le
fait de sa purete sans tache, qui la faisait plus jeune que mol at plus desirable
qu'aucune jeune fille de vertu non-eprouvee (236). Once he has convinced
himself that she has not been "corrupted" by all her knowledge, he proceeds
with his plans to ask her to marry him. She is In love with Armand and has never
loved Montroger; she breaks off her engagement to Montroger and agrees to
marry Armand.

Once Célie is in love, she is willing to renounce her hard-won
independence to play the role of a typical woman. She tells Armand that she
will go anywhere with him and become anyone he wants her to be: "je n'ai plus
nl goats, ni habitudes, ni affections, ni plaisirs en dehors des vOtres. Si vous
voulez que j'oublie tout ce que j'ai appris, j'oublierai meme que j'ai su quelque
chose" (313). She feels compelled to become every other women, even though
he fell in love with her and her differences. Holland calls this statement a
"reversion to conventional feminine passivity" that "comes as a shock to the
reader" (177). While Sand's reasoning is unclear, it is possible to reconcile
Célie's attitude with the fact that she has found an enlightened male. Most of
Sand's strong female characters choose their mates well enough to trust them.
They are so in love with them that they would choose passive female
dependence with these men over any kind of relationship with another. Célie
. knows that Armand loves her and understands her: he has accepted her as she
is, and will continue to do so. This is Sand's vision for the future: enlightened

males and liberated females forming equal, loving marriages.

166

LA

 

 

 

Célie Merquem has given up none of her independence by marrying
Armand because he realizes that society is mistaken in its practices for women.
He sees how happy his wife is in her marriage and concludes: .

Peut-etre ne salt-on pas a quel degre de charme et de merite
pourrait s'elever la femme bien douee, si on la Iaissait mt‘irir. . . on
les marie trop jeunes, elles sont mares avant d'avoir cesse d'etre
des enfants. On les eleve d'ailleurs de maniere a prolonger cette
enfance toute la vie; aussi ont-elles perdu toute puissance reelle
et toute action Iégitime dans la société. (315)

Célie has lived and learned enough to choose her husband well. She has
been able to develop her intellect, her opinions, and her own philosophy of life.

She waits until she is in love, then marries the man she chooses.

In W (1872) the heroine writes the story of her life for her children
and grandchildren. She is an old woman, a peasant married to an aristocrat.
She displays all of George Sand's idealized characteristics: she is pure in
heart, selfless, eager for knowledge and self-improvement, and she works very
hard. Her reasons for writing are as self—effacing as her entire life: "mon but
n'est pas d'lnteresser a ma personne; il est de conserver pour mes enfants at
petite-enfants le souvenir cher et sacré de celui qui fut mon epoux" (31).
Emilien is her social superior when they first meet, yet when the Bastille falls
and the Revolution begins, they are equals; a change of status he readily
accepts. In this novel, however, their equality is manifested more in the change

of traditional gender roles than in social class. Their future reversal and

equalization of gender roles is immediately evident in the first lines of the novel:

a woman is writing about her husband. Yvette Bozon-Scalzitti remarks that she

is "narratrice de sa propre histoire, au lieu d'etre l'objet du recit masculin . . .

167

—l

 

 

Nanon [fait] de l'homme au contraire l'objet d'un recit feminin" (13). The novel
New, as well as the character "nous montre que l'homme est un rele que la
femme peut apprendre et prendre" (Bozon-Scalzitti 17). _

The first area in which Nanon proves she is just as capable as a man is
in education. Nanon, an illiterate peasant girl, scolds Emilien, an aristocrat, for
not taking advantage of his education. She asks him to teach her to read. He
does so, declaring, "je sais un peu, j'apprendrai tout a felt an t'enseignant" (50).
Her desire to learn influences him, and he begins to grow, intellectually and
spiritually, bringing her along with him. Her influence is so strong that he
becomes a different person; he had been lazy, apathetic, and selfish: he now
becomes perceptive and brave.

Nanon has also changed, especially in the esteem of her village. Her
ability to read allows her to give lessons to others; she earns food in exchange,
which means she is a vital help in her family's welfare. She is so esteemed that
the vilage honors her at a celebration and buys her home for her. She is the
first person in her village, male or female, to own her own property.

She is now equal to Emilien in her ability to read, superior to him in that
she owns her own property, yet socially inferior in her role as a peasant and a
female. She takes another step in her evolution when she agrees to take in
Emilien's younger sister. The girls are the same age, yet Nanon declares, "ce
sera ma fille" (91). She does, in fact, become a mother-figure to a group of
people living in the monastery where Emilien had been a student before the
Revolution.

. Nanon's strength of character has enabled her to rise above her humble
beginnings, yet she has not yet acknowledged even the possibility that she and
Emilien could love each other, their different social class making it

unimaginable. When Emilien tells her, "je te jure que je ne serai jamais a

168

 

—l.

personne plus qu'a toi" (95), she feels "une envie de rire et une envie de
pleurer sans sevoir pourquoi" (96). Her growing love for Emilien is proven,
however, by her actions. He is put in prison and Nanon enacts an ingenious
plot to rescue him.

During her rescue, an act that does not in any way coincide with her sex,
station, or political power, she discovers the limits placed on her as a woman.
She realizes :

’ La maniere dont on me regardait at me parlait était nouvelle pour
moi, et je m'avisais enfin de I'lnconvenient d'etre une jeune fille
toute seule sur les chemins . . . je voyais enfin dens mon sexe un
obstacle et des perils auxquels je n'avais jamais songe. Le
pudeur se revelait sous la forme de l'effroi.. . j'aurais voulu me
rendre invisible. (125)

She finds that the only way to avoid notice, to become "invisible," is to become a
young boy: "huit jours apres mon retour, je repartis de nuit, habillee en garcon,
les chevaux coupes et un bon baton en main" (128). Acording to Bozon-
Scalzitti, by taking on the male costume Nanon proves that, "la femme elle aussi
peut avoir acces a la maitrise; aux vertus reputes viriles de contrOle des
passions, de sang-froid, d'efficacite, dont Nanon n'est assurement pas
depourvue" (97). It is, in fact, these supposedly masculine gender traits that
allow Nanon to perform a very feminine act: saving the life of the man she loves.
She must take on male attire and symbols in order to be free to carry out her
desires, those of a woman in love. In this case the male is passive and helpless
and the female comes to his rescue. In addition to the inversion of Emilien and
Nanon's gender roles, there is now an inversion of social power. The

aristocratic male is helpless in prison; the peasant female devises a plan which

169

 

will save him. She has the power now and he does not. That she must dress as
a boy is merely a reflection of her times. 10

Nanon's acts of changing from uneducated peasant girl to rescuer and
care-giver do not go unnoticed by Emilien. He tells her: "sols ma mere,. . .
prends donc pour toi tout le respect, toute la tendresse, toute l'adoration que
j'aurais eus pour elle" (149). By thinking of her as a mother figure, Emilien
hopes to avoid his romantic feelings as they live together with a former servant
of his in total isolation for over a year. His feelings are not only natural, but
more and more socially acceptable, as Nanon continues to achieve equal
status with him.

This equality becomes monetary when they leave their hideout and sell
their crops. Nanon protests that she has not worked and should not receive a
share, but the servant Dumont insists, "Tu n'as pas travaille? Ouand tu n'etais
occupee qu'a nous procurer la nourriture et le gite? Sans cela, cartes, nous
n'eussions pas fait grand ouvrage; nous partagerons, clone" (181). "Women's
work" has finally been monetarily compensated. 11 Her efforts are
acknowledged and valued; indeed, given equal value to the crops that were
grown by the men. Nanon's differences are allowed to be of equal worth and
she and Emilien will receive the same share of the profits.

In her own mind, however, Nanon and Emilien are still not equals. She
continues to deny the possibility of marriage, even when Dumont informs her
that Emilien loves her: "Je restai interdite et confuse, l'amour! Jamais Emilien
ne m'avait dit ce mot—la; jamais je no me l‘etais dit a moi-meme. Je croyais qu'il
. me respectait trop at qu'aussi il me protegeait trop pour vouloir faire de moi sa
maitresse" (175). When Dumont insists that Emilien wants to marry her, she
replies, "m'epouser, moi, une paysanne, lui qui est fils de marquis? Non, cela

ne s'est jamais vu et cela ne se peut pas" (176).

170

 

Nanon will consent to the idea of marrying Emilien only when he tells her
his intention to live as a peasant after he returns from fighting in the Revolution.
Once she has accepted this fact, Nanon decides that she must provide the
income: "A supposer qu'il revint petit officier sans avenir, comment ebverait-il
une famllle, si la femme ne lui apportait que son travail au jour le jour" (183).
Realising the probability of Emilien's inability to work, she decides, "ne pouvais-
je pas devenir, sinon riche, du moins pourvue d'une petite fortune qui me
permettrait d'accepter sans scrupule et sans humiliation la condition bonne ou
mauvaise d'Emilien" (183)? Once she has the idea, she begins her course of
action; she arranges to purchase the former monastery, using the mOney she
has earned over the years teaching and working. Bringing land with her as a
dowry is the only way she can envision a marriage with an aristocrat. When the
only remaining priest at the monastery dies and leaves her his fortune, Nanon is
both a landowner and a wealthy woman. She has everything that Emilien does
not, except for a noble birth. She has obtained the highest position a woman
can without marrying into it. There is nothing else she can do to merit an
aristocrat. Her strength of character and good work have earned her respect
and love; her hard work and intelligence have earned her land and position.

When Emilien returns with one arm amputated and no prospects for
working as a farmer, Nanon accepts the idea of marrying him. She has land
and money so that he need not do manual labor. He has become an imperfect,
incomplete aristocrat who could no longer marry into his own social class.12

Nanon is a concrete example of what the French Revolution was
I supposed to bring about. As in most of George Sand's novels, the heroine has
earned the right to love, and love is more important than social class and
societal barriers. This heroine, more than many Sandian women, has crossed

and even abolished many of society's lines. In George Sand's time, women are

171

 

not considered equal to man. By setting the superior heroine Nanon in
revolutionary times, Sand is hoping that her readers will ackowledge Nanon's
rights to achieve what she did, and perhaps by extension, the rights of all
women to improve their social status. Nanon in 1789 had everything against
her; she fought the barriers and overcame them. In contrast, George Send as
had to struggle against most of the same barriers all of her life; little progress in
securing the rights of women had been made in the years since the French
Revolution was supposed to usher in universal freedom and equality. 13

As we see from these examples of idealistic feminism, George Sand
strongly believed that women can and must effect change in their own lives.
Edmée created her own version of an enlightened male, one that suited her
personality and needs. Daniella risks her reputation and life for the man she
has chosen and succeeds in getting what she wants. Tonine, Célie, Nanon,
Lelia (in the 1839 version), and Fadette all become leaders in their
communities, or in communities they have created. Androgynous
characteristics are not something to be hidden, Sand affirms; they enable
women to achieve their goals, including winning the admiration and love of the
men they choose. They also empower women to contribute toward a greater

social good.

172

 

 

Conclusion

George Sand's lesser-known novels continue and enrich the feminist
advocacy she began with her first novel, M (1832). Instead of continuing
to write in the same style and with similar characters and situations, Sand was
wise enough to vary her approach, voice, tone, and outlook in her subsequent
novels. For the majority of her novels, however, the message remains the
same: woman deserve and are due equal rights with men. Sand's advocacy of
this right is apparent when the novels are studied in the light of the categories
and approaches used here. Sometimes the advocacy is obvious, or systematic;
sometimes she appeals overtly to her readers' sympathy to advocate woman's
right to equality, and at other times she makes her appeal indirectly in a subtext
whose implications are not readily apparent. The aim of this study is to
encourage other readers and critics to examine those novels by Sand that have
not been widely read, to see what skills she used to transmit her feminist
agenda, and to examine the devices she used to influence her readers. For
those critics who believe the quality of her novels declines progressively
throughout her career and for those readers who simply dismiss some of her
works as mere romance novels, a reappraisal is in order, since such charges
are often based on a limited reading of her works.

The more complete reading undertaken by this study offers new insight
into Sand's work, revealing her skilled craftsmanship and use of nuance in
treating feminist issues. Sand's type of equity feminism, while lacking in some
. areas, shows remarkable prescience and vision. Her advocacy of equal pay for
women and men (w is a topic being debated today, and her belief that
men and women are equal yet have some inherent biologically determined

personality differences (most notably concerning maternal feelings) is still the

173

basis for scientific and anthropological study. Her ability to advocate the same
idea in many different ways and, in some novels, without it being noticed on a
conscious or critical level, demonstrates her significant literary skill.

Sand believed that the most effective way to improve society was by
reaching out to individuals: change must come from within each member of
society. Her desire to help the cause of women was ably realized in her different
approaches; the reader who may have been turned away by the perceived
preaching or obvious feminist advocacy found in one novel might not feel as
negatively toward the message when it is hidden in a novel creating sympathy
and empathy for a female protagonist. She used female protagonists from
every class of society, showinghow all women were affected by their inequality,
and effectively transmitting her feminist message to all classes. She situated
her novels in a variety of geographical locations, and she included several
historical novels in her repertoire. Through the use of a wide variety of
characters, situations, locales, and time periods, Sand ensured a greater
diffusion and acceptance of her work and message. Send was also astute in
her use of serialization of the novel; at a time when more people were reading
than ever before, she used mass, inexpensive publications to reach those who
may have been less inclined to think about their society. By eliciting sympathy,
anger, outrage, and empathy, Sand was able to introduce social awareness to
the general public. While her contribution to the realization of equal rights for
women cannot be definitively measured, it would not be an overstatement to
suggest that she did influence individuals.

Indeed, this study suggests that Sand wrote her novels with a master
plan in mind rather than haphazardly or according to a concurrent life
experience, as many critics assume. While she obviously used her life and

emotions in her novels, she molded them to fit her feminist agenda. What has

174

 

not been seen before is just how extensively her writing did fulfill her stated goal
of being an advocate for women's rights; it would not be erroneous to label her
body of novels a sort of feminist "Comedie humaine," and her work needs to be
acknowledged as such.

In a time when women had no voice, hers was one heard consistently
and quite universally, and her impact on her society should not be dismissed.
Her entertaining, well-crafted novels serve many functions. Feminist advocacy
is only one aspect of her novels; they provide many possibilities for exploration
in other areas as well, including nineteenth-century lifestyles, regional customs
and speech patterns, and socio-political thought. It is hoped that this study
provides new insight into George Sand which may inspire others to re-examine
her lesser-known novels. Whether she is popularly labeled a feminist, idealist,
Romantic, or writer of children's tales, Sand needs to be known, read, and
treated as carefully and thoroughly as her great nineteenth-century male

contemporaries.

175

 

 

Notes

Introdgction f
1. Kristina Wingard Vareille has written a study of Sand's novels from 1832 to
1837. She examines many different aspects of each novel, including feminism.
Robert Godwin-Jones has also written a comprehensive analysis of twenty of
Sand's novels; there are passing references to and comments on feminism, but
that is not the focus of his study. Paul Chanson studies her works as statements
on the rights of both partners in marriage; again, he touches on feminism but
does not highlight it, nor does he treat all of her novels.
2. According to Renee Winegarten, George Sand believed that "women's
immense potentialities went largely unrecognized and were indeed incapable
of realization in the existing state of society" (162).
3. Simone Vlerne states that "une des originalites de George Sand [est] sa
maniere toute personnelle d'incarner ses propos les plus theoriques,
philosophlques, politiques, esthetiques, dans ses oeuvres d'un genre un peu
deconcertant, car apparemment fort eloigne de tels desseins" ("Roman
sentimental" 175).

4. See Deutlebaum and Huff, WenzeI-White, O'Brien, and Schor for
illustrations of this opinion.

5. See Massardier-Kenney and Godwin-Jones.

6. Barbey d'Aurevilly called her "un bas-bien" and noted that "un bas-bleu fait
penser a tous les bas-bleus . . . il y a entre eux la solidarite du ridicule d'ecrire. .
. . pour ecrire et pour endoctrinailler le genre humain. . . Personne. . . n'a exerce
d'influence plus funeste que Mme George Sand. C'est la mere Gigogne aux
adulteres" (124). Baudelaire also wrote harshly about her: "Elle est beta, elle

est lourde, elle est bavarde; elle a dans les ideas morales la meme profondeur

176

de jugement at la meme delicatesse de sentiment que les conciergas et les
filles entretenues" (686).

7. Thomson has shown that Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Aurora Leigh;"
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Efle, The Professor, and _S_I_1iLle_y; Emily Bronte's
Wuthering Heights; and Matthew Arnold's poem "To a Gypsy child by the
Seashore" all were influenced by George Sand's work. See Thomson, pp. 54,
65, 68, 80, and 101. See also Bount and Jurgrau's studies on George Sand's
influence on British writers.

8. See Karp for a detailed list of which writers she influenced. See also Banour,
Herrmann, and Naginski ("Russians").

9. Anne Freedman has done a study of the implications of Aurora Dupin's
choice of George Send as a pen-name. Some of her arguments are week,
however.

10. According to Kate Millet, "Serious education for women [was] perceived . . .
as a threat to patriarchal marriage, domestic sentiment, and ultimately to male
supremacy--economic, social, and psychological" (127).

11. In an amazing attempt to prove that Sand was very strongly Catholic in her
beliefs, Chanson claims that she is against free love, yet he neglects to mention
La Daniella, a novel where a man and a women do live together before
marriage and suffer no consequences. He also refuses to discuss the fact that
many of the male characters are not "sexually pure" while the females are,
which would undermine his theory that Sand believed in pre-marital sexual
equality between males and females. See chapter 5.

I 12. See Larnac (220) for a list of these derogatory publications.

13. This information is found in Larnac.

177

Chapter 1
I. As stated in the introduction to the 1853 edition of the novel: "je m' étais dit

que faire de Manon Lescaut un homme, de Degrieux une femme, serait une
combinaison a tenter, et qui offrirait des situations assez tragiques, Ie vice etant
souvent fort pres du crime pour l'homme, et l'enthousiasme voisin du desespoir
pour la femme" (i).

2. This novel is one of many for which critics have developed theories
concerning Sand's use of doubles in her female characters.

The consensus is that Sand shows both the sensual and spiritual sides of
women with her contrasting protagonists. See Sylvie Richards and Marilyn
Yalom.

3. Denise Brahimi believes that "en la personne de Lucrezia. . .George Sand
dit beaucoup de son ideal feminin . . . c'est une acceptation du monde tel qu'il
est" (584).

4. Most critics agree that Sand based Prince Karol on Chopin. Ruth Jordan
writes that "artistic Paris immediately identified Lucrezia with George and
Chopin with Prince Karol [although] she vehemently denied any similarity"
(243).

Chapter 2
1. According to Eve Sourian, Olympe "était venue annoncer l'amour mais avait

rencontre la haine et la jalousie; la société n'etait pas encore prete a la
recevolr" ("Maratre" 34).

_ 2. Nicole Mozet goes so far as to say that in this novel there is

"un desaveu de la difference sexualle" ("Coquetterie" 194).

3. This portrayal of the cruelties of life for poor woman is similar to Fantine's

story in Les Miserables (1862) by Victor Hugo.

178

Chapter 3
1. For a detailed analysis of the critical reception of Indiana see Francoise van

 

Rossum-Guyon's article, pp. 19-30.

2. Arlette Beteille believes the revised ending proves that lndiana's revolt
against society can work: "la mort, a la fin du roman, aurait ete un echec
puisqu'elle aurait prouve I'impossibilite de la revolte et confirme l'opinion . . .
que toute faute merite son chatlmen " (72).

3. Kathryn Crecelius believes that Louise represents the mother figure in an
oedipal triangle in this novel and that, because she does not die, Valentine
must (90).

4. For a comparative study of Valentine and Tristan et lseut see Crecelius,
chapter 4.
5. For a comparative study of Valentine and La Princesse de Cleves see Lucy

 

 

M. Schwartz' article in The World of George Sand.

6. George Sand wrote to Marie d'Angoult: "je refais gm. . . le poison qui m'a
rendue malade est maintenant un remade qui me guerit. . . ce livre m'avait
precipitee dans la scepticisme; maintenant il m'en retire" (Cg. 3: 474). She is
making changes in her characters so that all are "a l'honneur de la morale; non

pas de la morale des epiciers, ni de celle de nos salons. . . mais d'une morale

 

que je voudrais faire a la taille des etres qui vous ressemblent" (Q03. 3:474).
7. Margaret Waller calls _LéJe "decidedly radical" since Sand "undermines mal
du siecle gender politics" and her "malaise . . . is largely a symptom of her
explicitly feminist discontent" (137).

I 8. My interpretation of Lelia's feelings on love differs significantly from Eileen
Boyd Silvert's, who believes that "much of the text is an exploration by Lélia of
her own culpability. When it comes to her inability to love what comes across

. . . is her hatred of herself and her feelings of guilt" (52).

179

 

9. Several critics have noted that the emphasis on Lelia's sexuality is muted in
the second version. According to Osten Sedergard: "Dans Ia nouvelle version
[Send] a eu soin de retoucher minutieusement tout ce qui apportait un caractere
sensual, particulierement dans la portrait de Lelia" (30).

10. Isabelle Naginski notes that the new Lelia "revendique un droit encore plus
scandaleux [que la droit des femmes au plaisir]: le droit des femmes au degofit"
("Deux Lelia" 78).

11. In her article, "The use of doubles in Jacques," Janis Glasgow maintains
that these two men and two women are "both a male and a female version of
herself and her lover [Alfred de Mussetj" (46).

12. I do not agree completely with Crecelius when she states that this possible
incestuous love between Jacques and Sylvia is "clearly the hidden plot . . . and
one that Sand has very poorly executed" (136).

13. Crecelius has done an in-depth comparative study of Jacques and
Goethe's Elective Affinities (1810) in Family Romances, chapter 7.

14. Divorce was not legal in France from 1816-1884.

15. Jacques returns in the play Le Diable aux champs (1851).

16. Joseph-Marc Bailbe claims that in this feminist novel, "George Send a
choisi de defendre la femme dans un roman Iucide, presentant une revolution
au niveau de la sensibilite beaucoup plus qu'une proclamation vehemente . . .
elle fait appel a toute Ia gamma dos illusions romanesques pour affirmer les
droits de la passion, le devenir de l'homme et de la femme, l'instict du bonheur
individual at collectif" (329-330).

. 17. I do not agree with Denise Brahimi's simplistic assertion that Genevieve's
ignorance of science, her "harmony with the universe" is a feminine trait, and
that "ce serait ne pas lire le texte que de ne pas attribuer cette rupture [avec

l'univers] a l'intrusion du sevoir masculin" (581).

180

 

18. Diderot had raised the issue of prejudice against illegitimate children a
century earlier in Le Fils naturel. But this issue does not seem to be a concern
here.

19. See Marie J. Diamond 's article for a psychoanalytical [biographical study
of this novel.
20. In Anne Callahan's anaysis, the problems in the relationship stem from the
fact that "the beloved the artist seeks is an elusive chimera; the chimeral
combines the self and the other . . . symbolically, Therese and Laurent are two
sides of the same person" (245-246).

Chapter 4
1. The character of Fiamma is one of several Sandian female protagionists who

have been compared to Mme de Steel's Corinne
(1807). See Eve Sourian's aritcie, "L'lnfluence de Mme de Steel sur les

 

premieres oeuvres de George Sand."

2. The use of the masculin noun "air" masculinizes Catherine, both
typographically and aurally.

3. As has been noted by many biographical studies, George Sand spent much
time with her family and friends writing and producing plays with the

marionnettes she and her son Maurice created.

Chapter 5
1. Michele Hecquet calls Ouintilla's actions "les formulas [qui] cherchent a

. preserver la liberte feminine . . . a realiser le desir at a favoriser l'echange entre
epoux" (99).
2. I do not see Edmee as being a "mere phallique, indeniablement legiferante,

. . . autoritaire, froide, cruelle, castatrice" (Bozon-Scalzetti, "Mauprat" 4).

181

 

I;

3. Jane Nicholson considers Edmee's actions "a feminine agency" that is part
of Sand's "feminist agenda" (27).

4. My interpretation of Consuelo's loss of her singing ability is not as negative
as those of several other critics, including David Powell, who believes "the
feminist argument Of this novel is attenuated, however, by the heroine's
enervated position in the epilogue; Consuelo, having lost her voice, now serves
merely as the interpreter of Albert's message to mankind" (85). See also Eve
Sourian, "Les opinions religieuses de George Sand," and Lucienne Frappier-
Mazur, "Desire, Writing and Identity."

5. Brigitte Lane believes that, despite an obvious acceptance of and adherence
to society's prescribed gender roles, Fadette's leadership abilities make the
novel "question" malelfemale stereotypes and "reverse" male/female roles" (18).
6. Based on these positive actions by Fadette, my opinion differs from Naomi
Schor's concerning Fadette's acceptance of her female role. Schor claims that
"the female reader is lulled into forgetting that the wages of genius and wealth
are the acceptance of a definition of femininity that essentializes difference and
naturalizes social inequity" (142). I believe instead that Sand is showing
women how to achieve their goals despite society's restrictions.

7. I do not agree with Tim Wilkerson that Sylvinet is "clearly homosexual" (50).
This is one possible interpretation; another is that he is merely an example of
how sex and personality traits are not necessarily connected, a theme Sand
uses in many of her novels.

8. Sand's example may have helped inspire Victor Hugo in @ Miserables

_ (1862) in the section where Jean Valjean, as factory owner and then as

manager also, transforms the quality of life in an entire town.

182

 

9. Martina Frier-Wantiez likens Tonine to the female character in Balzac's l_._e_
Cure du village (1860): "la changement social reste l'affaire d'une grande
dame. L'individu demeure le premier ressort de I'action" (150).

10. Nanon is following the tradition of such George Sand heroines as
Consuelo (1842), the princess in Le Secreteire intime (1833), and the
concublne in L'Uscogue (1838) by donning male attire.

11. This notion is similar to the claim espoused by the equity feminists, that
women shOuId receive remuneration for housework, and salaries based on the
effective worth of each person's contributions. See Hoff Sommers.

12. The amputation here of the upper-class male is similar to the blinding of
Rochester in Bronte's Jane Efle (1847).
13. The Code Napoleon was a severe setback for the rights of women after the

French Revolution.

183

 

 

Works Cited

Bailbe, Joseph-Marc. [mu—es ou I'illusion romanesque." Cahiers de
I'Associetion gas étl._l_des freppaises. 28 (May 1976): 315-330.

Bennour, Wanda. "L'lnfluence de George Send an Russie." George Sand:
Collected Essays. Ed. Janis Glasgow. Troy, NY: The Whitson
Publishing Co., 1985. 103-109.

Barbey d'Aurevilly, Jules. "Madame George Sand." Oeuvres Completes. vol. 2.

 

Paris: Mercure de France, 1966.

Barry, Joseph. Introduction to Elle at Lui. By George Sand. Meylan:
Editions de I'Aurore, 1986.

Baudelaire, Charles. "Mon Coeur mis a nu." Oeuvres Completes.
vol. 1. Paris: Gallimard, 1975.

Beauvoir, Simone de. La Deuxieme sexe. (2 vols). Paris: Gallimard, 1949.

Beteille, Arlette. "Ol‘l finit mgi_arl_a? Problematique d'un denouement."
George Sang: Recherches wanes. Ed. Francois Van Rossum-
Guyon. Groningen: C.R.I.N., 1983. 62-73.

Blount, Paul. "George Sand and the Victorians: Matthew Arnold as

 

Touchstone." The George Sand Pepers. (1976): 123-132.

Bossis, Mireille. "La femme pretresse dans les romans de George
Sand." George Sand: Collected Essaje. Ed. Janis Glasgow. Troy, NY:
The Whitson Publishing Co. ,1985. 250-270.

Introduction to Le Dernier amour. By George Sand. Paris: Des Femmes,

. 1991.

Bozon-Scalzetti. "Mauprat, ou La Belle at La Beta." Nineteenth-Centum French
m. 10 (1981-1982): 1-16.

184

--. "Nanon, ou la Revolution comme fiction masculine." George Sand Today.
Ed. David Powell. New York: University Press of America, 1992. 181-
199.

 

Brahimi, Denise. "EcriturelFeminitelFeminisme: Reflections sur trois romans de
George Sand." Revuedesflences Hpmaines. 168 (1977): 577-588.

Callahan, Anne M. "Elle e(s)t lui: L'Endroit et l'envers de l'autre romantique."
George Sand: Collected Essays. Ed. Janis Glasgow. Troy, NY: The
Whitson Publishing CO., 1985. 239-249.

Capasso, Ruth Carver. "Female Voice in La Confession d'une jeune
mi." George Sand Studies. 13 (Spring 1994): 55-62.

--. "Malgrétout: A Psychological Study." George Sand Studies. 15 (Fall 1996):
29-42.

Chanson, Paul. Le Droit a I'amour selon George Sand. Paris: Editions
Albin Michel, 1943.

Chodorow, Nancy. The Reproduction of Mothering. Berkely: University of
California Press, 1978.

Chonez, Claudine. "George Sand et la feminisme." gm. 56 (March 1978):
75-79.

Cixous, Helene and Catherine Clement. La Jeune nee. Paris: Union Génerale
d'Editions, 1975.

Courrier, Jean. Introduction to La Ville noire. By George Sand. Grenoble: l

 

Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1978.
Crecelius, Kathryn. Family Romances: George Sand's Eam Novels.
. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
Czyba, Lucette. "La femme et la proletaire dens Le Compagnon du Tour de
Piece" George Sand: Collgue de Cerisy. Ed. Simone Vierne. Paris:
Sedes, 1983. 21-29.

185

Daly, Pierette. "Consuleo: The Fiction of Feminism." George Send S_tt_lgie_s. 11
(Spring 1992): 43-48.

---. "The Problem of Language in George Sand's 119.1103" Weslm
GeoLqe Seed Conference Papers. Morgantown: WVU Department of
Foreign Languages, 1981. 61-73.

Danahy, Michael. "Growing Up Female: George Sand's View in La Petite
flgette." The George Sand Pamrs. (1978): 49-58.

Dayan, Peter. "Baudelaire at his Latrine: Motions in the EeLite @mes en
pr_os_e and in George Sand's novels." French Studies. 48 (1994): 416-
424.

Deutelbaum, Wendy and Cynthia Huff. "Class, Gender, and Family System:
The Case of George Send." The (Mlother Tongue: Essaje in Feminist
Psychoenalvtic Intetpretatipn. Ed. Shirley Gamer. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1985. 260-279.

Diamond, Marie J. "Elle et Lui: Literary ldealization and the Censorship of
Female Sexuality." The World of George Sand. Ed. Natalie Datlof. New
York: Greenwood Press, 1991. 163-171.

Didier, Beatrice. "George Sand at les structures du conte populaire." George
fingfiollogue de Cerisy. Paris: Sedes, 1983. 101-114.

Donovan, Josephine. Feminist Theory: The lntellectu_el Tragmins of America_n_
Feminism. New York: Ungar, 1986.

Dormoy-Savage, Nadine. "Identite et mimetisme dens quelques romans de
George Sand." George Sand: Collgue de Cerisy. Paris: Sedes,

_ 1983. 159-169.

Eidelman, Dawn. George Sand and the Nineteentp—Centprv Reseia_n

I_.pve-Triangle Novels. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 1994.

186

 

 

Frappier-Mazur, Lucienne. "Code romantique et resurgence du feminin dens
flomtesse ge Rgolstafl." Le Recit amoureux. Seyssel: Editions
du Champ Vallon, 1984. 53-70.

---. "Desire, Writing, and Identity in the Romantic Mystical Novel: Notes for a
Definition of the Feminine." Style 18 (Summer 1984): 328-353.

Freedman, Anne. "Of Cats and Companions and the Name of George Sand."
Grafts: Feminist Cultural Criticism. Ed. Susan Sheridan. London:
Verso, 1988.

Frier-Wantiez, Martina. "Les Demandes en marriage dens La Ville noire."
gagge Sarfl: Recherches nou_yelles. Ed. Francois van Rossum-Guyon.
Groningen: C.R.I.N., 1983. 120-153.

Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Guber. IleMagwomep in the Att_ic_:. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1979.

Glasgow, Janis. "The Use of Doubles in George Sand's Jagues." me

 

George Sarfi Eepgsy (1978): 32-48.

Godwin-Jones, Robert. _F_l_p_rr_l_e_pt_ic Vision: The Novels of George Sand.
Birmingham: Summa Publications, Inc., 1995.

Greene, Tatiana. "Women and Madness in the Works of George Send."
The George Sand Pears. (1978): 59-69.

Guldette-Georis, Allison. "George Sand et le troisieme sexe."
Nineteenth-Center)! French m. 25 (Fall-winter 1995-1996): 41-
49.

Guzinska, Aleksandra. "Meconnaissance des lieux et connaissance de sol: une
relecture de La Mare au diable." George Sand Today. Ed. David Powell.
New York: University Press of America, 1992. 131-144.

187

Harter, Hugh. "George Sand and the Spanish Connection." GeorgeSand:
Collected Essays. Ed. Janis Glasgow. Troy, NY: The Whitson
Publishing CO., 1985. 93-102. I

Hecquet, Michele. "Erlfants de Boheme: Naissance et legitimation chez Sand."
Be_vue_c_les Sciences HpmeLnee. 226 (April-June 1992): 99-116.

Heilbrun, Carolyn. Toward a Recognition of Andm New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1973.

Herrmann, Lesley 8. "George Sand and Ivan Turgenev." The George
Send Papers. (1976): 162-173.

Hoff-Sommers. Christina. Who Stole Feminim? New York: Simon
and Shuster, 1994.

Holland, Claude. "Mfliemoiselle Mergtgrp: De-Mythifying Woman by Rejecting
the Law of the Father." The Work! of George Sand. Ed. Natialie Datlof.
New York: Greenwood Press, 1991: 173-180.

Holmes, Diana. French Women's Writfilg: 1848-1994. Atlantic Highlands, NJ:
The Athlone Press, 1996.

Howe, Marie Jenney. George Sang: The Sealch for Love. New York:
Garden City Publishing, 1927.

Jordan, Ruth. George Send: A Bipgrephical Portrait. New York: Taplinger,
1976.

Jurgrau, Thelma. "The Linking of the Georges, Sand and Eliot: Critical
Convention and Reality." The George Sand Pears. (1976): 133-150.

Karp, Carole. "George Sand and the Russians." The George Sand

_ m. (1976): 151-161.

Laird, Helen. "George Sand: Social Historian and Poet." T_'_h_eC5eo__rge_§fl

Pears. (1978): 3-11.

188

 

Lane, Brigitte. "La Petite Fadette: A Pre-feminist Dialectic of Tradition." me
Worldrof George Sand. Ed. Natalie Datlof. New York: Greenwood Press,
1991. 15-25.
Larnac, Jean. Histoire ge la litteretyfire feminine en Freece Paris:
Les Documentaires, 1929.
Lukacher, Maryline. "Jac_ques ou l'arret de la mort." George SandStudies. 15
(Fall 1996): 19-28.
Makward, Christiane P. and Madeleine Cottenet-Hage. pictionnaire
littéraire des femmes ea langue francaise. Paris: Editions
Karthala, 1996. 534-538.
Mallet, Francine. George SantL Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1976.
Massardier-Kenney, Francoise. "Textual Feminism in the Early Fiction of
George Sand." George Sand Studies. 13 (Spring 1994): 11 -18.
Maurois, Andre. Lelia ou la viepe George Sand. Paris: Hachette, 1952.

 

Michel, Arlette. "Structures romanesques et problemes du mariage chez
George Sand, d'_l_r_l_c_liepe a La Comtesse de Rudolstadt." Romantisme. 16
(1977): 34-45.

Millet, Kate. Sexual Politics. New York: Simon and Shuster, 1990.

Moers, Ellen. MN Women: The Great Writers. New York: Doubleday,
1976.

Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics. London: Methuen, 1985.

Mozet, Carol. "Lord Byron at George Sand: "Le Corsaire," "Lara," et
L'Uscogue." George Sand: Collected Essafi. Ed. Janis Glasgow.
Troy, NY: Whitson Publishing Co., 1985. 53-68.

Mozet, Nicole. "Coquetterie et pouvoir dans les romans sandiens du Seconde
Empire." Revue des Sciences Humaines. 226 (April-June 1992): 193-
209.

189

--. Georqeiand: EcrivJaln de romans. Paris: Christian Pirot, 1997.

---. "The Serenity of Influence: The Literary Relationship of GeorgeSand and
Dostoevsky." George Sand: Collected_§ssavs. Ed. Janis Glasgow. Troy,
NY: The Whitson Publishing Co., 1985. 110-125.

Naginski, Isabelle. "Les deux L_e_li_a_: Une reecriture exemplaire." Revue des
Sciences Humeinee. 226 (April-June 1992): 65-84.

--. George Sand: Wri'tipg for her Life. New Brunswick: Rutger
University Press, 1991.

Nicholson, Jane A. "The Sense of Place in M_appr_et_: Locating the Feminine in
Sand's Female Pastoral." George Sand Today. Ed. David Powell. New
York: University Press of America, 1992. 19-28.

O'Brien, Dennis. "George Sand and Feminism." The George Sand

Balm (1978): 76-92.

Ozouf, Mona. Les Mots des femmes. Paris: Fayard, 1995. 173-198.

Perrot, Michelle. Introduction to Polltigues at pplemigues 1843-1850. By
George Sand. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1997.

Person, Leland. "Henry James, George Sand, and the Suspence of
Masculinity." M106 (1991): 515-529.

Poll, Annarosa. "George Sand devant Ia critique, 1831-1833." GeorgeSand:
Collogue de Cerisy. Simone Vieme, Ed. Paris: Sedes, 1983. 95-100.

--. George Sand vue gr les Italians: Essai de biblipgraphie critigue. Paris:
Didier, 1965.

--. ltalie dans la vie et dans l'oeuvre de George Sand. Paris: A. Colin, 1960.
Powell, David. George Sand. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990.

Rea, Annabelle. "Maternity and Marriage: Sand's Use of Fairy Tale and Myth."
Studies in the Literag Imagination. 12 (Fall 1979): 37-47.

190

Richards, Sylvie. "A Psychoanalytical Study of the Double in the Novels of
George Sand." fleet Virginiajeorge Sand Conferencengers.
Morgantown: UWV Department of Foreign Languages, 1981. 45-53.

Riggs, Larry. "Class, Gender, and Performance in George Sand's Le_on_e_

_L_e_o_nL_" george Send Stptiee. 10 (1990-1991): 50-59.

Rogers, Nancy. "George Sand: Social Protest in Her Early Works." file
_Geogge Send Page (1978): 66-75.

---. "George Sand and Germaine de Steel: The Novel as Subversion."

West Virginia George Sand Conference Pepe; Morgantown:
WVU Department of Foreign Languages, 1981. 61-73.

Schor, Naomi. George Sand and Idealism. New York: Columbia UP, 1993.

Schwartz, Lucy M. "George Sand et la roman intime: Tradition and Innovation
in Women's Literature." _GegygeSand: Collected Essays. Ed. Janis
Glasgow. Troy, NY: The Whitson Publishing CO., 1985. 220-226.

---. "Intertextuality: Valentine and La Princesse deCleves." The World of
George Sand. Ed. Natalie Datlof. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
127-136.

---. "The Limits of Sand's Feminism: Marriages in the Novels of Her Maturity
(1857-1876)." George Sand Studies.11 (Spring 1992): 49-54.

---. "Persuasion and Resistance: Human Relations in George Sand's
Novels m and I__eli_a; The George Sand Papers. (1978): 70-76.

Segoin, Bernadette. "Le Sentiment maternel: Moteur d'une societe nouvelle
chez George Sand." _Geogqe Sang Tod_a_y_. Ed. David Powell. Latham,
MD: University Press of America, 1992. 181-199.

'Silvert, Eileen Boyd. "Lflié and Feminism." lele French Stugies. 62 (1981):
45-66.

191

Sedergard, Osten. Essais sur la creation littereire de George Sand d'apres un
romep remenie: Igejie, Uppsala: Almquist and Wikells, 1962.

Sourian, Eve. "Amities feminins dens flggre et _C_c_r_l_s_tence Verrier: Polarites at
classes sociales." George Sand Studies. 8 (1986- 1987): 28-38.

--. "L'lnfluence de Mme de Steel sur les premieres oeuvres de George Sand."
George Sand Studies. 7 (1984-1985): 37-45.

--. "Mont-Reveche: "La Maratre" de George Sand." George Sand Studies. 13
(Spring 1994): 29-36.

"Les Opinions religieuses de George Sand: Pourquoi Consuelo a-t-elle
perdu sa voix?" George Sand: Collected Essays. Ed. Janis Glasgow.
Troy, NJ: The Whitson Publishing Co., 1985. 127-138.

Szogyi, Alex. "High Analytical Romanticism: The Narrative Voice in George
Sand's L._ucreeia FlorierL " The George Sang Papers. (1978): 189-198.

Thomson, Patricia. George Sand and the Victorians: Her Influence a_r_l_d_
Reputation in Nineteenth-Century England. London: MacMillan, 1977.

Van Rossum-Guyon, Francoise. "Les Enjeux d'ngLape Metadiscours at
reception critique." george Sancflecherchee nojugllee Ed. Francoise
van Rossum-Guyon. Groningen: C.R.I.N., 1983. 1-35.

Vareille, Kristina Wingard. Socialite, sexualite, et les impasses de l'histoire:
l'evolgtion de la thematigue sandienne d'lndlana (1932) a Mauprat
(_18_37_). Stolkholm: Almquist and Wiskell lntemationai, 1987.

Verthuy, Mair E. "La Petite Fadette: An Epicene Cautionary Tale." The Worlgl
George Sand. Ed. Natalie Datlof. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991:
199-204.

Vieme, Simone. "George Sand et la roman sentimental." fieyu_ege_e
Sciences Humaines. 226 (1992): 175-192.

192

7

---. George Sand et Octave Feuillet ou les facettes On second empire." geerge
Sand Studies. 9 (1988-1989): 16-28.

---. "Le mythe de la femme dens Consuelo." La Po_ro_orina: Entretiens sur
Consuelo. Ed. Leon Cellier. Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de
Grenoble, 1976. 41 -51.

Waller, Margaret. The Male Malaey. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1993.

Wenzel-Whilte, Erdmute. "George Send: She Who Is Man and Woman

Together." West Virginia George Sand Conference Pepers.
Morgantown: UWV Department of Foreign Languages, 1981. 85-89.

 

Wilkerson, Tim. "The Violence of \flgilance: Sexual Politics and Exile in La_
Petite Fedette." george Sand Studies. 13 (Spring 1994): 45-54.

Witkin, Sylvie Charron. "Holbein et Sand: Thanatos et agape dens gum
giable." GeorgeSand Studies. 8 (1986-1987): 10-15.

Winegarten, Renee. The Double l=ife of George Sang Woman e_ng Writer: A
Critical Biegyeppjp New York: Basic Books, 1978.

Yalom, Marilyn. "'Dedoublement' in the Fiction of George Send." The George
Sand Papers. (1978): 21-31.

193

Works by George Send

"A Propos de la femme dans la société politique." Souvenirs et flee; 9_e_uLes
Completes. vol. 30. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints,1980.

gem. gp. vol. 1. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints,1980.

Les Amours de I'age de l'or. QC; vol. 1. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

M Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1987.

_AgttLia. QC_. vol. 2. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

Le Beau Laurence. Paris: Safrat, 1990.

Les Beaux Messieurs de Bois-dore. 2 vols. Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1926.

Césarine Dietrich. Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1880.

Le Chateau des Desertes. Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1985.

Le Comggnon du Tour de France. Brussels: Societe Beige do Librairie, 1841.

La Confession d'une jeune fille. QC_. vol. 6. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

Constance Verrier. _O_Q. vol. 8. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

Consuelo and La Comtesse de Rudolstadt 3 vols. Meylan: Editions de
I'Aurore, 1983.

Corresppndance de George Sand. 26 vols. Paris: Gamier Freres, 1979.

Les Dames vertes. QC; vol. 8. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

La Daniella. 2 vols. Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1992.

Le Dernier amour. Paris: Des Femmes, 1991.

_LeDemiere Aldini. Q. vol. 8. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

Les Deux freres. 9Q. vol. 10. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

Elle et Lui. Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1986.

La Famille de Germandre. QC_. vol. 11. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

La Filleule. Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1989.

Flamarande. _O_C_. vol. 11. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

194

fleyie g9. vol. 12. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

Egerycje. _Og vol. 12. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

Francpis Ie Champi. Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 1983.

_L'pHomme c_le neige. 2 vols. Grenoble: Editions de I'Aurore, 1990.
M92 Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1982.

Impressions at Souvenirs. QC; vol. 17. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints,1980.
My. Paris: Gallimard,1989.

We. Paris: Des Femmes, 1990.

Jagues. Paris: Calmann Levy, 1889.

Jean de la Roche. Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1988.

J_e_a_p_rfi. Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1986.

,L_e_li_a._ Paris: Garnier,1960.

Leone Leoni. Paris: Editions J'ai Iu, 1993.

Lucrezia Floriani. Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1880.

Mademoiselle La Ouintinie. Paris: Michel Levy Frares, 1863.
Mademoiselle Merguem. Ottowa: Editions l'Universite d'Ottowa, 1981.
Les Maitres Sonneurs. Paris: Gallimard, 1979.

Malgrétout. Grenoble: Editions de I'Aurore, 1992.

La Mare au diable. Paris: Bookking Internationale, 1993.
Marianne. QC_, vol. 29. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

Le Marguis de Villemer. Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1929.

Ma Soegr Jeanne. 00. vol. 21. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.
Meqpret. Paris: Flammarion, 1969.

Lia Merger (_l'Angmeglt. Paris: Editions d'Aujourd'hui, 1976.
.Moneleur Sylvestr_e. O_C. vol. 25. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.
Mont-Reveche. Paris: Editions du Rocher, 1989.

New. Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1987.

195

Narcisse. Paris: Klincksieck,1994.

Oeuvres Autobipgraphigues. 2 vols. Paris: Gallimard, 1970.

l_.e Peche ge_Monsiet_lt Antoine. Meylan: Editions de l'Aurore, 1982. .
La Petite Fadette. Paris: Flammarion, 1967.

_l_.e Plccinino. Q9. vol. 29. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

Pierre gel rogle. Paris: Safrat, 1990.

Le Secretaire intime. Grenoble: Editions de I'Aurore, 1991.

Siflep. Grenoble: Editions de I'Aurore, 1991.

_‘l_'_a_m_e;i_§. Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1984.

Teverino. Paris: Editions d'Aujourd'hui, 1976.

La Tour de Percemont. C_)_C_. vol. 29. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.
L'Uscmue. 99. vol. 34. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.
Valentine. Meylan: Editions de I'Aurore, 1988.

Valvedre. QC_._ vol. 35. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980.

La Ville noire. Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1978.

196

 

"‘illllllililliii