Genre
A French novel
Setting and Context
The action takes place in the middle of the 19 century in Paris, France.
Narrator and Point of View
The narrator of the novel is a third person, who narrates about the life of the Parisians and society.
Tone and Mood
The mood is romantic due to the love affairs between the main characters such as Valerie, Wenceslas, Bette, Hector, Hortense and others. In addition, the novel has ironic mood, because the author used a lot of irony to make the characters a bit comic.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The main protagonist is Adeline Hulot. The main antagonist is Valerie Marneffe.
Major Conflict
In this novel, there are enough conflicts, but the main one happens due to Valerie’s fault. Valerie Marneffe seduces almost all the men of this novel and the love relationships of many heroines with their husbands destroy because of her ignorance and intrigues.
Climax
The climax happens, when Henri Montes de Montejanos kills Valerie (he poisons her), because she ruined the relationships of many characters.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The novel alludes to the epistolary novel “Les Liaisons dangereuses” by Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos; Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (a French philosopher, culinary expert, lawyer, economist, politician and musician); Greek mythology (a monster Medusa); Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (a French physicist and chemist).
Imagery
Widely used in character descriptions
Paradox
The main paradox is Adeline’s love. Despite the fact that her husband Hector is cheating on her, Adeline continues to love and take care of him. It is not possible, because when a loved one hurts, you start hating him.
Parallelism
There is a parallel of love and hatred in the book. While Adeline Hulot faithfully loves her husband, Hector hates her and spends time with other women.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Honoré de Balzac uses as a metonymy the phrase “Shakespeare’s Tempest”. In this way, he describes the love relationship between Bette and Wenceslas, which is full of humiliations, sorrows and quarrels.
Personification
The poison that kills Valerie personifies the killer and death.
Bette personifies Hatred and Revenge, as implacable as they are in Italy, Spain, and Asia. These two feelings are, together, the obverse of friendship and love.
Madame Marneffe personifies the type of those ambitious married courtesans who from the first accept depravity with all its consequences, and determine to make a fortune while taking their pleasure, perfectly unscrupulous as to the means.
