5 - Character and circumstance

Summary

Father and son

A detailed examination of the first three chapters of Adolphe reveals with what extraordinary care Constant prepares the reader for the thematic centre of the work, the impasse of Adolphe's relationship with Ellénore, and how he sets before us in rapid succession the facts of character and situation which will lead directly or indirectly to the final climax of the story. In his Journal entry for 26 August 1804 Constant had singled out the way Friedrich Schlegel set before the reader the personality and background of Julius, the central figure in his German novel Lucinde, as being one of the most praiseworthy parts of the book. Schlegel's heading, ‘Lehrjahre der Männlichkeit’, ‘years of apprenticeship for manhood’, would indeed be appropriate for the opening pages of Adolphe, for these constitute a rich matrix out of which the leitmotifs of the novel will slowly unfold and grow.

The first paragraph of the older Adolphe's narrative is full of ironies and very knowingly wrought, drawing the reader's eye to one of the key elements in the plot, the theme of ambition, associated from the beginning with the collision between two personalities, those of Adolphe and his father. The second sentence of the narrative, ‘L'intention de mon pere …’, ‘My father's intention was that …’, needs to be understood with the rest of the paragraph which follows it: after achieving success at university, Adolphe has raised his father's hopes to the extent that, after sending his son on the Grand Tour, he intends that he will one day succeed him as Minister to the Elector of ***.