Discuss the opinion that"Le Cid is less about love, honour and revenge and more about the complexrelationship between the individual and the state".

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Discuss the opinion that “Le Cid is less about love, honour and revenge and more about the complex relationship between the individual and the state”.

FR1002

23/03/2005

Le Cid has been catalogued as the first masterpiece of French Classical theatre. One factor which greatly contributes to its enduring appeal is its portrayal of human drama, whereby a person’s private relationships and emotions are brought into conflict with public responsibilities, allegiances and obligations. However, the play “qui a charmé tout Paris” is not merely a dilemma between heroism and mysticism, duty and passion: the real drama for which Le Cid accounts is that of establishing a new order in which the forces of the past are stubbornly resistant to subordination. The play is in itself a crossroad between past and modernity that announces the birth of a new reality, a new system, and a new type of hero. Through an analysis of the themes on the play –honour, glory, love, politics- and its characters it will be possible to expose Corneille’s vision of the relationship between the individual and the state, and between the individual and himself.

To understand the political framework and concept of honour in the play, there are three characters -don Gomès, don Diègue and don Fernand- in whose interactions the concept of honour is most relevant. Don Diègue and don Gomès are negative heroes: their rivalry for the post of governeur triggers the action in the play, bringing unexpected consequences to other characters. Both are representatives of the old noblesse d’épée -especially the Count- that looked back to the Medieval Age and its feudal structures with nostalgia:

Pour grands que soient les Rois, ils sont ce que nous sommes:

 Ils peuvent se tromper comme les autres homes…. 

The conflict between them is not so much a matter of don Diègue getting an honour due to Don Gomès; in reality it is the representation of a fundamental conflict involving the principle of royal authority: Don Gomès refuses to accept the King’s decision, and therefore the reality of the ever-increasing power of the monarchy. The endings for both characters –death for don Gomès and imprisonment for don Diègue - are a warning: the times of feudal free will are finished.  However, in various occasions the king’s portray lacks dignity due to his role as a transitional figure from the medieval to the absolutist model. “…Les rois veulent être absolus”. Nevertheless, in relation to the play he combines a good nature that allows freedom for love’s intrigues to develop, while he is also authoritarian enough to promote Rodrigue and Chimène’s love: “Rodrigue t’a gagnée, et tu dois être à lui”. Duels, forbidden by the king in an attempt to avoid nobles from undermining the absolutist power of delivering justice, continue illegally, hence Chimène’s dilemma between waiting for the king’s justice and accepting don Sanche’s offer to avenge her. It is clear therefore that the episode between don Diègue and the Comte triggered an irreversible change in the political ideology towards the fullest expression to absolutist thesis, but also transforming the traditional concept of gloire and honneur. Don Gomès and don Diègue saw their first duty as being their own gloire –achieved through physical force on the duels-, while the new notion derives from the heightened status of the monarchy, and implies self-sacrifice in favour of the State. This explains why Chimène is asked to transcend her demand for vengeance in the interest of “le bien du pays”.

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Secondly, it is important to study the figure of Rodrigue and the code of honour according to which he takes revenge. He has received from his father the education of a nobleman, inculcating on him the duties to his family and his country according with the feudal code of honour. Therefore « L’honneur vous en est dû : je ne pouvais pas moins,/Étant sorti de vous et nourri par vos soins »; he has no choice when his father asks him to take revenge on don Gomès, disobeying the laws and risking the possibility of the king getting angry. However, the ...

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