Julien’s Journey Essay, Research Paper

Warning: There are a few spelling errors.

‘It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’

‘What is essential is invisible to the eye,’ the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

– Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry, The Little Prince

The ending of Stendhal’s, The Red the Black, is obscure. Julien Sorel is sentenced to death by guillotine for the crime of attempting to murder Mme. de R?nal, his former mistress. During his trial, Julien has the sympathy of the town and powerful figures of influence behind him; he could quite easily change the verdict of trial by simply claiming his act was a crime of passion. Yet Julien stubbornly insists, from the moment of the offense until the day of his death, that his crime was utterly premeditated and he deserves nothing short of death.

The details of the crime are nebulous. Throughout his life, Julien devoted all his energy to perfecting his outward behavior in order to transcend humble, peasant, beginnings and achieve fame, wealth, and social status. On the very brink of achieving his goal (he had acquired estates, a title, the rank of lieutenant of the Hussars,) a letter from Mme. de R?nal, accusing him of deliberately seducing her, threatens to unravel Julien?s carefully wrought future. After being informed of the letter, Julien leaves suddenly for Verri?res, buys a pair of pistols, and shoots Mme. de R?nal in the middle of Mass. In the time between reading the letter and the shooting, the reader hears none of Julien?s, usually prevalent, inner monologues, nor does he receive any commentary by the narrator. All that is given are a few objective details: 1.) Julien fails an attempt to write a legible letter, and 2.) Julien has a difficult time communicating with the gunsmith. These facts indicate that Julien was in no rational state, but the very sparsity of information leaves a number of possibilities for the motive and nature of the crime. What state of irrationality was it? Confusion or rage? It is not clear that the crime is premeditated. . .but it is also not clear that it isn’t.

After the crime, Julien is seized and put in jail. There, without the slightest reflection, Julien confesses his guilt and demands his own death. He asserts that the situation is perfectly simple: ?I intended to kill, so I must be killed.?(474) Even as it becomes clear that Julien can escape his sentence through pity and the ever-present dishonesty of men in power, he continues to demand that justice be served. The prevalent question is: why would a man actively seek his own death?

There are different ways to interpret Julien’s decision. It is possible that Julien is a broken and absurd man whose hypocrisy consumed him and who simply gives up. When faced with the destruction of his long cherished dreams, the only thing he knows well, it is possible that Julien acted rashly, believing that it was the only way to retain petty notions of honor. He thus took furious vengeance on Mme. de R?nal as if defending his integrity in a dual. Julien has reacted to insult this way many times before. After the crime is committed, however, Julien has truly lost the chance of ever rising up in society the way that he dreamed of. All of Julien?s life was dedicated to his ambition; even his romances are manifestations of a Napoleonic ideal that can no longer be realized. What else does he have to live for? Julien thus resigns himself to death.

In his jail cell, directly following the crime, Julien feels no remorse, ?Why should I feel any? I was atrociously wronged; I committed murder, I deserve death, but that is all there is to it.?(472) He feels content; he tells himself, ?I have nothing left to do on earth.? (472) He welcomes death.

When Julien finds out that Mme. de R?nal was not mortally wounded his contentedness is briefly upset. His social ambition is gone, but Mme. de R?nal is not completely a part of that ambition. She is not lost to him; he knows, somehow, that she forgives him and still loves him. He falls in love with her, yet, he is still resigned to death.

Julien spends his last days largely alone. He holds wild dialogues with himself which lead him to believe that he has life figured out. He comes to defined conclusions that satisfy him: Religion and society are hopelessly corrupted, hypocrisy is everywhere and virtue is nowhere, being a member of society he is not at fault for falling victim to it in his ignorance. He realizes that his relationship with Mme. de R?nal (really his only human relationship) is the only thing that brings him happiness; he spends his days happily remembering his time at Vergy and cherishing the last few times he gets to spend with her.

This Julien is merely telling himself that he understands life so he can escape it. His defence speech is a summary of his thoughts; a dry statement of all he has ?figured out.? It contains a brief apology and a lengthy condemnation, Napoleon style, of class structure. This Julien, who dreamed about Napoleon for so long, is playing out a last pathetic fantasy of courage and tragic grandeur.

This interpretation condemns Julien to be forever a stupid being and his life is a meaningless fiction. He never wakes up from his half believed dreams and goes all the way to his death pretending to have gotten something out of life. Julien is not a tragic character; Mme. de R?nal was not killed and he is not forced to his death by a hostile society. In fact, in this reading of the text, Julien?s crime was a crime of passion and he did not even deserve to be executed. This Julien is a failure; the random scattering of sincerity and the potential that the reader can see in Julien never comes to anything. Most importantly, by seeing Julien as giving up and making excuses, he never has a chance to really internalize anything. Rather, the hypocrisy and fantasy life prevail, consuming fully and finally whatever real, noble, Julien was ever there.

There is another interpretation. Although Julien spends most of the book ignoring his noble and genuine self, at the end of his life, the reader should believe Julien. The facts of both situations stay the same, but in this second interpretation, Julien is not pretending to have found some real insight into life. He claims that the crime was premeditated. Perhaps it was. He says that he is filled with remorse because he is nothing less than guilty. He maintains that he deserves the punishment of death. Maybe he is right.

The reason Julien shot Mme. de R?nal is still violent rage and despair due to his life?s work being ruined. Julien was completely wrapped up in his success, he felt that she had destroyed the possibility of his future happiness. Though there was slight hesitation at the time of the act, it was Julien?s full intention to kill her.

The development of Julien?s sentiment is mostly the same as before. Immediately after the crime, he feels nothing of remorse, but only that a crime deserves a fitting punishment. However, once he learns that Mme. de Renal was not mortally wounded, Julien?s perspective changes: ?Only then did Julien begin to repent the crime he had committed. By a coincidence which saved him from despair, that moment had also brought an end at last to the state of physical tension and near madness in which he had been engulfed since leaving Paris for Verrieres.? (473) He gives way to tears and is filled with nobility. This interpretation hinges on Julien feeling sincere remorse, and that he begins to sincerely learn who he is, what he has done with his life, and what he really wants from life at large.

Julien spent his life lost in dreams of Napoleon, but it becomes evident through his action and thoughts that this was not because of strong convictions that Napoleon?s politics are right and true. Rather, Julien was seduced by a fantasy of grandeur. Though the novel is sprinkled with outbursts of Julien?s righteousness, they have always been countered by other examples of quite the opposite actions. Frequently, Julien?s outbursts are passed off as fits of enthusiasm, his thoughts quickly turning back to attainment of wealth and influence.

Some moments are more telling than others. Once, solely for amusement, Julien appoints a fool to an office. He afterward learns that he has taken the livelihood from a family and the honor from a deserving man. His response is shocking,

It doesn’t matter. . .I shall have to resort to a good many other injustices if I want to make my way, and what’s more, learn to hide them beneath fine sentimental phrases: poor Mr. Gros! He deserved the cross, I’m the one to get it, and I have to act in accordance with the desires of the Government who’s giving it to me.(292)

Later, Julien is asked to participate in a conspiracy that will benefit the aristocracy and the church…the very opposite of Napoleon?s ideals. Well aware of what the conspiracy implied, Julien lends his much needed skills without hesitation. These examples, and others throughout the story, show that Julien was not a Napoleonic idealist. Though he clings to heroic dreams throughout his life, they are not clear to him, nor are they important to his soul.

Readers see Julien embrace hypocrisy unabashedly, but he seems to delve into it with such sincerity that it is difficult to pass judgement. Julien is born into a dull and petty society, it is not surprising, nor ignoble even, that he wished to transcend it. The problem occurs because Julien decides that the best way to do that is to attain the most admired position of status. Julien is deceived by society and even by himself. This desire is unnatural to him; his goal does not coincide with his heart. Julien has a fine imagination, but his soul is not suited to aspirations of greatness. When offered a good job by his friend, Fouque, his is faced with this problem,

Like Hercules he found himself with a choice-not between vice and virtue, but between the unrelieved mediocrity of guaranteed well-being, and all the heroic dreams of his youth. It shows I haven’t got real determination. . .I’m not made of the stuff of great men, since I’m afraid that eight years spent earning my living may drain me of the sublime energy which gets extraordinary feats accomplished. (79)

Though recognizing that his attention might be diverted from his fantasy, that he is not completely devoted to those ideals, he still chooses the path of his youthful dreams. We can only speculate as to why.

Forced to act in society because he is a member of it, he takes the road that seems most profitable to him. Somehow society taught Julien that hypocrisy for the attainment of wealth and status was the way of things. Upon his last days, he sees this clearly, ?I was ambitious, I don?t want to blame myself; at that time I acted in accordance with the conventions of the day.? (526)

Not only was Julien manipulated by society into desiring a thing that could not be fulfilling to him, he is also deceived as to the nature of living itself. Julien embraces hypocrisy, but it is not clear that he understands what hypocrisy is. At one point he is truly ?astonished? to find that priests exist, the Jansenists, who are not completely devoted to procuring wealth and influence. It is as if it never occurred to him that a person would do something for reasons other than petty advancement. Often, Julien curses having been born poor and feels that it doesn?t allow much room for not being a scoundrel,

… men from the salons never get up in the morning with this agonizing thought: ‘How am I going to get my dinner?’ And they boast of their honesty!(518) They’re so proud, these weak characters who are kept above temptation by their financial situation!(506)

Julien is right. The unfortunate combination of a petty society and being born poor within it produced a profound disadvantage. Julien fell victim to temptation and blindness. Temptation led him to lie for advancement; blindness made him ignorant to the fact that that advancement was fully petty and would be unsatisfying. Julien was ignorant of an alternative goal. ?A mayfly hatches at night o?clock in the morning in high summer, and dies at five in the evening; how should it understand the word night??(521) It may be that an alternative to ambitious hypocrisy that allows Julien to live within society and not be taken into corruption is not even possible.

Julien made mistakes and committed atrocities, but he is not solely responsible for them and cannot be judged. Though those mistakes effected him in his life and brought him to the situation he faces with his crime and its consequences, they are not true crimes themselves. However, within his prison, removed of his ambition, Julien can see his numerous defects. From his convoluted dialogues, it is clear that Julien must struggle to rid himself of them, ?There as elsewhere, simple and unassuming worth was abandoned for glittering show. . .But then again, what a prospect!. . .Colonel in the Hussars, if we were at war. . .A man of quality, enjoying the grandest of lifestyles in Vienna or London. . .? (504)

Julien finds himself being a hypocrite for no reason, for no audience. Julien?s habits are so fully entrenched that even enlightenment and removal of temptation cannot remove them. If Julien knows himself, he knows that once out of the shadow of death it will be even harder to correct his habits. It may even be impossible. If Julien truly feels that his hypocrisy is wrong and has led him astray, he would find death the only correct choice.

Of all the things, though, that Julien learns because of his crime, the most important is the value of Mme. de R?nal. She was the only meaningful human relationship that Julien ever had. Pure and unconditional, Mme. de Renal?s love was able to touch Julien beneath his many surface layers. With her, Julien finally has to be nothing but Julien, ?He had no petty pride where she was concerned, and he recounted all his moments of weakness to her.?(523) After countless hours battling with his habits and his philosophical mind, he realizes that all he really cares about is her:

1.)I am being hypocritical as though there were someone there to listen to me. 2.)I am forgetting to live and love, when there are so few days left for me to live… Alas! Mme. De Renal isn?t here. . .This is what is causing my isolation, not the absence of a righteous good, all-powerful God. . .Ah! If he existed. . .?I have deserved death,? I?d say to him; ?but Almighty God, bountiful God, merciful God, give me back the woman I love! (522)

Compared with his love for Mme. de Renal, Julien finds that none of the things that had occupied his life are important. This understanding leads Julien to profound remorse. He collapses in tears of apology and frequently wishes that Mme. de R?nal could understand how sorry he is for his crime. Mme. de R?nal forgives him immediately for shooting her, but Julien is sorry for the greater crime of wanting to kill her and being able to.

Julien is guilty of this crime: He was able to kill a woman who loved him.

It is through understanding his crime and accepting responsibility for it that Julien attains nobility. Crime in Julien?s society is almost chimerical. It is hard to distinguish a virtuous man from a criminal. Even at the top most social strata you find greed, dishonesty, and even ?eternally damned murderers.? (306) The society is rotten through, hypocrisy is everywhere, ?They commit acts of the utmost cruelty, but without any cruelty at all.? (306) Crime goes unpunished, and those rewarded are simply criminals who haven?t been caught yet. Julien is stern in his conviction that his attempted murder must be punished with death even while people who are a greater harm to society are free.

Though he could escape his prison or be dishonest in court, he forces the law to uphold it?s integrity. Here, in the middle of a hopelessly petty society, Julien invokes the basic structure of true justice and the eternal, important, truths that law is built on. He wronged another human being, and he will force the law to guard justice and punish him. ?I intended to kill, so I must be killed.? One of the ways that Julien attains nobility is forcing his ignoble society to do the noble thing.

Julien had an almost inherent sense of justice when it came to his crime. But over time, this basic nobility is made rich with the understanding of his betrayal and his joy in life upon realizing that he cares about Mme. de R?nal. Julien was not forced to understand himself and value the right things; in fact, he was given every opportunity not to. Yet he still chose to be truly virtuous. And for it, his last days are happy ones.