Anyone who knows the portrait of the Twentieth Century French Intellectuals knows that the most famous pair of French intellectuals with heads and faces is the philosophers Sartre and Beauvoir, who are masters of existential philosophy, writers who have created a large number of novels and plays, and of course, in the historical turmoil of France in the twentieth century, they are often seen in their shadows. They were always linked, as if they were the same person. In fact, for most of their lives, Sartre and Beauvoir were inseparable, always appearing in front of the media together. But history does not equate with them, and the most intuitive evaluation shows the different treatment after their deaths, such as when Sartre died in 1980, almost all the media reported that there were thousands of people mentioning Sartre's funeral, but there was not a single word about Beauvoir. Foreign media reports mentioned Beauvoir by name, but most called it Beauvoir Sartre's closest friend, his mistress, and a lifelong political and philosophical and literary ally. Media outlets like the New York Times, while talking about Beauvoir's existence, will also emphasize that Sartre's fame is much greater than Beauvoir's. In April 1986, the day after Beauvoir's death, the French media directly said that Beauvoir's work was overdone. Unlike the post-Morris reports on Beauvoir, many media reports after Beauvoir's death emphasized sartre's influence on Beauvoir's thought, as if Beauvoir had no thought of its own.
But, years later, the British novelist Angela Carter posed a thought-provoking question, saying that every Western woman must have thought of such a question at some point, why would a beautiful girl like Beauvoir post such an ugly monster as Sartre and waste her life with him? From any point of view, Carter's question is worth pondering, Sartre's ugliness is recognized, only one meter and five meters tall, ugly and short, and very arrogant, likes to play pranks, and is always a character who loves to be in the limelight. And Beauvoir is very beautiful, has a very charming pair of eyes, hoarse voice, intelligent, the key is that she is still very unaware of her beauty, which attracts many people. So, in a secular sense, we can't understand why such a woman, at a very young age, made the common agreement with Sartre that was famous in later generations. It is said that while the two were walking in the park, the two of them discussed a contract, which basically meant that they could have other lovers besides each other, and both promised to tell each other everything. In order to distinguish their own relationships from those of ordinary lovers, Sartre said the most famous thing in the history of philosophy, saying, "Love between us is essential love, but at the same time we can experience accidental love." ”
If we interpret this passage in terms of ordinary coupleship, it is easy to think that Sartre is an old treacherous old, and Beauvoir is an ignorant little girl, and it must be that Sartre brainwashed Beauvoir to trick her into signing such a contract of emotional deception. But, the truth is, Sartre was 24 years old and Beauvoir was 21 years old, both still in college. And when the two first established their relationship, it was Sartre who was intensely pursuing Beauvoir, and Beauvoir and other lovers did not look at Sartre at all. Under Sartre's strong attack, Beauvoir agreed to a date, but she finally asked her sister to go to the appointment instead of herself, and she did not show up at all. All these things show that Beauvoir's relationship with Sartre was not as smooth as we thought. The reason why Beauvoir later agreed to Sartre's love contract was more out of his own overall consideration.
We have to seriously consider how unfriendly the times in which Beauvoir lived were to women. Education was a very superfluous cultivation for women at that time, and most of the education for women was how to become a mother and wife, how to teach husbands and children, learn to sacrifice, dedication and forbearance, and so on. In 1924, when the 16-year-old Beauvoir received her high school diploma with honors, the certificate had only just begun to be awarded to women, and if she had been born a few years earlier, Beauvoir would not have even been eligible to take the entrance examination for the university. Therefore, choosing to be educated in the university, Beauvoir itself chose a difficult path, and she also chose the discipline of philosophy, the philosophy exam competition was very fierce, at that time only a few women in the country could pass, and Beauvoir wanted to rely on the Paris Supérieure Normale, which was a holy place for cultivating top talents in philosophy, but at that time it was not open to women at all, Beauvoir had to retreat to the second, had to now read a degree at the Sorbonne University to get a diploma, and then to take the national teacher qualification examination. The discrimination against women in the whole society is very serious, the only ideal of most women is to marry a good man, marriage is the only course they need to learn, and higher education is basically isolated from women, let alone get good grades. But Beauvoir is very competitive in college, the average person can get a diploma in four years with four qualifications, and Beauvoir can get six in two years and can graduate a long time ago. In particular, in an important examination of introductions to philosophy, she won the second prize, the first being Simone Wei, another very famous French intellectual philosopher, and the third was the later famous philosopher Maurice Merleau Ponty. Beauvoir's philosophical hobbies, as well as her brilliant achievements, caught the attention of Sartre's small circle and became friends with them.
Before Beauvoir and Sartre became lovers, she always had her own lover, and they also had their own lovers after they became lovers. And initially it was Sartre who pursued her passionately, like most ordinary men and women at the beginning of their relationship, we all like a person because of their looks, but it takes more than looks to fall in love with a person, Sartre probably belongs to the kind of person who has nothing but looks, so although Beauvoir is not attracted to Sartre at first, when she enters their philosophical circle, she discovers how charming Sartre is. We can fully prove this through the diaries and memoirs she left behind. Sartre's genius was not only confirmed by Beauvoir, whether it was Camus or Raymond Aron, those who had been friends with Sartre, no matter how different their paths in life, but they always thought that Sartre was the genius philosopher. Beauvoir recalled that she had just come into contact with Sartre's philosophical circle, and after an exam she had followed Sartre and Aaron to a drink, and she had seen that they had spent two hours discussing the question of good and evil, and she was basically unable to interject, and she felt that her IQ had been completely crushed in front of them. From that point on, she began to blend into their circle, envious that they could have such a mature ability to think, and she secretly made up her mind to reach their heights. Soon after that, Beauvoir realized that with Sartre she would accomplish something, and though Sartre was sometimes arrogant and annoying, she took it in a diary, and I was going to give myself to this man, and I had absolute confidence in him, such words. Because only when she is with Sartre can she live her ideal life, that is, she wants to use philosophy to guide her life, she wants to think about a life, not just thinking about the cold, or just living without thinking.
So, from the very beginning, the relationship between Beauvoir and Sartre was not an ordinary couple relationship, they loved each other, but in a different way for ordinary couples, they occasionally had the carnal relationship of ordinary couples, but most of the time, there was no sexual attraction between them, and what attracted them was a kind of sympathy between the same kind, the same wisdom of communication. Beauvoir was not surrounded by women of comparable intelligence, and to enlarge it, even in the circle of men, there was no one who could match her intellectually, except for sartre, Aron, Merleau Ponty and other philosophical circles. Beauvoir's ability to fit into this circle is a testament to her excellence in itself. Aaron once mentioned Beauvoir in his recollections, saying that before Beauvoir joined their small circle, he and Sartre had the best relationship, they were always inseparable, discussing various issues, and since Beauvoir appeared in their circle, Sartre had a distance from these people, and the two of them became inseparable.
We can borrow from beauvoir's famous quote in The Second Sex that women are not born, but are acquired. We can also say this about the relationship between Beauvoir and Sartre, beauvoir is not passive, but actively chooses an open relationship. She knew that only in this way could she keep her free, that she was not a man's wife, a nanny, an instrument of procreation, that she was to be an individual who was perfectly equal to men, so that in the open sexual relationship with Sartre they were all free, and in fact, from later developments, they had done exactly that. Of course, the process is not all good, because it is one thing to accept the relationship intellectually, but it is another thing to feel jealous and hurt emotionally. Judging from her ultimate achievements, she is not a vassal of Sartre, and her writing and thinking can be completely on par with Sartre'. Philosophical works such as "The Second Sex", which influenced later women's history, literary writing include "The Merry Of The Famous Men", which won the Goncourt Literary Prize, and so on, and the autobiographical writing in his later years also achieved great success. Beauvoir became a model and icon of a generation of women, the founder of women and feminism, not simply because of his thinking and writings, but more because she lived her own unique life, she chose the life she wanted and realized it. In a sense, she's greater than Sartre because a woman lives most of her time in an era of misogyny and discrimination against women, and she wants to have the same success as a man, which means she puts in more effort than Sartre.