The Red and the Black

Stendhal considered The Red and the Black a ‘mirror of France in 1830’

Characters

Julien: passionate, brilliant, stubborn, naive, calculating, ambitious, and manifestly unfit for his social station.

Madame de Rênal

Mathilde

Hypocrisy can be considered the novel’s main subject; it already appears in the title – the black resembling the cloth of the church and the red the uniform of the French army, both of which represent the two negating aspirations of the main character – and is ever present in the background of the narrative. Every action and thought of the characters is mingled with a substantial amount of hypocrisy, of which some of the characters are completely conscious.

Religion is a central motif within the novel – especially because of its relation to hypocrisy. As prominent as the presence of religion is in France, that religion is never taken seriously. Everybody is coldly disillusioned about the role of religious leaders; acts of avarice are expected rather than denounced, and those who honestly cherish Christian morals are mocked and looked upon with suspicion. It is for the sake of keeping up appearances that our Machiavellian protagonist memorizes The Bible, an ability that is readily abused by him in his early endeavors to impress provincial society.

However, in spite of his calculated hypocrisy, Julien eventually succumbs to what Stendhal presents as a basic need of human beings: faith, and specifically its greatest asset – support. As I have already said, Stendhal is an expert on the fickleness of human nature. After a sufficient amount of time, and with his back against the wall, Julien completely forgets his previous unshaken disbelief and hypocritical plots of advancement within the church.

Fool that I am! I see a Gothic cathedral, ancient stained glass; my vulnerable heart conjures up the figure of a priest within that window… My soul embraces it, my soul has need of it… What do I meet but a fop with greasy hair…

This need of religion is realized by Julien after he allows an obviously hypocritical priest to attempt his confession. The irony lies in the fact that Julien sees through the hypocrisy of the priest who came to his cell from the start, and yet their interview leaves him in despair. Thus, through Julien, Stendhal remonstrates against what has become of the Church of France: his main character first abuses its system, but when that character has a real need of the church he laments its corruption. The novel criticizes the lack of a proper institution to fulfill the religious needs of society – a lack that is all the more atrocious because of its essentiality for human beings.

Stendhal, a liberal himself, could easily have written a kind of morality tale about what happens when a man of great gifts is born in the lower ranks of society, with hardly any legitimate way of advancing. This is indeed Julien Sorel’s position. This morality tale would show us a good-hearted man, doing his best to be recognized for his genius, but overcome by circumstances. Yet Julien is infinitely more interesting for being both flawed and devious. Stendhal does not only show us how society makes his lot difficult, but, far more subtly, shows us how society deforms his psyche.

Deprived of any external encouragement, Julien’s motivation must come from worldly ambition and an egoistic pride. Since his only path to advancement is through people he despises—the clergy and the aristocracy—Julien must be dishonest, hypocritical, and ever-cautious. Forced to suppress his own emotions so constantly, and forced so frequently to act against his inclinations, whenever Julien is given a taste of kindness, love, or happiness, he loses control and threatens to undo all that his calculating subtlety had accomplished.

This psychological portrait is so perfectly realized that we both sympathize with, root for, and yet see through Julien Sorel. He is extraordinary, and yet painfully limited by his surroundings. His tragedy is that circumstances deprived the world of what he could have been had he been born in a different time and place. That Stendhal could create, at the same time, a universal morality tale, a realistic sketch of society, a vivid psychological study, and a thrilling novel—complete with a burning love story—all in the simplest prose, is a testament to the author’s high art.