Document 1547677

Fog Cutter: A Journal of Thoughtful Inquiry, Knowledge, and Ideas
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Table of Contents:
1……….Confrérie de Notre Dame: Resistance Par Excellence” by Kara Gordon
29..........“An Exegetical Understanding of the Great Whore of Babylon” by Sasha Musap
43……….“Inauthenticity in Molière’s The Ridiculous Précieuses, Tartuffe, and The Learned
Women”
by Kaitlyn Carpino
69……….“Operation Downfall and Truman’s Decision to Use the Atomic Bombs” by Victoria
Fluharty
90……….“Recognitions of and Responses to the Emptiness of Contemporary Culture in
Douglas Coupland and David Foster Wallace” by Cassie Stickel
**Cover Art, Eye (2014), by Rachel Wadell
“Confrérie de Notre Dame: Resistance Par Excellence”
Kara Gordon
Abstract: In the midst of the German occupation of France in the Second World War, many
Frenchmen refused to cooperate with Nazi Germany and instead worked to free France from her
captors. In particular, one network known as the Confrérie de Notre Dame (Brotherhood of Our
Lady) led by courageous leader Gilbert Renault proved invaluable in supplying the Allies with
information of military importance concerning France and the occupying Germans. It is clear
from agent’s memoirs and official documentation that not only did the specific operations
undertaken by the CND greatly benefit the military forces that would eventually liberate France,
but they also provided an outlet for courageous Frenchmen to maintain their individual and
national identity and honor in the face of national crisis.
People of all times and places make choices that determine their actions. These decisions
often reveal what is most central to a person’s identity and what things are the most worthy of
sacrifice. For French men and women in the summer of 1940, the need to make one of these
choices came collectively and suddenly. The French government had elected to capitulate to the
Germans, but the totality of France was by no means in agreement. Many French citizens
accepted this resolution and made their peace with it, but many others felt that the armistice
betrayed the true spirit of France. They gladly offered their talents, courage, intellects, and lives
to see their country through its time of crisis. These people became the foundation of what is
known as the French Resistance. At times, the nation-centered focus of these French patriots
would clash with each other and with the Allies, but ultimately their efforts would prove far
more valuable than inconvenient. Though their numbers may have been small, their reach
limited, and their weapons scarce, the members of the French Resistance committed all they had
to fighting their part of the war, and it would be because of the choices that they and others like
them made, as organizations and as individuals, that the France they envisioned would live on.
Resistance took many forms and followed varying philosophies, but tribute is due especially to
the intelligence-gathering networks within France, which arguably contributed more to victory
1
than any other type of resistance. Even among these praiseworthy groups, one especially stands
out for its valor and success: the Confrérie de Notre Dame. This network, perhaps more than any
other, would prove extremely valuable to the Allied war effort and would come to embody many
of the greatest truths regarding occupied, defeated France and the true role of the resistance.
Though often grouped under one title, the many thousands of French citizens who chose to
resist the Germans formed numerous organizations and networks located in different areas and
with different specialties. On the 18th of June, 1940, a little over a month after the defeat of
France, a previously obscure man by the name of Charles de Gaulle issued an appeal to the
French in a BBC radio broadcast. 1 After rallying French patriotism and encouraging his
countrymen to maintain their courage, de Gaulle explicitly called for active resistance to the
Germans and he specified that such actions should be coordinated from London, where he was
currently in exile. He announced, “I, General de Gaulle, currently in London, invite the officers
and the French soldiers who are located in British territory or who might end up here, with their
weapons or without their weapons…to put themselves in contact with me.” 2 With these words,
de Gaulle had established the main pattern that coordinated resistance would take. Men and
women in France would work in conjunction with allies outside the country and would establish
organizations in England to coordinate continued resistance within France itself.
The organization that was established to deal with all intelligence matters would come to
be known as the Bureau Central de Renseignements et d’Action (BCRA), translated as the
Central Bureau of Intelligence and Operations. This was the department of de Gaulle’s Free
France government that concerned itself with gathering intelligence from agents in France and
coordinating actions involving both French and English actors. The BCRA would be responsible
1
2
Julian Jackson, France, the Dark Years, 1940-1944 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 389.
Charles de Gaulle, “Appeal of June 18,” World War II Database, http://ww2db.com/doc.php?q=283.
2
for overseeing the most crucial resistance activities in France, while also working to realize de
Gaulle’s vision of a France whose courage deserved Allied recognition.
The agency that would become known as the BCRA began its life on July 1st, 1940 as the
Deuxième Bureau (S2). 3 From the very beginning it was placed by de Gaulle under the control
of Captain André Dewavrin, better known by his alias “Passy.” Commanding an intelligence
organization was a position for which he had no previous experience. 4 Nevertheless, the
Deuxième Bureau continued to grow. As it expanded, it also changed its name several times,
becoming the Service de Renseignement (SR), then the Bureau Central de Renseignements et
d’Action Militaire (BCRAM), and finally in September 1942, the BCRA. 5 Regardless of the
name it chose to be known by, however, this organization became the head representative of one
of France’s most vital contributions to the war effort in France, coordinating the gathering of
intelligence that would prove invaluable to all Allied militants.
Ultimately, the key components of the BCRA were the individuals and networks
operating under it. Agents came from many backgrounds and joined the resistance for many
reasons. 6 Some may have joined and came to London out of loyalty to de Gaulle but most, quite
frankly, came in spite of him. A good many resisters, however, came without any particular
feelings for de Gaulle at all and indeed some scholars affirm that most of them would probably
have acted in the same way whether there was a General de Gaulle or not. 7 Some were former
military officers who felt that they could not watch peacefully as France handed itself over to the
Germans. Others were merely civilians with little experience of war but a strong desire to make
3
Pascal Le Pautremat, The Free French Secret Agents: The Bureau Central de Renseignements et d’Action, trans.
Valerie Capo (Paris: Histoire and Collections, 2013), 11.
4
Jackson, France, the Dark Years, 390.
5
Le Pautremat, The Free French Secret Agents, 31.
6
Jackson, France: The Dark Years, 390.
7
John F. Sweets, The Politics of Resistance in France, 1940-1944 (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press,
1976), 72.
3
a stand for something they felt strongly about. Some had families they left behind in France and
would not see again until the war was over. No matter their occupation or their background, the
men who came to join the mission of the BCRA all shared one thing in common: all had a nearly
religious devotion to the idea of a France free from all enslavement, and all were willing to offer
any sacrifices necessary to make that idea a reality.
Gilbert Renault was one of these men. Renault came from Brittany in the northwest of
France and studied law at the College Saint-Francois-Xavier. 8 Eventually he married and by the
time the war broke out, he was the father of four children. 9 He worked variously as a banker, an
insurance salesman, and a film producer, all of which proved to be valuable opportunities
because they allowed him to build a web of contacts among a large group of people. 10 As the
Germans neared, Renault and his brother decided that the best thing they could do for France
was to leave immediately for England, which they did, eventually finding a boat willing to take
them. They set sail on June 18th, 1940, 11 and after a rather uneventful voyage, found themselves
in London.
Although the BCRA and Renault are often classed as Gaullist resisters, as the date
indicates, Renault had left France before de Gaulle’s cry for resistance, and even before Marshal
Petain had announced the armistice. In fact, it seems that many early leaders of the resistance,
even Captain Dewavrin himself, arrived in London without any specific commitment to de
Gaulle, usually because they had never heard of him. 12 Far from supporting and choosing de
8
Le Pautremat, The Free French Secret Agents, 38.
“Agents envoyés en mission de Londres avant l’organisation du service d’incorporation,” CND- Castille.org,
Documents BCRAM sur le réseau, 100, http://www.cnd-castille.org/images/Documentation/Documents
_BCRAM_LONDRES_CDNC .PDF. (For all of these official documents pertaining to the BCRA and the CND, I
was assisted in the translation of the French by Josephine Neema and Kaitlyn Carpino.)
10
Le Pautremat, The Free French Secret Agents, 38.
11
Remy, The Silent Company, trans. Lancelot Shepherd (London: Morrison and Gibb, Ltd., 1948), 3.
12
Milton Dank, The French Against the French (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1974), 79; David
Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night: The Story of the French Resistance (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1980), 41.
9
4
Gaulle over Petain, Renault initially placed great faith in Petain, even as he crossed the channel
to join de Gaulle’s resistance. 13 This faith was short-lived, however. In his memoirs, Renault
recalled hearing of Petain’s decision to capitulate with a melancholy feeling of complete
betrayal. 14 From then on, Renault adamantly believed that Petain was the chief impediment to
the survival of France and saw the continued support Petain received from the French people as
the most serious threat to patriotic action. 15
Clearly, Renault’s reasons for leaving France, like many other early resistance leaders,
had more to do with his own inner convictions and a desire to “retrieve the lost honor of [his]
country” 16 than with his political opinions of particular leaders. Renault seems perfectly to fit
the pattern described by John F. Sweets, who writes:
In attempting to explain their actions, the pioneers of the Resistance, convinced of its necessity
from the first and so creators of the first organized opposition, return time and again to the twin
themes of patriotism and humanism. Their natural patriotic reaction to the German occupation
was closely linked to a belief in the value of the individual human being. These two ideas tended
to merge into a conception of France as the traditional champion of individual human worth. 17
When Renault told his wife, then expecting their fifth child, that he was about to leave for
Germany, he explained his motivation in characteristically passionate, somewhat romanticized,
terms: “The Germans may be here today. We don’t have the right to let ourselves be taken. The
war must go on. If we give in, if Germany becomes mistress of Europe, life won’t be worth
living…Our children will be torn from us, and their German masters will bring them up in the
13
Remy, The Silent Company, 15.
Ibid., 17.
15
Ibid., 119.
16
Sweet, The Politics of Resistance in France, 10.
17
Ibid., 12.
14
5
teachings of National Socialism. Wouldn’t it be better to die?” 18 Although this short speech may
very well have been embellished by his memory over the years, it still seems fair to maintain that
higher ideals than politics drove him to England and resistance. His goals were also much more
personal, centered on securing a better future for his children. From the beginning, his first
priority was his immediate family and then his country, and General de Gaulle was only the
means to serving that end. De Gaulle simply became a symbol of what these men were fighting
for and was followed for that reason. 19
It is also interesting that the various resistance activists often were not familiar with or
deeply attached to each other. In fact, Renault writes in the introduction to his memoir that
eventually it became too dangerous to even give pseudonyms and so many of the members of his
network remained completely anonymous to him, devoid of any markers of their individual
identity. 20 Much of the activity of the resistance, therefore, was practically carried out in the
dark. For this reason, it is more helpful to understand the Resistance as loosely connected
individuals motivated by their own beliefs and ideals. Though their decisions were not tied to
their loyalty to particular leaders but to France itself, Renault and many others found their
consciences calling them to London and made a conscious and deliberate choice to go there, 21
where they eventually met with de Gaulle and his followers and became part of the resistance
mission.
Within a short time of his arrival in London, de Gaulle’s intelligence advisors found
Renault to be a potentially valuable asset and agreed to work with him. They were pleased that
he had already collected a list of useful persons who would be willing to supply him with
18
Remy, The Silent Company, 4.
Sweet, The Politics of Resistance in France, 73.
20
Remy, The Silent Company, xiv.
21
Sweet, The Politics of Resistance in France, 13.
19
6
information. 22 Renault proposed a plan in which he would travel to Spain and ostensibly
continue the work he had been doing on a film about Christopher Columbus as a cover for his
intelligence operations. 23 His superiors agreed, and after a brief and rather humorous lesson in
encryption, 24 Renault secured a way into Spain, and from there into France. He eventually
became the head of a network that he called the Confrérie de Notre Dame (CND), translated as
the Brotherhood of Our Lady, and was known himself under the various pseudonyms of
“Raymond,” “Jean-Luc,” “Morin,” and, most famously, “Rémy.” 25
Before long, the CND became one of the largest and most significant networks working
for the BCRA within France. 26 The CND also became emblematic of many of the key features
of the resistance in France. Renault’s personal devotion formed a community of resisters that
was truly a network in every sense of the word. It consisted of friends and acquaintances,
relatives and coworkers, all relying on each other to get information through to the Allies and
keep themselves from capture. Countless patriots who felt they could not simply sit back and
wait for the war to be won for them found a way to contribute in some small way with results
that surpassed the powers of any of them individually. Though at first he had no idea of the size
his network of resisters would become, Renault’s choice to take the first step against the
Germans had profound consequences.
Once secured in Spain with the making of his film as an alibi, Renault set about
establishing contacts and finding a way back into France. Though it was a difficult task, Renault
relied on the assistance of several close friends, some of whom knew his full mission and some
of whom thought he simply needed to return to France for business matters, to secure a visa to
22
Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 82.
Remy, The Silent Company, 26; Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 42.
24
Remy, The Silent Company, 35.
25
Le Pautremat, The Free French Secret Agents, 38-39; Remy, The Silent Company, 175.
26
Dank, The French Against the French, 79; Documentation, 3; Documentation, 87.
23
7
return to France in November, 1941. 27 At first, he entered the Unoccupied Zone and traveled to
various cities making connections with friends and friends of friends who had offered their
services to his mission. In order to really combat the Germans however, he realized he would
have to enter the Occupied Zone, which seemed to be a much more difficult task.
One of the first recruits to Renault’s network was Louis de la Bardonnie from the town of
Saint-Foy. 28 In fact, some claim that La Bardonnie had already begun the formation of a
network before Renault, 29 though this is unsupported by Renault’s memoirs, most other analyses,
and the official BCRA records of the network. 30 Regardless, it was La Bardonnie who arranged
for Renault’s first crossing into the Occupied Zone. 31 Later on, La Bardonnie would continue to
be a useful associate willing to take great risk to house Renault’s agents and provide assistance
crossing between the two zones. With the added help of a farm hand and his family, Renault
escaped over the German line by crossing empty fields and the Lidoire River. 32 Once on the
other side, he was met by La Bardonnie’s friend Dr. Pailloux and the crossing was completed
without any altercation. Renault had reached the Occupied Zone and now his real work could
begin.
In the Occupied Zone, the formation of the network continued in the same pattern.
Renault would travel from city to city and visit friends and contacts he knew could be trusted.
These agents then recommended others who could be of assistance and in this way the network
continued to branch out informally but steadily. Renault was especially careful to establish
contacts with those in good positions to supply information on important German developments,
27
Remy, The Silent Company, 59.
Ibid., 67.
29
Le Pautremat, The Free French Secret Agents, 96.
30
“Historique BCRAM du réseau, 1950,” CND-Castille.org, http://www.cnd-castille.org/images/Documentation/
Historique_BCRAM_du%20reseauCNDC.pdf.
31
Remy, The Silent Company, 68.
32
Ibid., 122.
28
8
such as submarine bases. 33 Renault learned to sharpen his already keen ability to judge character
and with each stop in a new city, Renault’s list of agents continued to grow.
As the network solidified, several agents distinguished themselves for the value of the
information they collected and the courage that they displayed in gathering that intelligence.
One such agent was Jean Philippon, known by the pseudonym Hilarion, who entered the network
in February of 1941. 34 Hilarion, a former lieutenant commander who had been second in
command of a submarine unable to escape when the Germans arrived, was situated in the port
town of Brest, and so was recruited to gather information on the German submarine base and the
naval operations being carried out there. 35 His association and experience with the naval base
was to prove quite valuable to Renault and to the Allies in general. On one occasion, Hilarion
took Renault down to the harbor and showed him two German ships, the Scharnhorst and the
Gneisenau, camouflaged to hide them from Allied bombing. 36 Later, he reported on the damage
done in the bombing raids, the layout of the harbor, where certain ships were kept and how they
were camouflaged, and he also predicted that structures were being put in place to accommodate
a much larger ship. 37 According to Renault, this ship eventually was found to be the Bismarck,
which was sunk thanks to Hilarion’s intelligence. 38 Following this success, Hilarion was
33
Ibid., 81.
C.N.D. Castille: Livre d’Or Des Membres Du Réseau, 60, CND-Castille.org, http://www.cnd-castille.org/images/
Documentation/Livre_dOr_CND_CASTILLE.pdf.
35
Remy, The Silent Company, 110.
36
Ibid., 123.
37
Ibid., 130.
38
Ibid., 153; Another source, however, claims that the information regarding the Bismarck that the Allies acted upon
came from intercepted Enigma communications that were decoded by Bletchley Park. Nevertheless, it is true that
the Bismarck was docked in Brest, so Hilarion could very well have supplied this same information, ignorant as he
would have been of the decryption work being done in England. Possibly, London credited Hilarion with the
intelligence as part of the effort to keep the ability to decode Enigma as secret as possible. See Stephen Budiansky,
Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II (New York: The Free Press, 2000), 189.
34
9
commissioned to procure information on the anti-submarine net being constructed at Brest, and
his perfectly thorough report earned him the congratulations of the British Admiralty. 39
Another one of Renault’s intelligence gatherers eventually built up his own very
successful sub-network around the area of Bordeaux. 40 Jean Fleuret, along with his son Marc,
joined the network in January of 1941, and they were given the pseudonyms of Espadon and
Espadon Jr. respectively. 41 From that point forward, Espadon and son forwarded to London
specific military information regarding Bordeaux as well as comments on public opinion and the
status of police. 42 By becoming the center of his own sub-network, Espadon demonstrated how
the network continued to radiate beyond Renault himself in order to achieve the greatest range of
activity possible.
Perhaps the most dangerous occupation of all was that of the radio operators. During his
initial stay in Brest, Renault was introduced by Hilarion to a friend by the name of Bernard
Anquetil. 43 Once Renault became convinced of his loyalty, Anquetil was dubbed L’hermite and
eventually given charge of the radio operated from Saumur. 44 The transmitter he used was called
Cyrano and was the first radio given to the network from London. 45 He was set up near
Renault’s uncle’s radio parts shop and from there would be the link in the intelligence chain that
would pass on the messages of the other agents to London. 46 Unfortunately, however, L’hermite
was to have a tragic end. Once the Germans began using radio detector vans to hunt for
suspicious transmissions, the radio operators were naturally the most vulnerable. Although he
39
Remy, The Silent Company, 154.
“Confrérie Notre-Dame, Sous Reseaux,” CND-Castille.org, http://www.cnd-castille.org/images/Documentation/
Historique_BCRAM_du%20reseauCNDC.pdf, Page 4.
41
Livre D’or, 12.
42
“Compte Rendu de L’Activité De La Section De Renseignements Du S.R., Semaine du 31 au, 1941,” CNDCastille.org, Documents BCRAM sur le réseau, 4.
43
Remy, The Silent Company, 110.
44
Ibid., 118.
45
Ibid., 114.
46
Ibid., 149.
40
10
had received warning that the Germans could possibly be closing in on him, L’hermite continued
to transmit despite the risk. 47 Because of this, he was eventually found by the Germans and was
arrested July 30, 1941. 48 He was then the first member of the network to be executed by the
Germans for his resistance activities. 49 L’hermite’s arrest and execution was the first major
tragedy for the network and also proved to be a turning-point for Renault in the organization of
his enterprise and his estimation of the Germans.
These are only a few examples of the hundreds of agents who worked under Renault in
the CND. Although it seems nearly impossible, at least one dedicated scholar has attempted to
attach some numbers to the agents of the network in order to make a clearer overall picture.
Based on his academic studies of the network, drawn largely from information provided by
descendants of network members, Yves Chanier has established a database of 1508 agents who
were members of the CND during the war. 50 Of these, 291 were female and 852 were married.
Twenty-two were radio operators and five were clerics. 524 (over a third of the total number)
were eventually arrested, 12 died after being tortured, 234 were deported and then returned to
France, and 105 were deported and perished abroad. Of course, it is important to recognize that
these numbers may not be infallible and Chanier does not claim that they are comprehensive of
the entire network, but they do seem to have a solid scholarly basis and are helpful to visualize
the actual extent of the network, as well as the risks that each of the agents took by participating.
What sorts of information did these agents actually pass on to London? As has already
been noted in the case of Hilarion, they often transmitted plans for German military and naval
47
Ibid., 160.
“Annes 1941: Missions Des Agents,” CND-Castille.org. Documents BCRAM sur le réseau, 69.
49
Remy, The Silent Company, 165.
50
Yves Chanier, “Statistiques Nationales CND-Castille,” CND-Castille.org, http://www.cnd-castille.org/images/
Documentation/Statistiques_CND-CASTILLE.pdf. While conducting my research, I came into contact with this
man and found the studies he has done and the original documents he has collected to be extremely valuable. He
has devoted considerable scholarly attention to researching the CND and publishing his findings on the website he
created. He also has a personal connection to the network, as his grandmother was a member.
48
11
installations or assisted Allied bombers by supplying the exact locations of specific targets.
Others reported on the German factories and quantities of materials produced. 51 Still other
agents submitted information on German planes and the workings of the Luftwaffe. 52 Each
branch of the network was given special assignments, and eventually a standard questionnaire
was distributed in order to assure that the intelligence collected was as useful as possible. 53 In
fact, according to his memoir, it was Renault himself who took to London a copy of the German
plans for coastal defenses from Cherbourg to the Seine which had been collected by his friends
in France, a crucial contribution to the later Allied landings. 54
The methods used to convey this information varied. Certainly, radio transmitters were
used to send messages quickly and directly to London. Although at first, the network only
possessed the one transmitter, Cyrano, a bulky, impractical piece of equipment difficult to carry
without attracting notice, 55 eventually Renault succeeded in obtaining more transmitters that
were also smaller and easier to move continuously to different locations to stay ahead of the
German detectors. 56 Even once this occurs, however, messages simply carried from agent to
agent in long chains of established relays seem to have remained the dominant form of
conveyance, especially within France. When documents or plans needed to be sent to England,
they would often be photographed and either the microfilm or the original would be sent to
London while the other copy would remain behind in case the first document was prevented
51
“Exemple d’un rapport de Renseignement TRUFFIT Simone,” CND-Castille.org, http://www.cndcastille.org/images/Documentation/Exemple_rapport_renseignement_TRUFFIT_Simone%20.pdf.
52
“Exemple original d'un microfilm de renseignement sur la Luftwaffe envoyé aux agents CND Castille,” CNDCastille.org, http://www.cnd-castille.org/images/Documentation/Kodack_de_renseignement_luftwaffe
_CND_CASTILLE.pdf.
53
Remy, The Silent Company, 235.
54
Ibid., 402.
55
Ibid., 114.
56
Ibid., 184; Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 178.
12
from reaching its destination. 57 Whether communicated by radio or by word-of-mouth, all
messages were encoded for secrecy. Renault makes mention of having at least a few different
variations of codes, with the keys being certain books that he owned and kept in several places so
that he could access them while he traveled. 58 Invisible ink was also employed by the agents,
allowing them to send messages by mailing packages of ordinary goods to each other with the
message written on the wrapping paper. 59 With all of these movie-worthy spy tactics, the CND
agents attempted to outwit the Germans in a deadly game of cat and mouse with – hopefully –
the mice always one step ahead.
Though some members were tasked explicitly with providing military information,
resistance cannot be understood simply in military terms. It was also importantly a social
phenomenon. 60 Many of the members of Remy’s vast network assisted in humble ways that on
the surface do not seem militarily valuable. These people came from all manner of occupations,
classes, and areas and were typically ordinary people with no previous experience in intelligence,
yet they still found informal ways to contribute to resistance. 61 Among them were farmers,
doctors, businessmen, housewives, scientists, and even children. In actuality, if all those who
gave Remy or his men aid, lodging, a good meal, a glass of wine (and Renault was quite the
connoisseur), or a place to hide were counted, the list would probably include thousands of
names. Everywhere he went, Renault relied on friends and sometimes even strangers to support
his mission in ways both large and small, and without the sacrifices these patriots made, his
operation could never have had any success.
57
Remy, The Silent Company, 156.
Ibid., 161.
59
Ibid., 177.
60
Jackson, France: The Dark Years, 387.
61
Ibid., 388.
58
13
One of these small yet crucial players in the network was a man by the name of
Rambaud, the owner of a farmhouse situated just over the demarcation line in the Occupied
Zone. After Renault had completed his first crossing of the Lidoire, he immediately sought
refuge with Rambaud, who promised that Renault or his men were welcome there whenever they
needed. Rambaud proceeded to give him a basin of warm water for his feet and a drink before
he went on his way. 62 According to Renault’s account, Rambaud indeed played a very
significant role helping to smuggle agents back and forth between the zones and providing them
with a place to rest on their journeys. Eventually, this traffic results in Rambaud being arrested
for suspicious activity. Although he is released for lack of evidence, Renault is quick to point
out that this fact should not belittle the risks Rambaud took, for there were many more like
Rambaud and many of them were not so lucky. 63
Another one of these friends of the network was unique in that his help originated from
England and not from France. When Renault first arrived in London, he was sought out and
befriended by a man named Schumann. 64 Maurice Schumann, a BBC broadcaster known as the
“Voice of France” for his rallying programs aired in occupied France, 65 proceeded to broadcast a
message spoken by Renault himself to his family to let them know of his safety. 66 After Renault
had returned to France, Schumann continued to play messages he had recorded before he left so
that his departure from England would remain a secret. 67 Official records of the BCRA indicate
that Schumann was also used to transmit coded messages to agents working in France, so that
62
Remy, The Silent Companyn, 76.
Ibid., 139.
64
Ibid., 28.
65
Eric Pace, “Maurice Schumann, 86, dies; ‘Voice of France’ during war,” New York Times, February 11, 1998.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/11/world/maurice-schumann-86-dies-voice-of-france-duringwar.html?pagewanted=print.
66
Remy, The Silent Company, 29.
67
Ibid., 37.
63
14
London could coordinate their actions or schedule drops or landings. 68 Commanding what could
be described as the most vital of weapons to an intelligence organization (namely the radio),
Schumann’s contribution was yet one more testimony to the value of Renault’s many friends.
As all of these personages illustrate, crucial to understanding the workings and success of
any resistance network in France, and especially that of the CND, is a concept that could aptly be
called an “improvised community.” In his chapter on resistance in France, Olivier Wieviorka
describes France after the armistice as a place in which the usual frameworks of society had
collapsed. 69 He writes, “When the traditional structures were removed, the ensuing atomization
of French society meant a withdrawal into the private sphere.” 70 Wieviorka thus points out that
resistance necessarily began as an individual effort on the part of people like Renault, but slowly
over time the withdrawal into the private sphere was reversed and people found a new
community in resistance to the Germans. Somehow they realized that mere individual survival
was not enough. New lines of communication were laid, taking the old connections that had
served the purposes of peace and turning them to the purposes of war and national survival. The
cooperation of these people was crucial. True, they did not lead major resistance efforts, but the
fact that they faithfully followed those who had chosen to lead created a necessary momentum
towards resistance. 71 Of such volunteers, John Sweets claims, “Of greater significance were the
independent decisions of others in France. These men, no less than de Gaulle, were imbued with
a sense of mission, a charge voluntarily assumed to retrieve the lost honor of their country.” 72 In
other words, the CND was able to carry out its mission with such success because Renault and
68
“Compte Rendu No 31: Des Activités de la Section de Renseignement du 23 Mai au 30 Mai 1942,” CNDCastille.org, Documents BCRAM sur le réseau, 30.
69
Olivier Wieviorka, “France,” in Resistance in Western Europe, ed. Bob Moore (Oxford: Oxford International
Publishers, Ltd., 2000), 126.
70
Ibid., 127.
71
Victor Vinde, “The Spirit of Resistance,” Foreign Affairs 21, no. 1 (Oct. 1942): 67, accessed November 4, 2014,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20029295.
72
Sweet, The Politics of Resistance in France, 10.
15
the people he recruited were able to rebuild a community centered on a collective mission with
the goal of once again liberating France. Renault himself says of these people:
[They] had the most ungrateful task. They had neither the excitement of a constant struggle
with the enemy not the consolation of achievement. Unlike us, they could not change their
identity or their residence from one day to the next. They had to go on living in their own houses
under their own names. They could not even run away when anger threatened; their loved ones
would have been arrested as hostages. Every night that we spent in their houses, however
thoroughly we might destroy our traces, wove an invisible net around them...To them all, I can
only say thank you from the bottom of my heart. 73
As Renault recognizes, resistance efforts like the CND only succeeded because of the
support of the population. Without the sympathy and assistance of these people, or if they had
chosen instead to follow Vichy and support the Germans, a network like the CND could never
have survived.
Certainly, all of these agents and citizens, and many more that remain unmentioned, were
vitally necessary, but still no one had as much to do with the successful establishment and
running of the network as Renault did himself. What sort of man, then, was Renault? How was
he able to coordinate such a well-running organization in the midst of enemy-occupied France?
From his memoirs and the tributes that others have written to him, it becomes clear that
Renault’s true genius lay in his ability to make and maintain strong connections between great
numbers of people all over France and in England and Spain as well. 74 He was able to organize
the network so that each person had a role to perform that was suitable to their situation and
ability and also useful to the network as a whole. Renault was also very adept at self-reflection
73
74
Remy, The Silent Company, 139.
In fact, the extent to which he was able to do this puts any current conception of social networking to shame.
16
and logical reasoning, prompting him to constantly reexamine his efforts to make sure that
everything was done as efficiently and safely as possible. These pragmatic qualities made
Renault a proficient manager and as a result his network functioned like a well-run business.
There was a good deal more to Renault than simply pragmatism, however. He was also a
man of sophisticated thoughts and high ideals, with the self-discipline and willingness to
sacrifice anything to realize them. He often paused throughout his reminisces to remark on some
philosophical truth he had learned through his work or to condemn those members of the French
population who did nothing to resist the Germans. He felt very deeply the loss of each one of his
agents or acquaintances, even though he simultaneously recognized the need to push them from
his thoughts and move on, no matter how difficult that was, cutting off the “contagious” element
before it could infect the whole network. 75
Yet, there was a lighter side to his character as well. Renault ascribed great importance
to the simple pleasures of life and maintained a distinct sense of humor, even as he was in the
midst of danger and war. At one point he self-consciously remarked, “Readers may think that I
make too much of the pleasures of the table. On the contrary, I believe that they cannot be
overestimated.” 76 He then goes on to quote a passage from Descartes which asserts that nearly
every great event of history had begun around a dinner table, and so Renault happily concludes,
“The plots we made against the high and mighty Reich were of a caliber worthy to be combined
with the inspiration that comes from a well-planned dinner.” 77 In these and other anecdotes, he
emerges as fundamentally honest in his appraisal of himself, as willing to joke about his own
quirks as he is to poke fun at anyone else. Although London, and perhaps his followers,
75
Remy, The Silent Company, 165.
Ibid., 274. Indeed, Renault does make a good deal of the “pleasures of the table.” No account of a meeting is
complete without him mentioning what they were eating for dinner.
77
Ibid.
76
17
considered him a man without fear for his bravery in the face of German investigation, 78 he was
never too proud to admit his own fear and doubt. 79 No fear or doubt, however, could shake his
conviction that his cause was a worthy one, so he always found a way to persevere in the
struggle whatever the setbacks.
The foundation of his conviction seems to have been his faith, as evidenced on numerous
occasions. The first time he was detained by a German guard for suspicious activity, his mind
immediately began to form the words of the Hail Mary until he was calm enough to think out his
escape. 80 After a brief trip to England to report on his progress, he returned to France with the
head of a statue of Our Lady of Victories that was all but destroyed in the bombing of London. 81
He took the head with the promise that he would have a new statue made for the church as a
contribution, but while on his journeys the statue also becomes his patroness of protection. Even
the naming of the network itself was meant by Renault to place his efforts directly under the
protection of the Blessed Mother. 82 In totality, it seems just to say that Renault was a man
willing to fight for his convictions yet also guided by common sense, able to exalt in simple joys
despite the circumstances, and grounded on a faith that gave him courage and the freedom to do
what he believed to be necessary. All of these qualities and beliefs made Renault the man
capable of leading the CND to victory.
Yet Renault also had some traits that threatened the survival of the network at certain
points. For one, he was at least initially a bit rash and romantic in his decision making. After all,
what sort of man is it that leaves his four children and pregnant wife just as the Germans are
78
“Compte-Rendu No. 7 de L’activité de la Section de Renseignements du 6 Décembre au 13 Décembre,” CNDCastille.org, Documents BCRAM sur le réseau, 9.
79
Remy, The Silent Company, 70.
80
Ibid., 135.
81
Ibid., 279.
82
Ibid., 246.
18
rolling in, whatever his patriotic ideals supposedly were? There is sometimes a fine line between
heroism and irresponsibility, and at times it can be genuinely difficult to determine which
category Renault belongs in. Supposedly, a companion of his on a trip to England became
terrified when Renault insisted on bringing a three-foot azalea plant as a gift to Madame de
Gaulle with him on the ship, where the two men were hiding under the floor planks to avoid
being seen by the Gestapo. 83 In the beginning, he also seems to be much too trusting of people
that he meets or have been recommended to him, and he eventually realizes these mistakes only
after a good many tragedies. In the end though, while a great deal of time could be spent
determining the lives lost or endangered by Renault’s mistakes, as it could in any situation
involving imperfect humanity, such a pursuit hardly seems helpful for evaluating the network as
a whole. What is important is that even if he perhaps began naïve or rash, his courage and sound
judgment ultimately had the final say.
It was less than a year after Renault returned to France before his work came under the
notice of the Germans, with nearly disastrous consequences. The first tragedy was the arrest of
L’hermite, but it was by no means the last. Many other arrests were to follow and German
infiltration of the network would only increase as time went on. 84 Many of the arrests were the
result of one traitor, an agent by the name of Capri who acted as the liaison between Espadon
and another agent called Moineau. 85 The son of a passionate collaborator, Capri was arrested by
the Germans while crossing the demarcation line, and then proceeded to convert to the side of his
captors and relinquish all of the information he knew, which included the names and locations of
many agents as well as clues to Renault’s true identity. 86 All in all, Renault believed that sixty
83
Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 256.
Le Pautremat, The Free French Secret Agents, 96.
85
Jean Overton Fuller, The German Infiltration of SOE: France 1941-1944 (London: William Kimber, 1975),23.
86
Ibid.
84
19
agents had been arrested because of Capri, including Espadon and his wife, and Renault himself
was greatly endangered. 87
Another incident of German infiltration concerned Hilarion and the German battleships
he had been reporting on in Brest, the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau, and the Prince Eugen. On
February 1 and 7, 1942, Renault had transmitted messages to London with the concern that these
ships were likely to be ready to take to sea again in only a short time. 88 Unfortunately, London
also received messages from the Germans and a Dutch double-agent in disguise that contradicted
Renault’s communication and insisted that the ships would remain in port for some while
longer. 89 London chose to believe the dishonest reports, and as a result the ships escaped Brest
to fight again against the Allies. 90
These occasions of infiltration combined with the many arrests or near arrests of Renault
and his agents caused great concern for Renault and the BCRA 91 and led to some serious
changes in the tone and structure of the network. Initially, Renault confessed that he had
considered the Gestapo “inefficient” because they had chosen to arrest a few agents rather than
wait and try to pounce on the whole chain or because they believed his excuses and did not
search him even when he had walked right into a trap. 92 In fact, he realized that at the beginning,
the work he was doing seemed more of a game to him than a war. 93 However, his naiveté was
short lived. After the great string of tragedies from late 1941 to 1942 that resulted in the arrest
of both of Renault’s sisters and his uncle, as well as many others, Renault was forced to admit
87
Ibid., 24.
Ibid., 22.
89
Ibid., 23.
90
Ibid.
91
“Compte rendu No. 16 de L’activité de la Section de Renseignement du 20 au 27 février 1942,” CNd-Castille.org,
Documents BCRAM sur le réseau, 20.
92
Remy, The Silent Company, 172.
93
Ibid., 155.
88
20
that, “Our ideas have been out of touch with reality.” 94 Fortunately, this near death experience
proved to be the turning point that the network was much in need of.
The result of Renault’s disillusionment was that the network transitioned from a close but
informal community to a structured, business-like operation. Agents now had specific
assignments, titles, and areas to cover. 95 After every incident, Renault drew new conclusions
about how to escape the same danger the next time. After L’hermite’s arrest, he decided that
only he would know who the heads of the different branches of the network were, thereby
reducing the amount of information each agent could possibly reveal. 96 He also established the
protocol that following an arrest, everyone who had had any connection to the unfortunate agent
was to go underground for a period of time afterwards to minimize the damage. 97 These changes
in organization were crucial for the network. They allowed the CND to continue to expand and
garner more information, while remaining segmented enough that the Germans could not simply
unravel the whole operation at once. From a historical point of view then, it could be said that
the Germans did the CND more good than harm. The persecution that failed to kill the network
outright eventually made it stronger.
To truly assess its contribution, it is helpful to compare the CND and its mission and
methods with other prominent components of the French Resistance. The faction known as the
Maquis is perhaps the most widely recognized resistance organization. Formed largely after the
Germans instituted their policy of forced labor, the Maquis began as groups of men hiding from
94
Ibid., 174.
“Situation de la CND au Vendredi 12 Juin 1942,” CND-Castille.org, Documents BCRAM sur le réseau, 58.
96
Remy, The Silent Company, 167.
97
“Analyse BCRAM des conséquences des arrestations de juin 1942 dans le réseau CND Castille, » CNDCastille.org, http://www.cndcastille.org/images/Documentation/Analyse_BCRAM_des_consequences_des_arrestations
_juin_1942_CND_CASTILLE.pdf .
95
21
the authorities and angered enough to take up arms. 98 They concentrated their efforts on guerilla
warfare and acts of sabotage. 99 The Maquis, therefore, represents those groups that decided that
the best way to defeat the Germans was by carrying out independent acts of violence.
On the whole, Renault very decidedly set himself against the philosophy of the Maquis,
not because he doubted their patriotism but simply because he did not seem to find their methods
effective. He noted that it was particularly dangerous to mix fighting with intelligence work and
often refused prospective members who were already involved in the Maquis or a similar
group. 100 Thus for Renault, there was clearly an either-or choice to be made: one could pursue
resistance through violent action or through intelligence, not both. Most scholars agree that the
French could ever have found the men or resources to defeat the Germans on their own, a fact
that is proven by how quickly Maquis units were defeated once the Allies had landed and a
general uprising had begun. 101 In light of this reality, Renault’s choice to aid France by
supplying the Allies with what they needed seems to have been the more logical and efficacious
course.
Another important arm of the resistance was the French Communist party, which joined
the ranks of the resistance in 1941. 102 In many respects, the communists had quite a few skills to
offer the resistance; they had experience in organization, propaganda, sabotage, and other
clandestine or violent activities. 103 They were not, however, able to cooperate with other
resistance factions. The communists were distrusted by other groups and in turn distrustful of
them. 104 This situation was brought about by the fact that the communists were fighting as much
98
Jackson, France the Dark Years, 452.
Ibid., 486.
100
Remy, The Silent Company, 149.
101
Wieviorka, “France,” 144.
102
Ibid., 132.
103
Ibid.
104
Ibid., 133.
99
22
for a specific political vision of post-war France as they were fighting against the Germans. This
contrasts starkly with Renault’s philosophy. Though he certainly had his own political
preferences, his methods suggest that for him the defeat of the Germans was the paramount goal;
the politics of the post-war world could be decided exactly then: after the war.
Unlike Renault, the communists were often suspicious of both the Allies and de Gaulle 105
and so chose to fight for their own victory rather than an Allied one. This political ideology
would have profoundly limited their effectiveness in the task of liberating France, for it cut them
off from the groups who had the most resources and the greatest chance of victory. The other
setback experienced by the communists was that many people were reluctant to fight with them,
because they feared a communist take-over if communist resisters were given any sort of
power. 106 In the end, the most accurate censure of the Communists seems to be that they
fostered division in a cause that could ill afford it.
Ultimately, the story of the CND leads to several conclusions, some about Renault and
the network, some about the entire phenomenon of French resistance, and even others about
humanity in general. First, intelligence networks like the CND can undoubtedly be described as
militarily effective, in their own way. Their goal was not the violent uprising against the German
occupiers like the Communists or the Maquis, but their contributions were not therefore the less
valuable. In fact, Antony Beevor posits that intelligence gathering was by far the greatest
contribution the French Resistance made to the winning of the war, and specifically to the
eventual Allied landings in Normandy. 107 It is often pointed out that on its own the French
resistance could never have freed France from the Germans. 108 This seems to be true. Without
105
Jackson, France, the Dark Years, 466.
Wieviorka, “France,” 145.
107
Antony Beevor, D-Day: the Battle for Normandy (New York: Penguin Books, 2009), 45.
108
Wieviorka, “France”, 125.
106
23
the eventual invasion of the Allies, it seems unlikely that the entirety of the German machine
could have been routed. Nevertheless, as probable as it is that left to itself the resistance would
have been crushed, this is still the realm of the “what-if,” and in that realm it seems just as
warranted to claim that the Allies could not have had the success that they did without the
intelligence provided by the CND. Far from being less useful then, it seems that intelligence
gathering missions like the CND would be more valuable than fighting organizations, precisely
because the CND was devoted to coordination with the Allies so that the victory could
eventually be won together.
Secondly, it seems only fair to judge the actions of France during the war on the basis of
individuals, and to realize that the awkward situation of the country could not fail to have an
effect on the ways that Frenchmen perceived the situation. Because of the defeat and armistice,
France had become a country divided against itself with each side, collaborators and resisters,
claiming to be driven by nationalism when in fact a nation no longer existed. This fact makes
some of the complications that Renault faced when dealing with the French population more
understandable, and makes the success of the CND that much more incredible. Though he
certainly found a great deal of support, Renault was not working in a united country of loyal
citizens who could all be counted on for aid in frustrating the enemy. Instead, he found himself
surrounded by Frenchmen who felt bound by honor to resist, Frenchmen willingly collaborating
with the Germans, as well as those who felt they were best serving France by placating the
Germans and Petain. That the CND prospered within this maze is impressive indeed.
Lastly, it is most important to emphasize once again that the ultimate cause of the CND’s
success was the choices made by the people who were a part of it. Primarily, any form of
resistance worked because of the personal initiative and courage of people like Renault and
24
Hilarion and L’hermite and Espadon, who were not seeking fame or glory but instead peace and
the triumph of ideals, patriotism and a return to normal life. The war had temporarily destroyed
France as a country and eroded the normal structures of community, thereby isolating individuals
and rendering them even more ineffectual against the forces that had conquered them. At the
same time, however, it was their individual choices to rebuild a new community based on united
resistance that allowed France to persevere and survive so that it could exist once again after the
war. Resisters like Renault chose not to sit still and allow France to die, and this choice
ultimately kept France alive. 109 Renault and the CND therefore could be credited as much as
anyone with truly saving France, and for any resistance network that seems to be the highest
confirmation of success.
109
Guillain de Benouville, The Unknown Warriors, trans. Lawrence G. Blochman (New York: Simon and Schuster,
1949), 4.
25
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De Gaulle, Charles. “Appeal of June 18.” World War II Database. http://ww2db.com/doc.php?q=
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“Exemple d’un rapport de Renseignement TRUFFIT Simone.” CND-Castille.org.
http://www.cnd-castille.org/images/Documentation/Exemple_rapport_renseignement
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26
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Renault-Roulier, Gilbert (Remy). The Silent Company. Translated by Lancelot C. Shepherd.
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LONDRES_CDNC .PDF.
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27
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Oxford: Oxford International Publishers, Ltd., 2000.
28
“An Exegetical Understanding of the Great Whore of Babylon”
Sasha Musap
Abstract: As a result of our historically patriarchal inclinations, much of the language found in
the Bible approaches the troubles of the times through the lens of masculinity and its subjugation
of the feminine counterpart. The pivotal role of the Whore of Babylon in the Book of Revelation
stands as the designated figure by which this exegesis is made. The language of implied
promiscuity stems from Revelation’s disdain for the Roman Empire ca. 90 C.E. and its seeming
imitation of Mesopotamian Babylon. This paper provides an exegetical foray into the violent
sociopolitical climate of the Book of Revelation in light of feminine denigration.
Biblical texts follow a long tradition of misinformation and abusive misinterpretation. As
a result of our historically patriarchic inclinations, much of the language found in the Bible
approaches the troubles of the times through the lens of masculinity and its subjugation of the
feminine counterpart. Though the language may sometimes be obvious in its denigration of
women through specific images and symbolic relationships, it is inutile to merely acknowledge
the problematic language and move on. Rather, in the case of biblical texts, a more thorough
exegesis is tantamount to the proper understanding of scripture.
In this instance, the pivotal role of the Whore of Babylon in the Book of Revelation
stands as the designated figure of interpretation in order to better understand the inherent
violence and feminine degradation that is pervasive in patriarchic culture through the connotation
of “whore”. This language of implied promiscuity stems from Revelation’s disdain for the
Roman Empire ca. 90 C.E. and its seeming imitation of antiquated Mesopotamian Babylon.
Through the guidance of biblical scholarly works written by David Aune, Stephen Cook, Brian
Blount, and others, an exegetical foray into the derogatory and violent sociopolitical climate of
the Book of Revelation in light of feminine denigration is made possible.
29
An analysis of the themes, motifs, and historical evidence concerning the Whore of
Babylon reveals the exegetical concepts behind the derogatory and violent connotations that are
attributed to women on a Biblical scale. This exegesis elaborates on the violence and feminine
denigration that have become synonymous with “whore”, as well as an exegetical understanding
of Babylon and her role in John’s eschatological work. A closer look at the social and contextual
implications of the “Great Whore” shows a deeper meaning to the vision John is given in
chapters 17-18 of the Book of Revelation: John’s public denouncement of the politically,
religiously, and economically unjust empire that was Rome.
To establish a baseline, we must understand how the Great Whore of Babylon is to be
understood in an exegetical and historical context. With regards to its theorized publication date
around 90 C.E., the author’s descriptions of the Whore can be interpreted in several ways, all of
which can be useful in distilling the meaning behind the prophecy. To capture each important
component that comprises the totality of the image of Babylon, we must understand two
overarching themes: Babylon as a religious metaphor, and Babylon as a historical metaphor. The
language that John of Patmos uses to describe Babylon is language reminiscent of Old Testament
imagery concerning the marriage between the people and YHWH. It follows the metaphor of
marriage between husband and wife that is found in Hosea 1-3, and later (in a much more
degrading manner) in Ezekiel 16:23-34. This religious connection of prostitution with Babylon
is important to the message John is delivering by targeting his general audience and playing on
their sense of religious duty. The people of Israel are committing foul sins against their covenant
with YHWH, much like in Ezekiel 16:8 where they play the harlot.
The prudish language of the Bible does not necessarily imply that the people of Israel
were obsessed with sexual ethics; instead, the metaphor for “whoring” represented the departure
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of ideals and the dismissal of YHWH’s message (Howard-Brook and Gwyther 167). The
covenant of marriage is an exclusive love between one man and woman and is therefore the
perfect metaphor to the relationship man must have with God: one God for one person. The
adultery of worshipping another god, or one alongside YHWH, is then equivalent to the sin of
promiscuity. The great people of Israel earn their title of prostitute, of “whore”, several times
across the Old Testament for their wantonness towards YHWH. Jeremiah 3:6-10, Ezekiel 16:1522, 23:1-49, and Hosea 4:12-13, 5:3 all mark Israel as “idolatrous and disobedient” (Aune 929)
in the same way a prostitute or whore is. By the time of John’s writing, Babylon no longer
represented the city-state; rather, it implied the propagation of human civilization in opposition
to God.
Promiscuity in man’s relationship with YHWH may not be the only implication John is
proposing in his vision of Babylon. The sexual immorality that the “Great Whore” promotes
may just as well represent the political alliance between Rome and her subject kingdoms, which
John rejects. It is Babylon-Rome then that receives blame for the immoral behavior of men and
kings, much like women in antiquity and modernity are unfairly to blame for all of sexual
promiscuity. The sexist terminology used in Revelation not only implies the infidelity of a
woman, a city, and a people, but also of the very real evil of political and sexual seduction. It is
one thing to say that a city or a kingdom is promiscuous – to flirt with other nations, other gods,
other women is sin enough, but to be responsible for the downfall of others, to seduce into evil
those around you is a far more grievous crime. Babylon’s description as an economic exploiter
in Revelation 18:9-20 reveals the political and economic seduction that John witnesses in
Rome’s departure from a just socioeconomic state.
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Much like the global reactions of fear and grief during the 1929 Wall Street crash, the
collapse of Babylon-Rome would have been accompanied by similar terror among those who
stood to benefit from her (Rev 18:15). But for those who remove themselves from the clutches
of Babylon, all will be well. Revelation 18:12-13 dictates a list of the commodities that Babylon,
its kings, and merchants purvey; it encompasses luxury items, common mundane items, and
“human lives” (Rev 18:13). Through this depiction, Babylon not only offers the finest luxuries
of the world, but “everything from the entire earth” (Howard-Brook & Gwyther 173). This
commodification of society as a whole is a large component of John’s issue with what Rome has
become – it renders the empire a danger to society and an enemy of humanity.
From a historical standpoint, Babylon’s relation to Rome would have been clear to John’s
initial audience. Like Babylon, Rome sinned against the Israelites by capturing and destroying
Jerusalem and the temple in 70 C.E. The tales and myths of Babylon were cultivated by Jewish
and Christian communities, building its image up as the “imperial power par excellence”
(Howard-Brook & Gwyther 163), and the writings of the biblical prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Ezekiel became the standard critique of such an empire. The connection between Rome and
Babylon was so prominent among the Jewish and Christian groups that in 1 Peter 5:13 concludes
his letter with a farewell from “Babylon” – Rome.
The meaning of names are matters of great importance when understanding mythical
texts. By calling the whore Babylon, by naming her after the iconic city of old, John
immediately creates a series of connections for his audience that calls to mind a set of
preconceived notions. Babylon implies persecution, promiscuity, war, marginalization, and a
loss of hope. Rome, for John, during this time period, stands for all the same; Rome, like
Babylon, had sacked Jerusalem and the holy temple (Howard-Brook and Gwyther 163). The
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description of the Whore can even be seen on a minted coin from the reign of Emperor
Vespasian. This sestertius, minted in 71 C.E., shows a woman (Roma) sitting against seven hills,
her foot touching the anthropomorphic river god, Tiber. Rev 17:9 depicts this exact image when
referencing Babylon: “the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated”. In
Rev 17:5, the Whore is shown to have a name tattooed on her forehead, one of mystery that
connotes “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations”. This name of
mystery can also refer back to Rome, specifically the mysterious deity that is the city itself,
Roma (Aune 927). By seeing these connections to Babylon and Rome, it can be more easily
understood John’s position concerning any political or social interpretations of Babylon-Rome.
By grasping these two themes in Revelation, its claim that Rome is the new Babylon is concrete.
With the Whore established contextually, let us now look at the actual terminology and
the etymology of the violent, degrading, and sexist vocabulary that this description employs.
The term “whore”, biblically, as said before, shows a departure from the ideals of YHWH. It can
be understood that replacing YHWH with another idol can be whoring oneself out. Israel,
through its mistakes and its shortcomings, has whored itself out on more than one occasion,
breaking the covenant between man and wife, between God and His people, which is what John
warns his Jewish and Christian brothers against through his visionary revelations. But the
terminology has evolved since its application to Israel to connote not only promiscuity and
infidelity to a partner, but also to evoke a violent and femininely degrading response.
The language of the Book of Revelation has often been put to use throughout history as a
way to “dehumanize women” (Cook 53), specifically in regards to witchcraft and witch hunts.
By equating “witches” with the “Great Whore”, they became worthy of hate, of judgment, and
persecution. The issue then remains that we must “see through the lies of the persecutors and
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understand that the victims must be real and must be viewed as innocent” rather than “remain the
dupes” and that they “are no longer capable of fooling us in the case of the witch-hunt” (Girard
73). The language of Revelation 17:16 implies the burning of Babylon; therefore the burning of
witches was seen as righteous and a fulfillment of God’s great plan.
New Testament scholar Tina Pippin has written extensively on the dehumanization of
women based on “overly credulous” interpretations of the Bible, specifically Revelation. Pippin
writes in Death and Desire how the images of mothers and brides are always negative and/or
male dominated, and how dangerous these kinds of interpretations are to the personalities of
women. The disempowering language of Revelation is misconstrued by those with agendas in
need of justification in their marginalization of the female community. There is hardly any
innocence to the violence-justifying interpretations of Revelation; it is the result of a
misappropriation of social influence. John’s visions are grandly metaphoric and celestial – they
do not have direct bearing on the reality of life, but rather depict messages through strong
symbols that assist us historically and contextually on how to act. It is human arrogance that
propagates Biblically-influenced violence. God’s apocalyptic war that Revelation depicts is won
through means that surpass human capability, yet we take it upon ourselves to draw blood in the
name of Him on High, to dehumanize the marginalized, and cause chaos instead of save
humanity. These “blind spots” that Stephen Cook refers to are the responsibility of modern day
scholars then to re-interpret, to smooth out the overtly patriarchal tones in the Bible’s entirety,
and Revelation specifically, and eliminate the degradation of the marginalized (Cook 56).
Brian Blount presents the same problem of dehumanization in his book Revelation: A
Commentary. The manner in which this Biblical book was written was through a masculine lens,
which in this case “privileges a male perspective on the divine” (Blount 310) and provides man
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with a free pardon from damnation. In Revelation, the absolute root of evil no longer takes the
form of man (Satan, the Beast), but that of a promiscuous, uncontrollable woman. The feminine
sex overpowers the “righteous” male towards hellfire and brimstone. In reality, it is just a straw
man in place of the larger problem: the Roman cult and economic power is suppressing and
oppressing the people of God. But the reality, historically and contextually, does not stop people
from making the egregious mistake of attributing the nature of Babylon the Whore to women in
modernity. Regardless of men’s actions, whether they stay true and afar from the Whore, they
are capable of redemption in John’s book. The woman, however, shares a dissimilar fate – one
of no redemption, no reconciliation, and one left to bear a permanent black mark of shame.
Regardless of their mistakes, men can be chastised and forgiven; women, however, are
“problematized at best and demonized at its worst” (Blount 310), further propagating that
sexuality is the problem; it is evil, and it is feminine.
By attempting an understanding of Babylon the Whore through the lens of violence, it is
easy then to make the connection between the Whore’s role in Revelation to the scapegoat victim
of ritual sacrifice. René Girard and his concept of the Single Victim Mechanism can offer some
insight on how the Whore plays the scapegoat in John’s apocalyptic tale. By choosing a victim
that is marginalized, one that people will not mourn or miss, it “doesn’t risk aggravating the
disorder” (Girard 76) that John of Patmos is attempting to pacify. If we are to understand the
Whore as a scapegoat, then her death must pacify the situation of Revelation.
Rome itself is hardly marginalized – rather, it is the state of Rome that is doing the
marginalizing. But by utilizing the degrading language of “whore” and all the implications it
carries with it, suddenly the scapegoat is manifest. People can rally behind the idea that ridding
themselves of this malady will bring about social and celestial peace. Babylon as the whore, the
35
murderer, the economic exploiter, and the fallen city (Howard-Brook and Gwyther 166-177) will
usher in the New Jerusalem, the glorious and beautiful bride of Christ. By sacrificing the
marginalized Whore, an obvious victim to blame for the suffering of all, we can usher in a time
of renewal and peace. The Whore is recognized as the problem by John and his readers; the
Whore is attributed with the evils of the world (Rev 17:5); the Whore is fallen, sunk to the depths
like the millstone (Rev 18:21-24); the people rejoice, bask in New Jerusalem, and take part in the
messianic banquet (Rev 19:9-10).
This understanding of Babylon falls into Hubert & Mauss’s model of sacrifice as well.
For Hubert & Mauss, and later adopted by Walter Burkert, sacrifice is composed of three major
steps: 1) sacrilization; 2) killing the victim; and 3) desacrilization. 110 These steps represent the
process by which Hubert & Mauss and Burkert break down the anthropology of sacrificial ritual
throughout history. Sacrilization occurs for Hubert & Mauss when the person or group of people
must access the divine to address or solve an issue. To make this possible, there must be
dichotomy between the world of the profane and the world of the sacred. This can be seen by
John’s journey from our own world and to that of the sacred, where his visions unfold. Once the
sacrilization is complete, the actual ritual takes place, and the victim, designated both by its
correlation to the deity and to the sacrifice, is killed and offered in a way that alleviates the
metaphorical illness that plagues a community. Babylon is struck down from her throne by the
Lamb, and an angel sinks her with a millstone. Finally, with the sacrifice complete and society
returned to normal, there must be a return to the profane from the sacred. For the story of
Babylon in Revelation, the sacrilization is evident through the entirety of the book based on
John’s visions and his journey to the cosmos, thus directly tying all that comes to pass as in the
110
Hubert Henri, and Marcell Mauss, Sacrifice: Its Nature and Functions (Chicago: University of
Chicago
Press, 1964).
36
realm of the divine; the fall of Babylon is witnessed in Rev 18:21-24; the rejuvenation and return
is seen through the celebration in Rev 19:1-10, and in the banquet of Rev 19:9-10. The depiction
through Rev 18:21-19:10 is the embodiment of visionary violence taking the place of actual
historical violence.
Making the Great Whore fit in historically is not at all a difficult task, but placing her in a
contextual and modern setting can be a bit more complicated. The story of Babylon’s defeat and
judgment in Revelation is a direct counterpart to the Lamb’s bride found in Revelation 21:922:9. In this dichotomy, the author presents us with a distinct and easily noticeable problem: will
you cater to the Great Whore, feast with her and her seven kings, and fall with her, or will you
play witness to the splendor of God’s glory and stay true to the path of grace? The tale of two
powerful women – two incompatible factions based on their allegiances to Rome and God –
plays a large part in the overarching grand story of Revelation.
On the one hand sits the Great Whore, astride “many waters” (Rev 21:9), clothed in
“purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls” (Rev 17:4), and when seen, is
a spectacle of amazement. The attractiveness of Babylon, the riches and grandeur she promises,
is the equivalent of the profane gifts that Rome offers to those who follow her. The fornication
of siding with the Whore is the same that that is addressed in Isaiah 23:17 with Tyre. The
“golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication” (Rev 17:4) that Babylon
holds is the same cup, symbolically speaking, from Jeremiah 51:7. It is a cup of the empire’s
economic system, one that all “nations must participate in to survive” (O’Hare 3). John’s vision
speaks out against those who simply throw their lot in with the vain sheep of the world and
follow only worldly gain rather than stand for what is true and holy.
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On the other hand is the Bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem that will embody the ideals
and loyalties that Israelites should have had all along. In Revelation 21:9-13, the angel that
attended John’s vision shows him the “wife of the Lamb” (Rev 21:9) in all her perfection and
beauty, a Babylon 2.0 that serves the proper purpose rather than leading her flock astray. The
new bride resembles the glory and fulfillment of keeping a covenant with God and is the result of
becoming a witness to truth despite the allure of the beast.
Revelation 17:18 describes Babylon as having “dominion over the kings of the earth”,
further affirming her position as Rome itself. The irony in her description, though, is part of her
downfall. Rather than ruling petty kingdoms, Rome was destined to be overpowered and
destroyed by them – the very “kings” that the Great Whore commanded would descend upon her
and ravage her. It is this problem that the New Bride solves. She has true dominion over the
land and its people, over kings and kingdoms. She rules through truth and through the word of
God and the sacrifice of the Lamb. The New Jerusalem is the ideal, the set of standards that all
are measured against. Apocalyptic and Biblical terminology aside, the problem of Babylon the
Whore vs. the Bride of the Lamb is one that is as real to us now as it was to John.
Our own civilization operates on a model that is alarmingly similar to that of Babylon’s –
we are a nation that pursues personal gain over all, often sacrificing the truly important in order
to fuel a capitalistic system we’re led to believe works, that doesn’t. The greed and malice that
tears down Babylon’s walls in Revelation 18:1-24 is not such a distant fate from our own should
we continue on our path. Our civilization is just as threatened from within as Babylon-Rome’s
was, and the kings and great beasts of our time will consume it just as they did in John’s time.
The prophet provides his readers with a message that transcends time and is a cautionary tale for
any and all nations that suffer similar circumstances. His eschatological and violent language is
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an attempt to shake his readers out of passivity and apathy, to jar us enough to act. For the
audience of his time, it was a message to disavow whatever allegiance to Rome the Israelites and
Christians had, to repent for their sins of promiscuity and stand as witnesses against the savagery
of the secular world; they have suckled at the teat of the Whore for long enough.
With all due respect to the revered biblical author, the metaphors John used have
propagated violence for far too many years. While this could be said of many aspects of the
Bible, the weight that the Book of Revelation carries far surpasses many others, and the
metaphors and messages it tries to convey is far too susceptible to the scheming minds of those
with ulterior motives. Nothing motivates the masses like a misconstrued biblical passage, and
that stands especially true for a book concerning the end of days and final judgment. Instead, I
propose an alternative to the “Whore of Babylon” and all the implications that go along with it.
The Bible, while never directly addressing the group, speaks of angels that defied God and were
cast down from the Heavens. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that behind the
folly of our first parents were the whispering voices of angels who “radically and irrevocably
rejected God and his reign”, using support primarily from Genesis 3:1-15 and Ezekiel 28:1219. 111 These “fallen angels” appear as Nephilim in Genesis 6:1-6 who mingle with society, take
human women as their mates, and bear offspring in the mortal world. 1 Enoch 7:2 speaks of the
Nephilim as “Watchers”, but addresses their mingling with humanity in much the same light as
Genesis 6:1-6.
It is difficult to propose an alternative metaphor when the existing one encompasses the
problems of John’s time so well. However, as cleanly catered to John’s message as the metaphor
of the Whore is, the substitution of just the aspect of whoring can rectify the issue of
marginalization. With the universally known and understood concept of fallen angels as those of
111
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 5th ed., Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 1, Article I
39
God’s heavenly court that refused his reign and opted out of their obedience to him, it is not so
difficult then to replace the idea of the Whore of Babylon with the Fallen Angel, Babylon. In
this respect, Babylon takes on as many negative connotations as originally intended, if not even a
little more. By attributing Babylon to an angel, a fallen at that, it is stripped of its gendertargeting implication while reaffirming the concept of “whoring” out to other kingdoms, other
gods, by switching prostitution out with celestial disobedience. The act of falling from Heaven
directly then correlates to John’s metaphor of playing the whore in a relationship with YHWH.
Rather than attacking the feminine, Babylon can be ascribed infidelity without sexuality.
The metaphor of fallen angel, then, can be understood socioeconomically as well.
Ezekiel speaks of the guardian cherub whom God expelled from Eden (Ezek 28:13-14) as one
who is “filled with violence” through “widespread trade” (Ezek 28:16). Because of the cherub’s
departure from God, and his “many sins and dishonest trade” (Ezek 28:18), he will be consumed
by fire and destroyed. As with Babylon’s destruction at the hands of those she sought to rule
over through the Lamb, so too will the fallen angel be destroyed by the sins he sowed, through
the Lord who “made a spectacle of you before kings” (Ezek 28:17) and will “reduce you to
ashes” (Ezek 28:18). Through these Old Testament descriptions, the metaphor of fallen angel is
consistent with that of the Whore’s by carrying the same implications of promiscuity between the
chosen people and YHWH, of economic and political injustice, of righteous retribution for the
whore’s/fallen’s sins, and of the urgency with which the people of God should remove
themselves from the metaphor.
Ultimately, John’s visions regarding a whoring empire are as pertinent now as they were
during the first century. His conceptions of injustice on a political and socioeconomic regarding
Rome are the faults that develop when every great nation pushes past its own boundaries.
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Collapse from within is imminent in John’s world and is as real a problem for him as is the
departure from his peoples’ promise to God. His book is a reflection of all that will come to pass
if Jews and Christians do not see the error of their ways; they will succumb to the great beast and
be devoured by him, and all will share in Babylon’s doom.
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Bibliography
Howard-Brook, Wes, and Anthony Gwyther. Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation
Then and Now. 5th. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2003. Print.
Aune, David. World Biblical Commentary; Revelation 17-22, Vol 52c. Nashville, TN:
Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998. Print.
Blount, Brian. Revelation: A Commentary (New Testament Library). 1st ed. Louisville,
KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. Print.
Burkert, Walter. Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual
and Myth. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983.
Cook, Stephen. The Apocalyptic Literature. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2003. Print.
Girard, René. I See Satan Fall Like Lightning. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2001.
Henri, Hubert and Marcell Mauss, Sacrifice: Its Nature and Functions. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1964.
Meeks, Wayne A.. The Harper Collins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version, with
the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1993
O'Hare, Daniel. "Revelation Study Packets." Revelation 17.1-18.
O'Hare, Daniel. "Revelation Study Packets." Revelation 18.1-19.10
.
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“Inauthenticity in Molière’s The Ridiculous Précieuses, Tartuffe, and The Learned Women”
Kaitlyn Carpino
Abstract: Molière’s comedies, while at the same time satirizing the social conventions of
seventeenth-century France, depict a striking difference between characters who are genuine in
their conduct and those who feign education, piety, or a high social status in order to impress
others. Three of Molière’s comedies that best represent the thematic topic of inauthenticity are
The Ridiculous Précieuses, Tartuffe, and The Learned Women. Molière’s plays on authenticity
show the absurdity of pretentiousness and the extreme importance of remaining genuine, as the
characters who represent the inauthentic self are exposed and ridiculed by those who exemplify
the authentic self. Through the ridiculousness of the inauthentic characters and the triumph of
those who are authentic, Molière calls for French society to move away from the flaws of
inauthenticity and pretentiousness, as these flaws pose serious dangers to the structure of society
as a whole.
Gustave Lanson, author of “Molière and Farce,” states, “Molière shows us all the classes
and relationships that composed French society in his time: peasants, bourgeois, squires, wits,
great lords, servants, middle-class women, young and older ladies. A large part of his gift lies in
spreading vices and ridiculous qualities through these different classes” (26). This statement is
true also of Molière’s use of inauthenticity in his plays. Molière’s comedies, while at the same
time satirizing the social conventions of seventeenth-century France, depict a striking difference
between characters who are genuine in their conduct and those who feign education, piety, or a
high social status in order to impress others. As stated by Madame Pernelle in Tartuffe, one of
Molière’s most well-known plays, “Good Lord, appearances can be deceiving, / And seeing
mustn’t always be believing” (1679-80). This statement is true of inauthentic characters in many
of Molière’s comedies, as they attempt to put on performances to hide who they truly are.
Several of Molière’s plays in which the contentions between authenticity and artificiality play
out are The Doctor in Spite of Himself (1666), which involves a woodcutter who pretends to be a
doctor, The Would-Be Gentleman (1670), in which a middle-class man plays at being a great,
43
educated lord, and The Imaginary Invalid (1673), which, as the title suggests, depicts a
hypochondriac. However, three of Molière’s comedies that best represent the thematic topic of
inauthenticity are The Ridiculous Précieuses (1659), Tartuffe (1664), and The Learned Women
(1672). These plays provide some of the most prominent examples of the inauthentic self, such
as the hypocrisy of the “pious” Tartuffe and the “scholarly” Trissotin, or the attempts of the
précieuses and learned women to become educated ladies. For example, these two groups of
women are often objects of ridicule and humor, as they unrestrainedly dote on conceited scholars
and are unable to recognize the absurdity of their own actions. Whereas these affected characters
are sources of comedy in Molière’s plays, those who are authentic are typically the ones who
triumph. In The Ridiculous Précieuses, the suitors of the précieuses represent the authentic self,
as they obtain revenge on the précieuses by revealing that the “scholars” on whom they have
been doting are mere valets. Henriette and her uncle, Ariste, in The Learned Women are
similarly resourceful in thwarting the designs of the scholarly women to marry Henriette to the
inauthentic Trissotin. In Tartuffe, Elmire, Dorine, and Cléante show similar resolve in exposing
Tartuffe’s hypocrisy and preventing his marriage to Mariane. Therefore, the characters who
Molière presents in his comedies as the most admirable and successful are those who are both
intelligent and sincere, having the ability to outwit and expose the inauthentic characters when
necessary. Molière’s plays on authenticity show the absurdity of pretentiousness and the
extreme importance of remaining genuine and sincere, as the characters who represent the
inauthentic self are exposed and ridiculed by those who exemplify the authentic self.
Before examining Molière’s use of inauthenticity in The Ridiculous Précieuses, it is
important to explain briefly the concept of preciosity as it existed in seventeenth-century France.
Preciosity, instituted by the Marquise de Rambouillet, began in France as a means for intellectual
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ladies to escape the often rough manners of the court. In the marquise’s salon, aspiring writers
and poets would meet to present their newest works, hoping for the approval of the marquise and
the other précieuses (Lewis 270). One of the key précieuses of the time was Madeleine de
Scudéry, who changed her name to Sappho. In doing so, she influenced many women to follow
suit by adopting new names taken from romances. Furthermore, de Scudéry was very educated,
and so, along with the marquise, she inspired other young women to strive to be learned. W. H.
Lewis describes Mlle. de Scudéry’s education by stating,” [She] seems to have had the most
elaborate education of all the learned ladies; [. . .] she learnt dancing, painting, writing, spelling,
designing, gardening, music, Italian, and domestic science” (Lewis 244). Furthermore, Mlle. de
Scudéry went on to write novels that represented the ideals of preciosity and which many young
girls aspiring to be précieuses would have read. The problem with Madeleine du Scudéry’s
influence and with preciosity in general is that some women, like those in The Ridiculous
Précieuses, took their desires to fit in to the social circles of the précieuses too far, and thus
ended up appearing ridiculous and inauthentic to those not swayed by preciosity. This problem
is exactly what Molière satirizes in his comedy, which depicts two young women who try
desperately to become précieuses, but who are recognized as inauthentic by their suitors who do
not understand the appeal of preciosity.
In The Ridiculous Précieuses, Magdelon and Cathos, two inauthentic women, reject
their more sensible and unaffected suitors, La Grange and Du Croisy, in favor of the supposed
Marquis de Mascarille and Vicomte de Jodelet, who turn out to be merely the valets of the
rejected suitors. These two women, who are heavily influenced by the concept of preciosity, are
some of Molière’s earliest examples of characters representing the inauthentic self. As La
Grange explains to Du Croisy after they have been rejected by the women, “Preciosity has not
45
merely infected Paris, it has also spread in the provinces, and these ridiculous snobs of ours have
inhaled a good dose of it. In short, they are a strange concoction of précieuse and coquette” (22).
In this statement, La Grange recognizes the negative influence that preciosity has had on
Magdelon and Cathos, while also implying that the women did not behave so ridiculously before
the spread of preciosity across France.
As can be seen when the women actually appear on stage, their attempts to adopt
preciosity have made them very superficial and inauthentic, as their rejected suitors have noted.
The artificiality of Magdelon and Cathos is particularly obvious in three respects. First, the two
women are extremely concerned with clothing and physical appearance, which is one of the
reasons that they reject their first two suitors, whose clothing is not nearly as rich as that of
Mascarille and Jodelet. Second, the women pretend to be educated in order to impress their new
suitors, as well as to appear more like the other précieuses, who would have been knowledgeable
in literature, particularly poetry and philosophy. The third way in which Magdelon and Cathos
express their inauthenticity is through a change of names, a typical custom of preciosity, as they
believe that their given names are inadequate.
The superficiality of Magdelon and Cathos in regards to clothing becomes obvious
through the reasoning that Cathos gives to Gorgibus, her uncle and Magdelon’s father, for the
rejection of the suitors. She states that part of the rejection results from the suitors’ clothing,
which she describes by stating, “I also noted that their neckcloths are not of the right make, and
that their breeches are a good half a foot short of being wide enough” (26). Therefore, Cathos’
criticism of La Grange and Du Croisy is due at least partially to the fact that she does not find
that their clothes are expensive enough. In fact, part of the reason that the précieuses approve of
their next suitors, Mascarille and Jodelet, is due to their fancy clothing, although their false titles
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and claimed knowledge are important factors as well. After meeting these suitors, Magdelon
shows that she shares her cousin’s focus on fine clothing by stating to Mascarille, “I assure you
that you and I are in sympathy: I have a frenzied delicacy about everything I wear; and even to
my stockings, I cannot abide anything that is not of the best make” (37). Thus, both cousins are
guilty of superficiality, especially when it comes to clothing. This superficiality results from the
attempts that Magdelon and Cathos have been making to become précieuses, which involves
appearing to be fashionable, educated ladies.
Magdelon’s and Cathos’ desire to appear as educated précieuses becomes even more
noticeable through the women’s attempts to feign education, as they dote on Mascarille and
Jodelet, whom they believe to be educated gentlemen of a high social class. Marcel Gutwirth,
author of “Molière and the Woman Question: Les Précieuses Ridicules, L’École des Femmes,
Les Femmes Savantes,” explains this desire by stating, “They would love nothing so much as to
be mistaken for the ladies of fashion whom they must have spent their young lives dreaming
about, and in fact they are remarkably knowledgeable as to what such a standing entails. Cathos
and Magdelon know that to be a fine lady is, first and foremost, to be in the know” (348).
Therefore, the two aspiring précieuses know that they must have knowledge of a certain kind to
be like the women whom they admire. However, as they do not seem to actually possess this
knowledge, they must feign it in order to give the appearance that they are, in fact, précieuses.
In order to adopt more fully the tenets of preciosity, the women decide to change their
names, a common practice among the précieuses of the time. Cathos explains this practice,
along with the inadequacy of her and Magdelon’s former names, to Gorgibus by stating, “It is
true, Uncle, that even a slightly delicate ear suffers frantically on hearing those words
pronounced; and the names Polyxène, which my cousin has chosen, and that of Aminte, which I
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have adopted, have a grace that you must acknowledge” (26). This change of names is one of
the most overt examples of the inauthenticity of the two précieuses. The women, under the
influence of preciosity, have become so affected that they even find it necessary to change their
names to ones that they find more aurally pleasing. By doing so, they have attempted to
completely transform themselves into different people. While a name change in itself would not
necessarily be a sign of inauthenticity, the women clearly are putting on a show, as they know no
more of the educated jargon they are attempting to speak than do the claimed Marquis and
Vicomte with whom they are conversing.
In the end, it is Mascarille who reveals the ridiculousness and inauthenticity of the
précieuses, after the ruse has been exposed by La Grange and Du Croisy and the women have
rejected Mascarille and Jodelet as a result of recognizing them as valets. Mascarille condemns
the women for their rejection of him and Jodelet by stating, “Treat a marquis like that! That’s
society for you! The slightest fall from favor makes us despised by those who cherished us. [. . .]
I see very well that only vain appearances are loved here, and that there’s no consideration for
naked virtue” (46). In this statement, Mascarille recognizes the précieuses’ superficiality, as
they only care for appearances, rather than for integrity. Although Mascarille and Jodelet could
be said to have put on affected manners just as the précieuses did, feigning education and high
titles, they are not guilty of inauthenticity, for they were only conducting the ruse to expose the
superficiality of the two women. The women, on the other hand, actually believe their own
deception, rather than recognizing that they are being inauthentic. La Grange and Du Croisy, in
fact, wish to make Magdelon and Cathos recognize their inauthenticity and superficiality as a
result of the ruse, but the précieuses remain static characters who do not change their beliefs or
affected behaviors. J.D. Hubert, in his work Molière and the Comedy of Intellect, explains the
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downfall of Magdelon and Cathos at the end of the play by stating, “Our précieuses are
performing their parts to the best of their ability in a play intended to bring about their complete
destruction. And at the end, they will suffer mainly as spectators from the absurdity of their own
performance” (22). Therefore, Magdelon and Cathos are ruined at the end of the play due to
their own inauthenticity. The fact that they were unable to recognize their artificiality and to
realize that La Grange and Du Croisy were mocking them leads to their own humiliation.
However, as static characters, this humiliation does not affect any change in Magdelon and
Cathos’ behavior, as they are still determined to behave like précieuses.
Molière’s 1664 comedy Tartuffe similarly focuses on a static character who causes his
own downfall through inauthenticity, although for Tartuffe, this inauthenticity revolves more
around religious hypocrisy for personal gain than on a desire to fit in with those of a higher
social class. Tartuffe, posing as a poor, humble man, convinces Orgon of his piety. Orgon,
taking pity on Tartuffe and desiring his friendship, allows him to stay in his home, where he
focuses all his attention on Tartuffe, believing everything Tartuffe says and defending everything
he does. He cannot see Tartuffe’s hypocrisy until his wife, Elmire, convinces him to hide under
a table and listen as Tartuffe expresses his desire for her. Tartuffe, then, as Orgon finally
recognizes, is the inauthentic hypocrite of the play. Elmire, her brother Cléante, and her maid,
Dorine, are the most authentic characters in Tartuffe, as they are the ones who are most able to
recognize Tartuffe’s inauthenticity and to act against it.
Tartuffe’s hypocrisy, like Magdelon and Cathos’ inauthenticity, is established long
before the titular character ever enters the stage. Dorine, one of the first to express her
knowledge of Tartuffe’s inauthenticity, describes him to Madame Pernelle by stating, “You will
make him a saint, but I submit / That he is nothing but a hypocrite” (69-70). In this statement,
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Dorine is commenting on the fact that while several characters, such as Mme Pernelle and
Orgon, believe Tartuffe to be a pious, holy man, she can recognize him for what he truly is: a
hypocrite. Cléante and Elmire support Dorine’s views of Tartuffe as a religious hypocrite, thus
cementing the audience’s opinion of Tartuffe as inauthentic before he actually appears.
The full extent of Tartuffe’s hypocrisy is revealed after he enters the stage, when he
privately confesses his love to Elmire. However, even at this moment of clear misconduct,
Tartuffe cannot admit his own hypocrisy. During the scene in which Orgon hides under a table
in order to overhear Tartuffe’s confession of love to Elmire, Tartuffe attempts to justify the
immorality of an affair between the two of them to Elmire:
It’s true, there are some pleasures Heaven denies;
But there are ways to reach a compromise.
...................................
To all this there are keys I can provide you;
All you need do, Madame, is let me guide you.
Content my longings, free yourself of dread:
If there is sin, I’ll take it on my head. (1487-88, 1452-55)
Therefore, if Elmire accepts Tartuffe’s confession of love, Tartuffe claims that he is willing to
take the blame for their actions. However, Tartuffe is most likely only making this offer because
he already knows that he will be able to trick Orgon and anyone else who finds out about his
affair with Elmire into believing that he is innocent, just as he did in an earlier scene in the play.
Certainly, he would have been right about this, if only Orgon had not been eavesdropping on the
whole conversation.
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The reason that Tartuffe can expect to get away with an affair with Elmire without any
negative consequences from Orgon or any other members of the household comes from an
earlier encounter he has with Orgon and Cléante. After Cléante attempts to denounce Tartuffe
for his hypocrisy in front of Orgon, Tartuffe openly admits that he is an evil, sinful man.
However, rather than causing Orgon to recognize Tartuffe’s wickedness, this confession only
serves to reinforce Orgon’s high opinion of Tartuffe, as he believes that Tartuffe is not being
truthful in these statements, but humble. Will G. Moore, author of an article on the use of speech
in Molière’s plays, explains Tartuffe’s confession by stating, “These statements are true, but they
are the reverse of sincere. They overturn the universal assumptions of language; they are uttered
not to persuade but to hoodwink. From this kind of man the truth is heard only when he can be
certain that it will be taken for the opposite” (46). Therefore, the only reason that Tartuffe is
confessing his hypocrisy and sin to Orgon is because he knows that he has so successfully fooled
Orgon with his pious act that Orgon will not believe him, but will see him as even more
authentic and devout.
As J.D. Hubert points out, it is important to note that Tartuffe never actually lies during
the play. Hubert explains, “Now Tartuffe, at least within the framework of the play, never tells a
direct lie. Even when he denounces Orgon in the presence of Louis XIV he has in his possession
all the necessary evidence” (Hubert 96). Although Tartuffe’s inauthenticity does result from lies
about his identity, as he allows Orgon and Madame Pernelle to believe that he is pious and poor,
he does not actually lie to any of the characters during the duration of the play. Instead, he
furthers the guise of his holiness by tricking others with his speech. Speech is particularly
significant in Tartuffe, as it is Tartuffe’s words, rather than the opinions of others, that truly
reveal him to be inauthentic. Moore explains how speech functions as a means of revealing a
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character’s true identity by stating, “[T]he logical function of speech is broken, we should
perhaps say broken through, by nature, by emotion that ruins the intended effect of speech and
conveys not the meaning of the speaker but his real state, possibly against his will” (42).
Therefore, a character, such as Tartuffe, may unintentionally reveal his or her inner self through
speech, particularly when that speech is affected by emotions. An example of this type of
revelation of inauthenticity is Tartuffe’s acceptance of Orgon’s desire to make Tartuffe his heir.
Tartuffe attempts to uphold his humble guise, but at the same time wants to accept the offer. In
an effort to preserve his pious act, Tartuffe explains his decision to accept:
All those who know me will believe, I’m sure,
That all my motives in this case are pure.
I do not care for this world’s goods, you see;
Their specious luster does not dazzle me;
And if I am prevailed upon to take
This present that Orgon has willed to make,
I do so because honestly I dread
That it may fall in wicked hands instead. (1237-44)
This explanation to Cléante is an attempt to convince the other characters, particularly Orgon,
that Tartuffe does not at all desire earthly possessions, but feels he is required to accept the offer
in order to prevent Orgon’s fortune from falling into the wrong hands. However, Tartuffe’s
reasoning is obviously flawed, as, if he does not accept the offer, the inheritance will most likely
fall to one of the other members of Orgon’s household, none of whom (other than Tartuffe) is
wicked. Tartuffe, through this speech of acceptance, is revealing his true, greedy self, while at
the same time trying to convince the other characters that the pious self that he is attempting to
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portray is his real identity. Of course, other than Orgon and Madame Pernelle, the other
characters are able to see through this guise and to recognize Tartuffe’s hypocrisy.
One of the most authentic characters of this play, and the one who seems to have the best
understanding of hypocrisy and inauthenticity, is Orgon’s brother-in-law, Cléante. Early in the
play, Cléante attempts to explain Tartuffe’s hypocrisy to Orgon. Although he is not successful,
as Orgon is too convinced by Tartuffe’s act, Cléante does show that he is thoroughly able to both
understand and recognize artificiality. He explains the concept of inauthenticity in the form of
hypocrisy to Orgon by stating:
Like courage, piety has its hypocrites.
Just as we see, where honor beckons most,
The truly brave are not the ones who boast;
The truly pious people, even so,
Are not the ones who make the biggest show.
What? Do you really see no difference
Between devoutness and devout pretense? (362-68)
In this statement, Cléante explains that those who are hypocrites make a spectacle of their actions
and brag about their piety, whereas those who are truly authentic do not. He later makes similar
statements in his description to Orgon of who an authentic person is. He explains that someone
who is authentic will, “. . . leave to others all the lofty speech, / While all they do is practice what
they preach” (387-88). This statement is true of Cléante himself, as he does not attempt to
appear more educated or sophisticated than he is, and he is willing to act on his words by trying
to convince Orgon and Madame Pernelle that Tartuffe is a hypocrite. Therefore, even by his
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own definition, Cléante is an authentic character, as he does not try to be someone he is not, but
instead stands up for his beliefs.
Another character in Tartuffe who meets these qualities of authenticity is the outspoken
maid of Orgon’s household, Dorine. Dorine, as stated earlier, is one of the first characters to
comment on Tartuffe’s hypocrisy before he appears on stage, and she shows through her
descriptions of him that she is able to recognize inauthenticity as well as Cléante. She explains
to Cléante that Tartuffe, “knows his dupe and means to use him, / Has countless saintly poses to
bemuse him,” showing that she understands that Tartuffe is manipulating Orgon for his own gain
(199-200). Dorine similarly expresses her opinions throughout the play, never withholding her
true thoughts from Orgon and the other characters. Furthermore, she understands that it is better
not to be religious than to feign piety, as she explains to Orgon when he comments that Valère,
his daughter’s suitor, rarely goes to church. Dorine questions Orgon about this comment by
stating, “Should he go running there just when you go, / Like some who go there only to be
seen?” (526-7). This statement shows that Dorine recognizes the difference between hypocrisy
and true piety, as she realizes that Tartuffe acts devout only to build up his own reputation,
whereas Valère does not care for appearances but instead acts authentically. For these reasons,
Dorine is one of the most authentic characters in the play.
The third character who acts authentically in Tartuffe is Elmire, Orgon’s wife. Elmire is
a very resourceful character who plays a major role in Tartuffe’s downfall. Like La Grange and
Du Croisy in The Ridiculous Précieuses, Elmire, although usually authentic, is willing to act
inauthentically in order to expose the hypocrisy of Tartuffe. This inauthentic act takes place
during the table scene, which is Elmire’s effort to show her husband the inauthenticity of
Tartuffe. She asks Orgon to hide under a table while she converses with Tartuffe, finally
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reciprocating his amorous advances. Prior to the table scene, Orgon had accused Elmire of
inauthenticity, as he claimed that she was lying in her insistence that Tartuffe had made advances
towards her. He believes that, had Tartuffe really done such a thing, Elmire would have reacted
more angrily than she did. Elmire counters this accusation by explaining, “I just want to be
decent, not a cat. / And I believe that it is quite enough / To check a suitor with a cool rebuff”
(1334-6). Therefore, Elmire is explaining that she is authentic because she thinks that it is not
necessary to angrily refuse a suitor when it is sufficient to reject him calmly. Soon enough,
Orgon realizes that Elmire was being authentic in her accusations against Tartuffe, who really
has been pursuing her. By the end of the table scene, Orgon is convinced of Tartuffe’s
hypocrisy, which Elmire has successfully revealed through her ruse.
J.D. Hubert explains the downfall of Tartuffe through Elmire’s ruse by stating, “In the
interests of poetic justice, Tartuffe must indeed be defeated by performances more successful
than his own. Elmire stages two of them and the Sun King a third [. . . ]” (92). Therefore, like
the ridiculous précieuses, Tartuffe’s inauthenticity is exposed through acts put on by the other,
authentic characters. Elmire’s performances occur when first Damis and then Orgon hide in
order to overhear Tartuffe’s confessions to her. King Louis XIV’s performance ends the play,
when his officer pretends that he believes Tartuffe’s accusations against Orgon and has come to
arrest Orgon, but finally reveals that he has been ordered to arrest Tartuffe. Before revealing
this, however, he allows Tartuffe to show his true, treacherous self to Orgon’s household. Thus,
in a sense Tartuffe exposes his own hypocrisy, as he shows his real self by gloating over the
arrest of the man who has made him an heir. Although he does not like to hear it commented
upon, as he quickly orders Cléante’s arrest after he condemns Tartuffe one final time, Tartuffe
does recognize his own inauthenticity, as he knows that his piety is only a ruse. However, like
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the précieuses, Tartuffe does not change at the end of the play, even after his inauthenticity is
exposed.
In his penultimate play The Learned Women, Molière returns once again to the theme of
inauthenticity, as he presents a comedy similar to The Ridiculous Précieuses in that it depicts
women who desire to appear more educated than they really are, and who thus end up
ridiculously doting on equally inauthentic scholars. In this case, the women are Philaminte, her
daughter Armande, and her sister-in-law Bélise, all of whom believe that they are scholarly
women. Their inauthenticity is reflected by Trissotin, the ridiculous scholar whom they all
admire. J.D. Hubert explains the inauthenticity found in this play by stating, “From an
intellectual standpoint, it would seem that Molière wrote [The Learned Women] in order to
satirize those people who willfully try to confuse one hierarchy with another, especially if they
derive their prestige and their status from a false identification with a scheme of values which
they hardly understand” (253). Therefore, the inauthenticity of the characters in this play results
from their attempts to appear knowledgeable even though they actually have no understanding of
what it means to be educated. By doing so, they not only make themselves look ridiculous, but
they also unwillingly mock education itself. The authentic characters in this play are those who
do not attempt to appear more educated than they are, but who recognize the inauthenticity of the
three women and Trissotin and so are able to avoid being inauthentic in the same way. The most
authentic characters in The Learned Women, then, are Ariste, Bélise’s brother, and Henriette,
Philaminte’s daughter and Armande’s sister.
Unlike the inauthentic characters in The Ridiculous Précieuses and Tartuffe, the women’s
inauthenticity in this play is revealed from the beginning by the women themselves, rather than
by authentic characters before they enter the stage. The first way that the women expose their
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own inauthenticity is through their insistence that they are pursued by various suitors. By
making this claim, they are both lying to themselves and trying to persuade others that they are
desirable. Armande and Bélise in particular are examples of this type of inauthenticity.
Armande, whose pretentiousness is the foil of her sister Henriette’s authenticity, is the first
character in the play to make this claim. When Henriette reveals to Armande her desire to marry
Clitandre, Armande is clearly displeased, so Henriette asks if Armande thinks that Clitandre is
not good enough for her. Armande responds by stating, “No; but it’s a dishonorable plan / To try
to steal another woman’s man; / And surely no one fails to realize / That I have been the object
of his sighs” (91-4). In this statement, Armande reveals her delusion that Clitandre, who was
previously her suitor, still loves her, rather than Henriette. Bélise similarly insists that Clitandre
is actually in love with her, although she does not stop there, but insists that she has numerous
lovers. However, she inadvertently reveals the truth of the situation as she explains her beliefs to
her brother, Ariste. When Ariste asks if her supposed lovers have confessed their love to her,
Bélise responds:
Not one has been so free;
They have revered me so up to this day
That not a one of them has said his say;
But to offer their service and their heart,
Their silent spokesmen all have done their part. (380-4)
Therefore, it is obvious that Bélise is incorrect about the men she believes to be her suitors, as
she admits that none of them have said anything to show that they are in love with her. Both she
and Armande, then, are inauthentic because they are imagining that men are their suitors who
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have given no sign that this is true, and because they try to persuade others, such as Henriette and
Ariste, that they are correct.
The second way in which the women in The Learned Women are inauthentic is in their
attempts to appear educated even though they are not. Philaminte reveals this form of
inauthenticity when she fires the maid, Martine. Her husband, Chrysale, questions Philaminte as
to her reasoning for firing Martine, and Philaminte explains that Martine was guilty of poor
grammar. Chrysale disagrees with this decision, and later condemns Philaminte’s hypocrisy in
the matter by stating, “I’m speaking now, sister, to you. / You wince at slips and solecisms in
speech, / But your conduct displays plenty of each” (358-60). Therefore, Philaminte is guilty of
the grammatical mistakes for which she has fired Martine, and, therefore, she is a hypocrite who
is only pretending to be well-educated. Armande later displays the same inauthenticity in her
desire to begin a women’s academy. Although she, like her mother, is only feigning education,
Armande believes that she is qualified to found such a school. She explains the conceited aims
of the academy by stating, “Our laws place prose and verse underneath our rule; / None shall
have wit except us and our school; / We’ll find flaws everywhere, to our delight, / And see that
no one else knows how to write” (923-6). In this statement, Armande reveals that the true reason
that she wants to establish the academy is so that she and the other members of the school can
feel that they are superior to everyone else in knowledge and wit. However, in reality these
women are the ones lacking in wit, and, if they had founded their academy, it would only have
been a means of teaching other women to be inauthentic.
Trissotin, the supposed scholar on whom the three women dote, is perhaps the most
obvious example of inauthenticity in the play. Clitandre, in particular, attempts to expose
Trissotin’s inauthenticity and hypocrisy, although the learned women will not listen to his
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claims. Clitandre, while discussing Trissotin’s inauthenticity with Henriette, who shares his
views, explains the scholar’s character by stating:
His jumbled writings brought into full view
The man himself, a pedant through and through:
His lofty arrogance, so freely flaunted,
The self-esteem that never can be daunted,
The happy and luxuriant conceit
That makes his self-assurance so complete,
Renders his worth one of his chief delights,
And gives him joy in everything he writes [. . .] (251-8)
In this passage, Clitandre explains that Trissotin’s inauthenticity is not just a result of his
pretense of education, but also results from his conceitedness, as, like the women, he thinks that
his own writing and wit is superior to everyone else’s. Later, Clitandre actually confronts
Trissotin about his lack of knowledge, prompting Trissotin to state that in order for one to be a
fool, he believes that one must be ignorant. However, Clitandre responds by stating, “You have
thought wrong. Ask me, ask anyone: / A learned fool’s worse than a simpleton” (1293-4).
Therefore, Clitandre both accuses Trissotin of being a fool pretending to be educated and makes
the claim that it is better to be ignorant than to feign education. For this reason, Clitandre does
not attempt to appear more educated than he is, as he knows that to do so would be inauthentic.
Clitandre, therefore, is one example of an authentic character in The Learned Women.
Another authentic character in this play is Ariste, who recognizes the inauthenticity of
Philaminte and tries to persuade his brother, Chrysale, to stand up to her rather than continuing to
allow her to run his household. He calls Chrysale to recognize his own weakness by stating,
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“Come, face the facts. Your cowardice, I say, / Is all that gives your wife this sovereign sway. /
Your weakness is her source of power, you know, / And if she’s masterful, you’ve made her so”
(677-80). Therefore, Ariste calls Chrysale to act authentically by contesting his wife’s decision
that Henriette will marry Trissotin, whom she does not love. By trying to help another character
reach authenticity, Ariste shows his own strong belief in behaving authentically.
Henriette, one the most authentic characters in The Learned Women, is described by
George N. Henning, who states, “[. . .] possessed of a quiet sense of humor, [she] is affectionate,
courageous, and sensible…” (Henning 43). In addition to these qualities, Henriette is also
authentic in both her responses to the feigned wit of the three inauthentic women, and in her
desire to marry Clitandre. An example of the former type of authenticity occurs when Henriette
explains to Philaminte why she does not attempt to appear educated like the other women in her
household. She states:
Learned discussions are not my affair;
I like my ease, and it is not my way
To strive for wit in everything I say.
That, Mother, is no part of my ambition;
I’m happy to be dull, with your permission;
I’d rather be content with common speech
Than strain for wit that lies beyond my reach. (1054-60)
Therefore, Henriette recognizes that she is not learned, and so does not desire to be someone she
is not. Unlike her mother, sister, and aunt, Henriette refuses to strive for recognition for qualities
that she is unable to possess.
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In addition to refusing to feign knowledge, Henriette also reveals her authenticity at the
end of the play through her decision not to marry Clitandre. Up to this point, Henriette has
wanted nothing more than to marry him, but, after Ariste arrives to tell the family that they have
lost their wealth, Henriette changes her decision, even though Trissotin is no longer an obstacle
to her marriage to Clitandre. Henriette explains to Clitandre that her refusal to marry him comes
from the fact that she knows that he is not wealthy, and she does not want to burden him with her
new poverty, whereas before she hoped that their marriage would help him financially (1740-6).
This scene shows that Henriette’s love for Clitandre is authentic, as she is willing to give up her
desire to marry him in order to prevent him from having financial problems. Only after Ariste
reveals that the loss of wealth was a ruse does Henriette once again agree to marry Clitandre.
As with the inauthentic characters in The Ridiculous Précieuses and Tartuffe, Trissotin,
at least, is undone by a ruse on the part of one of the authentic characters. Ariste’s news that
both Chrysale and Philaminte have lost all their wealth causes Trissotin to reveal his
inauthenticity and hastily take his leave after breaking off his proposed marriage to Henriette.
His refusal to marry Henriette so soon after the family’s poverty is revealed causes Philaminte to
at last recognize Trissotin’s inauthenticity by stating, “I see, I see, with disenchanted eyes, /
What up to now I would not recognize” (1719-20). However, although Philaminte can now see
Trissotin’s inauthenticity, she is never able to recognize her own, and neither are Bélise and
Armande. As George N. Henning, author of “The Denouement of [The Learned Women]” states,
“[T]he events of the play do not cure Philaminte of her pedantry nor of her domineering ways,
nor Armande of her jealousy, not Bélise of her obsession, any more than [. . .] Tartuffe of his
hypocrisy” (42). Therefore, all of the learned women in this play are, like the précieuses and
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Tartuffe, static characters who retain their inauthenticity despite recognizing the same faults in
other characters.
There are many similarities between the ways in which Molière presents the thematic
topic of inauthenticity in these three plays. First, all of the inauthentic characters except for the
learned women are condemned for their inauthenticity before they appear on stage. As Judith
Suther notes in her article on The Learned Women, “Like his kinsman Tartuffe, Trissotin makes
his entrance only after we are amply prepared to dislike him” (32). This statement is also true of
the women in The Ridiculous Précieuses, as their attempts at preciosity are condemned by their
suitors at the opening of the play. Thus, Molière primes his audience to regard his inauthentic
characters in a negative light and to view their words and actions as unreliable. The only
characters who expose their own inauthenticity, rather than having other characters do so before
they enter the stage, are Philaminte, Armande, and Bélise. Perhaps Molière’s reasoning for
doing this is that the three inauthentic women take on the responsibility of setting the stage for
Trissotin. Once the audience recognizes the inauthenticity of these women, as they claim to have
numerous suitors and much knowledge, we can expect that Trissotin, the scholar that these
women admire, will be just as inauthentic as, if not more than, the women are.
Secondly, there is an obvious connection between the précieuses and the learned
women, as both are attempting to appear more educated than they really are. As Paul Bénichou
explains, “As to the précieuses or the [learned women], their comedy stems in large part from the
disproportion between their station and their aspirations. Gorgibus and Chrysale, defining their
true background which is wholly ordinary, make them look above all like middle-class women
aping great ladies” (61). Therefore, the women in both of these plays appear ridiculous because
they are trying to give the impression that they are part of a higher social class than that to which
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they actually belong. This type of inauthenticity does not, however, appear in Tartuffe, as
Tartuffe is not feigning education but religion. His motives are not to gain a reputation for being
of a high social class or for being educated, but instead are to obtain wealth from those he is able
to fool with his pious act.
A third similarity between these three plays that is important to note is that each play
depicts inauthentic characters who are thwarted by performances on the part of one or more
authentic characters. The hopes of the précieuses to marry suitors of a high social class are
thwarted by the trick that La Grange and Du Croisy play on them to get revenge for their
rejection. In Tartuffe, it takes three performances to stop Tartuffe’s schemes, two by Elmire and
one by King Louis XIV. Similarly, Trissotin is fooled by Ariste’s ruse to make it seem that
Henriette’s family has lost all of their money, and so he no longer desires to marry her. Thus,
Molière’s inauthentic characters are often tricked into revealing their inauthenticity or hypocrisy
through ruses similar to their own. However, it is also important to recognize that none of the
inauthentic characters in these three plays is ever able to admit his or her own inauthenticity or to
become authentic characters. All of them are static in that they either are unable to recognize
their own inauthenticity, like the précieuses and learned women, or they are so immoral that they
do not want to change the ways in which they act, such as Tartuffe and Trissotin.
Although The Ridiculous Précieuses and The Learned Women seem to be the most
similar of these three plays, as both involve women who aspire to a higher level of education and
who admire inauthentic scholars, they actually are quite different. J.D. Hubert explains the
differences in the types of inauthenticity that the women in each play adopt by stating, “The
précieuses ridicules had merely wished to live in the literary paradise of Madeleine de Scudéry’s
novels and, vicariously, indulge their budding vanity. The ambitions of both Philaminte and
63
Armande go way beyond that, for they wish to found an academy that will dominate the cultural
life of the country” (242-3). Therefore, although the précieuses were inauthentic, they at least
did not aspire to teach inauthenticity to others, as the learned women did. Instead, they only
wanted to improve their own station in life and to mirror the way that the real précieuses of the
time behaved. Furthermore, Judith Suther points out that The Learned Women is actually more
closely related to Tartuffe than to The Ridiculous Précieuses, because Trissotin is a clear
reworking of the character of Tartuffe (32). Both Trissotin and Tartuffe are putting on a
performance in order to gain wealth from those whom they have tricked. Tartuffe hopes to gain
this wealth both by becoming Orgon’s heir and by marrying Marianne. Very similarly, Trissotin
will claim his wealth through a marriage to Henriette. If these two characters are connected,
then, as Suther points out, Orgon and the learned women are also connected to one another, as
they are the characters who are duped by the hypocrites (33). The main difference between these
characters, however, is that Orgon never plays at being someone he is not. Instead, he is tricked
by Tartuffe and eventually realizes his mistake. Armande, Bélise, and Philaminte, on the other
hand, are themselves inauthentic, even after they recognize Trissotin’s inauthenticity.
The most important difference between Molière’s uses of inauthenticity in these three
plays is the extent to which the inauthentic characters present a sense of danger to society. First,
the précieuses present little danger to anyone but themselves. La Grange and Du Croisy are
certainly vexed by Magdelon and Cathos’ preoccupation with preciosity, but the only real
consequence of the inauthenticity of these two women is that the women are humiliated by the
ruse of their rejected suitors. Tartuffe, on the other hand, presents the danger of false piety and
religion, but he is arrested at the end of the play, and so his inauthenticity is conquered by
societal authority and can therefore do no further harm to Orgon or anyone else. The learned
64
women, however, present a much more real problem for society, as they plan to found an
academy that will only produce more inauthentic women like themselves. As the only
consequences that these women encounter for their inauthenticity is ridicule from those who are
authentic, they are still free at the end of the play to spread their false knowledge throughout
society. Unlike Tartuffe, they are not conquered by society, but simply mocked by their
authentic family members. Thus, these three plays show a clear progression in the danger
presented to society by the inauthentic characters, as the précieuses pose the least amount of
danger, and the learned women pose the greatest. As can be see through this progression, as
Moliére’s career progressed he seems to have become more and more concerned with the
possible consequences of inauthenticity in society, and so his later plays call much more urgently
for his readers to act authentically.
The contention between inauthenticity and authenticity is a major thematic topic in
many of Molière’s plays, particularly in The Ridiculous Précieuses, Tartuffe, and The Learned
Women. These three plays all share a theme of authenticity as a means of overcoming
artificiality and pretense, as all three depict authentic characters who are able to thwart the
designs of the inauthentic characters. In The Ridiculous Précieuses, this theme is presented
through the ruse that the rejected suitors arrange to make Magdelon and Cathos appear ridiculous
for having admired their valets. Elmire and King Louis XIV must stage three performances in
Tartuffe in order to fully reveal the hypocrisy of Tartuffe to those he has duped: Orgon and
Madame Pernelle. Lastly, in The Learned Women, Ariste deceives Trissotin into believing that
Henriette’s family has lost all their wealth in order to reveal that Trissotin only wished to marry
Henriette for her money. Thus, the inauthentic characters in all three plays are undone by the
more authentic characters. As these are far from being the only three works of Molière that
65
ridicule pretentiousness and inauthenticity, it is clear that this was an issue with which he was
very concerned. Furthermore, although Molière presents these inauthentic characters as sources
of comedy, the progression in his works of the danger presented by these characters reveals the
devastating consequences that society can face from those who are inauthentic. Thus, Molière’s
satire, while at the same time making us laugh, shows us that inauthenticity is always ridiculous
and that we must remain authentic in order to protect society from the dangerous consequences
that the inauthentic self can present.
66
Works Cited
Bénichou, Paul. “The Anti-Bourgeois.” Molière: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Jacques
Guicharnaud. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1964. 60-8. Print.
Gutwirth, Marcel. “Molière and the Woman Question: Les Précieuses Ridicules, L’École des
Femmes, Les Femmes Savantes.” Theatre Journal 34.3 (1982): 344-59. JSTOR. Web.
28 July 2014.
Henning, George N. “The Denouement of Les Femmes Savantes.” French Review 13.1 (1939):
42-5. JSTOR. Web. 28 July 2014.
Hubert, J.D. Molière and the Comedy of Intellect. Berkeley: U of California P, 1962. Print.
Lanson, Gustave. “Molière and Farce.” Molière: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Jacques
Guicharnaud. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1964. 20-8. Print.
Lewis, W. H. “Female Education.” The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV.
Prospect Heights: Waveland P, 1953. 241-62. Print.
Molière. The Learned Women. The Misanthrope and Other Plays. Trans. David M. Frame.
New York: Penguin, 1968. 361-428. Print.
---. The Ridiculous Précieuses. Tartuffe and Other Plays. Trans. David M. Frame. New
York: Penguin, 1967. 21-47. Print.
---. Tartuffe. Tartuffe and Other Plays. Trans. David M. Frame. New York: Penguin, 1967.
241-312. Print.
Moore, Will G. “Speech.” Molière: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Jacques Guicharnaud.
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1964. 40-9. Print.
Suther, Judith D. “The Tricentennial of Molière’s Femmes Savantes.” French Review: Journal
of the American Association of Teachers of French 45.4 (1972): 31-38. JSTOR. Web. 22
Sept. 2014.
Other Works Consulted
Ashton, H. “The Practical Side of a Précieuse.” Modern Language Review 17.3 (1922): 236-50.
JSTOR. Web. 4 Oct. 2014.
Cardulla, Robert. “Molière’s Tartuffe.” Explicator 67.3 (2009): 173-76. MLA International
Bibliography. Web. 9 Sept. 2014.
Koppisch, Michael S. “ Philosophers and Fools: The World of Les Femmes Savantes.” Rivalry
and the Disruption of Order in Molière’s Theater. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson UP,
2004. 154-72. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 1 Oct. 2014.
67
Lancaster, H. Carrington. “Additional Sources for Molière’s Avare, Femmes Savantes, and
Tartuffe.” Modern Language Notes 45.3 (1930): 154-7. JSTOR. Web. 9 Sept. 2014.
Muller, David G. “‘Pourquoi Sous Cette Table?’: More Candlelight on Moliere’s Tartuffe.”
Comparative Drama 47.2 (2013): 167-200. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Sept.
2014.
Prest, Julia. “Elmire and the Erotics of the Ménage à Trois in Molière’s Tartuffe.” Romantic
Review 102. 1-2 (2011): 129-44. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 10 July 2014.
Simmonds, P. Munoz. “Molière’s Satiric Use of the ‘Deus ex Machina’ in Tartuffe.”
Educational Theatre Journal 29.1 (1977): 85-93. JSTOR. Web. 10 July 2014.
Tebben, Maryann. “Speaking of Women: Molière and Conversation at the Court of Louis XIV.”
Modern Language Studies 29.2 (1999): 189-207. JSTOR. Web. 10 July 2014.
68
“Operation Downfall and Truman’s Decision to Use the Atomic Bombs”
Victoria Fluharty
Abstract: Operation Downfall was the American military’s proposed invasion of Japan during
World War II. This military operation was not the only option for the United States of America
to end the war with Japan. The Manhattan Project was known to very few American government
officials. In the end, it was ultimately President Truman’s decision of which plan would be
implemented. The President was provided estimated death tolls for Operation Downfall, which
led to Truman’s executive decision to utilize the two atomic bombs. This senior thesis assesses
Operation Downfall and the Manhattan Project, including the estimated death tolls and the actual
death tolls. It discusses President Truman’s reasoning behind his final decision. The position
taken within the paper is that President Truman’s decision was a faulty one due to the lack of
consideration for citizen casualties within the estimated death tolls presented to him.
After concluding the war in Europe with Germany during World War II, the United
States of America and its allies were in search of a way to end the Pacific War with Japan. The
United States’ military began to work on a large in-depth plan called Operation Downfall on the
invasion of the Japanese home islands. While the military was developing Operation Downfall, a
project, known by few, had been active for a few years and was close to the ability of being
utilized. This plan is commonly known as the Manhattan Project, which was the development of
atomic bombs.
The ultimate decision to be made by President Truman of whether the United States
would utilize the atomic bombs or put into action Operation Downfall was based on research that
attempted to predict the outcomes of both options. Truman’s executive decision to utilize the
atomic bombs based on estimated death tolls for Operation Downfall was flawed. While the use
of the atomic bombs ended the war in the Pacific, the initial bombing as well as the long term
effects were more devastating than the original estimations of Operation Downfall.
69
The decision made by President Truman was a faulty one due to the fact that he, and others
involved in the decision making process, did not take civilian deaths into any great consideration.
The main focus of the death toll estimations was that of United States and Japanese military
personnel, not Japanese civilian deaths. The targeted areas of Operation Downfall were all aimed
at Japanese military and industrial locations, which was where their military produced war
supplies. One of the reasons these locations were chosen was to avoid experiences similar to
Okinawa and Saipan, where many civilians fought against the United States military ferociously
to defend their home lands. These areas would, in turn, not cause large amounts of civilian
deaths, because doing so was planned to be avoided in order to save more American lives. These
cities were not targeted for the purpose of killing Japanese civilians but to destroy Japanese
suppliers, naval and air powers, as well as potential troops, so that the Japanese would have no
choice but to surrender due to devastation.
Before the United States entered the war due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the
Japanese, the U.S. plan, in the event of entering the war, would be to eliminate Germany first. A
large majority of the offensive measures would have focused on Germany; meanwhile the
defensive measures would have been focused towards Japan. 112 This plan, however, changed
after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The U.S. lost “relatively antiquated battleships at Pearl
Harbor.” 113 The U.S. underestimated the air power of Japan. The bombing of Pearl Harbor
turned the conflict with Japan from a defensive stand point to an offensive one, which led the
United States to attack multiple cities of Japan such as the firebombing of Tokyo. After the
surrender of Germany, the United States focused its entire offensive on Japan.
112
“United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report (Pacific War),” July 1946,
http://www.anesi.com/ussbs01.htm#hindsigh, 4.
113
Ibid.
70
Operation Downfall was the code name for the proposed U.S. invasion of Japan during
World War II. The bulk of the troops that would have participated in Operation Downfall were
United States troops who also fought in the European theater of World War II. Operation
Downfall consisted of two different smaller operations called Operation Olympic and Operation
Coronet, which would have made this “the largest amphibious assault in history.” 114
The first phase of Operation Downfall, Operation Olympic, would have consisted of
eleven army divisions as well as three marine divisions, totaling around 340,000 troops. 115
Operation Olympic was centered on the assault of Kyushu. The assault force on Kyushu, chosen
to take place on November 1st, was known as X-Day and would have been larger than the
Normandy attack on D-Day. 116
November 1st was picked as the preferred date of action for four reasons. The first of
these reasons was that the United States military could be ready by this date if they pressed
preparations. 117 The second reason was that their air attacks would have “smashed practically
every industrial target worth hitting in Japan as well as destroying huge areas in the Jap
cities.” 118 The third reason as to why this date was preferred was that by the end of the air
attacks, it would have been hoped that the Japanese Navy would be either nonexistent or
powerless. 119 The final reason was that by this time, the U.S. air power and sea action would
114
D. M. Giangreco, Hell to Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947, (Annapolis:
National Institute Press, 2009), 125.
115
Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar, Code-Name Downfall, (New York: Simon & Schuster Inc.,
1995) 145.
116
Allen and Polmar, Code-Name Downfall, 146-147.
117
“Minutes of Meeting held at the White House, June 18, 1945,” found in the Truman Library,
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?pagenumb
er=2&documentid=21&documentdate=1945-06-18&studycollectionid=abomb&groupid, 2.
118
Ibid.
119
Ibid.
71
have cut off Japanese reinforcement opportunities. 120 After accomplishing this task, “air bases
would be built for the invasion of Honshu” which would have been part two of Operation
Downfall, Operation Coronet. 121
Operation Coronet was planned to be a larger assault on Honshu and the Tokyo plain
than that of Kyushu. The decided upon date for this aspect of Operation Downfall was March 1,
1946. 122 The initial Coronet landing was referred to as Y-Day, in order to distinguish it from
Operation Olympic. 123 General Douglas MacArthur planned on the participation of seventeen
divisions of the army for the initial landings with one division at sea in the distance as a reserve
force totaling “close to a half million men for the largest amphibious assault ever conceived.” 124
Together, MacArthur would have had over thirty divisions ashore in Japan under his command
in what was “promised” to be the bloodiest campaign of World War II. 125
In a meeting at the White House on June 18, 1945, the predicted casualties of Operation
Downfall and what would ultimately lead to the surrender of Japan were discussed. Those
present at the meeting included President Truman, Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, General of
the Army G. C. Marshall, Fleet Admiral E. J. King, Lieutenant General I.C. Eaker whom was
representing General of the Army H. H. Arnold, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Secretary
of the Navy Mr. Forrestal, and Assistant Secretary of War, Mr. McCloy. 126 The group expressed
their feelings about the way the Pacific War had to end by stating “It is a grim fact that there is
not any easy, bloodless way to victory in war and it is the thankless task of the leaders to
120
Ibid.
Robert Cowley, Geoffrey Parker, and Society for Military History (U.S.), The Reader’s Companion to
Military History, (New York: Mariner Books, 2001), 342.
122
Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, (Cambridge: The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005), 103.
123
Allen and Polmar, Code-Name Downfall, 147.
124
Allen and Polmar, Code-Name Downfall, 147.
125
Ibid, 152.
126
“Minutes of Meeting held at the White House, June 18, 1945,” Truman Library, 1.
121
72
maintain their firm outward front which holds the resolution of their subordinates.” 127 Marshall
believed that in order for the Japanese to surrender, “they would have to be faced with utter
hopelessness occasioned by ‘(1) destruction already wrought by air bombardment and sea
blockade, coupled with (2) a landing on Japan indicating the firmness of our resolution, and (3)
the entry or threat of entry of Russia into the war.’” 128 All three of these aspects are embodied in
Operation Downfall.
These men claimed that it would be difficult to estimate casualties in the Pacific because
their experiences in the Pacific had been diverse. 129 They estimated that the first thirty days in
Kyushu should not pass the losses of those in Luzon. 130 In Luzon there were 31,000 U.S.
casualties, which included killed, wounded, and missing, as well as 156,000 Japanese casualties,
which included killed and prisoners. When comparing Kyushu to Okinawa, Admiral Leahy
pointed out that if the casualties between the two were similar then the predicted casualties
should equal around thirty-five percent of the United States troops involved. 131 Admiral King,
however, argued that there was a difference between the two battles that needed to be taken into
consideration. This difference is the fact that there was only one way for the military to enter
Okinawa, meanwhile there were three fronts that could be simultaneously fought in Kyushu
which would lessen the estimated death tolls. 132 Marshall estimated that the casualties would
amount to 63,000 of 190,000 troops. 133
Although not in attendance at the June 18th meeting, General Douglas MacArthur
“initially estimated that battlefield casualties for the first ninety days of the Kyushu assault
127
Ibid, 3.
Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 103-104.
129
“Minutes of Meeting held at the White House, June 18, 1945,” Truman Library, 3.
130
Ibid.
131
“Minutes of Meeting held at the White House, June 18, 1945,” Truman Library, 5.
132
Ibid.
133
Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 104.
128
73
would total 95,050.” 134 However, MacArthur later stated that “a Soviet invasion of Manchuria
would greatly lessen casualties because so many Japanese troops would be unable to be deployed
from the Asian mainland to the home islands.” 135 Thus, MacArthur believed that the American
death toll could be steadily dropped by the involvement of The Soviet Union at Manchuria,
which at the time was not completely guaranteed.
Another group of men that added their opinion of casualties to the table for President
Truman and his advisers to consider was the Sixth Army’s medical staff. The staff included men
who were medical specialists already experienced in battle. 136 This staff estimated that the
casualties that would occur during the invasion of Kyushu would be close to 394,000 dead,
wounded, or missing. 137 This prediction was based on what the Sixth Army encountered while
fighting in Okinawa, which suffered a casualty ratio of one to four. 138 By these estimates, the
invasion on Kyushu would have been the “bloodiest invasion in history.” 139
All of these experienced and educated men, all from various spectrums of the war, contradicted
one another with their own death toll estimations. The different estimations varied, some being
relatively close to one another while others were outliers. With this in mind, it is difficult to
understand how President Truman and Henry Stimson came up with the estimated death tolls
that they each claimed aided in the decision to utilize the atomic bombs.
The other side of this decision that President Truman had to make was the use of the
atomic bombs. The Manhattan Project began in 1941 during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency.
American scientists were concerned about German progress to create an atomic bomb before the
134
Cowley and Parker, Reader’s Companion, 342.
Ibid.
136
Allen and Polmar, Code-Name Downfall, 292-293.
137
Allen and Polmar, Code-Name Downfall, 292.
138
Ibid.
139
Ibid, 293.
135
74
United States. These scientists successfully convinced President Roosevelt that there was an
“urgent need to beat Hitler to possession of such a weapon.” 140 The Manhattan Project was kept
secret, with only a select few who knew of its existence. When President Truman took office, he
was not initially aware of the Manhattan Project. He was informed by the Secretary of War,
Henry L. Stimson, on April 24, 1945. 141
In May of 1945, a group of men, referred to as the Interim Committee, met together in
order to discuss the possible consequences that could arise due to utilizing the atomic bombs.
The various institutions involved in this committee were the Navy, the Office of Scientific
Research and Development, the Office of Field Services, the National Defense Research
Committee, and various people involved with the Secretary of State. One important person
whom should be recognized is the man who urged for the creation of the Interim Committee, the
Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson. 142
The Interim Committee was also involved in the decision making process of where the
atomic bombs would be dropped. The original locations debated included the cities of Kyoto,
Hiroshima, Yokohama, and the Kokura arsenal, with the city of Niigata as an alternative. 143 The
group came to the conclusion that “confining use to a purely military objective would diminish
the full impact of the weapon and that ‘it should be located in a much larger area subject to blast
140
Richard B. Frank, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, (New York: Random House,
Inc., 1999), 252.
141
“Henry Stimson to Harry S. Truman, April 24, 1945,” found in the Truman Library,
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?document
date=1945-04-24&documentid=9-14&studycollectionid=&pagenumber=1.
142
“Notes of Meeting of the Interim Committee, May 9, 1945,” found in the Truman Library,
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?pagenumb
er=2&documentdate=1945-05-09&documentid=35&studycollectionid=abomb.
143
Frank, Downfall, 255.
75
damage.’” 144 The hope was to damage the state of Japan psychologically, as well as physically
devastating the country.
Kyoto was considered as a target for an atomic bomb due to its large population of over
one million people. 145 The city had been untouched up to this point of World War II due to its
cultural significance. The committee explained that “from the psychological point of view there
is the advantage that Kyoto is an intellectual center for Japan and [thus] the people are more apt
to appreciate the significance of such a weapon.” 146 The city of Tokyo and the Emperor’s palace
were considered as targets but were ruled out due to the fact that Tokyo was already “practically
rubble” and the committee did not want to be accused of murdering the emperor. 147
After much discussion, the committee refined their location recommendations. The
refined list consisted of only three cities. Their recommendations, in order, were Kyoto,
Hiroshima, and Niigata. The ultimate reason as to why these three cities were chosen over
industrial areas was because “the bomb might miss the intended point of impact by up to a fifth
of a mile and they wanted no waste of power.” 148 The committee cared about causing a large
amount of devastation to the population of Japan rather than causing devastation to the military
or industrial areas, which was the goal of Operation Downfall although there would be some
civilian casualties as there is in every battle within every war. The use of the atomic bombs was
centered on destroying a city’s population.
Hiroshima was not only a target of the atomic bombs but was a possible target for
Operation Downfall. Although there was between 280,000 and 290,000 civilians in Hiroshima,
144
Ibid.
Ibid.
146
Ibid.
147
Ibid.
148
Frank, Downfall, 255.
145
76
there were about 43,000 Japanese soldiers, which made it a prime military target. 149 Hiroshima,
at the time of planning for Operation Downfall, consisted of “the highest density of servicemen
to civilians among Japan’s large urban areas.” 150 Hiroshima, however, was not chosen as one of
the targets for Operation Downfall because it could not “be classified as wholly a military
installation” due to the massive amount of civilians. 151
Days before the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the list of possible targets
changed. On July 25, 1945, General Handy gave the 509 Composite Group, 20th Air Force the
order to deliver the first bomb as soon as possible weather permitting after August 3rd. 152 The
three targets given in this order consisted of Hiroshima, Niigata, and Nagasaki. 153
Before the atomic bombs were tested and actually used, there were multiple estimations of the
destructive capabilities of the bombs. In August 1944, it was reported that a uranium bomb
would equal about twenty thousand tons of TNT and plutonium bombs would equal five
thousand tons of TNT. 154 Only four months later, however, the uranium bombs were predicted to
equal ten thousand tons of TNT and the plutonium bombs would be equal to two thousand and
five hundred tons of TNT. 155 By May 1945, Oppenheimer estimated that the uranium bomb, also
known as “Little Boy,” would be equivalent to anywhere between five thousand and fifteen
thousand tons, and the plutonium bomb, also known as “Fat Man,” was unknown, possibly
ranging from seven hundred to five thousand tons. 156
149
Ibid, 263.
Ibid.
151
Ibid.
152
Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 152.
153
Ibid.
154
Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 253.
155
Ibid.
156
Ibid, 255.
150
77
In a memorandum sent to Henry Stimson from Major General Leslie R. Groves on July
18, 1945, the successful test of an atomic bomb was discussed. Groves explained that the test
went beyond expectations in an optimistic way. He estimated that the energy generated by the
bomb was equivalent to between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand tons of TNT, with this
being a “conservative figure.” 157
Groves explained the effects that the bomb had ranging to over one hundred miles away.
He described a huge ball of fire that lasted several seconds, as well as a light explosion that was
seen and generated a sound that was heard over one hundred and eighty miles away. 158 Groves
also described that “a crater, from which all vegetation had vanished, with a diameter of 1200
feet and a slight slope toward the center, was formed.” 159 The effects of the bomb were described
within this memorandum as unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying.
Overall, the possible effects of the bomb were viewed as being possibly completely devastating.
The estimated death tolls associated with that amount of possible damage was also brought to the
attention of President Truman. In a petition to President Truman, many scientists expressed their
concern that the development and use of an atomic bomb would provide nations with a new
means of destruction. These scientists state that the use of the atomic bomb would make the
United States “bear the responsibility of opening the door to an era of devastation on an
unimaginable scale.” 160
157
“Leslie R. Groves to Henry Stimson, July 18, 1945,” found on Truman Library,
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?document
date=1945-07-18&documentid=2&studycollectionid=abomb&pagenumber=1, 1.
158
Ibid, 2.
159
Ibid.
160
“Petition to the President of the United States, July 17, 1945,” found on Truman Library,
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?document
date=1945-07-17&documentid=79&studycollectionid=abomb&pagenumber=1.
78
One positive opportunity that Stimson, as well as Marshall, felt came along with using
the atomic bombs was the fact that the need for Soviet assistance to end the war with Japan was
no longer a necessity. Stimson believed that “Marshall felt as I felt sure he would, that now with
new weapon we would not need the assistance of the Russians to conquer Japan.” 161 If the U.S.
could have acquired the surrender of Japan without the involvement of the Soviet’s they would
have. The reason for this is because during World War II there was animosity between the
United States and the Soviet Union. After the dropping of the second bomb on Nagasaki,
however, the belief that the Soviet Union was a component needed for Japanese surrender was
proven to be true.
It was not until the Soviet Union invaded Japan that the Japanese finally surrendered. It is
believed by some historians that without the help of the Soviet government, the United States
would have been faced with the question of whether to use a third atomic bomb. 162 During a
meeting on August 14, 1945, the emperor mentioned both, the two atomic bombs and Soviet
involvement, as the critical reasons for concluding the war. 163 The emperor stated that “the
military situation has suddenly changed. The Soviet Union entered the war against us. Suicide
attacks can’t compete with the power of science. Therefore, there is no alternative but to accept
Potsdam terms.” 164 Both, the atomic bombs and the Soviet Union, were important factors that led
to the surrender of Japan.
Operation Downfall and its anticipated high casualty rates were weighed against the use
of the atomic bombs by President Truman. According to a statement later made by President
Truman, he had been told an invasion “would cost at a minimum one-quarter of a million
161
Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 253.
Ibid, 298.
163
Ibid, 297.
164
Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 242.
162
79
casualties, and might cost as much as a million, on the American side alone, with an equal
number of the enemy.” 165 This statement alone has caused quite a large amount of controversy
due to the fact that this amount of casualties has never been found indicated on any documents or
documented discussions. While the decision to use the atomic bombs was based primarily upon
military personnel death tolls rather than civilian death tolls, there were American troops who
were happy about the choice made by President Truman.
A World War II veteran, Ed Livermore from Hobart, Oklahoma, was saved from combat
on Victory over Japan Day. 166 Livermore was drafted in the year 1942. 167 He spent his years in
the military “training on the latest military artillery,” but he never saw battle firsthand. 168
Livermore was one of many soldiers thankful for the use of the atomic bombs. Livermore stated,
“We were all saved from Operation Olympic, which would have probably have been quite
devastating.” 169 He also stated “It was a great relief because I wasn’t going to die” when he
learned Japan had surrendered. 170 Ed Livermore then concluded his interview by stating that “it
was a great experience as far as I was concerned – I didn’t lose any blood.” 171
According to the United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report of the Pacific
War released on July 1, 1946, months after the dropping of the atomic bombs the casualties in
Hiroshima were approximately above 100,000. Between 60,000 and 70,000 were killed and over
50,000 were injured. 172 There were approximately 90,000 buildings in the city before the
165
Allen and Polmar, Code-Name Downfall, 291.
Amanda Bland, “World War II Veteran Recalss VJ Day,” Tulsa World, (Tulsa, OK).
167
Ibid.
168
Ibid.
169
Ibid.
170
Ibid.
171
Ibid.
172
Bombing Survey, 23.
166
80
bombing. 65,000 of these buildings were “rendered unusable and almost all the remainder
received at least light superficial damage.” 173
The damaging effects in Nagasaki after the dropping of the bomb were not as devastating
as Hiroshima, because the bomb exploded over the northwest portion of the city which allowed
“the intervening hills” to protect “a major portion of the city lying in the adjoining valley.” 174 An
alarm was sounded around the city but was improperly given, therefore resulted in approximately
400 people who found shelter. 175 Approximately 40,000 people were killed in Nagasaki with an
additional 40,000 injured. 176 14,000 residential buildings out of 52,000 were totally destroyed
after the bomb. 177 An additional 5,400 buildings were badly damaged. Together, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki resulted in over 100,000 people killed and over fifty percent of the “built-up areas of
the two cities were destroyed.” 178
The effects that the atomic bombs had on the people of Japan were devastating. If one did
not die from the initial explosion, he or she most likely experienced one or more of the terrible
consequences of the bombs. Some people had skin that “hung from their faces and hands.” 179
Many people had burn marks, which took shape on the skin with the pattern of whatever type of
clothing the people were wearing. 180 There were also people in extreme pain, as well as people
who were vomiting as they tried to flee the cities. 181 Those fleeing Hiroshima “all had their
173
Ibid.
Ibid, 24.
175
Ibid.
176
Ibid.
177
Ibid.
178
Ibid, 22.
179
John Hersey, Hiroshima, (New York: Random House, Inc., 1989), 29.
180
Hersey, Hiroshima, 29.
181
Ibid.
174
81
heads bowed, looked straight ahead, were silent, and showed no expression whatever.” 182 This
lack of emotion embodies the American government’s goal of complete devastation.
Two years after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, Henry Stimson wrote an
article that discussed the decision to use them. At this time, Stimson still believed that the
decision to use the atomic bombs was the only solution to end the war with Japan with the fewest
American casualties in the shortest amount of time. This tactic was used in order to persuade the
emperor and his controlling advisors to request that all of Japan cease fire.
Stimson claimed in the article that it was his responsibility, as well as the others that worked
alongside him including President Truman, to use the atomic bombs in order to save as many
American lives as possible. Stimson believed that “no man, in our position and subject to our
responsibilities, holding in his hands a weapon of such possibilities for accomplishing this
purpose and saving those lives, could have failed to use it and afterwards looked his county-men
in the face.” 183 Stimson, along with almost every other person involved in weighing between the
atomic bombs and Operation Downfall, cared more about ending the war quickly with the least
amount of American deaths than the deaths of women and children in the targeted Japanese
cities.
Although the deaths of women and children were not considered at any great length,
there is one letter written by President Truman which shows that he did at one time have them in
mind. Truman was responding to a letter written to him by Richard B. Russell which claimed
that the United States should show no mercy on the Japanese. Russell stated “If we do not have
available a sufficient number of atomic bombs with which to finish the job immediately, let us
182
183
Ibid.
Henry L. Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” Harper’s Magazine (Feb. 1947), 106.
82
carry on with TNT and fire bombs until we can produce them.” 184 Truman responded by stating
“I know that Japan is a terribly cruel and uncivilized nation in warfare but I can’t bring myself to
believe that, because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in the same manner…My object is
to save as many American lives as possible but I also have a humane feeling for the women and
children in Japan.” 185
This letter shows that Truman did at one point consider the lives of women and children
in Japan. He recognized that the loss of their lives would be devastating, but the lives of the
American troops were more important in his eyes. Truman felt sympathy for the loss, but this
consideration went no further than that, because the weight of their lives compared to that of
American troops was light on his shoulders.
Both men who were behind the decision to use the atomic bombs took the lives of United
States military personnel in to more consideration than that of the thousands of Japanese civilians
who died. Although Truman stated that he did not want to act as the Japanese did when they
bombed Pearl Harbor, he still made the decision to utilize the atomic bombs. It is apparent that
there was not much consideration for the psychological and physical effects of the civilians that
would occur due to the atomic bombs.
Throughout the years after the atomic bombs were utilized, many scholars began to
speculate that the use of the atomic bomb was an unnecessary tool to achieve the surrender of
Japan. Some recent scholars have concluded that there was a possibility of peaceful surrender on
184
“Telegram, Richard Russell to Harry S. Truman, August 7, 1945,” found in Truman Library,
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?pagenumb
er=2&documentdate=1945-08-07&documentid=8&studycollectionid=abomb.
185
“Harry S. Truman to Richard Russell, August 9, 1945,” found in Truman Library,
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?document
date=1945-08-09&documentid=9&studycollectionid=abomb&pagenumber=1.
83
behalf of the Japanese Empire. J. Samuel Walker, Chief Historian of the United States Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, stated:
Careful scholarly treatment of the records and manuscripts opened over the past few
years has greatly enhanced our understanding of why the Truman administration used
atomic weapons against Japan. Experts continue to disagree on some issues, but critical
questions have been answered. The consensus among scholars is that the bomb was not
needed to avoid an invasion of Japan … it is clear that alternatives to the bomb existed
and that Truman and his advisers knew it. 186
After the fall of Germany to the Allies, the Japanese government was torn about whether
they would continue to fight against the U.S. and Great Britain. On May 5, 1945, two advisers of
the emperor discussed the possible conditions of surrender. Kido revealed to Konoe that “though
the emperor had previously been unwilling to make any concessions on disarmament and the
punishment of war criminals, now, after long discussion with Kido, he has reluctantly inclined to
withdraw these conditions.” 187 However, on May 13, 1945, the emperor decided that the
Japanese had one last battle in them to “deal a heavy blow to the Americans.”
Soon after Japan publicly stated that they would continue fighting for self-preservation it
was reported in Manchuria that the Soviet forces along the border were increasing. One of the
military officials received word that the Soviet forces along the Manchurian border were close to
totaling 35 divisions and 2,000 tanks. 188 Multiple of the emperor’s advisors, Matsutani, Takagi,
Matsudaira, Konoe, Kido, and Kase, concluded that “it was necessary to end the war as quickly
as possible.” 189 In turn, these men decided that they would attempt to persuade the various forces
186
Walter L. Hixson, The Atomic Bomb in History and Memory: The American Experience in World War
II, (New York: Routledge, 2002), 180.
187
Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 68.
188
Ibid, 69.
189
Ibid.
84
of the military to favor peace and become neutralized. If this would have been accomplished,
then their next task was to persuade the emperor to take “an active role in the peace process.” 190
According to the United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report, which included the
testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders, the Japanese would have surrendered without the
use of the atomic bombs or Russian involvement by November 1, 1945. 191 Within this survey, it
was stated that
“We underestimated the ability of our air attack on Japan’s home islands, coupled as it
was with blockade and previous military defeats, to achieve unconditional surrender without
invasion. By July 1945, the weight of our air attack had as yet reached only a fraction of its
planned proportion, Japan’s industrial potential had been fatally reduced, her civilian population
had lost its confidence in victory and was approaching the limit of its endurance, her leaders,
convinced of the inevitability of defeat, were preparing to accept surrender. The only remaining
problem was the timing and terms of that surrender. Having entered the war inadequately
prepared, we continued all-out mobilization of all resources to bring ever increasing pressure on
Japan, beyond the time this was still reasonably required.” 192
President Truman’s executive decision to utilize the atomic bombs instead of Operation
Downfall was a flawed decision. There are many reasons as to why it was a poor decision. It has
become apparent over the years after the war that Japan would have surrendered before the end
of 1945 without the use of the atomic bombs. If this is true, the second part of Operation
Downfall, Operation Coronet, would not have happened. It is also apparent that the reason Japan
surrendered was not because of the atomic bombs alone, but also the involvement of the Soviet
190
Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 69.
Bombing Survey, 26.
192
Bombing Survey, 29.
191
85
military. Soviet involvement was a key component of Operation Downfall, which could mean
that Japan would have surrendered the moment Russia became involved in the operation.
President Truman’s decision was not a great one because of the little to no consideration
for Japanese human life. Operation Downfall was concentrated on military and industrial
locations in Japan rather than on large Japanese cities. The goal of Operation Downfall was to
cripple and devastate the different aspects of the Japanese military; meanwhile the goal of the
atomic bombs was to cause physical and psychological devastation to the Japanese population.
The hope of utilizing the atomic bombs was to kill a large amount of civilians in Japan in order
to apply pressure to the emperor. Unconditional surrender was what the United States was
aiming for through the use of the atomic bombs.
There was no humane consideration for the lives lost due to the atomic bombs. It was not
an unknown fact that the atomic bombs would leave nothing but complete devastation and horror
in its wake. The estimated casualty rates were considered by Truman and his advisors; however
they embellished these rates to justify the decision made. Truman and Stimson claimed that the
predicted death tolls given to them were higher than what has been discovered in documents. The
exaggeration of those numbers had been used publicly in order to validate the inhumane use of
the atomic bombs. The most influential factor as to why the atomic bombs were used was in
order to end World War II in the quickest way possible. Another influential factor would be the
fact that the government wanted the United States to be the first nation to utilize a weapon with
that amount of mass destruction.
The use of the atomic bombs, along with the influence of other factors, did successfully
lead to the end of World War II. Although the intentions to use the atomic bombs seem to be
skewed in a poor direction, they served their purpose. Operation Downfall would have been one
86
of the largest military operations in history if it was implemented. However, due to information
discovered after the war, the operation could have possibly not even made it to the second and
larger phase which would have decreased the amount of casualties. No matter the reasons as to
why the atomic bombs were used over Operation Downfall, the overall goal of both plans was
achieved: the conclusion of World War II.
87
Bibliography
Primary
Bland, Amanda. “World War II Veteran Recalss VJ Day.” Tulsa World. (Tulsa, OK).
“Harry S. Truman to Richard Russell, August 9, 1945.” found in Truman
Library. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/inde
x
.php?documentdate=194589&documentid=9&studycollectionid=abomb&pagenumber=1.
“Henry Stimson to Harry S. Truman, April 24, 1945.” found in Truman Library.
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index
.php?documentdate=1945-04-24&documentid=9-4&studycollectionid=&pagenumber=1.
Hersey, John. Hiroshima. (New York: Random House, Inc., 1989).
“Leslie R. Groves to Henry Stimson, July 18, 1945.” found on Truman Library.
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?d
ocumentdate=1945-8&documentid=2&studycollectionid=abomb&pagenumber=1.
“Minutes of Meeting held at the White House, June 18, 1945.” found in Truman
Library,http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/inde
x.php?pagenumber=2&documentid=21&documentdate=19450618&studycollectionid=abomb&g
roupid.
“Notes of Meeting of the Interim Committee, May 9, 1945.” found in Truman Library.
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?p
agenumber=2&documentdate=1945-05-09&documentid=35&studycollectionid=abomb.
“Petition to the President of the United States, July 17, 1945.” found on Truman Library.
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?d
ocumentdate=1945-07-17&documentid=79&studycollectionid=abomb&pagenumber=1.
Stimson, Henry L. “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb.” Harper’s Magazine (Feb. 1947).
“Telegram, Richard Russell to Harry S. Truman, August 7, 1945.” found in Truman
Library. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/inde
x
.php?pagenumber=2&documentdate=1945-08-07&documentid=8&studycollectionid=abomb.
“United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report (Pacific War).” July
1946. http://www.anesi.com/ussbs01.htm#hindsigh.
Secondary
Allen, Thomas B. and Norman Polmar. Code-Name Downfall. (New York: Simon & Schuster
Inc., 1995).
88
Cowley, Robert, Geoffrey Parker, and Society for Military History (U.S.). The Reader’s
Companion to Military History. (New York: Mariner Books, 2001).
Frank, Richard B. Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. (New York: Random
House, Inc., 1999).
Giangreco, D. M. Hell to Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947.
(Annapolis: National Institute Press, 2009).
Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.
(Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005).
Hixson, Walter L. The Atomic Bomb in History and Memory: The American Experience in World
War II. (New York: Routledge, 2002).
89
“Recognitions of and Responses to the Emptiness of Contemporary Culture in Douglas Coupland
and David Foster Wallace”
Cassie Stickel
Abstract: David Foster Wallace and Douglas Coupland are writers whose works illustrate what
they perceive to be the meaninglessness and emptiness of contemporary experience. Douglas
Coupland recognizes in his fictional short-story collection “Life After God,” through his
characters’ feelings of emptiness and loneliness, that humans face the unfulfilled desire for
meaning, which they can almost never find, leaving his characters depressed, unsatisfied, and
mostly empty. He arrives at a profound solution. Coupland’s solution focuses on spirituality and
religion, with his protagonist Scout having a symbolic connection with God as source of
meaning, which brings him towards peace. Wallace recognizes similar problems in his nonfiction essay about his experience on a cruise ship, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do
Again,” showing humans’ worshipping of materialism, perfection, pleasure, and selfishness, and
recognizes the principle of desire to be the large problem. He ultimately arrives at the conclusion
that it is impossible to fulfill desire, thus leaving an exponential problem that humans must face,
since humans, as a natural instinct, always want and desire. He works through these issues in his
2005 Kenyon Commencement Address, where he, like Coupland, suggests a solution as a way of
dealing with selfishness and desire. His solution is different from Coupland’s, though, as it
focuses on the way a human thinks; he claims that the solution is all in perception, the way a
human can define meaning in experience, and the way in which he/she treats other people. Both
Wallace and Coupland acknowledge emptiness, meaninglessness, and insatiable desire as a
common mental problem, and their responses and solutions for these contemporary problems
establish these feelings as important issues that all humans will come to experience in their
lifetime, and will have to learn to cope with, ironically, in order to ever be satisfied.
David Foster Wallace and Douglas Coupland are writers whose works illustrate what
they perceive to be the meaninglessness and emptiness of contemporary experience. Douglas
Coupland recognizes in his fictional short-story collection Life After God, through his characters’
feelings of emptiness and loneliness, that humans face the unfulfilled desire for meaning, which
they can almost never find, leaving his characters depressed, unsatisfied, and mostly empty.
Wallace confronts similar problems in his non-fiction essay about his experience on a cruise
ship, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” showing humans’ worship of materialism,
perfection, pleasure, and selfishness. He ultimately arrives at the conclusion that it is impossible
90
to fulfill desire, thus leaving an exponential problem that humans must face, since humans, as a
natural instinct, always want and desire. They both have different ways of responding to this
universal problem, though, for Coupland, by the end of Life After God, ultimately arrives at a
spiritual response. Wallace, in his famous 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address, responds to
the problem he recognized in his essay, yet gives an alternative to Coupland by instead taking a
humanist approach and focusing not on spirituality, but on the way we control meaning through
how we treat others. Although their responses differ, they both identify an important human
problem that humans must all face eventually.
Douglas Coupland’s short-story collection Life After God features stories about fictional
characters who experience extreme emptiness and loneliness that they have come to as adults,
which represents a larger world problem: “ . . . his fiction as a whole, is nevertheless relevant to a
spreading sense of cultural discontent” (Forshaw 40). Coupland’s title, in itself, jump-starts the
central themes in the collection. He stresses a life after God, which he articulates before starting
his short story “In the Desert,” by saying: “You are the first generation raised without religion”
(Coupland 161). He recognizes and relates in his fiction the gnawing feelings shared by a
generation of people: “Coupland’s stories chronicle the angst of the generation born during the
upheavals of the 1960’s. . . Coupland’s characters seem to want something solid to anchor their
lives” (Newsham). While religion has been an essential tenet of human life since the beginning
of time, during the twentieth century and especially in the Western countries, religion has moved
towards obsolescence, generations living without a religious upbringing.
The stories featured in Life After God follows a set pattern of empty belief and loneliness
that every narrator faces: “Life After God is a text, as its title implies, that struggles with
questions of belief and conviction; it is a text that quietly delineates the despair of being caught
91
in what one character calls ‘ironic hell’” (Forshaw 47). Along with this aspect of Coupland’s
stories comes the remarkable assertion that a lot of his narrators proclaim: that after
the time of youth, when they are settled into adult life, the meaningless and empty feelings start.
In “My Hotel Year,” the narrator says that: “Now: I believe that you’ve had most of your
important memories by the time you’re thirty. After that, memory becomes water overflowing
into an already full cup. New experiences just don’t register in the same way or with the same
impact” (Coupland 48). Similarly, in “Gettysburg,” the narrator relates conversations he has with
his wife, from whom he is separated: “She says she remembers another thing about when she
was young—she remembers when the world was full of wonder—when life was a strand of
magic moments strung together, a succession of mysteries revealed, leaving her feeling as
though she was in a trance. . . She doesn’t know how to reclaim that sense of magic anymore”
(Coupland 138). The emphasis on youth is direct and obvious. Emptiness in youth is less likely
since every experience is new and exciting, but as the narrators and characters in these stories
show, once they grow older and there is no youth left in them, they struggle with how to define
meaning in their lives.
As Coupland’s stories progress, the biggest theme is a collapsed belief system, which
seems directly to produce the emptiness the characters feel. In the story “In the Desert,” the
narrator is on a driving trip from Las Vegas to Palm Springs, en route to deliver stolen syringes
and steroids. His thoughts and musings range from loneliness to utter nothingness: “I had
recently begun worrying about my feelings disappearing more and more—noticing that I had
seemed to simply be feeling less and less” (Coupland 175). What he describes is a type of
numbness—less than the feeling of despair, there is an utter lack of ability to feel anything:
92
I was wondering what was the logical end product of this recent business of my feeling less and
less. Is feeling nothing the inevitable end result of believing in nothing? And then I got to feeling
frightened—thinking that there might not actually be anything to believe in, in particular. I
thought it would be such a sick joke to have to remain alive for decades and not believe in or feel
anything. (Coupland 178)
In these contemplations, the narrator presents a troubling thought when he calls to
question the idea of belief. He is not sure whether he believes in nothing, or if there is just
nothing to believe in. With this, Coupland, through his narrator, summarizes twentieth century
religious thought. The narrator goes on to say that this is difficult for him because his parents
“raised their children clean of any ideology” (Coupland 178). With so many people of the new
generation being raised without any belief system, there are great consequences—the questioning
of belief and the inability to spiritually connect with anything.
The same narrator, after debating the issue of belief, decides to turn on a Christian radio
station. He wants to understand why they believe, but he has difficulty: “I did not deny that the
existence of Jesus was real to these people—it was merely that I was cut off from their
experience in a way that was never connectable” (Coupland 183). The narrator, because of his
upbringing, cannot even start to connect himself with religion or spirituality. His life has
produced in him a natural instinct not to be able to connect with God or religion, and this
narrator represents the generation that Coupland refers to throughout the collection.
The book’s title piece, “1,000 Years (Life After God),” focuses around the narrator,
Scout, who tells the story of himself and his six friends, who were once inseparable. He is
looking in the past at first, relating their lifestyle and how close they were. He describes a scene
in which he and his friends are floating in swimming pools, and he compares them to fetuses
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sharing the same womb: “Adult responsibilities, including the imperative to define political and
spiritual identity, are rendered irrelevant and meaningless here. In this passage, this maternal
space is described in quasi-religious tones, suggesting its sacredness. It is a holy space, but
forever lost” (Greenberg 69). They were a youthful bunch who did not believe much, especially
in God. As he is reminiscing, Scout says: “I think that there was a trade-off somewhere along the
line. I think the price we paid for our golden life was an inability to fully believe in love; instead
we gained an irony that scorched everything it touched. And I wonder if this irony is the price we
paid for the loss of God” (Coupland 273).
The “golden life” suggests a life free of adult thinking, engrossed in new experiences of
wonder which focused too much on youth and not enough on the meaning that Scout cannot find
years and years later. The group of friends were so caught up in themselves, in their “golden
life,” that they did not leave much room to believe in anything else—and it is here that Scout
announces the same problems that are present in the other stories. Scout, on reminiscing about
the past, seems to paint a scene that suggests that the “golden life” he shared with these people
gave him a sense of spirituality that he could never find with God. He continues by asking, “we
have religious impulses—we must—and yet into what cracks do these impulses flow in a world
without religion?” (Coupland 273-74). In other words, Scout affirms his belief that as humans we
have to be religious because it is a part of us; yet, there is no way to exercise this necessity in the
narrator’s world—whether he was either disconnected to begin with, or he closed off this world
on his own.
Scout then begins to introduce his friends, some of whom seem similar to him, others
very different. Mark remarks that he is “becoming nothing” (Coupland 280), and Stacey explains
that she has experienced “the day where you suddenly crash and realize that you’re all alone in
94
the world and you fall into the abyss” (Coupland 283). There are characters in the collection who
lead normal lives, though, “but they, too, suffer from a sense of drift, meaninglessness, and
emotional ennui” (Kakutani C20). One example of this character is Scout’s friend, Julie;
although she is married with two children, she says that she is “trying to escape from ironic hell:
cynicism into faith; randomness into clarity; worry into devotion” (Coupland 286), and admits
that she struggles. Dana, whom Scout remembers as the craziest of their friends, has converted to
extreme Christianity and tells Scout, “I pray for you because you have no faith and hence no
soul” (Coupland 297), and then proceeds to horrify him with doomed apocalyptic situations in
which he predicts Scout will soon find himself. Todd, in the eyes of the rest of the friends and
even at times the narrator, seems to live a bum’s life by rejecting the traditional modes of
success, but responds to this accusation willingly:
“Oh, I know you guys think my life is some big joke—that it’s going nowhere.
But I’m happy. And it’s not like I’m lost or anything. We’re all too fucking
middle class to ever be lost. Lost means you had faith or something to begin with
and the middle class never really had any of that. So we can never be lost. And
you tell me, Scout—what is it we end up being, then—what exactly is it we end
up being then—instead of being lost?” (Coupland 305)
Todd’s question to Scout brings up just another sense of meaninglessness that is present within
these characters. Since they never had faith to begin with, there is no being lost—they have
nothing to find because they do not know how to find anything. And his question leads to a
grand feeling of nothingness, as he cannot even seem to find out who he is; it is as if these
characters are not only questioning empty belief systems, but their essential identity. The last
friend he introduces is Kristy, who plays a part later before he decides to make a crucial change
in his life—and it is this change through which Coupland brings about his solution to the
problem he identifies.
95
David Foster Wallace, like Coupland, acknowledges the emptiness of life in his nonfiction essay about his experience on a cruise ship, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do
Again.” Although this is different from Coupland’s work because of Coupland’s use of fictional
characters to identify a similar problem, Wallace writes his non-fiction piece in an artistic way:
“’A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again’ is animated by Mr. Wallace’s wonderfully
exuberant prose, a zingy, elastic gift for metaphor and imaginative sleight of hand, combined
with a taste for amphetaminelike stream-of-consciousness riffs” (Kakutani C15). Right at the
beginning of his essay, he is describing various experiences that he had while on the cruise, but
he then announces that he has been pampered, and that it has produced an awful and empty
feeling within him. Right away he attacks the Megalines cruise ship company for the way that
they have pampered him: “I felt despair . . . It’s maybe close to what people call dread or angst.
But it’s not these things, quite. It’s more like wanting to die in order to escape the unbearable
feeling of becoming aware that I’m small and weak and selfish and going without any doubt at
all to die” (Wallace 361). He introduces us to Petra, the maid who had cleaned his cabin all
week. He explains that he got a “weird kind of pampering-paranoia” (Wallace 297), because
every time he leaves his room, he comes back to find it cleaned. He cannot figure out how Petra
knows when he is gone and when he is there, and it drives him almost to the brink of madness—
to the point where he hides out and tries to watch for her, but he can never find her; and his
room, as long as he is gone for over thirty minutes, is always clean.
He begins metaphorically explaining his preconceived uneasiness with the ocean: “I, who
had never before this cruise actually been on the ocean, have always associated the ocean with
death and dread” (Wallace 261). He describes the people on the cruise itself to be in “stages of
disintegration” (Wallace 263), and regretfully remarks: “Seawater corrodes vessels with amazing
96
speed – rusts them, exfoliates paint, strips varnish, dulls shine, coats ships’ hulls with barnacles
and kelp-clumps and a vague ubiquitous nautical snot that seems like death incarnate” (Wallace
263). The nastiness of the nature around them, with the water’s capabilities of rust and decay, is
a convenient symbol for the mental decay that he recognizes with his experience of being
pampered. Even though there is an obvious source of decay that must damage the cruise ship, he
explains how there are men who go around and give fresh coats of white paint to the rusted
spots. There is an implication that the Megalines company is lying to the customers; this is only
the beginning of the cracks they seem to cover up. They promise a luxurious ship when in
reality, the ship is full of rust, and it is only the application of paint that hides the truthful
condition of the ship—and this is only one instance in the dirtiness that Wallace experiences.
He then points out a rather ironic fact:
A vacation is a respite from unpleasantness, and since consciousness of death and
decay are unpleasant, it may seem weird that Americans’ ultimate fantasy
vacation involves being plunked down in an enormous primordial engine of death
and decay. But on a 7NC Luxury Cruise, we are skillfully enabled in the
construction of various fantasies of triumph over just this death and decay.
(Wallace 263-64)
These “various fantasies of triumph” include all the ads and brochures that the Megalines cruise
ships produce, which promise relaxation and fun. The eeriest part of Wallace’s observation is the
way he says that “we are skillfully enabled,” which suggests a type of control that the cruise lines
not only have over Wallace, but their market in general. They have determined their passengers’
experience already: “In the cruise brochure’s ads, you are excused from doing the work of
constructing the fantasy. The ads do it for you. The ads, therefore, don’t flatter your adult
agency, or even ignore it – they supplant it” (Wallace 267). By supplanting the passengers’ adult
agency, they are in a way taking away normal adult freedoms, primarily the way a human can
construct his/her own meaning and experience. Instead of letting the consumer interpret and
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fantasize his/her own experience, the way the ads are set up takes that ability away: “The
promise is not that you can experience great pleasure, but that you will . . . Your troublesome
capacities for choice, error, regret, dissatisfaction, and despair will be removed from the
equation. The ads promise that you will be able – finally, for once – truly to relax and have a
good time, because you will have no choice but to have a good time” (Wallace 267). In a way,
the cruise lines have found a way not only to plant expectation in their heads, but to force what
their experience will be.
Petra is a great example of what the brochures promise; there is a specific ad that explains
that the consumer will get to do “Absolutely Nothing” (Wallace 268). This pushes Wallace to a
sad realization: “How long has it been since you did Absolutely Nothing? I know exactly how
long it’s been for me. I know how long it’s been since I had every need met choicelessly from
someplace outside me, without my having to ask or even acknowledge that I needed. And that
time I was floating, too, and the fluid was salty, and warm but not too” (Wallace 268). His
comparison of the expected cruise ship experience to an amniotic setting, similar to Coupland’s
narrator Scout in the pool with his friends, acknowledges that what the cruise lines promise is an
almost unconscious dream, where they literally expect passengers not to do a thing (similar to
what the “golden life” did to Scout and his friends). Either the Megalines company actually
thinks it is possible to do “Absolutely Nothing,” or they want to have so much control as to make
sure you actually do nothing at all—which basically eliminates all the basic freedoms and
capabilities that a human adult is supposed to have.
Soon enough, Wallace begins to delve into his basic perceptions of Americans being
selfish and greedy, using humorous adjectives such as “bovine.” He specifically experiences
these feelings when his ship (called the Zenith, which he sardonically renames the Nadir) docks
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and they become part of the tourism of whichever island which at which they have stopped. He
declines the chance to get off the ship and be a part of the tourism because he cannot stand to be
thought of as an American in this situation, but yet he notices that he cannot escape this
classification:
Part of the overall despair of this Luxury Cruise is that no matter what I do I
cannot escape my own essential and newly unpleasant Americannness. This
despair reaches its peak in port, at the rail, looking down at what I can’t help
being one of. Whether up here or down there, I am an American tourist, and am
thus ex officio large, flashy, red, loud, coarse, condescending, self-absorbed,
spoiled, appearance-conscious, ashamed, despairing, and greedy: the world’s only
known species of bovine carnivore. (Wallace 311)
He realizes that no matter what he does, even though he likes to believe that he is not a part of
this, he is absolutely a part of this classification, and that it is in his nature to feel despairing and
greedy. But it is after this conclusion that he starts to realize a little more about himself: that he is
actually just as greedy—which is something Wallace does well: “The primary butt of Mr.
Wallace’s humor is himself, and if he seizes upon his experiences to reveal ugly aspects of the
American character, he always does it through the lens of his own worst impulses” (Miller 11).
It is after he critiques Americans that he finds himself suddenly unsatisfied. Since he does
not leave the boat, he is there when other cruise ships arrive. He finds himself looking at this
ship, the Dreamward, and noticing that it is “cleaner . . . larger . . . less cheesy . . . way superior”
(Wallace 315) than that of the Nadir. Before, he was taken aback at the rich amount of
pampering that he received, but now he finds himself criticizing what he once thought to be
entirely too lavish. He thinks of what it is like aboard, and how much better each amenity
probably is in comparison to his own ship. It is now that he realizes and recognizes a problem
not only in himself, but a problem that can be recognized in every single American (and more
generally, every human): “In response to my environment of extraordinary gratification and
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pampering, the Insatiable Infant part of me will simply adjust its desires upward until it once
again levels out at its homeostasis of terrible dissatisfaction. And sure enough, on
the Nadir itself, after a few days of delight and then adjustment, the Pamper-swaddled part of me
that WANTS is now back” (Wallace 317). Because of all the pampering he has received, his
desires have been fulfilled, yes, but once they have been fulfilled by the vast amounts of
pampering, he is now facing the basic human problem that he points out: since he is so well
adjusted to the pampering, it is now not good enough, and now he wants more. He is so
dissatisfied with what he has now, that he feels extremely angry and after his cruise ship
experience, now, “instead of feeling refreshed and renewed I’m anticipating just how totally
stressful and demanding and unpleasurable regular landlocked adult life is going to be now that
even just the premature removal of a towel by a sepulchral crewman seems like an assault on my
basic rights” (Wallace 317-318). It seems that instead of a pleasure-filled vacation with total
relaxation like the brochures promised, and what the others aboard the Nadir seemed to
experience, Wallace is left with a great amount of dread not only in the effects of pampering but
in the fact that somehow, without him even knowing, he has come to adjust and because of the
way he was treated, like an infant, he cannot even fathom the idea of returning to normal life.
The greatest recognition that Wallace makes, though, is when he admits that: “The thing
to notice is that the real fantasy here isn’t that this promise will be kept, but that such a promise
is keepable at all. This is a big one, this lie. And of course I want to believe it – fuck the Buddha
– I want to believe that maybe this Ultimate Fantasy Vacation will be enough pampering”
(Wallace 316). Consistently throughout Wallace’s essay, he focuses on this concept of pleasure
that Celebrity is promising him. He endlessly goes through their different ways of pampering,
and analyzes the impossibility of them being able to satisfy his every desire like they claim. Even
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though there is a lot of focus on the impracticality of them being able to keep their promise,
Wallace points out an aspect of life even bigger than Celebrity and their cruises. He states that
the real fantasy is that the promise can even be kept at all. This brings the subject matter to the
fact that it is literally impossible for human desire to ever be fulfilled. He lays further emphasis
by saying: “fuck the Buddha,” as a type of sarcastic and ironic statement to go along with what
he wants to believe. He refers to the Buddha not for spiritual purposes, but for their strong belief
on the concept of the impermanence of pleasure, which in short is that fulfilling desire is
impossible. He wants to believe that it’s possible; he wants to be able to cast this principle aside,
but it’s not that easy. Therefore, the lie that Wallace is wrestling with is the possibility of desire
ever being fulfilled completely.
Although Wallace and Coupland seem to share very different ideas, they both, in general,
critique a particular facet of human life and experience, which are the feelings of emptiness and
meaninglessness that a person is almost bound to experience eventually in life – and it is the
culture surrounding them that produces these awful feelings. With Coupland, his characters
suffer in two different ways. One way they suffer is on the account that they are older and
because their lives have come to boring points, where there is nothing new, and they so badly
want something to make them feel—so in result they are dissatisfied, and incapable of positive
feelings. This is similar to Wallace’s experience aboard the Nadir, because there is a large focus
on the importance of pleasure and the inevitable dissatisfaction that humans are inclined to feel.
Just as Wallace’s process of desire has him wanting more, the characters in Coupland’s stories
want more than the life they have. Both works have people who want more than they are given,
who by the spiritual, societal, and mental constructs of life are always left desiring more—
therefore producing great emptiness, yearning, and the ability to feel meaningless in a world that
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seems too cruel to ever satisfy them. The second way that Coupland’s characters suffer from
meaninglessness is their inability to connect spiritually with God, and although religion is not a
focus in Wallace’s work, especially in his essay, there is definitely a need for something larger
than themselves to help keep them satisfied, happy, and simply not feeling absolutely dreadful.
Coupland’s response to this problem comes with Scout’s symbolic transition from
emptiness to spirituality. He escapes to the United States for a few days, and comes back to work
only to go on a “therapy cruise” (Coupland 332) with Kristy (which is a sharp contrast to the
dreadful cruise that Wallace takes), with whom he shares parts of his feelings. She understands
what he says about being broken, and she also understands when Scout tells her he probably will
not come back to work. It is after he drops Kristy off that he feels he is ready to enter into the
woods, since by this point he cannot even interact with the world around him. The woods and
nature symbolize something larger that is deep within himself: “As long as there is wilderness, I
know there is a larger part of myself that I can always visit, vast tracts of territory lying dormant,
craving exploration and providing sanctity” (Coupland 344). The wilderness, to Scout, represents
a type of safe place—a place safe from societal influences, where he can go to feel something
other than emptiness. It opens up his world and gives him a subtle peace of mind that he cannot
find anywhere else. This setting of the wilderness and nature soon turns into something spiritual.
As soon as Scout reaches his destination in the woods, he reflects on “how an embryo
doesn’t know where on Earth or when in history it is going to be born. It simply pops out of its
womb and joins its world. The landscape I saw before me is the world that I had joined, the
world that made me who I am” (Coupland 349). He finds a connection to the world before him,
something he was unable to do before. This connection to nature links him to the spiritual world
he could never find, and “the narrator finds some luminous life in the lichen, stream and sky”
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(Peterson 13). He pitches his tent, and as he lies there, he seems to know that “this is the end of
some aspect of my life, but also a beginning—the beginning of some unknown secret that will
reveal itself to me soon. All I need to do is ask and pray” (Coupland 352). Before he enters the
woods, Scout is very distant from all religion and spirituality. But as soon as he enters into
nature, away from the emptiness he felt in contemporary life, he is surprisingly now able to pray.
This first step leads him into the change he needs in his life.
What comes next is a highly symbolic baptismal scene, where Scout, seemingly without
fear, steps into the cold water. He does so with great effort and determination. He takes all of his
clothes off, and submerges himself in the river “envisioning a moment of clarity and redemption
more similar to a conversion than a fleeting epiphany” (McCampbell 137). Before he goes any
further, he reveals to the audience his secret: “My secret is that I need God—that I am sick and
can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable
of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem
beyond being able to love” (Coupland 359). Finally, he has divulged his realization that he
cannot live without God and spirituality. He has tried endlessly to find meaning, yet remains the
same broken person. With these words, his confessions reveal that what is broken in him can be
fixed by God, and he seems positive and certain that this revelation will save him, because as he
walks deeper into the water, and as he submerges himself from head to toe, he symbolically
gives all of himself to God in the form of ritual baptism and thinks to himself: “These hands—
the hands that heal; the hands that hold; the hands we desire because they are better than desire.
These hands—the hands that care, the hands that mold; the hands that touch the lips, the lips that
speak the words—the words that tell us we are whole” (Coupland 360). With God, there is no
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need for desire, and hence no need for emptiness—God makes him whole, restores his person,
and grants him the sanctity that he has searched for and desperately needed.
Wallace, on the other hand, does not share the same insight as Coupland does when
offering a solution. In 2005, Wallace gave a Commencement Address at Kenyon College. In this
speech, he recognizes problems in human life similar to those he recognized in “A Supposedly
Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” especially selfishness. He shares his claim that: “. . . everything
in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the
universe; the realist, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this
sort of natural, basic self-centeredness because it’s so socially repulsive. But it’s pretty much the
same for all of us” (Wallace 3). The grand majority of humans are entirely selfish, and it is hard
to diverge from that path because it is a natural default setting; they are the same feelings of
greed and selfishness that he caught himself experiencing while aboard the Nadir.
The purpose of Wallace’s essay is to tell the graduates what the purpose of a liberal arts
education is, aiming to “explain the necessity of something we think either does not exist or we
have long since required” (Durantaye 58), which is based solely on the application of free
thinking and free will, which stands for something much larger in the core of not only human
ethics, but in effect, human happiness: “learning how to think really means learning how to
exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough
to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.
Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed”
(Wallace 4). He basically says that the key to life is being able to have control in the way you
view the situations and problems in your life—there are going to be bad things that happen, but
he says that it is the way you choose to pull meaning from everything that happens, and it is what
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you do with that thought and meaning that can save you from displeasure and pain. Learning to
exercise this control is “how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous,
respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting
of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out” (Wallace 4). Because, like
Coupland’s characters in Life After God, there will come a time when the boredom of routine
creates an emptiness with oneself, and if you cannot learn to control your thoughts and
perceptions of experience, you will pretty much be lost or “totally hosed.”
Wallace keeps exploring the importance of learning how to think, and further: “The only
thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it. This, I submit,
is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously
decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship” (Wallace 8). He
lists all the forms of worship, whether it be power, money, or intellect, and claims how wrong
they all are, and how you will fall victim to all. He veers from Coupland, now, in saying that:
“the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship . .
. is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive” (Wallace 8). Even though he
does not exactly criticize what seems to be Coupland’s solution of spiritual guidance to meaning,
he certainly discounts it by saying that: “None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or
dogma or big fancy questions of life after death” (Wallace 9). He insists, over and over again, the
importance of learning how to think, perceive, and be conscious in a world that does nothing but
make us slip into the opposite. He warns that: “The alternative is unconsciousness, the default
setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing”
(Wallace 9), which is a similar feeling that Coupland portrayed through Scout’s reminiscing of
the loss of the experiences and “golden life” he shared with his friends. But rather than going in
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a spiritual direction, Wallace takes a humanist approach in saying that the “truth” of life is about
practicing our human ideals in the way we see and treat others and in our attitudes towards the
world, ourselves, and other people—and it is only this consciousness that will save us from a life
of boredom, loss, and emptiness.
Although Coupland and Wallace share very different solutions—with Coupland offering
spirituality as the answer with Scout’s symbolic connection with God as source of meaning, and
Wallace offering a humanist approach, focusing on the way a human thinks and the way a human
can define meaning in experience, and in the way he/she treats other people, the most important
part is that they have both recognized an essential emptiness in contemporary life. They come to
this problem differently, but they both express what is actually important: the acknowledgement
of human emptiness, meaninglessness, and insatiable desire as a common mental problem,
especially if they let themselves fall into a routine of boredom, dissatisfaction, or the lack of new
experience, produced by both society and the default setting of the human mind to which
Wallace refers. Their responses and solutions to these contemporary problems establish these
feelings as important issues that all humans will come to experience in their lifetime, and will
have to learn to cope with, ironically, if they ever hope to be satisfied.
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Works Cited
Coupland, Douglas. Life After God. New York: Pocket Books, 1995. Print.
Durantaye, Leland de la. “How to be Happy: The Ethics of David Foster Wallace.”
BostonReview April 2011: 56-60. Web. 19 Sep. 2014.
Forshaw, Mark. “Douglas Coupland: In and Out of ‘Ironic Hell’.” Critical Survey 12.3 (2000):
39-58. Web. 15 Sep. 2014.
Greenberg, Louis. “’A Museum of Fifteen Years Ago’: Nostalgia in Three Novels by Douglas
Coupland.” JLS/TLW (2013): 67-78. Web. 15 Sep. 2014.
Kakutani, Michiko. “A New Lost Generation Gathers Wool at the Mall.” New York Times 8
March 1994: C20. Print.
_____. “Musings and Digressions on Life’s Absurdities.” New York Times 4 Feb.
1997: C15. Print.
McCampbell, Mary W. “’GOD IS NOWHERE: GOD IS HERE’: The Co-existence of Hope and
Evil in Douglas Coupland’s Hey Nostradamus!” The Yearbook of English Studies 39.1/2
(2009): 137-154. Web. 15 Sep. 2014.
Miller, Laura. “The Road to Babbittville.” The New York Times Book Review 10 March 1997:
11. Print.
Newsham, Brad. “More Notes from a Listless Generation.” San Francisco Chronicle 8 Feb.
1994. Web. 19 Sep. 2014. <http://coupland.tripod.com/lg9.html>.
Peterson, Brenda. “The Bomb and Burger King.” The New York Times Book Review 8 May
1994: 13. Print.
Wallace, David F. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments. Boston:
Little, Brown and Co., 1998. Print.
_____. Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address.
<http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DFWKenyonAddress2005.pdf>.
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