Jealousy by Alain Robbe-Grillet
"Jealousy" by Alain Robbe-Grillet is a novel that explores the intricacies of jealousy through the lens of a narrator who suspects his wife, A..., of having an affair with their neighbor, Franck. Set against a backdrop of French colonial life in the tropics, the narrative delves into themes of emotional isolation, suspicion, and the mundane realities of rural existence. The narrator and Franck, both banana plantation owners, are entwined in a web of shared domestic life, yet their relationships are fraught with tension, particularly as Franck's visits to the narrator's home grow suspicious in the wake of A...'s increasing absences.
As the story unfolds, the narrator's obsessive jealousy leads him to spy on A..., revealing his inner turmoil and paranoia without conclusive evidence of infidelity. Robbe-Grillet employs a unique narrative style that emphasizes the act of observation, creating a voyeuristic perspective that blurs the lines between reality and imagination. The novel culminates in unresolved tensions, mirroring the narrator's own emotional state, and challenges readers to contemplate the nature of trust, fidelity, and the subjective experience of jealousy. Ultimately, "Jealousy" stands as a significant work within the French New Novel movement, known for its innovative narrative techniques and psychological depth.
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Jealousy by Alain Robbe-Grillet
First published:La Jalousie, 1957 (English translation, 1959)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Antistory
Time of plot: Probably the early 1950’s
Locale: Unnamed
Principal characters
The Unnamed Narrator , the owner of a banana plantationA . . . , the narrator’s wifeFranck , the owner of a neighboring plantation
The Story:
The narrator suspects his wife, A . . . , of infidelity with their neighbor Franck. The narrator and Franck own banana plantations; they and their wives form a little enclave of French colonialism in the tropics, with common concerns about crops, the weather, and the unreliability of native workers. Most important, they share emotions of boredom and loneliness. For Franck and A . . . , the consequence is an affair—at least, so it seems. For the narrator, the consequence is the intense jealousy produced by his suspicions.
Franck and his wife, Christiane, were frequent dinner guests of the narrator and his wife in the past. Christiane seems not to get along well with A . . . ; that, together with her child’s reported illness and her own vague ailments, keep her away, although her husband continues to visit. At one of these dinners, Franck mentions that he has to go to town the next week to see about various business matters, principally getting a new truck. The subject of motor trouble came up in earlier conversations, along with the difficulty of obtaining adequate repair and the unreliability of native drivers. Franck suggests that A . . . might like to accompany him for a day of shopping. She gladly accepts; they agree to leave at six-thirty in the morning and be back by night.
Franck and A . . . leave at the agreed time but do not return by nightfall. Instead, they show up the next day, saying that car trouble forced them to spend the night in town while waiting for a repair. This excuse seems untrue because of the glances the two exchange, Franck’s suspiciously casual manner, the absence of purchases by A . . . , and their double-entendres (for example, Franck asks A . . . to forgive him for being a “bad mechanic,” with the implication that their sexual encounter was not as thrilling as expected).
The narrator spies on his wife several times. Once he observes her from the veranda through the bedroom window secretly writing a letter—presumably to Franck. Other times he watches her comb her hair, get into Franck’s car to go to town, and get out of the car upon returning with a suggestive lingering at the car window. He also watches the work of a gang of laborers repairing a small bridge and observes his property, including the rows of banana trees.
The narrator’s observations are embedded within his constant role as voyeur—a not-entirely-objective observer, a roving camera eye whose meticulously objective impressions carry an emotional subtext that charges inconsequential events with latent meanings. The most pointed of these is the killing of a nasty-looking, poisonous centipede. At one of Franck’s dinner visits, the centipede is noticed crawling up a wall; A . . . is horrified by it, and Franck immediately kills it with a rolled-up napkin, leaving an oddly shaped stain on the wall. This story is told several times with minor variations—in one of which it occurs not in the narrator’s house but in the hotel room where A . . . and Franck spend the night. It is still from the jealous husband’s subjective point of view that this version of the episode is related in the form of a fantasy. The narrator does not prove his suspicions of his wife’s adultery. The novel ends very much as it began, with nothing really resolved.
Bibliography
Babcock, Arthur E. The New Novel in France: Theory and Practice of the Nouveau Roman. New York: Twayne, 1997. An overview of the literary movement of which Robbe-Grillet was a prominent proponent, analyzing his fiction and the work of other “new novelists.”
Barthes, Roland. “Objective Literature: Alain Robbe-Grillet.” In Two Novels by Robbe-Grillet: “Jealousy” and “In the Labyrinth,” translated by Richard Howard. New York: Grove Press, 1965. Important introductory essay to the standard English-language edition of Jealousy by the leading French structuralist critic and proponent of objective literature.
Fletcher, John. Alain Robbe-Grillet. New York: Methuen, 1983. Good monographic overview of Robbe-Grillet’s fiction and critical theory. The section on Jealousy emphasizes the psychological aspects of the narrator’s consciousness rather than the structural patterns of his descriptions.
Hellerstein, Marjorie H. Inventing the Real World: The Art of Alain Robbe-Grillet. Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 1998. Describes how Robbe-Grillet’s novels and films are influenced by painters’ and printmakers’ visual perceptions and by their use of space to create artistic illusions. Includes an analysis of Jealousy.
Jefferson, Ann. The Nouveau Roman and the Poetics of Fiction. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980. A survey of the French New Novel that covers Robbe-Grillet in several chapters and includes an analysis of Jealousy. Describes Robbe-Grillet’s narratives as “unnatural” and places his work within the context of the French New Novel movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Leki, Ilona. Alain Robbe-Grillet. Boston: Twayne, 1983. A thorough, readable survey of the author’s life and works. The chapter on Jealousy suggests that the narrator’s paranoid psychology is produced by a generalized fear of dispossession and loss of control, not only of his wife but also of his house and property.
Morrissette, Bruce. Alain Robbe-Grillet. New York: Columbia University Press, 1965. Short but excellent monograph by Robbe-Grillet’s premier critic. Extremely perceptive commentary on Jealousy, with a nice balance between formalist and humanist interpretative reading.
Smith, Roch C. Understanding Alain Robbe-Grillet. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000. An introductory guide to Robbe-Grillet’s work and theories that aims to make him less bewildering to readers. Discusses the characterization, narration, plots, and other elements of Robbe-Grillet’s fiction.
Stoltzfus, Ben. Alain Robbe-Grillet: The Body of the Text. London: Associated University Presses, 1985. Stoltzfus contends that Robbe-Grillet exaggerates images of sex and violence in his novels in order to expose and undermine them. Includes a bibliography and index.