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Durham E-Theses Norma Coverdale, B.A.: the treatment of women in selected works of Henry de Montherlant Coverdale, Norma How to cite: Coverdale, Norma (1992) Norma Coverdale, B.A.: the treatment of women in selected works of Henry de Montherlant, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6139/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 NORMA COVERDALE, B.A.: THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN SELECTED WORKS OF HENRY DE MONTHERLANT. THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS, 1992. The aim of this thesis is to determine how women are treated in selected works of Henry de Montherlant. This is explored by examining their relationships with other women as well as with men. Inevitably, this leads to an analysis of the multifaceted area of love. Part I researches Montherlant's prose work and included in this section is the investigation of the importance of 'l'ordre male' to the author and the influence this exerts over his early prose work in the areas of tauromachy, war and sport, and where the male adherence to this concept leaves women. The 'syncretisme et alternance' which is central to Montherlant's thinking is explored in this section. Part 2 is concerned with Montherlant's theatre in which the psychological development of the main characters is of great importance. It is in this section that a comparative study is made of the influence of Mme. Elisabeth Zehrfuss' written contribution to La Reine morte. Her unpublished notes are set out in full in the Appendix. The thesis also draws on the unpublished correspondence between Henry de Montherlant and Elisabeth Zehrfuss between the years 1934 and 1945. An investigation is made as to whether or not there are any differences between the way women are treated in Montherlant's prose and in his theatre and the conclusion is drawn that there are. THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN SELECTED WORKS OF HENRY DE MONTHERLANT BY NORMA COVERDALE, B.A. Thesis submitted to the University of Durham for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of French 1992 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without her prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 0 -. 1 It OCT 1992 CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE 1. 'L'ORDRE MALE' 7 2. LOVE 16 1) Comradeship 16 2) Homosexual love 21 3) Triangular relationships; Incest 26 4) Maternal love 29 5) Heterosexual love: 44 a) Contrast between heterosexual and homosexual love 44 b) Loss of liberty 47 c) Sacrifice 55 d) Submission 59 e) Selfishness; Self-delusion 64 3. SENSUALITY; DESIRE 82 4. MALE ATTITUDE TO WOMEN 94 1) Priests 94 2) Alban 96 3) Costals 99 4) Aut igny and Guiscart 104 5) Narrator 108 5. 'SYNCRETISME ET ALTERNANCE' 120 CONCLUSION TO PART ONE 124 PART TWO INTRODUCTION 131 1. LOVE 137 1) Mystical 137 2) Maternal 144 3) Filial 153 4) Heterosexual 155 5) Lesbian 161 6) Platonic 163 2. PURITY 170 1) Religious figures 170 2) Mother figures 174 3) Wife figure 178 4) Unmarried girls 180 3. SYMBOLS 187 4. POLARISATION OF THE SEXES 198 Contents CONCLUSION 224 1 1 APPENDIX: Les cris - notes from Elisabeth Zehrfuss to 229 Henry de Montherlant BIBLIOGRAPHY 232 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am indebted to Dr. Robert Posen, whose enthusiasm for his subject inspired me to pursue this research, to Dr. Barry Garnham for his constructive criticism and for encouraging me to independent thought, and to Mme Elisabeth Zehrfuss, whose exchange of letters with Henry de Montherlant, together with her diary notes, have been made freely available to me, and whose sharp mind and excellent memory for detail have made my research very rewarding. 1 INTRODUCTION In the preparation of this thesis I have elected to divide it into two sections, beginning with Montherlant's prose work and concluding with his drama, although I have by no means set out my study chronologically within each part. I felt it necessary to begin with his prose because, since much of it was written before his drama, and indeed some of it in his early youth, it is interesting to see the development of his ideas in the treatment of women within his works. Much of Montherlant 's early works are semi-autobiographical and mirror his youthful ideals - Le Songe (1922), Les Olympiques (1924), Les Bestiaires (1926) and La Petite Infante de Castille (1929) from his prose work, but also L'Exil (his first play, originally written in 1914, when Montherlant was only eighteen years old, but not published until 1929). The texts I have selected for study are as follows: Prose: Le Songe, Les Olympiques, Les Bestiaires, La Petite Infante de Castille, Les Jeunes Filles, Pitie pour les femmes, Le Demon du bien, Les Lepreuses, La Rose de sable and Les Gart;ons. Theatre: L'Exil, La Reine morte, Malatesta, Le Maitre de Santiago, Port-Royal and La Mort qui fait le trottoir (Don Juan). Although there is a long length of time between the writing of his first novel Le Songe and his later novels, of the ones I have selected, La Rose de sable, published in 1968, was actually written between 1930 and 1932 and Les Gart;ons, published in 1969, was first drafted in 1914 and fifty pages of it were in fact written in 1929. The thesis draws upon the unpublished correspondence between Henry de Montherlant and Elisabeth Zehrfuss, between the years 1934 and 1945, from which I have quoted liberally. The originals of these letters (of which there are over 400) are on loan to the Bibliotheque Cantonale at the University of Lausanne, and Mme Zehrfuss kindly gave me copies of all of them. Mme Zehrfuss' diary notes, which she kept at this time, have also proved invaluable in providing a 2 Introduction background to this period of Montherlant's writing as well as an insight into their very intimate friendship. I am also indebted to Professors Jacques Robichez and Michel Raimond for the recorded interviews they accorded me when I met them, the former imparting some of his vast knowledge of Montherlant's theatre, and the latter of the author's prose work. In my analysis of the texts I shall investigate characters, the narrator and the author, all of whom are distinct, but there are times, particularly in his prose work, and which I shall specify, when these differentiations are blurred. There are occasions when it is clear that the author is using the narrator to speak for him. At others, the author intervenes and at yet other times the narrator is not representing the authorial voice. There is a sharp distinction between the treatment of women in Montherlant's prose work and those in his theatre and this raises the questions 'what distinction?' and 'why?' 'What?', I hope will be answered for the reader in this thesis. 'Why?' is more open to debate. There has often been the suggestion that, in his drama, Montherlant is atoning for some of the women he created in his prose. Being a man who was never swayed by public opinion (although he was an avid reader of any criticism written about his work), and who believed implicitly in the freedom of the individual to nurture and develop his own creativity, I believe it is much more likely that it was Montherlant's choice to make the women of his theatre more heroic than those in his prose. There are certain concepts common to all Montherlant 's work, be it prose or drama. The nature of love is one of these and Montherlant explores it in great detail, covering every spectrum of the emotion and the resultant relationship between people, be they of the opposite gender or of the same sex. However, it is not until his theatre that this investigation reaches its peak in his portrayal of Mariana in Le Ma'itre de Santiago and of Ines in La Reine morte. 3 Introduction 'L'ordre male' is another belief close to Montherlant's heart. Although by no means absent from his theatre, it is more evident in his prose work, and for this reason I have explored it fully in Part I. Conversely, 'Ia vie interieure' of Montherlant's heroes, although present as an idea in his prose work, is more fully developed in his theatre, to the degree that the women are often set up in opposition to the men in order that the psychology of the hero can be fully explored. Central to all Montherlant's work, be it prose or drama, is his theory of 'syncretisme et alternance'.