Dangerous Liaisons Literary Elements

Epistolary novel

France, early 1780's but no later than 1782

Because this is a "novel of letters", each letter is written in the first person singular and is limited to the writer's perspective and understanding (or, at least, the impression of the letter writer's perspective he or she wishes to present to the addressee). There is no external narrator aside from the letter writers.

The tone and mood vary depending on the letter writer. Cécile's letters are bright and hopeful at the beginning of the novel but gradually darken as she becomes corrupted by Valmont. Valmont and the Marquise, when they write to one another, have a cynical and worldly tone.

The three protagonists are the fifteen-year-old Cécile de Volanges, the young married woman known as Mme. or Presidente de Tourvel, and the naive young Knight of Malta named Chevalier Danceny. The two antagonists are the Vicomte de Valmont and the even more sadistic and predatory Marquise de Merteuil.

Egged on by his friend the Marquise de Merteuil, who assists in manipulating his targets and rendering them vulnerable while simultaneously seducing their love interests, the Vicomte de Valmont deliberately seduces and abandons young women.

The climax of the novel occurs when Valmont's corruption of Cécile is exposed and the Chevalier Danceny challenges him to a duel.

Valmont feigns a nosebleed early in the novel to get Mme. de Tourvel to leave the room so that he can read through her personal correspondence. Later, he receives stab wounds in a duel and bleeds to death.

The Marchioness de Merteuil says to Valmont: "You would have sacrificed a thousand women rather than be laughed at." She intends the statement to illustrate how little Valmont values women, yet Valmont has genuinely fallen in love with Mme. de Tourvel, whom he does indeed sacrifice to feed his vanity and pride.

Valmont makes reference to the lance of Achilles, a hero out of Greek legend, and a magic lance that had the ability to heal the wounds it created. He asserts that love has the same property.

Weeping, throughout the novel, is an expression of emotion by a frustrated, angry, upset, or despondent woman. The tears are invariably caused either by frustrated love or by disappointment or shame, and the person weeping is subtly placing herself (or, in Danceny's case, himself) at a disadvantage by revealing the fact. Valmont, by contrast, is unable to weep due in part to his callous attitude toward his victims and in part to his inability to even feign what he perceives to be emotional weakness. After her humiliation is complete, Mme. de Tourvel is no longer able to weep, her emotions having exhausted her.

To fulfill a challenge set by his friend and former lover the Marquise, Valmont attempts to seduce and abandon a reportedly unavailable woman, Mme. de Tourvel. To accomplish this goal, he pretends to have abandoned his libertine ways. He cannot keep his new lover except by maintaining the pretense, however he cannot keep his libertine reputation except by abandoning her. Either way he loses something he loves: a cherished mistress whom he actually appreciates, or his reputation.

Valmont's systematic seduction and corruption of Cécile de Volanges parallels his more serious attempt at seducing his real love interest, Mme. de Tourvel.

Madame de Volanges presents "society" as having a collective response or attitude toward Valmont, which is an example of metonymy.

Valmont describes a letter as being "cold and constrained", as though the letter had taken on the emotional attitude of the person who wrote it.