A Quarrel inLa Princesse de Clèves: Ancient Princess and Modern Nemours

Abstract

Centuries of eloquent debate on the efficacy or absence of religion in La Princesse de Clèves have not yet brought resolution. A reasonable hypothesis is that the novel, without being read as a philosophical roman à thèse by any means, may productively be interpreted as reflective of a Zeitgeist in which issues of moral theology and the history of ideas have considerable currency, even if in the novel they are not visible as such on the level of motif. The protagonist adheres to a code of morality which derives from the Platonic and Augustinian (and more proximately to the novel's writing, Jansenistic) tradition. The Duc de Nemours, on the other hand, gives voice to values situated more closely to the Aristotelian thought of Thomas Aquinas, and the moral conflict in the novel's action depicts a contest between these positions. The final meeting between the two characters provides an illustration of this moral argument, with the heroine speaking for an absolute and unchanging code while Nemours advocates a morality more attuned to the standards of a modern world. Seen in the context of ideas, this is something of a philosophical quarrel of Ancients and Moderns.