My Years With Proust - Day 504

For whereas Morel by himself, naked so to speak, often resisted the Baron whom he felt certain of winning back, once he was married he would soon fear for his household, his bed and board, his future, would offer to M. de Charlus's wishes a wider target, an easier hold.  All this, and even at a pinch, on evening when he was bored, the prospect of stirring up trouble between husband and wife (the Baron had always been fond of battle-pictures) was pleasing to him.   Less pleasing, however, than the thought of the state of dependence upon himself in which the young people would live.  M. de Charlus's love for Morel acquired a delicious novelty when he said to himself: "His wife too will be mine just as much as he is; they will always behave in such a way as not to annoy me, they will obey my every whim, and thus she will be a sign (hitherto unknown to me) of what I had almost forgotten, what is so very dear to my heart - that to all the world, to everyone who sees that I protect and house them, to myself, Morel is mine." This testimony, in the eyes of the world and in his own, pleased M. de Charlus more than anything.  For the possession of what we love is an even greater joy than love itself.  Very often, those who conceal this possession from the world do so only from the feat that the beloved object may be taken from them.  And their happiness is diminished by this prudent reticence.

Marcel Proust, The Captive, p. 44

Ah, the complexity of relationships, especially if the puppet master is M. de Charlus.  Proust reflects more on the upcoming marriage between Morel (his former lover) and Jupien's (another former lover) daughter.  Morel, we are told, "often resisted the Baron whom he felt certain of winning back."  There are many bad reasons to go into a marriage, but it's difficult to imagine a worse one - unless it would be for love.  For the Baron this seems to be about nothing more than control, as Morel and his young wife would be utterly dependent upon him, as the Baron considers, "His wife too will be mine just as much as he is; they will always behave in such a way as not to annoy me, they will obey my every whim."  As Proust summarizes the situation: "For the possession of what we love is an even greater joy than love itself."  Appropriately, this is in a volume entitled The Captive, which deals with Marcel's control over Albertine, and forms another of the parallel relationships that run throughout Remembrance of Things Past.