Sentence Summary: Frederic Moreau, a young man from a wealthy, bourgeois family, attempts to make a life for himself in Paris by associating with members of high society, going to law school, and pursuing the arts, but his hopeless love for Madame Arnoux, the wife of a rich mogel, and his constantly changing goals thrust him into a cycle of frustration and depression.
Paragraph Summary: On his journey home from Paris, Frederic Moreau, a young, wealthy bourgeois, meets Arnoux, a rich, successful, yet unscrupulous art dealer. Frederic is drawn to Arnoux because of his success and obvious charm with women, traits which Frederic hopes to one day cultivate in himself. While on this boat headed to Paris, Frederic sees Arnoux's wife and finds her perfect in every way, and immediatly falls in love with her. Frederic stays with her husband on their journey with the hope of becoming friends of their family, and in order to be close to Madame Arnoux. Once home, Frederic meets up with Deslauriers, his best friend. They discuss their planned life together and Deslauriers encourages Frederic in his pursuit of Madame Arnoux and also suggests he pursue relations with other high-class women. Once back in Paris for law school, Frederic meets the Dambreuse's, a wealthy and influential family, but his attempts to see them again fail. He also visits Arnoux's shop with the hope of encountering the Madame, but does not succeed. He falls into a state of depression, neglects his studies, and his love for Madame Arnoux wanes. One morning, he comes across an aimless political riot, and meets a man named Hussonnet. Hussonnet works for Arnoux, and he eventually takes Frederic to see him. There are many artists at Arnoux's and Frederic talks with them about several topics, mostly about art. Frederic spends time with some of these men with the hope of getting closer to the Madame. Deslauriers arrives in Paris on the same night that Frederic attends a dinner at the Arnoux's and sees Madame Arnoux for the first time since his journey home. His love for her is renewed, and he decides he will become a painter to win her love. After living with Deslauriers and studying painting for a while, Frederic fails his law exams and unsuccessfully attempts to call on Madame Arnoux. He falls into depression for three months. Eventually, he sees her again, but he is convinced that she will never be his. This attitude changes, however, after she shows some affection for him at her birthday party. Frederic becomes convinced that she will be his. Then, his mother visits him and informs him that his inheritance is dwindling. Distraught by this news, Frederic returns home and begins to pursue alternative plans. However, after resigning to this fate, Frederic's uncle suddenly dies, leaving him a very large inheritance. Frederic decides to return to Paris and make a life there.
Close Reading: pg. 91 "She would think that he mixed with the common people."
Throughout this novel, Frederic repeatedly expresses his love for "high society" as well as his love for Madame Arnoux. Frederic's desire to become a part of high society, and his desire to win Madame Arnoux's love are the two factors that shape most of his actions. These two factors often intersect. For example, Frederic pursues painting, a respected vocation in high society, to win Madame Arnoux's love. Also, Frederic decides to return to Paris after receiving his uncle's inheritance in hopes of working his way into high society. He also mentions Madame Arnoux as a reason for returning. Both of these instances suggest that there is a connection between Frederic's pursuit of entering high society and his pursuit of Madame Arnoux. This connection is made explicit in this sentence from page 91. Frederic is worried that because of his friendship with Dussardier, Madame Arnoux will think less of him. This is not because of Dussardier's character, but rather because of his social class. Dussardier is one of "the common people" that Frederic is referring to. In order to prevent the Madame from associating Frederic with these "common people", Frederic curses his friend in front of her. Frederic would rather speak against one of his friends than risk having Madame Arnoux think that he "mixed" with lower-class individuals. This reveals Frederic's belief that in order to win the Madame's love, he must present himself as being as high-class as possible. As he has demonstrated in this instance, he is willing to compromise his integrity in order to maintain this impression. This establishes Frederic as a person willing to ignore his morals in order to further his interests. It will be interesting to see how this aspect of his character will affect him in the remainder of the novel.
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