French Exit

Both Frances and Malcolm have trouble connecting to the world, and to others, whether it be expressing their emotions, establishing relationships, or enjoying the simple pleasures of life. In the course of French Exit, both move subtly toward overcoming their inability to express themselves, gradually moving out of their comfort and class zones to connect with other people and the world.

Throughout her life, Frances has difficulty showing emotion, and although she makes progress in this area, her expressions of emotion shift subtly. At the beginning of the novel, she relies on her cold, reserved attitude and cutting witticism to keep people at a distance. Early on in her life, she is ignored by her mother, so expressing emotion verbally becomes pointless for her. Instead, she adopts the motif of fire as the main expression of any strong emotion or displeasure. The only outward sign of emotion that Frances uses at the beginning of the novel is through her use of her gold lighter, which she brandishes for attention and in protest. When she was young, Frances set her parents’ house on fire, recalling, “I had no wish for Mother to burn, but I knew she would react, and this was my dream” (200). Frances even uses the metaphor of fire to describe her youthful scandalous behavior, telling Malcolm, “I ran from one brightly burning disaster to the next” (55). Beyond these expressions, Frances remains largely superficially emotionless, with fire’s dangerous nature the only indicator of her emotion.

At the end of the novel, when she dons her red dress, it is the final expression of her inner emotion through the metaphor of fire. However, unlike the lighter, the dress is not an extrinsic expression, wielded like her lighter; it is her truest expression of emotion, manifested on her body. Even with these expressions, however, Frances still lacks an authentic connection with the world—these expressions are statements, not engagements. Frances must look to other ways to develop an authentic connection with the world. Frances also seemingly expresses no emotion when her husband dies, instead sitting with his body for a while and then going on a skiing trip.

With her introduction to Mme Reynard, Frances moves further toward a connection with other people that doesn’t involve money. Because of her wealth, throughout her life, Frances’s relationships have been largely transactional—her friendship with Joan is the only exception. She mostly connects with people through money, a fact established in the early pages of the novel when she offers an unhoused man 20 dollars in exchange for his honesty. However, Mme Reynard is not interested in Frances’s money—she is lonely, and looking for friendship. She is also disarmingly honest, saying, “Please don’t be cruel to me, […] It was difficult to get up the nerve to invite you over” (100). With her vulnerability and openness, Mme Reynard shows Frances what it takes to authentically connect with others. When Frances accepts Mme Reynard into her life, this results in more relationships, as each character invites another into her home. Notably, most of these people are from a lower class than she is accustomed to associating with. In a sign of her changing attitude toward connection, Frances allows these people to not only enter but stay. After her death, Malcolm comments on this shift, telling the police, “She always avoided strangers and hangers-on, but in the last week she became sort of a joiner” (238). Through her relationship with Mme Reynard, Frances is given a new perspective on what it means to connect with others.

Frances’s evolving connection with the world also involves her discovery of the simple pleasures of life, such as fruit. At the beginning of the novel, she dreams of “a juicy plum [that] eluded her, passed from hand to hand” (12). When she wakes, she orders a plum from room service, and although it is presented with all the luxury that her wealth affords, the fruit itself is tasteless and disappointing. Although her wealth protects her from some of the difficulties of life, it also insulates her from its pleasures, and this insulation is exacerbated by Frances’s own emotional reserve. Later in the novel, when she shares an orange with the man in the park, she connects with the world through the simple but powerful sensory pleasure of fresh fruit. This connection extends to the man himself, and the added pleasure of sharing: “They shared the orange. It was a pleasant moment for the both of them, and they were happy to’ve met” (168). The simplicity of the statement echoes the simplicity of the pleasure Frances feels. She carries this moment forward as she finds ways to transcend her earlier insulation from the world, to connect with it, and others, in simple yet meaningful ways. Although Frances isn’t completely able to overcome her customary distance from the world, she finds several ways to connect with other people.

Malcolm similarly finds connection as the novel unfolds. Though he is engaged to Susan, deWitt gives the impression that the two are not emotionally transparent. Susan loves him but cannot reach him in some ways. He is cocooned by the possessiveness of Frances, the insular bubble of the apartment, and his inherited social status, which he wears uneasily. When his father takes him as a boy to an exclusive club, he feels different from the other sons there and ends up throwing up and embarrassing his father. Similar to Frances, he did not have a connection to either of his parents when he was young and instead went to boarding school, where he mainly connected with the teachers and people older than him. It was not until his father died that he was removed from this isolating environment. Instead of this removal becoming an opportunity to expand socially, Frances homeschools him with an older woman. When he makes a connection with this older teacher, he is punished and instead forced to complete his education solitarily, by going to museums alone every day.

The journey to Paris thus becomes Malcolm’s ticket to connecting with others. On the cruise to France, Malcolm begins by making his own connection to Madeleine. He steps in when his mother is, at first, rude to Mme Reynard, whose friendship opens the door to more connections. As Malcolm observes a scene in the park from his window, he realizes that connecting with others is essential: A pigeon is shunned by its fellow birds before dropping dead and landing on a lone man, who looks around and realizes he has no one to share the odd experience with. Malcolm identifies with and pities both the pigeon and the man and feels a renewed desire to build relationships.