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Example research essay topic: Mortally Wounded Mme De - 1,459 words

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Warning: There are a few spelling errors. 'It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. ' 'What is essential is invisible to the eye, ' the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember. -- Antoine de Saint-Exupry, The Little Prince The ending of Stendhal's, The Red the Black, is obscure. Julien Sorel is sentenced to death by guillotine for the crime of attempting to murder Mme. de Real, his former mistress. During his trial, Julien has the sympathy of the town and powerful figures of influence behind him; he could quite easily change the verdict of trial by simply claiming his act was a crime of passion. Yet Julien stubbornly insists, from the moment of the offense until the day of his death, that his crime was utterly premeditated and he deserves nothing short of death. The details of the crime are nebulous.

Throughout his life, Julien devoted all his energy to perfecting his outward behavior in order to transcend humble, peasant, beginnings and achieve fame, wealth, and social status. On the very brink of achieving his goal (he had acquired estates, a title, the rank of lieutenant of the Hussars, ) a letter from Mme. de Real, accusing him of deliberately seducing her, threatens to unravel Julien's carefully wrought future. After being informed of the letter, Julien leaves suddenly for Verrires, buys a pair of pistols, and shoots Mme.

de Real in the middle of Mass. In the time between reading the letter and the shooting, the reader hears none of Julien's, usually prevalent, inner monologues, nor does he receive any commentary by the narrator. All that is given are a few objective details: 1. ) Julien fails an attempt to write a legible letter, and 2. ) Julien has a difficult time communicating with the gunsmith. These facts indicate that Julien was in no rational state, but the very sparsity of information leaves a number of possibilities for the motive and nature of the crime. What state of irrationality was it?

Confusion or rage? It is not clear that the crime is premeditated... but it is also not clear that it isn't. After the crime, Julien is seized and put in jail.

There, without the slightest reflection, Julien confesses his guilt and demands his own death. He asserts that the situation is perfectly simple: I intended to kill, so I must be killed. (474) Even as it becomes clear that Julien can escape his sentence through pity and the ever-present dishonesty of men in power, he continues to demand that justice be served. The prevalent question is: why would a man actively seek his own death? There are different ways to interpret Julien's decision. It is possible that Julien is a broken and absurd man whose hypocrisy consumed him and who simply gives up. When faced with the destruction of his long cherished dreams, the only thing he knows well, it is possible that Julien acted rashly, believing that it was the only way to retain petty notions of honor.

He thus took furious vengeance on Mme. de Real as if defending his integrity in a dual. Julien has reacted to insult this way many times before. After the crime is committed, however, Julien has truly lost the chance of ever rising up in society the way that he dreamed of. All of Julien's life was dedicated to his ambition; even his romances are manifestations of a Napoleonic ideal that can no longer be realized. What else does he have to live for?

Julien thus resigns himself to death. In his jail cell, directly following the crime, Julien feels no remorse, Why should I feel any? I was atrociously wronged; I committed murder, I deserve death, but that is all there is to it. (472) He feels content; he tells himself, I have nothing left to do on earth. (472) He welcomes death. When Julien finds out that Mme. de Real was not mortally wounded his contentedness is briefly upset. His social ambition is gone, but Mme.

de Real is not completely a part of that ambition. She is not lost to him; he knows, somehow, that she forgives him and still loves him. He falls in love with her, yet, he is still resigned to death. Julien spends his last days largely alone.

He holds wild dialogues with himself which lead him to believe that he has life figured out. He comes to defined conclusions that satisfy him: Religion and society are hopelessly corrupted, hypocrisy is everywhere and virtue is nowhere, being a member of society he is not at fault for falling victim to it in his ignorance. He realizes that his relationship with Mme. de Real (really his only human relationship) is the only thing that brings him happiness; he spends his days happily remembering his time at Very and cherishing the last few times he gets to spend with her. This Julien is merely telling himself that he understands life so he can escape it.

His defence speech is a summary of his thoughts; a dry statement of all he has figured out. It contains a brief apology and a lengthy condemnation, Napoleon style, of class structure. This Julien, who dreamed about Napoleon for so long, is playing out a last pathetic fantasy of courage and tragic grandeur. This interpretation condemns Julien to be forever a stupid being and his life is a meaningless fiction. He never wakes up from his half believed dreams and goes all the way to his death pretending to have gotten something out of life. Julien is not a tragic character; Mme.

de Real was not killed and he is not forced to his death by a hostile society. In fact, in this reading of the text, Julien's crime was a crime of passion and he did not even deserve to be executed. This Julien is a failure; the random scattering of sincerity and the potential that the reader can see in Julien never comes to anything. Most importantly, by seeing Julien as giving up and making excuses, he never has a chance to really internalize anything. Rather, the hypocrisy and fantasy life prevail, consuming fully and finally whatever real, noble, Julien was ever there. There is another interpretation.

Although Julien spends most of the book ignoring his noble and genuine self, at the end of his life, the reader should believe Julien. The facts of both situations stay the same, but in this second interpretation, Julien is not pretending to have found some real insight into life. He claims that the crime was premeditated. Perhaps it was. He says that he is filled with remorse because he is nothing less than guilty. He maintains that he deserves the punishment of death.

Maybe he is right. The reason Julien shot Mme. de Real is still violent rage and despair due to his lifes work being ruined. Julien was completely wrapped up in his success, he felt that she had destroyed the possibility of his future happiness. Though there was slight hesitation at the time of the act, it was Julien's full intention to kill her. The development of Julien's sentiment is mostly the same as before.

Immediately after the crime, he feels nothing of remorse, but only that a crime deserves a fitting punishment. However, once he learns that Mme. de Renal was not mortally wounded, Julien's perspective changes: Only then did Julien begin to repent the crime he had committed. By a coincidence which saved him from despair, that moment had also brought an end at last to the state of physical tension and near madness in which he had been engulfed since leaving Paris for Verrieres. (473) He gives way to tears and is filled with nobility. This interpretation hinges on Julien feeling sincere remorse, and that he begins to sincerely learn who he is, what he has done with his life, and what he really wants from life at large. Julien spent his life lost in dreams of Napoleon, but it becomes evident through his action and thoughts that this was not because of strong convictions that Napoleons politics are right and true.

Rather, Julien was seduced by a fantasy of grandeur. Though the novel is sprinkled with outbursts of Julien's righteousness, they have always been countered by other examples of quite the opposite actions. Frequently, Julien's outbursts are passed off as fits of enthusiasm, his thoughts quickly turning back to attainment of wealth and influence. Some moments are more telling than others. Once, solely for amusement, Julien appoints a fool to an office.

He afterward learns that he has taken the livelihood from a family and the honor fr...


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