The Red and the Black by the French writer Stendhal: the founding work of 19th-century critical realist literature

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Stendhal, pen name Stendhal, was the world's first novelist to consciously use psychoanalysis. His psychoanalysis is appropriate and can express the psychological state of the character in a certain environment. Stendhal's representative works include Armands and Parma Abbey. Among them, his work "The Red and the Black" is known as the founder of 19th-century realism.

In The Red and the Black, the novel depicts Jullien, a more representative character. Originally the son of a carpenter in the small town of Verrière, Jullien was young, handsome, studious, strong-willed, shrewd and capable, hoping to rise to high society through personal struggle.

After the restoration of the dynasty, Yu Lian's road to flying by putting on the Red Army obedience army was blocked, so he decided to put on a black church costume and climb up. Jullien's first step into society was to work as a governess in the mayor's home. Promoted by the dual factors of revenge against the mayor and the risk-taking mentality that honed his courage, Jullien and the mayor's wife developed an ambiguous relationship.

After the matter was revealed, Jullien entered the Theological Seminary of Besançon and then came to Paris with The Dean of Bilal, becoming the secretary of the Marquis de la Moore. With his intelligence and personality, Jullien won the appreciation of the Marquis and won the heart of the Marquis. Soon after, the two secretly married, and although Mr. Larmor was helpless about the marriage, he had to admit his fate at this point.

As a result of this marriage, Jullien received the rank of lieutenant, the title of knight, and an estate with an annual income of twenty-six hundred francs. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, because when Lian Dazhan was trying to do something, he was caught in the trap set by the aristocracy and the church. In the end, Jullien was sent to the guillotine and fell victim to the conspiracy of the ruling class.

On the whole, Jullien is a typical example of a struggling petty-bourgeois intellectual. He has complex psychological characteristics and has always pursued fame and fortune ambitiously. In the process, Jullien fell into a huge contradiction. When he is oppressed, he rises up to resist, when his personal fame and fortune are satisfied, he compromises and surrenders, and when this fame and fortune are violated, he begins to resist.

This wavering and vacillating nature led to Jullien losing his principle of being human in the temptation of fame and fortune, and he gradually realized that the path he had chosen in life was full of hypocrisy and pain. The main line of Jullien's attempt to change his fate through personal struggle but encounters failure shows the obstacles and challenges faced by ordinary people in political and social life, and how difficult it is to succeed. With the help of Yu Lian's encounter, it is not difficult for us to feel the social atmosphere of money first, degeneration and impetuosity at that time.

From the perspective of creative techniques, the novel fully demonstrates the protagonist's mental space with a profound and delicate tone, and uses a variety of artistic techniques such as monologue and free association to excavate the deep-seated consciousness activities, and creates a precedent for "psychological novels" and "stream-of-consciousness novels" in later generations.

Yes, Jullien was a small man, a small man who seemed inconspicuous. Judging from the results, Jullien's efforts seem to have failed, but from the perspective of the process, Jullien has already made a breakthrough. In order to make his life better, Jullien at least has worked hard and fought hard. What makes Jullien feel particularly regrettable is that he attaches too much importance to fame and fortune, and because of his own fame and fortune, he has lost the principle of being a man. If Jullien could hold fast to himself and not change his faith casually, he would win true respect.