Review Of Marguerite Duras's Book 'The Lover'
Water: An Allegory for Love
Mary (Maria) Ortega, UG
TA: Dr. Vicky Gilpin
ENGL E-154a
December 11, 2013
Marguerite Duras’s book, The Lover, centers on a young French girl who lives in Indochina with her dysfunctional family. The narrator, whose father recently passed away, lives in a "raised" house along the Mekong River with her mother and two brothers. The French girl is very close to her younger brother Paulo, but she avoids her older unnamed brother who is verbally abusive and may have drug and gambling issues. When the young narrator attends an Indochinese high school, she participates in a socially forbidden love affair with an older Chinese businessman. Throughout the novel, the author incorporates the highs and lows of love relationships but also entices readers by revealing intimate details of different love …show more content…
affairs. While the narrator, Duras, uses the allegory of water to indicate love, she also utilizes water to illustrate the various types of love relationships she experiences throughout her lifetime. The image of the ferry crossing the turbulent waters of the Mekong River is the setting of the lovers’ first interaction and the beginning of their attraction. Duras writes, "all around the ferry is the river, it’s brimful, its moving waters sweep through never mixing with, the stagnant waters of the rice fields" (21-22). The river voyage represents the girl embarking on a journey towards love, and the 'brimful ' waters highlight her body’s physical readiness to start a love affair. Also, the description of the surrounding waters reflects society’s view of interracial relationships. The phrase 'never mixing ' reinforces the existence of institutional racism in Indochina, the forbidden nature of a mixed relationship, and 'the rice fields ' allude to the Chinese businessman. Duras’s depiction of the river water reinforces the message of young love and society’s obstacles facing the new relationship. As the novel progresses, Duras references the metaphor of water flowing not only as a metaphor for romantic love, but also as familial love. While living in a "raised" home along the Mekong River in Indochina, the narrator says, "it can be cleaned by having buckets of water thrown over it…the whole house is streaming," (61) and she continues, "the water pours down the steps, spreads through the yard toward the kitchen quarters" (61). The house cleaning is a family activity and one that her mother enjoys. The images of water 'streaming, ' and 'pouring down ' exemplifies the mother’s love saturating and enveloping the family. And finally, Duras completes the family water activity by stating, "everyone thinks, and so does she [the mother], that you can be happy here in this house suddenly transmogrified into a pond, a water meadow, a ford, a beach" (62). The reference to the house being 'transmogrified ' refers to how the water cleaning has temporarily transformed the home into a happy healthy loving environment versus the daily toxic environment. The water cleaning activity illustrates a time of happiness, peace, love, and bonding which the narrator experiences with her family, as well as the love the mother showers equally on all her children. On three separate occasions, Duras writes about the Chinese lover bathing the French girl with cool water and the water represents the lover showering the girl with his love and affection. In the first scene Duras states, "he gives me a shower, washes me, rinses me, he adores that," (63) and in the second illustration of bathing with water, she writes, "he’ll wash her under the shower, slowly, as she used to wash herself at home at her mother’s, with cool water from a jar he keeps specially for her" (91). These intimate and erotic scenes illustrate the lover’s deep love for the young girl but also his satisfaction with their relationship as each scene depicts a different phase of their relationship. Also, the bathing reminds the narrator of her mother’s nurturing love and the images demonstrate the lover to be a surrogate family member who cares for the girl in a nurturing and paternal manner. In addition, the lover protects the young girl from the hardships of her unloving and toxic family. The water imagery shifts to reflect a decline in their relationship, whereas these showers were once an erotic experience, and in the aftermath of their bathing experience Duras says, "He’d come over to me, lie down too, but he had no strength, no potency" (109). The last bathing scene portrays a depressed lover whose relationship is about to end because the girl’s departure for France has been confirmed, and the showering ritual changes to reflect how the relationship changes. Duras’s sensual bathing scenes highlight the growing love of the couple as well as the progression towards the end of their relationship. The narrator’s description of a conversation with her brother also utilizes the metaphor of water and gives a sense of their intimate relationship.
Duras compares water to love in a conversation the narrator has with her younger brother, Paulo, and the imagery of the river’s dangerous current represents love. Duras states, "we also talked… [about] getting drowned in the river if we went on swimming in the currents" (107). 'Drowned in the river ' refers to how the brother and the narrator understand they could be swept away by love. Also, this comment refers to how they both choose to emotionally protect themselves from swimming in the currents of love. They believe that they must be careful and guard themselves against love or they will be swept away or overcome by a love relationship ending. The river’s current represents love and how the narrator, as well as, Paulo protects themselves by only entering into relationships that are unattainable or forbidden. Throughout the book, the connection between water and love refers to the narrator but it also refers to her brother who participates in an extramarital
affair. Paulo’s affair on the ocean liner, like hers with the lover, represents a love that is not attainable and another forbidden love affair. Like his sister’s first interaction on the Mekong Ferry with the lover, Paulo begins a secret love affair on the high seas with a married woman. Duras writes, "she was a married woman, but it was a dead couple, the husband appeared not to notice anything" (114). The young French girl spies on her brother and she notices that he has found love, as well as a sense of freedom or independence on the ocean. The narrator is "happy, she thought, and at the same time she was afraid of what would happen later to her younger brother" (115). The narrator hopes her brother will find true love but begins to realize that he has found a forbidden relationship similar to hers with the lover. In regards to her brother, "she thought he’d leave them, go off with the woman, but no, he came back to them when they got to France" (115). Paulo’s love relationship, like the narrator’s affair, is temporary, and parallels his sisters love affair with the Chinese businessman. Her young brother’s affair on the high seas confirms Duras’s use of water as an allegory of love. The narrator’s departure on the ocean liner, via the Mekong River and sea, represents her relationship with her lover coming full circle and their love relationship coming to a close. As
"the boat bade farewell again, utter once more it’s terrible, mysteriously sad wails" (110-111) reflects the narrator’s internal sadness and how she is wailing internally because she will never see her lover again. As the ocean liner breaks away from shore, it "then very slowly, under its own steam, the boat launched itself on the river" (111). The boat, like the lover, is breaking away and moving down the Mekong River, and like the river, everything moves on. As the lover watches from his black limousine, "the outline of the ship was swallowed up in the curve of the earth" (111) and the narrator begins a new life without her lover. The term 'swallowed up ' refers to the narrator’s emotional state as she is consumed by her feelings of loss. The water supporting and caressing the boat departing Indochina is a metaphor for love as well as the young girl’s voyage from childhood to adulthood. During her high sea voyage, a suicide takes place on the boat which becomes parallel to the narrator’s own feelings of sadness and depression about the loss of her lover. Duras says, "during the crossing of the ocean, late at night, someone died…a young man…without saying anything, laid down his cards…and threw himself into the sea" (112). During her relationship with the lover, the young girl never spoke about her love for the Chinese businessman to her family or even admitted her true feelings to herself. The statement 'without saying anything ' reveals her previous actions and she cries to herself in order to hide her true feelings for her lover in Indochina. Also, the suicide reveals how she is feeling overwhelmed and possibly confused about her flurry of emotions. Like "the body [that] couldn’t be found," (113) the narrator is feeling lost and the lost body in the ocean refers to the young man being drowned or overwhelmed by love. The imagery of water shows the power of love as well as the overwhelming feelings attributed to love. During the young girl’s sea voyage, the narrator employs a water metaphor to capture the young girl’s feeling of love. Duras writes, "and suddenly she wasn’t sure she hadn’t loved him with a love she hadn’t seen because it has lost itself in the affair like water in sand" (114). The metaphor 'water in sand ' represents her love (water) and the complications of the affair (sand) as well as highlights the young girl’s complex feelings for her lover. While sailing back to France, the young girl has an epiphany and realizes the love was lost in the affair due to societal complications. This imagery suggests the girl deeply loved the Chinese businessman because her love, as well as their forbidden relationship, is never seen by society and her love is always concealed like the water hidden beneath the sand. The Lover traces a young French girl’s journey from childhood to adulthood but it also portrays the different types of love she experiences in her lifetime. The book begins with her crossing the Mekong River on a ferry and closes with her departing on an ocean liner, but during her journey, Duras expresses love through imagery and metaphors of water. The water represents the narrator’s romantic love, her brother’s love affair, and even her non-romantic relationships within the novel. The allegory accentuates the storyline, as well as highlights the landscape of Indochina, by drawing metaphors between water, love, and society’s view of forbidden love affairs.
Work Cited:
Duras, Marguerite, and Barbara Bray. The Lover. New York: Pantheon, 1997. Print.
Mary (Maria) Ortega, UG
TA: Dr. Vicky Gilpin
ENGL E-154a
December 11, 2013
Marguerite Duras’s book, The Lover, centers on a young French girl who lives in Indochina with her dysfunctional family. The narrator, whose father recently passed away, lives in a "raised" house along the Mekong River with her mother and two brothers. The French girl is very close to her younger brother Paulo, but she avoids her older unnamed brother who is verbally abusive and may have drug and gambling issues. When the young narrator attends an Indochinese high school, she participates in a socially forbidden love affair with an older Chinese businessman. Throughout the novel, the author incorporates the highs and lows of love relationships but also entices readers by revealing intimate details of different love …show more content…
affairs. While the narrator, Duras, uses the allegory of water to indicate love, she also utilizes water to illustrate the various types of love relationships she experiences throughout her lifetime. The image of the ferry crossing the turbulent waters of the Mekong River is the setting of the lovers’ first interaction and the beginning of their attraction. Duras writes, "all around the ferry is the river, it’s brimful, its moving waters sweep through never mixing with, the stagnant waters of the rice fields" (21-22). The river voyage represents the girl embarking on a journey towards love, and the 'brimful ' waters highlight her body’s physical readiness to start a love affair. Also, the description of the surrounding waters reflects society’s view of interracial relationships. The phrase 'never mixing ' reinforces the existence of institutional racism in Indochina, the forbidden nature of a mixed relationship, and 'the rice fields ' allude to the Chinese businessman. Duras’s depiction of the river water reinforces the message of young love and society’s obstacles facing the new relationship. As the novel progresses, Duras references the metaphor of water flowing not only as a metaphor for romantic love, but also as familial love. While living in a "raised" home along the Mekong River in Indochina, the narrator says, "it can be cleaned by having buckets of water thrown over it…the whole house is streaming," (61) and she continues, "the water pours down the steps, spreads through the yard toward the kitchen quarters" (61). The house cleaning is a family activity and one that her mother enjoys. The images of water 'streaming, ' and 'pouring down ' exemplifies the mother’s love saturating and enveloping the family. And finally, Duras completes the family water activity by stating, "everyone thinks, and so does she [the mother], that you can be happy here in this house suddenly transmogrified into a pond, a water meadow, a ford, a beach" (62). The reference to the house being 'transmogrified ' refers to how the water cleaning has temporarily transformed the home into a happy healthy loving environment versus the daily toxic environment. The water cleaning activity illustrates a time of happiness, peace, love, and bonding which the narrator experiences with her family, as well as the love the mother showers equally on all her children. On three separate occasions, Duras writes about the Chinese lover bathing the French girl with cool water and the water represents the lover showering the girl with his love and affection. In the first scene Duras states, "he gives me a shower, washes me, rinses me, he adores that," (63) and in the second illustration of bathing with water, she writes, "he’ll wash her under the shower, slowly, as she used to wash herself at home at her mother’s, with cool water from a jar he keeps specially for her" (91). These intimate and erotic scenes illustrate the lover’s deep love for the young girl but also his satisfaction with their relationship as each scene depicts a different phase of their relationship. Also, the bathing reminds the narrator of her mother’s nurturing love and the images demonstrate the lover to be a surrogate family member who cares for the girl in a nurturing and paternal manner. In addition, the lover protects the young girl from the hardships of her unloving and toxic family. The water imagery shifts to reflect a decline in their relationship, whereas these showers were once an erotic experience, and in the aftermath of their bathing experience Duras says, "He’d come over to me, lie down too, but he had no strength, no potency" (109). The last bathing scene portrays a depressed lover whose relationship is about to end because the girl’s departure for France has been confirmed, and the showering ritual changes to reflect how the relationship changes. Duras’s sensual bathing scenes highlight the growing love of the couple as well as the progression towards the end of their relationship. The narrator’s description of a conversation with her brother also utilizes the metaphor of water and gives a sense of their intimate relationship.
Duras compares water to love in a conversation the narrator has with her younger brother, Paulo, and the imagery of the river’s dangerous current represents love. Duras states, "we also talked… [about] getting drowned in the river if we went on swimming in the currents" (107). 'Drowned in the river ' refers to how the brother and the narrator understand they could be swept away by love. Also, this comment refers to how they both choose to emotionally protect themselves from swimming in the currents of love. They believe that they must be careful and guard themselves against love or they will be swept away or overcome by a love relationship ending. The river’s current represents love and how the narrator, as well as, Paulo protects themselves by only entering into relationships that are unattainable or forbidden. Throughout the book, the connection between water and love refers to the narrator but it also refers to her brother who participates in an extramarital
affair. Paulo’s affair on the ocean liner, like hers with the lover, represents a love that is not attainable and another forbidden love affair. Like his sister’s first interaction on the Mekong Ferry with the lover, Paulo begins a secret love affair on the high seas with a married woman. Duras writes, "she was a married woman, but it was a dead couple, the husband appeared not to notice anything" (114). The young French girl spies on her brother and she notices that he has found love, as well as a sense of freedom or independence on the ocean. The narrator is "happy, she thought, and at the same time she was afraid of what would happen later to her younger brother" (115). The narrator hopes her brother will find true love but begins to realize that he has found a forbidden relationship similar to hers with the lover. In regards to her brother, "she thought he’d leave them, go off with the woman, but no, he came back to them when they got to France" (115). Paulo’s love relationship, like the narrator’s affair, is temporary, and parallels his sisters love affair with the Chinese businessman. Her young brother’s affair on the high seas confirms Duras’s use of water as an allegory of love. The narrator’s departure on the ocean liner, via the Mekong River and sea, represents her relationship with her lover coming full circle and their love relationship coming to a close. As
"the boat bade farewell again, utter once more it’s terrible, mysteriously sad wails" (110-111) reflects the narrator’s internal sadness and how she is wailing internally because she will never see her lover again. As the ocean liner breaks away from shore, it "then very slowly, under its own steam, the boat launched itself on the river" (111). The boat, like the lover, is breaking away and moving down the Mekong River, and like the river, everything moves on. As the lover watches from his black limousine, "the outline of the ship was swallowed up in the curve of the earth" (111) and the narrator begins a new life without her lover. The term 'swallowed up ' refers to the narrator’s emotional state as she is consumed by her feelings of loss. The water supporting and caressing the boat departing Indochina is a metaphor for love as well as the young girl’s voyage from childhood to adulthood. During her high sea voyage, a suicide takes place on the boat which becomes parallel to the narrator’s own feelings of sadness and depression about the loss of her lover. Duras says, "during the crossing of the ocean, late at night, someone died…a young man…without saying anything, laid down his cards…and threw himself into the sea" (112). During her relationship with the lover, the young girl never spoke about her love for the Chinese businessman to her family or even admitted her true feelings to herself. The statement 'without saying anything ' reveals her previous actions and she cries to herself in order to hide her true feelings for her lover in Indochina. Also, the suicide reveals how she is feeling overwhelmed and possibly confused about her flurry of emotions. Like "the body [that] couldn’t be found," (113) the narrator is feeling lost and the lost body in the ocean refers to the young man being drowned or overwhelmed by love. The imagery of water shows the power of love as well as the overwhelming feelings attributed to love. During the young girl’s sea voyage, the narrator employs a water metaphor to capture the young girl’s feeling of love. Duras writes, "and suddenly she wasn’t sure she hadn’t loved him with a love she hadn’t seen because it has lost itself in the affair like water in sand" (114). The metaphor 'water in sand ' represents her love (water) and the complications of the affair (sand) as well as highlights the young girl’s complex feelings for her lover. While sailing back to France, the young girl has an epiphany and realizes the love was lost in the affair due to societal complications. This imagery suggests the girl deeply loved the Chinese businessman because her love, as well as their forbidden relationship, is never seen by society and her love is always concealed like the water hidden beneath the sand. The Lover traces a young French girl’s journey from childhood to adulthood but it also portrays the different types of love she experiences in her lifetime. The book begins with her crossing the Mekong River on a ferry and closes with her departing on an ocean liner, but during her journey, Duras expresses love through imagery and metaphors of water. The water represents the narrator’s romantic love, her brother’s love affair, and even her non-romantic relationships within the novel. The allegory accentuates the storyline, as well as highlights the landscape of Indochina, by drawing metaphors between water, love, and society’s view of forbidden love affairs.
Work Cited:
Duras, Marguerite, and Barbara Bray. The Lover. New York: Pantheon, 1997. Print.