Village life (Metaphor)
Julien’s father once said toJulien “Get down, you pig, so I can talk to you!” Julian was just sitting and reading a book, but father didn’t like that, and calling his son a pig he wants to say that his son is lazy and does not want to work as he and his other sons are working. But this metaphor does not show Julian’s laziness, but his father’s narrow-mindedness. Julian understands that education is power even though in the society of villagers of that time it was strange to read a book instead of doing some physical work. So, through this metaphor Stendhal wanted to express awful father’s attitude to Julien and it helps to understand why Julien hated his family.
Awful attitude (Metaphor)
Julian’s father treated his son really badly, we can see it in a lot of situations. Julian mostly was indifferent to the offenses, but when father dared to throw his book into the water Julian’s “ Eyes sparkling with wild hatred, while at peaceful moments indicated thought and passion” Author showed how painful were father’s attitude for Julien through the expression of his eyes.
Educated in sadness (Metaphor)
Madame de Renal was from a rich family but wasn’t really clever and well educated. Living with Mayor de Renal it wasn’t so vital for her to have an education, and as the author says “her education has been shaped by sadness”. In general in society of that time people’s intelligence and erudition were very rear phenomenon. So, Stendhal wanted to show, that education wasn’t frequent occurrence within elite of that time and a rich person is not necessarily intelligent.
