Letter 113 provides a paradigm for understanding the libertine and as a component to the story is essential to the structure and design of the novel as a whole. In the first half of the letter, Laclos’ use of imagery and various contrasts through the author of the letter (Merteuil) centres the reader’s awareness on the extreme freedoms enjoyed by the Valmont and Merteuil, “Remember too, the multitudes of women you have flaunted in the public eye…”, “…You have done all you wish to do with the little Volanges” and “Every trifle assumes a value because of the privation that is felt in general. They are the crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table: the rich man scorns them, but the poor man collects them avidly: they are his nourishment”. Developed from this is the statement in the letter comparing libertinism as an art form “every amorous adventure is performed with originality in detail”. The danger of the two main characters’ actions are compounded in Valmont’s boastings of his success with his victim “in the space of an evening to take a girl away from the man she loves; next, to do with her what I liked, for my own ends, like a piece of my own property…” These unscrupulous libertines will employ all their abilities and skills to debauch their unwary victims whom only God can protect, but in the context of the situation, the existence of God is in question.
The cold manner in which the pair converse about their conquests is ruthless in their disregard for what the outcome of their actions may be. Valmont and Merteuil almost make it a point of being cold and sadistic in the way they manipulate those around them for their own purposes be it revenge, pleasure, as a challenge. At the bottom of page 319 of the novel, Valmont abandons Cecile concluding that he will return her as he as finished his “research”. Merteuil refers to other characters around her as creatures (e.g. Letter 2 “Oh dull-witted creature!”), and her two faced nature is clear from her spite towards other characters (such as the Presidente de Tourvel) in the novel when writing to Valmont, yet her apparently respected personality among her “friends” as displayed in her letters to them. Most convicting of all is her challenge of Valmont to seduce Cecile, whilst befriending her at the same time. It is this relationship between the Valmont and Merteuil that forms the cornerstone to the machinations of Valmont and Merteuil “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”.
Despite the apparent lack of empathy for their victims, Laclos introduces in Letter 21 sentiment to Valmont’s range of emotions. This device ties in with the Enlightenment as one of the fundamental characteristics was to observe situations and evaluate them based on logic with sentiment. Although Valmont throughout the novel remains unsympathetic to the feeling around him, it is worth discussing the emotions he claims to feel as he helps the peasants he tells Merteuil about in the letter, “You cannot imagine the shower of blessing this simple little action brought down upon me…tears of gratitude…My eyes were moist with tears and I felt within me an unwonted but delicious emotion. I was astonished at the pleasure to be derived from doing good and I now tempted to think that what we call virtuous people have less claim to merit than we are led to believe”. The sentiment that he experiences is not the only emotion that has implications on the novel’s meaning, for there is considerable evidence to suggest that Merteuil is in fact in love with Valmont, but she never openly communicates this too him. It is instead in the way she spars with him, and jests calling him her lover, and the flirtatious attitude she takes with him. The reader is left wondering what the outcome of a stable sexual relationship between the two would be like. However, the mere nature of their characters prevents this.
Another issue of the Enlightenment is address in Letter 81. On the fourth page of this letter, Laclos develops the character of the Marquise, laying out her background going back as far as her “entrance into society when I was still a girl”. Her description of how she grew up and honed her skills at dissembling others and mastering her facial expressions through “…repressing symptoms of unexpected joy” is a deeply cynical reading if read in context to the Enlightenment. It is apparent that her early womanhood was a series of her taking advantage of what was on offer at the time, but maximising it though her mastery of self expression “I went so far as to suffer pain voluntarily so as to achieve a simultaneous expression of pleasure”. It is interesting that Laclos should convey this background information on his manipulative lead character because it linked to a concept of the Enlightenment. The utilitarian nature of Merteuil’s mindset, yet self serving goes so far to explain how she can justify her scheming. Set in context to political views of the philosophes the utilitarian angle agrees with their unified view as they praised absolutism as long as it served the people. The French Enlightened movement wanted to improve the situation of the peasants but did not condemn the monarchy. They instead sought after a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain’s “The English are the only people upon earth who have been able to prescribe limits to the power of kings by resisting them; and where the people share in the government without confusion…” Such non-absolutist ideas were censored in France during the Enlightenment and explains why “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” was condemned by the cour royale de Paris to be destroyed as ‘dangerous’. Although unofficial, this verdict remained the official one throughout the later nineteenth century.
Laclos’ work may also be seen as a novel of the Enlightenment in the way it which it illustrates traditional values such as the religious institution, as having negative aspects rather than being conveyed as a force for good. This is shown in Cecile Volanges’ letters, in that being released from the convent at the early age of fifteen is characterised by Laclos as completely innocent and lacking experience with men. This criticism of the church is highly inflected and ironic in the style of writing used for Cecile’s letters. The repetitive “and” in her stream-of-thought style of letters, the constant use of the first person “I”, and the simple diction which she chooses, are all signs of her naivety e.g. Letter 16, “After all, have we not fathers as well as mothers…and husbands besides? ...Oh heavens, I had much rather he were a little dispirited now! ... Besides I shall see Madame de Merteuil this evening, and if I have the courage… And then perhaps she will tell me after all to send him some little reply”. Towards the end of the novel in Letter 174, “Dear God, why does my heart beat so fast as I write to you? Is it that some misfortune is to overtake me, or is it the hope of seeing you that agitates me like this? …I have never loved you so much, and never so much wanted to tell you so…” However, there is not evidence to suggest that Laclos is anti-religious, but rather wishes to highlight the errors within the institution.
The outcome of Cecile’s predicament is one of implied criticism by Laclos on how dangerous convent education is, not providing young girls with any preparation for the world that awaits them. In the first paragraph of Letter 1, the restrictive description of daily convent life in comparison to normal aristocratic life displays the extreme contrast between the religious institute and the female sphere outside it. “…she [Mme Volanges] treats me less like a schoolgirl…I have my own maid, a bedroom and closet to myself, and I am sitting as I write at the prettiest desk to which I have been given the key so that I can lock away whatever I wish…The rest of the time is at my disposal…just as at the convent, except that Mother Perpetue is not here to scold me…” The Enlightened view that girls should not be “blank sheets” upon leaving the convent is supported in the novel. The influence of other contemporary writers writing on feminism at the time also supports “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” as a novel of the Enlightenment in that these influences are included in many of the letters, particularly that of Rousseau’s “La Nouvelle Heloise”. Added to this, the fact that Laclos asked his wife to re-read Voltaire’s works on feminism gives clear indication that Rousseau is admired by Laclos because Laclos’ statement that his writing had a moral purpose to society implies “Rousseauist” thinking. It signals his intentions towards virtue and goodwill and as a side note, supports what would later become the French Revolution.
Traditional values such as religion, the decadence of the aristocratic French nobility, and the non-absolutist ideals of the philosophes all have their place in Laclos’ literary work “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” and are explored on several different levels throughout the plot. Furthermore, more humanistic issues such as the implementation of logic to manipulate others for one’s own benefit, with the impact of sentiment and emotion are also depicted and conveyed in such a way that provokes both modern and contemporary readers into considering the importance of reason, sensibility and energy, and how best to channel them. There can be no doubt at all that Laclos’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” can be viewed as a novel of the Enlightenment in many different aspects.
Word Count: 2141
Bibliography
Camus, The Rebel, Introduction, 1951
Choderlos de Laclos : Les Liaisons Dangereuses, translated by Douglas Parmée, introduction by David Coward, Oxford Paperbacks 1998, ISBN: 0 19 283 8679
Choderlos de Laclos: Les Liaisons Dangereuses, translated and with introduction by P.W.K Stone, Penguin Classics 1961, London, ISBN: 0 140 44116 6
Critical Approaches to Les Liaisons Dangereuses ed. L. R. Free.
Davies, S., Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses, Grant & Cutler, 1987
D. R. Thelander, Laclos and the Epistolary Novel, Geneva, Librairie Drot, 1963
Davies, S., Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses, Grant & Cutler, 1987
S. J. Churton Collins, Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau in England (English Version), London, 1908, Letters concerning the English nation, p. 49
Mason, H., French writers and their society 1715-1800, Macmillan, 1982
Landmarks in European Literature
