finished_summaries/shmoop/The Red and the Black/section_18_part_0.txt
The Red and the Black.part 1.chapter 19
part 1, chapter 19
{"name": "Part 1, Chapter 19", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200920104425/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/red-and-the-black/summary/part-1-chapter-19", "summary": "When the king's visit is over, Julien hangs around the room that the Marquis de La Mole stayed in. He finds a piece of folded paper that contains a note written by a guy to the Marquis who wants a government post that's about to open up. In the coming week, one of the biggest points of gossip in town is how Julien was allowed to ride with the Honor Guard. Even people who usually preach equality are furious with a carpenter's son being honored in this way. People suspect that Madame de Renal put in a good word for him because he's handsome. Soon afterward, Madame de Renal's son falls ill with a fever. She thinks that God is punishing her for having an affair with Julien. She tells Julien that she's going to spill her guts to her husband. Julien tells her not to. One day, Madame falls to her knees and tries to tell her husband that their son's illness is all her fault. But he thinks she's just being crazy and won't listen to her. Julien thinks about going away for a while. But he knows that Madame will tell her husband everything if he leaves. Julien has a long talk with Madame that ends with them both crying and swearing to stop their affair. Eventually, Madame's son regains his health. Madame's remorse stays strong though, now that she's accepted the sinfulness of what she's done. The servant Elisa becomes so frustrated that she one day goes into town and tells Monsieur de Renal's rival, Valenod, that Madame is sleeping with Julien Sorel. It's not clear whether she knows this for sure or is just talking out of suspicion. The news hurts Valenod's pride, since he has been trying to sleep with Madame de Renal for years. Next thing you know, Julien sees Monsieur de Renal reading an anonymous letter explaining everything going on between his wife and Julien. The man's face darkens as he reads.", "analysis": ""}
CHAPTER XIX

THINKING PRODUCES SUFFERING


    The grotesqueness of every-day events conceals the real
           unhappiness of the passions.--_Barnave_.

As he was replacing the usual furniture in the room which M. de la
Mole had occupied, Julien found a piece of very strong paper folded in
four. He read at the bottom of the first page "To His Excellency M.
le Marquis de la Mole, peer of France, Chevalier of the Orders of the
King, etc. etc." It was a petition in the rough hand-writing of a cook.

        "Monsieur le Marquis, I have had religious principles
        all my life. I was in Lyons exposed to the bombs at
        the time of the siege, in '93 of execrable memory. I
        communicate, I go to Mass every Sunday in the parochial
        church. I have never missed the paschal duty, even in
        '93 of execrable memory. My cook used to keep servants
        before the revolution, my cook fasts on Fridays. I am
        universally respected in Verrieres, and I venture to
        say I deserve to be so. I walk under the canopy in the
        processions at the side of the cure and of the mayor. On
        great occasions I carry a big candle, bought at my own
        expense.

        "I ask Monsieur the marquis for the lottery appointment
        of Verrieres, which in one way or another is bound to
        be vacant shortly as the beneficiary is very ill, and
        moreover votes on the wrong side at elections, etc. De
        Cholin."

In the margin of this petition was a recommendation signed "de Moirod"
which began with this line, "I have had the honour, the worthy person
who makes this request."

"So even that imbecile de Cholin shows me the way to go about things,"
said Julien to himself.

Eight days after the passage of the King of ---- through Verrieres,
the one question which predominated over the innumerable falsehoods,
foolish conjectures, and ridiculous discussions, etc., etc., which had
had successively for their object the king, the Marquis de la Mole,
the ten thousand bottles of wine, the fall of poor de Moirod, who,
hoping to win a cross, only left his room a week after his fall, was
the absolute indecency of having _foisted_ Julien Sorel, a carpenter's
son, into the Guard of Honour. You should have heard on this point the
rich manufacturers of printed calico, the very persons who used to bawl
themselves hoarse in preaching equality, morning and evening in the
cafe. That haughty woman, Madame de Renal, was of course responsible
for this abomination. The reason? The fine eyes and fresh complexion of
the little abbe Sorel explained everything else.

A short time after their return to Vergy, Stanislas, the youngest of
the children, caught the fever; Madame de Renal was suddenly attacked
by an awful remorse. For the first time she reproached herself for her
love with some logic. She seemed to understand as though by a miracle
the enormity of the sin into which she had let herself be swept. Up to
that moment, although deeply religious, she had never thought of the
greatness of her crime in the eyes of God.

In former times she had loved God passionately in the Convent of
the Sacred Heart; in the present circumstances, she feared him with
equal intensity. The struggles which lacerated her soul were all the
more awful in that her fear was quite irrational. Julien found that
the least argument irritated instead of soothing her. She saw in the
illness the language of hell. Moreover, Julien was himself very fond of
the little Stanislas.

It soon assumed a serious character. Then incessant remorse deprived
Madame de Renal of even her power of sleep. She ensconced herself in a
gloomy silence: if she had opened her mouth, it would only have been to
confess her crime to God and mankind.

"I urge you," said Julien to her, as soon as they got alone, "not to
speak to anyone. Let me be the sole confidant of your sufferings. If
you still love me, do not speak. Your words will not be able to take
away our Stanislas' fever." But his consolations produced no effect.
He did not know that Madame de Renal had got it into her head that, in
order to appease the wrath of a jealous God, it was necessary either to
hate Julien, or let her son die. It was because she felt she could not
hate her lover that she was so unhappy.

"Fly from me," she said one day to Julien. "In the name of God leave
this house. It is your presence here which kills my son. God punishes
me," she added in a low voice. "He is just. I admire his fairness.
My crime is awful, and I was living without remorse," she exclaimed.
"That was the first sign of my desertion of God: I ought to be doubly
punished."

Julien was profoundly touched. He could see in this neither hypocrisy
nor exaggeration. "She thinks that she is killing her son by loving me,
and all the same the unhappy woman loves me more than her son. I cannot
doubt it. It is remorse for that which is killing her. Those sentiments
of hers have real greatness. But how could I have inspired such a love,
I who am so poor, so badly-educated, so ignorant, and sometimes so
coarse in my manners?"

One night the child was extremely ill. At about two o'clock in the
morning, M. de Renal came to see it. The child consumed by fever, and
extremely flushed, could not recognise its father. Suddenly Madame de
Renal threw herself at her husband's feet; Julien saw that she was
going to confess everything and ruin herself for ever.

Fortunately this extraordinary proceeding annoyed M. de Renal.

"Adieu! Adieu!" he said, going away.

"No, listen to me," cried his wife on her knees before him, trying to
hold him back. "Hear the whole truth. It is I who am killing my son. I
gave him life, and I am taking it back. Heaven is punishing me. In the
eyes of God I am guilty of murder. It is necessary that I should ruin
and humiliate myself. Perhaps that sacrifice will appease the the Lord."

If M. de Renal had been a man of any imagination, he would then have
realized everything.

"Romantic nonsense," he cried, moving his wife away as she tried to
embrace his knees. "All that is romantic nonsense! Julien, go and fetch
the doctor at daybreak," and he went back to bed. Madame de Renal fell
on her knees half-fainting, repelling Julien's help with a hysterical
gesture.

Julien was astonished.

"So this is what adultery is," he said to himself. "Is it possible
that those scoundrels of priests should be right, that they who commit
so many sins themselves should have the privilege of knowing the true
theory of sin? How droll!"

For twenty minutes after M. de Renal had gone back to bed, Julien saw
the woman he loved with her head resting on her son's little bed,
motionless, and almost unconscious. "There," he said to himself, "is
a woman of superior temperament brought to the depths of unhappiness
simply because she has known me."

"Time moves quickly. What can I do for her? I must make up my mind. I
have not got simply myself to consider now. What do I care for men and
their buffooneries? What can I do for her? Leave her? But I should be
leaving her alone and a prey to the most awful grief. That automaton
of a husband is more harm to her than good. He is so coarse that he is
bound to speak harshly to her. She may go mad and throw herself out of
the window."

"If I leave her, if I cease to watch over her, she will confess
everything, and who knows, in spite of the legacy which she is bound to
bring him, he will create a scandal. She may confess everything (great
God) to that scoundrel of an abbe who makes the illness of a child
of six an excuse for not budging from this house, and not without a
purpose either. In her grief and her fear of God, she forgets all she
knows of the man; she only sees the priest."

"Go away," said Madame de Renal suddenly to him, opening her eyes.

"I would give my life a thousand times to know what could be of most
use to you," answered Julien. "I have never loved you so much, my dear
angel, or rather it is only from this last moment that I begin to adore
you as you deserve to be adored. What would become of me far from you,
and with the consciousness that you are unhappy owing to what I have
done? But don't let my suffering come into the matter. I will go--yes,
my love! But if I leave you, dear; if I cease to watch over you, to be
incessantly between you and your husband, you will tell him everything.
You will ruin yourself. Remember that he will hound you out of his
house in disgrace. Besancon will talk of the scandal. You will be said
to be absolutely in the wrong. You will never lift up your head again
after that shame."

"That's what I ask," she cried, standing up. "I shall suffer, so much
the better."

"But you will also make him unhappy through that awful scandal."

"But I shall be humiliating myself, throwing myself into the mire, and
by those means, perhaps, I shall save my son. Such a humiliation in the
eyes of all is perhaps to be regarded as a public penitence. So far as
my weak judgment goes, is it not the greatest sacrifice that I can make
to God?--perhaps He will deign to accept my humiliation, and to leave
me my son. Show me another sacrifice which is more painful and I will
rush to it."

"Let me punish myself. I too am guilty. Do you wish me to retire to the
Trappist Monastery? The austerity of that life may appease your God.
Oh, heaven, why cannot I take Stanislas's illness upon myself?"

"Ah, do you love him then," said Madame de Renal, getting up and
throwing herself in his arms.

At the same time she repelled him with horror.

"I believe you! I believe you! Oh, my one friend," she cried falling on
her knees again. "Why are you not the father of Stanislas? In that case
it would not be a terrible sin to love you more than your son."

"Won't you allow me to stay and love you henceforth like a brother? It
is the only rational atonement. It may appease the wrath of the Most
High."

"Am I," she cried, getting up and taking Julien's head between her two
hands, and holding it some distance from her. "Am I to love you as if
you were a brother? Is it in my power to love you like that?" Julien
melted into tears.

"I will obey you," he said, falling at her feet. "I will obey you in
whatever you order me. That is all there is left for me to do. My mind
is struck with blindness. I do not see any course to take. If I leave
you you will tell your husband everything. You will ruin yourself
and him as well. He will never be nominated deputy after incurring
such ridicule. If I stay, you will think I am the cause of your son's
death, and you will die of grief. Do you wish to try the effect of my
departure. If you wish, I will punish myself for our sin by leaving you
for eight days. I will pass them in any retreat you like. In the abbey
of Bray-le-Haut, for instance. But swear that you will say nothing to
your husband during my absence. Remember that if you speak I shall
never be able to come back."

She promised and he left, but was called back at the end of two days.

"It is impossible for me to keep my oath without you. I shall speak to
my husband if you are not constantly there to enjoin me to silence by
your looks. Every hour of this abominable life seems to last a day."

Finally heaven had pity on this unfortunate mother. Little by little
Stanislas got out of danger. But the ice was broken. Her reason had
realised the extent of her sin. She could not recover her equilibrium
again. Her pangs of remorse remained, and were what they ought to have
been in so sincere a heart. Her life was heaven and hell: hell when she
did not see Julien; heaven when she was at his feet.

"I do not deceive myself any more," she would say to him, even during
the moments when she dared to surrender herself to his full love. "I
am damned, irrevocably damned. You are young, heaven may forgive you,
but I, I am damned. I know it by a certain sign. I am afraid, who would
not be afraid at the sight of hell? but at the bottom of my heart I
do not repent at all. I would commit my sin over again if I had the
opportunity. If heaven will only forbear to punish me in this world and
through my children, I shall have more than I deserve. But you, at any
rate, my Julien," she would cry at other moments, "are you happy? Do
you think I love you enough?"

The suspiciousness and morbid pride of Julien, who needed, above all,
a self-sacrificing love, altogether vanished when he saw at every hour
of the day so great and indisputable a sacrifice. He adored Madame
de Renal. "It makes no difference her being noble, and my being a
labourer's son. She loves me.... she does not regard me as a valet
charged with the functions of a lover." That fear once dismissed,
Julien fell into all the madness of love, into all its deadly
uncertainties.

"At any rate," she would cry, seeing his doubts of her love, "let me
feel quite happy during the three days we still have together. Let us
make haste; perhaps to-morrow will be too late. If heaven strikes me
through my children, it will be in vain that I shall try only to live
to love you, and to be blind to the fact that it is my crime which has
killed them. I could not survive that blow. Even if I wished I could
not; I should go mad."

"Ah, if only I could take your sin on myself as you so generously
offered to take Stanislas' burning fever!"

This great moral crisis changed the character of the sentiment
which united Julien and his mistress. His love was no longer simply
admiration for her beauty, and the pride of possessing her.

Henceforth their happiness was of a quite superior character. The flame
which consumed them was more intense. They had transports filled with
madness. Judged by the worldly standard their happiness would have
appeared intensified. But they no longer found that delicious serenity,
that cloudless happiness, that facile joy of the first period of their
love, when Madame de Renal's only fear was that Julien did not love her
enough. Their happiness had at times the complexion of crime.

In their happiest and apparently their most tranquil moments, Madame
de Renal would suddenly cry out, "Oh, great God, I see hell," as she
pressed Julien's hand with a convulsive grasp. "What horrible tortures!
I have well deserved them." She grasped him and hung on to him like ivy
onto a wall.

Julien would try in vain to calm that agitated soul. She would take his
hand, cover it with kisses. Then, relapsing into a gloomy reverie, she
would say, "Hell itself would be a blessing for me. I should still have
some days to pass with him on this earth, but hell on earth, the death
of my children. Still, perhaps my crime will be forgiven me at that
price. Oh, great God, do not grant me my pardon at so great a price.
These poor children have in no way transgressed against You. I, I am
the only culprit. I love a man who is not my husband."

Julien subsequently saw Madame de Renal attain what were apparently
moments of tranquillity. She was endeavouring to control herself;
she did not wish to poison the life of the man she loved. They found
the days pass with the rapidity of lightning amid these alternating
moods of love, remorse, and voluptuousness. Julien lost the habit of
reflecting.

Mademoiselle Elisa went to attend to a little lawsuit which she had at
Verrieres. She found Valenod very piqued against Julien. She hated the
tutor and would often speak about him.

"You will ruin me, Monsieur, if I tell the truth," she said one day to
Valenod. "All masters have an understanding amongst themselves with
regard to matters of importance. There are certain disclosures which
poor servants are never forgiven."

After these stereotyped phrases, which his curiosity managed to cut
short, Monsieur Valenod received some information extremely mortifying
to his self-conceit.

This woman, who was the most distinguished in the district, the woman
on whom he had lavished so much attention in the last six years, and
made no secret of it, more was the pity, this woman who was so proud,
whose disdain had put him to the blush times without number, had just
taken for her lover a little workman masquerading as a tutor. And to
fill the cup of his jealousy, Madame de Renal adored that lover.

"And," added the housemaid with a sigh, "Julien did not put himself out
at all to make his conquest, his manner was as cold as ever, even with
Madame."

Elisa had only become certain in the country, but she believed that
this intrigue dated from much further back. "That is no doubt the
reason," she added spitefully, "why he refused to marry me. And to
think what a fool I was when I went to consult Madame de Renal and
begged her to speak to the tutor."

The very same evening, M. de Renal received from the town, together
with his paper, a long anonymous letter which apprised him in the
greatest detail of what was taking place in his house. Julien saw him
pale as he read this letter written on blue paper, and look at him
with a malicious expression. During all that evening the mayor failed
to throw off his trouble. It was in vain that Julien paid him court by
asking for explanations about the genealogy of the best families in
Burgundy.






Part 1, Chapter 19
When the king's visit is over, Julien hangs around the room that the Marquis de La Mole stayed in. He finds a piece of folded paper that contains a note written by a guy to the Marquis who wants a government post that's about to open up. In the coming week, one of the biggest points of gossip in town is how Julien was allowed to ride with the Honor Guard. Even people who usually preach equality are furious with a carpenter's son being honored in this way. People suspect that Madame de Renal put in a good word for him because he's handsome. Soon afterward, Madame de Renal's son falls ill with a fever. She thinks that God is punishing her for having an affair with Julien. She tells Julien that she's going to spill her guts to her husband. Julien tells her not to. One day, Madame falls to her knees and tries to tell her husband that their son's illness is all her fault. But he thinks she's just being crazy and won't listen to her. Julien thinks about going away for a while. But he knows that Madame will tell her husband everything if he leaves. Julien has a long talk with Madame that ends with them both crying and swearing to stop their affair. Eventually, Madame's son regains his health. Madame's remorse stays strong though, now that she's accepted the sinfulness of what she's done. The servant Elisa becomes so frustrated that she one day goes into town and tells Monsieur de Renal's rival, Valenod, that Madame is sleeping with Julien Sorel. It's not clear whether she knows this for sure or is just talking out of suspicion. The news hurts Valenod's pride, since he has been trying to sleep with Madame de Renal for years. Next thing you know, Julien sees Monsieur de Renal reading an anonymous letter explaining everything going on between his wife and Julien. The man's face darkens as he reads.