Les Belles Images () is a French novel by the philosopher, essayist and feminist novelist Simone de Beauvoir published in 1966. The novel takes as its main theme the problematization of social roles and stereotypical images of bourgeois women during the 1960s through the awareness of the main character, Laurence.
Presentation The novel depicts the growing awareness of the narrator, Laurence. While juggling the roles of mother, devoted wife, lover, daughter of aging parents, and her professional life, Laurence tries to define herself in relation to these predetermined societal images, which are sometimes divergent and problematic. Throughout the novel, Laurence asks herself: "What do others have that I don't?"Simone de Beauvoir, Les Belles Images, éditions Gallimard, 1966, rééd. Collection Folio, 2006, 183p.
Laurence is an accomplished woman, leading a glamorous life in Paris. In her thirties, she married young to a forward-thinking architect, has two daughters, and an interesting career in advertising. Her profession and her life experiences have taught her to decode messages, to see through deceptive appearances, and to scrutinize social mores. Throughout the novel, she realizes that her life doesn't suit her: she finds it cold and empty, much like the slogans she creates at work. She takes a lover, but once the initial passion fades, the experience fails to lift her out of boredom. Her upbringing seems to be the source of her woes: it taught her to build her life on appearances, at the expense of her personality and personal growth. Laurence understands the limitations of her upbringing through her sister Marthe, who loses herself in religion, and her mother Dominique, dumped at 51 and ready to do anything to avoid loneliness, all while trying to emulate the image of the successful, independent woman. Meanwhile, her eldest daughter, Catherine, is growing up and opening her eyes to the world. She, too, is being taught to suppress her emotions and her quest to answer the difficult questions she asks herself about her place in the universe. Laurence cannot bear the thought of her daughter becoming the insensitive woman she herself has become. Overwhelmed by anxiety, she can no longer eat and becomes ill. It is ultimately in the name of maintaining the family's equilibrium that Laurence manages to secure a chance for her children to be different.
The novel is among Beauvoir's lesser-known works, but it remains an important text nonetheless, offering a focused glimpse into the situation of a woman of her time. Laurence's quest is universal, as the story of a woman seeking to feel at ease amidst the conflicting images of what constitutes a fulfilled woman remains ever relevant.
Characters
Laurence: main character, narrative voice Jean-Charles: Laurence's husband, a modern architect Vergne: Jean-Charles' colleague and head of the firm Lucien: Laurence's lover and colleague at Publinf Catherine: Laurence's eldest daughter, distressed by the world's troubles Brigitte: Catherine's girlfriend, precocious Louise: Laurence's youngest daughter Dominique Langlois: Laurence's mother Gilbert Mortier: partner of Dominique, millionaire Marie-Claire: Gilbert's wife who refuses the divorce Patricia: the daughter of Lucile de Saint-Chamont, with whom Gilbert falls in love Lucile de Saint-Chamont: Gilbert's former lover, Patricia's mother Marthe: Laurence's sister, a nun Hubert: Marthe's husband, Laurence's brother-in-law Dad: Laurence's father, a reclusive intellectual Serge: Dad's nephew who is looking for a job Gisèle and Mr. Dufrène: friends of the family The Thirions: friends of the family Mona: friend and colleague of Laurence at Publinf Miss Houchet: Laurence's childhood teacher who appears in her thoughts Goya: Laurence's servant Ms. Frossard: Catherine's psychologist
Literary style
Narrative focus Les Belles Images is told from the perspective of the protagonist Laurence. The narrative voice oscillates between the depiction of events experienced by Laurence and the depiction of her internal dialogue, which often interrupts the flow of the narrative as she interacts with her lived experiences. The narration is therefore in free indirect style, where the character's actions and thoughts are marked by the interchangeability of pronouns, adverbs, tense, and mood. This narrative style allows readers to move, or even oscillate, between the direct narration of the events as perceived by Laurence and the indirect representation of her thoughts and events outside the present, which infiltrate the consciousness of the narrating character.ABRAMS, M.H., A Glossary of Literary Terms, 9e éd., Canada, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009 (208) [en traduction].
In the text, these interruptions in the flow of the third-person narration, seen from Laurence's perspective, are often marked by parentheses, dashes, or the otherwise unconventional use of the first-person singular, inserted directly into the middle of sentences and paragraphs. Sometimes, the use of the pronoun and the context are the only clues to readers that this is a shift in narrative focalization. For example:
"Aimer d'amour", dit papa. Est-ce que j'aime Jean-Charles – ai-je aimé Lucien – d'amour ? Elle a l'impression que les gens lui sont juxtaposés, ils n'habitent pas en elle ; sauf ses filles, mais ça doit être organique" (67)Simone de Beauvoir, Les Belles Images, éditions Gallimard, 1966, rééd. Collection Folio, 2006, 183p.
The dialogue between characters undergoes a similar effect when certain sentences are filtered and retold by Laurence, indicated by the absence of dashes, while there are other instances where the characters speak for themselves. This type of dialogue is indicated by the use of conventional mode. The character's focalization and the use of free indirect discourse create the narratological illusion that we have access to Laurence's internal perspective in real time.
Time The novel's chronology follows the conventions of time, apart from a few more obvious interruptions in chapter 4, where Laurence seems to be narrating her earlier trip to Greece with her father, taken when she was ill during a psychological crisis. The temporal ellipsis is marked by several breaks, interruptions by Marthe (156 and 168)Simone de Beauvoir, Les Belles Images, éditions Gallimard, 1966, rééd. Collection Folio, 2006, 183p. and again by Jean-Charles (169 and 180), before the narrative returns to the present of the sequence of events, which concludes the novel.
Problematic heroine In a letter written in 1969, Simone de Beauvoir observed: "There is a ‘problematic heroine’ in the novel—like Madame Bovary, for example—and it is Laurence, a poor, lost soul, who, with her meager resources, discovers the society in which she lives".« Lettre à Jacques Lecarme sur 'Les Belles Images' (1969) » Cahier de L'Herne N.100 : Simone de Beauvoir, Éditions de L'Herne, Paris, 2012 (166–168). Beauvoir had explicitly intended Laurence to be a positive problematic heroine, despite the unfavorable reception this choice sometimes generated (103) . In her memoirs, , Beauvoir notes that: "above all, I do not feel obliged to choose exemplary heroines. To describe failure, error, bad faith, is, it seems to me, to betray no one". The characters in the novel, and especially the heroine, Laurence, are expressly not exemplary archetypes, but rather representations of real people.
The search for authentic values in a degraded world is a novelistic trope that comes from concerns related to sociological criticism and seems to replace the archetype of the traditional hero to meet the demands of our modern and conformist consumer society.
Summary
Chapter 1 Laurence and her family are spending a pleasant weekend at Feuverolles, the country house of her mother Dominique and her millionaire partner, Gilbert. The scene is, according to Laurence, "the perfect image reproduced by Plaisir de France and Votre Maison " (7).Simone de Beauvoir, Les Belles Images, éditions Gallimard, 1966, rééd. Collection Folio, 2006, 183p. Her sister, nicknamed Sainte Marthe, is looking after the children. Jean-Charles, Gilbert, Hubert, and the Dufrènes discuss high-fidelity stereos, planned trips to Balbek (10) and their jobs, and also images of the utopian metropolis of the future. Laurence remains quiet, focused on her observations, before being invited to join her mother in her room. We learn that Dominique and her daughter have a close relationship. Together they look at Dominique's reflection in the mirror. Despite the image of a 51-year-old woman aging well, Dominique fears old age, and the refusal of Gilbert's ex-wife, Marie-Claire, to grant him a divorce to upset him; She feels diminished because of her near-dependence on her partner in social matters. Her mother is an enigma and a stranger to Laurence (11).
Back in Paris, Laurence throws herself into her work, searching for a slogan to sell wooden panels (21).Simone de Beauvoir, Les Belles Images, éditions Gallimard, 1966, rééd. Collection Folio, 2006, 183p. She is interrupted by her eldest daughter, Catherine, who is bewildered by the question, "Why do we exist?" (26) Laurence tries to answer in a way that will satisfy her daughter and begins to worry about her children's emotional state. The next day at work, Laurence is still worried about Catherine and thinks about her husband, Jean-Charles, and also about her lover and colleague, Lucien, who is demanding more and more of her attention, despite the annoyance this causes her. That evening, she goes to her father's house to ask his opinion about Catherine. Laurence sees her father as a kind of wise man who lives according to his humanitarian principles despite social demands. He is a solitary man, and the love of her life (33). Laurence's father agrees to help Catherine during a visit to their home. There is a disagreement between Jean-Charles and Laurence regarding Catherine: "For him, the inside is not as important as the outside and Laurence begins to understand that if the individual loses his empathy, it is society's fault" (40).
Chapter 2 The second chapter opens with a phone call from Gilbert and a plea for Laurence to come and speak to him about Dominique. Gilbert announces that he has fallen in love with a nineteen-year-old girl, Patricia, who is also the daughter of a former lover, Lucile de Saint-Chamont. His wife finally agrees to a divorce on the condition that he marry Patricia (and not Dominique). Laurence is stunned by this pronouncement and refuses to cooperate with Gilbert when he asks her to relieve his mother's distress. The next day, she stops by Dominique's apartment. Dominique is distraught by Gilbert's decision and plots to get revenge. Dominique feels deceived and consumed by despair. She pitifully declares that "at fifty-one, you don't start your life over" (51).Simone de Beauvoir, Les Belles Images, éditions Gallimard, 1966, rééd. Collection Folio, 2006, 183p. Laurence is surprised, even disgusted, by her mother's theatrical rage. Despite her pleas, Laurence returns home worried about her mother and convinced that she will look for a reckless way to take revenge on Gilbert.
Laurence finds Catherine's friend Brigitte at her home and realizes that it is probably this friendship with a precocious girl that is the instigator of her daughter's troubles. Yet, she is charmed by Brigitte and remembers how important friendship (or for Laurence, the absence of a childhood friendship) is in the development of young girls (56–57).Simone de Beauvoir, Les Belles Images, éditions Gallimard, 1966, rééd. Collection Folio, 2006, 183p.