Lucien regards Frederic as a person who, due to his education, has been brain-washed according to the rules of the time. He sees in Frederic and his mother “compulsory happiness” 32 ; none of them is really happy nor really alive. They are people who have never felt strong emotions; they have never understood pain or suffering. They are just playing their role in the “masquerade of gaiety.”
Frederic's mother is the evidence of what society and culture do to a woman. The sense of duty and hard-working numbed her senses and emotions. She is a woman holding a knife and killing an innocent living thing. Having killed Leon , Jeannette's chicken, she becomes the real embodiment of the cruel society which destroys the living potential.
On seeing that her chicken is killed, Juliet cannot and does not want to hide her anger and resentment. She is not afraid to speak her mind; she has the need to do something, she does not want to take things for granted. As she holds the dead Leon against her, she shows her strong emotions, her capacity to love and her passionate nature. Frederic, who has not taken his eyes off her since she entered the room, becomes amazed and overwhelmed by her furious reaction and tries to comfort her.
Although Frederic becomes strongly attracted by her being different from the others, and tries to soothe her, she still replies bitterly: “I'm the black sheep of the family – you must have heard; the one that does all the things that aren't done. You're supposed to detest me.” 33
Nevertheless, the approaching evening brings peace and unforgettable moments to both of them. They experience some extraordinary moments while sitting in the dark. Julia and Frederic's mother are busy in the kitchen, missing the beauty of the silence.
Lucien thinks there is an image of death in housewives. Their lives are the same – only monotony and passivity; they are living and partly living; they are the embodiment of death-in-life. He says: “Look at them, busy little bees. Scrubbing and scouring away in the kitchen, thinking they hold the key to Truth like a handle of a saucepan, not suspecting a thing.” 34
Meanwile, Frederic and Jeannette enjoy the evening and wish that it would never end. They realize that they can share the moment, that they feel something for each other, and that they have never really loved before. Although Jeannette has had many lovers, she has never been fully alive. Deep inside, she is angry with the unfair world she lives in and she offensively speaks to her sleeping father:
“Listen to what your daughter has to say. Your bad daughter. Not the other one. She never says shameful things that burn when they are spoken. She always does the right thing, and she's going to get her reward. She's going to be happy. She won't need just the memory of one evening, later on. She'll have the right to every evening, every day, every minute – the right to a whole lifetime.” 35
During the course of the evening, both Jeannette and Ferederic realize that they have lived unhappy lives. Frederic feels the strong impact that Jeannette has left on him. They feel united in their agony. He says:
“This pain, this agony we've both been feeling today, it can't be love – that's impossible. But I shall never be able to get rid of it now. “ 36
Although uncertain of his feelings, Frederic only knows that he wants to struggle: “I want to struggle. Yet, but not against this part of me that's crying out. I want to struggle, but not against this joy.” 37
He realizes what is to be alive after a long, long death-in-life: “So it was possible. I feel as though I were drinking water. How thirsty I was.” 38
His upbringing tells him that his behavior is not correct, but his heart says that it is the right thing and that he should go along with it. At times, the two of them think that what they are doing is wrong. Frederic says: “We must never for a moment imagine ourselves in each other arms.” 39
Yet, later on, when he feels very strong love for her, he says that it cannot be wrong. Frederic feels pain for the first time in his life. As a child, he was always protected and secure, without a real insight into life. But now, he gets hurt with Jeannette's lies, her sudden fears, irrational whims, instinctive worries and her boldness. He fights with himself to accept her as she is, her whole being, from the worst to the most virtuous aspects. However, other things stand in his way.
Lucien, with his embittered view that everything that is good is forbidden, and that people should cheat at everything, including themselves, tries to talk Frederic out of his plan to marry Jeannette. Julia, who cannot believe that Frederic leaves her because of a woman who embodies everything that he hates, suffers great humiliation.
When Frederic and Jeannettes elope and find refuge in a deserted summer house in the woods, Frederic calls Jeannette a “wooden nymph”. And she wishes that she could really be a real wood nymph, sitting in the branches with her hair all tangled, shouting insults at people 40 . But then she remembers that Frederic belongs to another world, different from hers. She lives in a world of freedom, imagination, free-will, defiance and passion. On the other hand, Frederic's ideal world is that of order and convention. He says: “It had to be your eyes that I daren't look into, your straggly hair, your urchin face and your eyes. Everything I don't like I had to love.” 41
Jeannette constantly warns Frederic that she is not like Julia. She wants him to accept her in totality – with the good and bad tied up in a knot. She warns him that by choosing her he is choosing separation from everything safe and good in his life. Aware of the fact that he has fallen in love with a woman completely different from the kind of woman he had imagined for himself, Frederic says: “I love you, and we're alone at last after that interminable day. Don't let's wait any longer! The night's coming on so quickly; I've accepted it all – the wrong and the hurt we've caused, and your being so different – provided we're here now.” 42
34 Ibid., p. 290
35 Ibid., p. 285
36 Ibid., p. 288
37 Ibid., p. 291
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid., p. 302
41 Ibid., p. 308
42 Ibid., p. 311
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid., p. 283
