The Woman Destroyed
 | |
| Author | Simone de Beauvoir |
|---|---|
| Genre | Feminist fiction |
| Publication date | 1967 |
| Pages | 256 |
The Woman Destroyed (French: La Femme rompue) is a collection of three short stories by Simone de Beauvoir, published in 1967 by Éditions Gallimard. It is one of Simone de Beauvoir's two short story collections, along with When Things of the Spirit Come First.
The Woman Destroyed focuses on women in conflict with their families and husbands, illustrating how women are "destroyed" in their relationships, and what factors, internal or external, may be responsible for that destruction.[1]
The last story, which shares its title with the collection, was published serially in the French women's magazine Elle. It was released in 5 parts over the course of about 4 weeks from October 19 to November 16, 1967. The story was published with engravings created by Beauvoir's sister, Hélène de Beauvoir, as well as photos of the author.[2] This collection and Beauvoir's novel Les Belles Images were the last works of fiction she published.[3]
Plot
The Age of Discretion
In the first story, the narrator is a woman who is coming to terms with her old age amidst a painful conflict with her family. The story begins with her awaiting a visit from her son, Philippe, who is a teacher at a university. After he visits and discusses the possibility of him quitting the job for something more financially lucrative and practical, her husband, Andre, informs the narrator that Philippe has taken a position in the Ministry of Culture. Initially, the narrator blames Philippe’s wife, Irene, as she believes that Irene must have convinced Philippe to go against the political values he previously held. She gets into an argument with Philippe over the phone about his decision, and tells him they will never see each other again. The narrator strongly believes that the life of an intellectual is significantly more valuable than anything which doesn’t prioritize pursuit of knowledge, and is therefore appalled that her son would leave his old job behind so easily. Andre does not react as strongly to this development, and this difference leads to arguments between the couple. The story encapsulates the narrator’s struggle with losing control over the course of her own life as well as losing control over her family’s actions and decisions.
Monologue
This story takes the form of a long, impassioned monologue delivered by the character Murielle. She is full of grief, fury, and despair over the course her life has taken thus far. Murielle is distraught by her daughter Sylvie's suicide. She has lost custody of her son Francis to her ex-husband, she struggles to maintain a stable relationship with her mother, and she expresses deep anger at those who have wronged her in the past. Through a stream-of-consciousness monologue, Murielle reflects on the ways in which she has been let down by her loved ones and society at large.
The Woman Destroyed
The final short story, which shares the same title as the collection, takes the form of Monique's diary entries. Monique is a housewife who has dedicated herself entirely to her marriage and her role as a mother. Her two adult daughters have left home, and she begins the diary to express her anxiety about her husband, Maurice, seeming to be more distant than before. Monique proceeds to learn that Maurice has been having an affair with Noëllie, and the rest of the story follows Monique's attempts to come to terms with this affair and understand how to address the situation.
Main characters
This collection features stories about three different women, all experiencing existential crises and questioning their identities. In "The Age of Discretion," the main character is an intellectual in her sixties. She is politically engaged, with strong opinions that sometimes make her too uncompromising for those close to her. In "Monologue," the narrator is a woman who has lost touch with her family and finds herself enraged by society. In "The Woman Destroyed," Monique initially sees herself as a devoted mother and wife. She values human relationships and fulfilling others' needs so completely that she struggles to understand herself without relating her identity to others.
Main Themes and Analysis
Explaining its publication in a French women's lifestyle magazine, The Woman Destroyed was written with an audience of women in mind, and focuses heavily on telling narratives centered around women's experiences. The collection includes a story written entirely from a female character's first person perspective, further emphasizing Beauvoir's intention of highlighting women's perspectives on their own lives and identities.[2] Combining French academic Elizabeth Fallaize's theories on the topic with Beauvoir's commentary on her own work, academic Allison Holland writes that the stories are ultimately all narratives written in bad faith by their narrators, with much more complexity hiding beneath the narrators' understanding of their experiences.[4]
The Woman Destroyed
Monique portrays herself as a housewife who is quite comfortable with her role in society until she must deal with Maurice's infidelity. As a result of assuming this traditional role of the housewife, Monique's life has very clearly become dependent on the lives of others. She has based her identity on her love for Maurice and her role as a mother. When she learns of Maurice's infidelity and is no longer expected to provide for her now-adult daughters, she struggles to find herself again. Monique devoted herself to her family because she saw this as a way to fulfill societal expectations, but the consequences of this devotion mean that she lacks agency, and a proper understanding of her own identity. Critiquing traditional gender roles in heterosexual relationships, Beauvoir seeks to indicate that living as a housewife in a patriarchal society is an act of immanence, and does not lead to proper control over one's life.[5] Through her writing in her diary, Monique strives to shed light on her situation and examine her own life, but she continues to struggle to distinguish herself from her role as a housewife. Her situation, and how she chooses to deal with it, both illustrates how women are confined to narrow social roles which do not fulfil their existence, and that there is some individual responsibility involved in examining one's choices and cultivating a life of one's own.
Another theme through which Beauvoir critiques aspects of women's participation in patriarchy is Monique's interactions with the other women she knows. Throughout this story, Monique finds little support from the female characters she goes to for advice. Largely, when she does consult the women she is friends or acquaintances with, Monique is told to remain patient and pay little attention to her husband's infidelity. Fallaize writes that Maurice's actions are often discussed in the context of him being a man, promoting the idea that his choices have unique justifications due to his male identity.[2] Instead of viewing his infidelity as a breach of trust, Monique's friend Isabelle encourages her to understand that men have specific needs and behaviors that their wives must learn to make peace with.
The story's conclusion at first appears to indicate that Monique's suffering and difficulties with her family were all self-inflicted. She reflects on a number of decisions she's come to regret, and Maurice asserts that her commitment to treating her marriage, motherhood, and family affairs as equivalent to a career was exactly what led to everything she finds dissatisfactory about her life.[2] Writing about her original intention behind the story, Beauvoir claims that the main themes were loneliness and failure.[6] On one hand, the beginning few diary entries make it clear that Monique is preoccupied with homemaking and serving others' needs in a way which indicates she does not desire to have much agency over her life.[7] Providing a different perspective on Monique's diary, Holland argues that her entries instead allow her to later reflect on the truth of her experiences, and face the fact that her perceptions of the events were not always entirely accurate. In this way, Monique utilizes writing and language to gain back some control over her narrative, while still recognizing that her point of view is never necessarily the objective truth.[4]
Further examining the significance of Beauvoir's writing choices in the story, Holland notes that devices and themes such as repetition, inconclusiveness, and questioning of definitions become pervasive throughout the latter half of the text. As Monique learns more about the affair between Maurice and Noëllie, and as her interactions with Maurice become more and more cold and painful, she no longer trusts herself to distinguish between true and false, or to recognize the true meanings behind words and phrases. Moreover, Monique often repeats herself in order to express particularly strong feelings, and to emphasize the fact that these developments in her relationship with Maurice are difficult to get her mind off of.[4] Through continuously questioning herself, and reinterpreting the conversations she has had with Maurice, Monique's diary entries represent her attempts at developing self-understanding. Rather than simply serving as a passive outlet for her emotions, her diary in fact allows Monique to work toward understanding herself and her perception of the world more accurately and completely than before.[8]
Reception
Beauvoir was surprised and disappointed by the reception of the collection's final story, "The Woman Destroyed." She remarked that her readers wrote to her complaining that Monique chose to stay with Maurice, and tended to ascribe various positive qualities to her out of identification with the character.[6] However, this can be partially attributed to the status of Elle magazine, and the general predisposition of its readers at the time. As Beauvoir published a story which appeared to fit into the popular genre of magazine romance fiction, her readers read the narrative through a lens which resulted in certain expectations in accordance with that genre. Overall, Fallaize questions whether it's possible for Beauvoir to effectively deliver the ideological message she hopes to get across within the constraints of the romantic fiction genre she chose to do so in. Beauvoir insisted that Monique's diary should be read like a detective story, where one needs to read between the lines and look for clues to piece together a complete understanding of the narrative.[2] While at the time, readers believed Monique to be the "victim" in the narrative, literary critic and Beauvoir scholar Toril Moi interpreted Beauvoir's comment to mean that the story was more complex than such a black-and-white interpretation. Instead, she argued that Monique is not necessarily only a victim of the struggles she faces, but is also complicit in her own victimization.[9]
The story was also reviewed negatively by literary critics. At the time, Beauvoir's writing was classified as "women's writing," which contributed to her work being reviewed as a "novel for shop-girls" by journalist Bernard Pivot. Moreover, the critic expressed disdain for Beauvoir's turn from respectable philosophy to writing in the romance fiction genre. Literary critic Jacqueline Piatier reviewed the short story similarly, claiming that it was comparable to the "agony aunt" column one might find in Elle. In sum, "The Woman Destroyed" was seen as a piece of work which catered to women's interests that are often perceived as frivolous, irrelevant, and not worthy of philosophical thought.[9] However, as the title of the story implies, Beauvoir wished to depict a woman's pain, and expected her to readers take that pain seriously. While she was disappointed that her general audience seemed to overidentify with Monique and therefore gloss over her faults, she was also unsatisfied with the critics' reluctance to engage with Monique's suffering as something worthy of more serious literary analysis.[9]
Editions
- La Femme rompue, Éditions Gallimard, 1967 ; réédition, Gallimard, coll. « Folio » No. 76, 1972 ; réédition, Gallimard, coll. « Folio » No. 960, 1978
Adaptations
English actress, Diana Quick, adapted the story "Monologue" for the stage in 2004, titling it "The Woman Destroyed." The adaptation was directed by Richard Cottrell and performed at the 59E59 theaters in New York.
In France, the collection was adapted for the stage under the title "La Femme rompue: monologue", directed by Steve Suissa, starring Évelyne Bouix, at the Théâtre de l'Atelier (the premiere took place on 5 October 2007). It was then revived in a production directed by Hélène Fillières, starring Josiane Balasko, at the théâtre Hébertot (the premiere took place on 15 February 2018).
Two French films have been made based on the collection: La Femme rompue (1978) by Josée Dayan; and Le Monologue de la femme rompue (1988) by Jacques Doazan with Françoise Lebrun.
The Austrian actress Erika Pluhar performed in the 1980s in the one-woman play Eine gebrochene Frau, Monique's soliloquy, directed by Margarethe Krajanek.[10][11]
References
- ↑ Powrie, Phil (1992). "Rereading between the Lines: A Postscript on La Femme rompue". The Modern Language Review. 87 (2): 320–329. doi:10.2307/3730670. ISSN 0026-7937.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Fallaize, Elizabeth (1991). "Resisting romance: Simone de Beauvoir, "The Woman Destroyed" and the romance script". In Atack, Margaret; Powrie, Phil (eds.). Contemporary French Fiction by Women: Feminist Perspectives. Manchester England; New York: Manchester University Press. pp. 15–25. ISBN 978-0719030840.
- ↑ Dow, Suzanne. "Simone de Beauvoir's 'La Femme rompue': Reception and Deception". The Modern Language Review. 100 (3): 632–644 – via JSTOR.
- 1 2 3 Holland, Alison (2009). Excess and transgression in Simone de Beauvoir's fiction: the discourse of madness. Farnham Burlington: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-5152-9.
- ↑ Beauvoir, Simone de (2017). Le deuxième sexe. Paris: Gallimard. ISBN 978-2-07-020513-4.
- 1 2 de Beauvoir, Simone (1987). All Said and Done. Penguin. p. 140. ISBN 9780140041804.
- ↑ Dolske, Gwendolyn (2014-02-17). "Existential Destruction: de Beauvoir's Fictional Portrayal of Woman's Situation". Women's Studies. 43 (2): 155–169. doi:10.1080/00497878.2014.863104. ISSN 0049-7878.
- ↑ Racine, Maxwell (2024-12-18). "Form, Language, and Self-Understanding in Beauvoir's "The Woman Destroyed"". Simone de Beauvoir Studies. 35 (1–2): 166–185. doi:10.1163/25897616-bja10099. ISSN 1063-2042 – via Brill.
- 1 2 3 Moi, Toril (2012). "'To make them other, and face them': Literature, Philosophy, and 'La Femme rompue'". Women Genre and Circumstance. Oxford: Legenda. pp. 11–24.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - ↑ "Liechtensteiner Volksblatt: Liechtensteiner Volksblatt (1983)". -: Liechtensteiner Volksblatt (1983), -: - -. (in German). 1983. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
- ↑ "Erika Pluhar - Eine gebrochene Frau". Alte Oper Frankfurt (in German). Retrieved 2024-03-10.