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Colette and Marriage a Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Atlanta University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For COLETTE AND MARRIAGE A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS BY EDTIA MARGARET GRAHAM DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH ATLANTA, GEORGIA- AUGUST 1945 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 IT. THE LIFE 0^ COLETTE: ITS INFLUENCE ON HER VIEWS OF MARRIAGE ' 5 III. MARRIAGE IN THE JOINTLY WRITTEN NOVELS 12 IV. MARRIAGE IN THE NOVELS WRITTEN BY COLETTE ALONE 22 V. CONCLUSION 56 BIBLIOGRAPHY 58 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Through the centuriee, the women of France have assumed a noteworthy position in their development of the literary culture of their country. The names of some of them are not to he forgotten. There are, for example, Mademoiselle de la Scudery, Madame de La Fayette, Madame de Eevigne’, Madame de Staël, and George Sand. The feminine offering to contemporary literature is not so great as that of past centuries; however, the few works that have been produced equal in value and significance the contributions of former years. The productions of Madame Sidonie Cabrielle Colette Goudeket receive that dis¬ tinction and, in certain regards, the author herself is considered a veritable phenomenon in the history of feminine literature. As one of the women geniuses of France, Colette (the non de plume of Madame Goudeket) has written many sensational, yet informative and charming¬ ly written novels based chiefly on the relations, both physical and legal, existing between men and vvomen of French society. Marriage is a universal topic upon which all feminine reason may theorize, and when one forms a reading acquaintance with a woman who has expressed many individualistic views on the subject, one seeks to discover the causes of her idées and the philosophy that has resulted. In addition to the fact that Colette is part Negro, her views on marriage and her position in contemporary French literature serve as sufficient incentives for the subject that has been chosen. It is hoped that this study will serve to broaden one's knowledge of contemporary literary productions done by a woman of another nation, and to 1 2 give some insight on how and what she thinks. By a careful comparative study of seventeen of her novels, the writer has attempted to discover Colette's ideas on marriage as she expressed them through her character portrayals and conversations. The views of Colette on marital relationships when she wrote alone will be discussed in the fourth chapter of this study. The third chapter will be devoted to a discussion of marital ideas found in the words of Colette and her writer husband, Tilly. In order to comprehend and appreciate the production of any author, it is necessary to have a knowledge of all that goes to form an individual personality. To acquaint the reader with such influences in the life of Colette will be the task in the following chapter, Chapter Two. CHAPTER TI THE LIFE OF COLETTE: ITS INFERENCE ON HER VIEWS OF MARRIAGE In the life of a writer, there ere to be found certain underlying- influences that have attained positions of primary importance. To a casual reader these influences maty pass unnoticed; yet, they are too impor¬ tant to be overlooked. This is true in the case of Colette, whose ideas have been shaped by many seemingly unimportant factors. The chief concern of this chapter is to discover what these factors ere and to acquaint the reader with them. These influences will serve to form an intelligent sympathetic attitude toward the philosophies that Colette has created. Saint-Sauveur - en-P\iisaye, the tiny corner of a forest located between Eurfrundy and Nivernais, was the scene of Colette's birth in 1873.^ On the mention of Burgundy end Nivernais, immediately there comes to mind the pic¬ ture of s region where warm streams, "des bons vins" and forests filled with flowers and frisky but friendly animals predominate. It was in such an atmosphere as this that Sidonie Gebrielle Colette romped through her / childhood in "Emile-like" innocence: Colette est, §» tout cas, une paysanne. La cite n'a pu lui faire oublier le d$ut et l'odeur de la terre. La grande ville et l'amour de l'art ont seulement développe les ressources de cette riche sensualité. Colette est restee foncièrement bourguignonne et son oeuvre est, comme l'ancienne terre des ducs de Bourgogne, d'une qualité a la fois savoureuse et robuste.^ Authors disagree on the date of her birth. Irene Cornwell in Contem¬ porary French Fiction gives January 28, 1873, while Regis Michaud in, Vingtième Siecle grives June 28, 1873. 2 / Pierre Brodin, Les Ecrivains Français de l'entre- deux guerres (Montréal, 1942), p. 126. 3 4 "Adoring her family, her old home, animals, end all forms of nature, she lived in an atmosphere of love."^ A true daughter of nature, Colette has filled her works with her first impressions of animalistic freedom, unbounded imagination and natural instincts as gained from her experiences in the foresty region of Feint- Sauveur. Obviously one encounters slight difficulty in selecting Colette's first influence, her natal town. Immediate family relationships are always important; later, we shall discover how Colette was affected by them. But, if the ancestral lineage is subjected to close examination, there too may one discover important factors that have served as a basis for the formation of unusual characteristics. Colette's family history is particularly interesting. Her grandfather was a quadroon, and Colette has not hesitated to refer to this fact when the occasion demanded, even though she exhibits no pronounced characteristics of the Negro race. She has sympathetically introduced Negro characters in several of her books, e. g. Hes Apprentissages, Prisons et Paradis, and Ces Plaisirs. However, it is in La Nelson de Claudine that Colette tells her readers something of the character and personality of her grandfather. Tu vois comme il est laid, Virfet-cheri? Eh Men, les femmes se pendaient toutes 'a lui— Elle leva son de vers le daguerréotype accroché su mur, le daguerréotype que j'enferme maintenant dans un tiroir, et qui recèle, sous sontain d'argent, le portrait en b^ste d'un "homme de couleur"—quateron, je crois, — haut cravate de blanc, l'oeil p^le et méprisant, le nez long au-dessus de la lippe nègre qui lui valut son surnom.*- •^Milton H. Stansbury, French Novelists of Today (Philadelphia, 19F3), p. 102. ^Colette, La Vs Ison de Cl:. Mine. (Paris, 1922), p. 82. 5 (He was sumamed "Le Gorille") Certainly in America and even in France there are few prominent women who would refer to such a branch of the family tree. But Colette has inherited the unusual qualities of pride and boldness. Always an individualist, she has consistently shunned the ordinary. In the immediate family relationship there is usually one member who receives more recognition as a background influence. Tith Colette this recognition is accorded her mother. "It is to her that Colette's pen returns most often in affectionate respect."^ Colette's mother, herself the daughter of the aforementioned, was a woman of unusual intelligence and originality. Deftly, Saintsbury has taken a passage from Le. Naissance du ■Tour, translated it and with the addition of some of his own opinions, has said of this remarkable womans Glimpses of Colette's mother reveal her making mittens for real puppies, foregoing a trip in ordér to see her cactus bloom, cherishing a wounded but destructive caterpillar, protecting the spider which spins its web above her bed and descends nightly into her bowl of chocolate. It is tempting to dwell on the features of this delightful woman, not only because as one of the principal figures in La Maison de Claudine, La Naissance du Jour, and Sido (her mother's nickname), she was the inspira¬ tion for some of Colette's finest work, but because the daughter inherited many of the mother's engaging traits. To the maternal strain in her blood Colette owes her domestic instincts, her love of everything that grows and lives, her spirit of inde¬ pendence, and her warm charity. Doubtless, even in the shaping of her sex-life, Colette's mother-complex played its part. Colette inherited her unusual intelligence and striking originality from a most remarkable mother who had done her job well. Is the same to be said of the paternal guidance that Colette received? Hilton H. Stansbury, French Novelists of Today (Philadelphia, 1925), p. 102. ^Ibid., pp. 102-104. 6 Colette’s father was a lovable person, full of fun and tricks, indulgent and a casual writer in both prose and verse.^ A retired army captain under Napoleon Til, he had "laisse en Italie sa jambe gauche coupée / \ O en haut de la cuisse l'annee 1359, a Velegano.As an unfortunate result of her father's fool-hardiness, the family suffered financial ruin and it became necessary to soil the furniture. After this upheaval the Colette family lived with the author's brother at Chatillon - Colieny, in a house * very different from the spacious home they had been forced to leave. If Colette's father had any role to play in the shaping of his daughter's ideas it was decidedly unfavorable. The hurt at the loss of young Colette's favorite haunts went deeper than expected. With this loss she associated the name of father. As a result, the pictures that she gives of her father are not sympathetic in the least. She paints him as being extermely un¬ thoughtful, especially in relation to her mother: (Her mother says of her newly-acquired husband) Il se tenait devant moi, les bras charges, aussi fier et aussi maladroit qu'un très grand chien qui porte dans sa gueule une petite pantoufle.
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