The Dynamics of Power in <i>Le Lys dans la vallée</i>
2012; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 40; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/ncf.2012.0020
ISSN1536-0172
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and Literary Studies
ResumoThe Pygmalion myth has long captured the imagination of both readers and writers, inspiring works ranging in period, style, and quality from Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose to George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion to the 1980s film Weird Science. The best-known version of the tale is Ovid's, found in Book X of his Metamorphoses. This curious love relationship between a creator and his creation has left its mark on Western literature, both in the works it has inspired and in literary criticism. (1) We find at the core of the Pygmalion myth the archetypal theme of metamorphosis, evident, of course, in the title of Ovid's collection. But the transformation central to this particular myth has characteristics that distinguish it from many of the others Ovid narrates and align it with the literary archetype of creation as well. Rather than changing from one life form to another, as Pygmalion's great-granddaughter Myrrha does in becoming the tree that bears her name, Pygmalion's statue passes from inanimate object to animate creature, much like the clay figure sculpted by God in the Genesis account of man's creation. This drive to create in order to fulfill desire, specifically the desire for a suitable companion, is metaphorically realized in Pygmalion's sculpting of his ivory statue and then its metamorphosis from statue to woman. As Northrup Frye explains in his Anatomy of Criticism, myth places little emphasis on verisimilitude. Actions are not constrained by reality, but rather function as metaphor, isolating structural principles of literature. These same principles are at work in mimetic registers, but are employed in a more plausible context (135, 136). Two of the many texts that apply the principles shaping the Pygmalion myth but reverse the gender of the protagonists are Honore de Balzac's Lys dans la vallee (1835), and the text that inspired it, Marguerite de Navarre's twenty-sixth novella of the Heptameron (1558). (2) While these texts were not likely written expressly as versions of Pygmalion in the same way that Shaw wrote his Pygmalion, the myth provides insight into the literary archetypes that structure them, sharpening the focus on the power relationships between protagonists. A side-by-side comparison of Balzac's and Marguerite's texts highlights aspects of Le Lys dans la vallee that have been previously under-emphasized, particularly with respect to Balzac's treatment of his female characters. In the Pygmalion myth, the question of control is central. When Ovid's Pygmalion observes the Propoetides, he sees women whose behavior is decidedly not virtuous. As punishment for their lack of morality, Venus transforms them from flesh to stone. Witness to such women's behavior, Pygmalion vows never to marry, and directs his energies instead to his new statue. Here, he is the master, shaping the ivory until he achieves his ideal. But Pygmalion's own skill betrays him, ars adeo latet arte sua (Ovid 10.252), erasing the distinction between art and life. The statue he creates is so perfectly beautiful that she escapes his power and, though she is inanimate, determines his behavior as he becomes obsessed with his creation. Pygmalion then prays to Venus not only for the fulfillment of a wish but also for the restoration of his power. When the statue is transformed into a woman, a metamorphosis that figuratively undoes that of the Propoetides, Pygmalion is no longer driven by a truly insatiable desire, taking his statue as his wife and fulfilling both his erotic desire and his desire for control. This control extends beyond that of the average Roman husband over his wife, for he is not only her husband, but her creator (J. Miller 208). A similar dynamic of shifting power plays out in stories of female Pygmalions. In the absence of a suitable choice, they too turn to the solution of creating a love object that meets their needs. However, because the medium in which they work is not ivory, but the character of a human being, the control they exert initially is not a given. …
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