Coup de Grâce: Analysis of Major Characters
"Coup de Grâce: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the intricate relationships and emotional complexities among key figures in a narrative set against the backdrop of the Russian Civil War. At the center is Erick von Lhomond, a detached and morally ambiguous Prussian soldier who narrates his story from a perspective of nostalgia and regret. His unrequited love for his best friend, Conrad de Reval, intertwines tragically with his relationship with Conrad's sister, Sophie, who is unaware of the depth of Erick's feelings.
Conrad is depicted as a sensitive and courageous young aristocrat, whose aspirations to be a writer are overshadowed by his role as a soldier during the conflict. Sophie's journey is marked by her passionate but misguided love for Erick, which leads her to fight for the Reds while disguised as a boy. The characters' lives converge in moments of conflict, jealousy, and realization, highlighting the emotional stakes of love and loyalty amid the chaos of war. Other figures, such as Volkmar, a rival of Erick's, and Gregory Loew, who aids Sophie in her escape, further complicate the narrative, illustrating the personal struggles and societal tensions of the era. This analysis delves into themes of love, identity, and the moral dilemmas faced by individuals in tumultuous times.
Coup de Grâce: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Marguerite Yourcenar
First published: Le Coup de grâce, 1939 (English translation, 1957)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Kratovitsy, a Baltic estate
Plot: Existentialism
Time: The years following World War I and the Russian Revolution
Erick von Lhomond (loh-MOHN) a Prussian soldier who fought with the White Russians against the Bolsheviks during the Russian civil war. He later became a soldier of fortune, engaged in civil conflicts in central Europe, the Chaco, Manchuria, and Spain. Tall, lean, blue-eyed, and tanned, he retains his youthful elegance at forty, his age when he narrates the story of his relationship with Conrad and Sophie de Reval twenty years earlier. His narrative begins when he returns to Kratovitsy, his boyhood home, after his training as a White Russian soldier. When he returns, he lives on an old, overrun estate that belongs to the de Reval family: Conrad de Reval; his retarded, unmarried aunt; a gardener; and Conrad's sister, Sophie. He had lived with the family before, when he was sixteen years old. During that idyllic time on the estate, which was like paradise, Erick and Conrad became best friends. Since that time, Erick's overriding passion has been his love for Conrad. He is indifferent to other people and to political causes and believes that this detachment is the primary reason for his effectiveness as a soldier. He is cold and detached, “morally impotent.” When Sophie, Conrad's sister, falls in love with him, his unspoken love for Conrad dooms this relationship to a tragic denouement. After Conrad's death, Erick's rightist political affiliation forces a mortal confrontation with Sophie, who joined the Reds when she realized Erick's feelings for her brother. Erick's emotional and moral detachment determines the outcome of their final meeting.
Conrad de Reval (reh-VAHL), a young Prussian aristocrat engaged in the cause of the White Russians during the Russian Revolution. He is physically very much like Erick, but his hair is fairer. He combines poetic sensitivity and boyish shyness with daredevil courage. It is his ardent desire to be a writer like Rainer Maria Rilke, but his main occupation in the novel is that of a soldier fighting on the side of the Whites against the Reds. Conrad's primary importance in the novel is that he is a passive catalyst in Erick and Sophie's story. It is Erick's and Sophie's separate and individual love for Conrad that is at the center of their own ambiguous and tragic relationship.
Sophie de Reval, a young Prussian aristocrat who, dressed as a boy, fights with the Reds during the Russian Revolution. She is a romantic figure who possesses strange, wild grace. She is possessed by an obsessive love for Erick and is unaware that his feelings for her brother go beyond friendship. She is confused by his behavior toward her and mistakes his friendship for romantic love. When he rebuffs her, she enters into a series of sexual liaisons, and when she finally realizes that it is Conrad whom Erick loves, she is driven to flee her home and family and join the Reds. When Erick sees her for the last time, she has been taken prisoner by the Whites. She has been fighting for the Reds disguised as a boy, and in masculine garb she looks remarkably like Conrad. When Erick is ordered to execute Sophie, he is forced to confront his own feelings for both the brother and the sister.
Volkmar, a soldier fighting for the White Russian cause. He is Erick's rival. He is in love with Sophie, and Erick has never liked him. After Erick rejects Sophie's romantic advances, she becomes involved with Volkmar. Erick reacts violently to her public displays of affection for Volkmar, and these reactions mislead Sophie to believe that Erick is in love with her.
Gregory Loew, a Jewish bookstore clerk who also was in love with Sophie. He enables her to flee her home in Kratovitsy and join the Reds by lending her his clothes, in which she disguises herself as a man.