No. 474: An Appreciation of the Artistic Characteristics of Stendhal's First Novel, Armands

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Armands is the first novel written by the French literary hero Stendhal in 1827, and the whole book is named after the heroine. Although the book is named after a woman, the main storyline revolves around armance and Octave's love affair.

The aristocratic young Octave, the cousin of Armands. He graduated from the prestigious Paris Polytechnic School, was a wealthy man, shrewd and capable, and belonged to the eminent figures of high society. Despite this, Octave was unable to coexist peacefully with the people around him, and he was even more disgusted with his surroundings. He hated the superficial kindness between the high-class officials and nobles, but in fact the hypocrisy of deceit.

In the beginning, the ladies and wives of the aristocratic class ignored Octave. Soon, France passed a bill to compensate nobles in exile, and Octave was also within the scope of compensation. Upon hearing the news, the beautiful ladies in the aristocratic circles immediately flocked to Octav's side, wanting to take possession of the Octav family's rich property. This phenomenon made Octave deeply resentful and despised.

As an adopted orphan, Armands had a strong personality and a good heart, and was despised by the rich and nobles for reasons of birth. It was not until she inherited the inheritance left by her uncle that Armands reluctantly participated in the social interactions of high society and married Octave. As Octav's wife and confidant, Armands is the spiritual pillar of Octave.

We would be naïve to think that from now on Octave and Armands would live a happy life of "prince and princess".

Due to the huge gap in class and property between the two, coupled with the pursuit and interception of many wives, the love boat of Octave and Armands encountered many twists and turns as it sailed toward happiness. Shortly after the marriage, Octave listened to the slander of Armands and ran away from home in a negative mood. On the way to Greece, Octav committed suicide by taking medicine out of pain and disappointment.

In the writer Stendhal's pen, Octav is obviously a "sick man" who cannot be integrated into society or can be integrated by society. In addition to being psychologically classified as a depressed person, Octave is also physically flawed. All along, Octave had been afraid to tell Armands the secret of his physical and mental disability, which made him even more unable to increase his self-confidence, but even unable to identify with himself.

The inability to get rid of the objective reality of self-abandonment, extreme sensitivity to the environment, and social hatred of the poor and love for the rich all made Octave anxious. When the inner and outer worlds are in a state of fierce confrontation, Octav cannot find a place of refuge for the soul and can only choose self-destruction to achieve liberation.

In fact, Stendhal wrote a series of "Jullien stories", and Octaves, Fablis, Lucien, etc. are all such characters. They went on and on, under Stendhal's pen, began a colorful and adventurous life. Through the joys and sorrows of these characters, Stendhal strives to depict the phenomena of 19th-century French society and express his concern and sympathy for the small people of the city.

From the perspective of creative techniques, compared with Chateaubriand, who was full of illusions about the remnants of Christian mysticism, Balzac, who advocated royalist and philosophical mysticism, and Hugo Hugo, a devout Catholic, Stendhal's pen was more decisive, his religious consciousness and worship of God were weaker, and his realist elements were stronger.

The novel "Armands" truly reflects the spiritual outlook and living conditions of the aristocratic class during the Restoration period. When the protagonist in the novel is very confused and difficult to find a way to liberation, he will choose to give up his life to seek a hundred. It is a kind of determination, but also a kind of weakness. With the help of these facts, Stendhal sounded a wake-up call: life is incomparably precious, you can't give up life when you feel pain, you must believe that all problems have a solution, and after the night there will be light!