My Year With Proust - Day 43

" . . . Presently she rose and came to the window, where she pretended to be trying to close the shutters and not succeeding.

   'Leave them open,' said her friend. 'I'm hot.'

   "But it's too dreadful!  People will see us.' Mlle Vinteuil answered.  And then she guessed, probably, that her friend would think that she had uttered these words simply in order to provoke a reply in certain other words, which she seemed, in deed, to wish to hear spoken, but, from prudence, would let her friend be the first to speak. . .

   'Oh, yes, it is extremely likely that people are looking at us at this time of night in this densely populated district! said her friend, with bitter irony. 'And what if they are?' she went on, feeling bound to annotate with a malicious yet affectionate wink these words which she was repeating, out of good nature, like a lesson prepared before-hand which, she knew, it would please Mlle Vinteuil to hear. 'And what if they are?  All the better that they should see us.'

   Mlle Vinteuil shuddered and rose to her feet.  In her sensitive and scrupulous heart she was ignorant what words ought to flow, spontaneously, from her lips, so as to produce the scene for which her eager senses clamoured.  She reached out as far as she could across the limitations of her true character to find the language appropriate to a vicious young woman such as she longed to be thought, but the words which, she imagined, such a young woman might have uttered with sincerity sounded unreal in her own mouth.  And what little she allowed herself to say was said in a strained tone, in which her ingrained timidity paralyzed her tendency to freedom and audacity of speech; while she kept on interrupting herself with: 'You've sure you aren't cold?  You aren't too hot?  You don't want to sit and read by yourself? . . .

   'Your ladyship's thoughts seem to be rather 'warm' this evening,' she concluded, doubtless repeating a phrase which she had heard used, on some earlier occasion, by her friend.

   In the V-shaped opening of her crape bodice Mlle Vinteuil felt the sting of her friend's sudden kiss; she gave a little scream and ran away; and then they began to chase one another about the room, scrambling over the furniture, their wide sleeves fluttering like wings, clucking and crowing like a pair of amorous fowls. . . .'

Marcel Proust, Swann's Way, pp. 170-171

As with so much from Proust, there are several fascinating things going on at once, some of which I'll be discussing in the continuation of this scene later. I want to revisit the sadism issue (even if it is merely posturing) which was raised earlier, and which is reintroduced in her desire to be the "vicious young woman" that she feels she should be.  However, we need to get to the conclusion of the scene, and this seemed like a good place to pause.  So, we'll come back to that issue.

At first blush, the most obvious theme of this exchange is Mlle Vinteuil's implied lesbianism, which might explain the harsh words of Proust's mother.  Several points jump to mind, none of which I feel I can fully answer here at this early stage because I need to read further in the novel and also study more on Proust's own life - and also spend more time reflecting upon these words.  That said: 1) Is Mlle Vinteuil a lesbian? [Well, that's a whole other question.  Linden in The Accidental Mind reports that something like 1/6th of all women have at least one homosexual experience leading to orgasm - the percentage in higher in men - but that's not the same as being consistently homosexual.  Of course, my feeling on this is that sexuality, much like the related topic of gender, exists on a sliding scale, so I'm always suspicious of labels one way or another.  As the novel unfolds maybe I'll learn more] 2) Does it matter if Mlle Vinteuil is a lesbian?  [Yes and no.  In the imaginary world where my favorite literary characters live I'd say No, because as long as Mlle Vinteuil is happy I'm happy.  In regard to why Remembrance of Things Past was such a groundbreaking novel, and why it remains such a present, meaningful novel today, I'd say Yes. It seems to me that Proust beautifully, but also naturally, talked about issues that people had hinted at before, and not usually in a positive way.  I would argue, and, again, this is not my field of study and I need to study it more, that Proust is opening the door for later writers.  Now, what makes this complicated is that since Proust is discussing this is the context of Mlle Vinteuil's complicated and, to use his term "sadistic" relationship with her father, the issue of her relationship with her friend becomes much more complicated. 3) Finally (well, not really finally, but these are the three that are in my mind at the moment), how does this relate to Proust's own homosexuality and the role that homosexuality plays in the novel.  That will require more reading and more outside study.