Manon Lescaut

Once Des Grieux is returned to his family, there is an interesting contrast between Des Grieux’s attitude toward his relationship with Manon and his father’s reaction. Des Grieux believes himself to be truly, passionately in love with Manon, but his father considers the affair a minor fling. Even when he realizes that Des Grieux believes he is in love, his father continues to tease him, pointing out that Manon can only have been in love with him for 12 days, since they had “left Amiens on the twenty-eighth day of last month” and he was reunited with his son on “the twenty-ninth of this” month (23). He first heard from the tax-farmer 11 days ago, and allowing “seven or eight” days for the tax-farmer “to become perfectly acquainted with [Manon],” this means Manon was only faithful for 12 days (23). Des Grieux’s father finds this laughable, but Des Grieux is crushed, and collapses once he realizes the implications.

Such fits, much like seizures, happen often to Des Grieux, and are evidence of his sensibility. Sensibility, a common cultural concept in the 18th century, was based on the belief that truly intelligent and sensitive individuals felt certain emotions more strongly than those who were less sensitive. Such sensitive individuals were often considered superior to others, as this ability to feel so strongly was related both to keenness of intellect and nobility of birth. In fact, as Des Grieux recovers he cannot fathom why he continues to love Manon despite her infidelity. He knows he should condemn her, but “some involuntary impulse” (26) prevents him from doing so. He returns to the church not because he no longer loves Manon but because he believes his studies will “so occupy [his] mind that [he] will be prevented from dwelling on the dangerous pleasures of love” (28).

The next section parallels the beginning of the story. Two years after first meeting Manon, Des Grieux is once again valorized and celebrated for his intellectual achievements. Soon after resuming his studies, he has already “acquired such a reputation for brilliance that people were already congratulating [him] on the high honours [he] could not fail to win” (29). Once again, Des Grieux is being congratulated for his potential to do great things. And just as before, the sight of Manon derails Des Grieux’s plans. Similarly, Manon is again described as a force of nature rather than as a human woman. Des Grieux observes:

It was she, but lovelier and more dazzling than I had ever seen her. She was in her eighteenth year. Her charms were beyond description. There was an air about her, so delicate, so sweet, so appealing—the air of Love itself. Her whole person seemed […] an enchantment (30).

Against “love itself,” Des Grieux stands no chance. He argues that despite church teachings, he has no free will when it comes to Manon. In fact, he claims he “would have sacrificed all the bishoprics in Christendom for Manon” (33). This “profane mingling of amorous and theological expressions” (33) is characteristic of Des Grieux, who often uses his theological and philosophical education to justify or explain his love for Manon, which goes against all sense and reason. This is also part of Des Grieux’s fine sensibility: Emotion is often irrational by its very nature, and reason and logic have no power over it. Indeed, Des Grieux believes that only someone “barbarous” could fail “to be touched by so fervent and so tender a repentance” as Manon offers (33).

Manon’s visit to Des Grieux, along with her apology and declarations of love, undermines Des Grieux’s father’s previous claim that Manon only loved Des Grieux for 12 days. Manon stands to gain nothing from Des Grieux, as his father will not provide him with money if he again leaves his studies, nor will he approve a marriage to a woman who has been a tax-farmer’s mistress for two years.