29 pages • 58 minutes read
Madame de La FayetteThe Princesse de Clèves (The Princess of Cleves)
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1678A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Folly of Judging by Appearance
Lafayette demonstrates her mastery of the mores of the court of her day by employing the subject historically in The Princesse de Clèves. She takes on a traditionally omniscient role, moving from one character’s perspective to another’s, occasionally pulling pack to relay information about entire rooms full of courtiers. M. de Nemours may be thought despicable for spying on Mme de Clèves the way he does, but it’s important to note that Lafayette, the author, does the same with absolute impunity.
Even when lowly subjects are foregrounded in historical fiction, we take them to be representative of some larger historical force or trend. This is even more pronounced when the author and her subjects are adjacent to the highest avenues of political power, and taken to its absolute height when those figures are robed in the state pageantry and self-consciousness of 16th- and 17th-century European royalty. In this light, Mme de Clèves is not a mere teenager nursing a crush but a representative of court decorum, the breaking of which, to any degree, represents the outward sign of potentially massive internal corrosion. It is no coincidence that Lafayette set her love story in the latter days of Henri II’s rule, before the massive upheaval of the court caused by his death, rather than during the relative peace that existed before. As her characters’ desires are miscommunicated and abused, so are the desires of the state.
The Increased Focus on Realism and the Individual
Medieval and early modern readers reveled in the fantastic tales of King Arthur and his knights of the round table; stories of that era often reiterated impossible standards of chivalry and nobility. By 1678, when The Princesse de Clèves was published, fiction had become increasingly concerned with fidelity to realism, particularly with explaining the internal logic guiding a character’s inexplicable external actions. Lafayette follows that trend, as her omniscient narrator spies on characters’ private behavior then delves into their minds to illuminate the underlying catalysts. This affords readers an understanding of the plot and characterization that’s denied to the characters.
This narrative technique foregrounds the focal character, elevating their position in relationship to the reader and disregarding their station in history or the court. This is not a story about the bravest knight in the land or the worthiest king. Instead, it is about a minor member of the court whose inconsequential problems (in the grand scheme of things) are nonetheless monumental to her and those around her. In the transition from feudalism toward democracy, this focus on the desires and thoughts of the individual is an important one. It also reflects the preferences of a readership more concerned with authentic depictions of reality, which is complex and often inscrutable, than fantasy.
The Role of Women in Diplomacy
The women in Henri II’s court exist within a strict patriarchy and must act within given narrow restrictions. M. de Clèves’s harsh judgment of the women who cross his path reflects this. In his view, when women are chosen to be wives, they must show absolute fidelity to their husbands even after they have died. Yet Lafayette complicates this patriarchal hierarchy by centering the narrative on women and showing where women’s influence bleeds into the affairs of state.
Lafayette writes, “There were so many different factions and parties, and the women played so great a role in them, that love was always allied to politics and politics to love” (34). Women play a central role in determining good matches, both in initiating matches as well as in structuring their demise. These weddings, which sometimes determine the fates of nations, are quite important. The Duchess is depicted as being supreme in this regard. All gossip of any importance seems to stop with her, and the King appears to filter all of his most important decisions through his mistress. Gossip, which is the most meaningful communicative medium by which information travels, is practiced by all sexes, but most deftly and commonly by women. On the other hand, gossip is also an important means by which gender hierarchies are reinforced, and it is a court to which only the deftly manipulative can appeal.
