Jealousy: Analysis of Setting
The analysis of jealousy often delves into the settings that shape and reflect emotional dynamics among characters. In a narrative centered around a complex love triangle, the home serves as both a physical and psychological landscape for the characters involved. The house of the narrator and his wife, identified only as "A . . .," is strategically structured with various enclosed spaces, such as a veranda and a garden, which create a sense of confinement and tension. The placement of furniture and the division of spaces, particularly between the narrator and the other two characters, illustrate the emotional distance and jealousy that permeate the story.
Key areas within the home, such as A . . .’s bedroom and the narrator’s office, serve as vantage points and points of surveillance, emphasizing themes of control and insecurity. The narrator’s restricted view through jalousie blinds symbolizes his fragmented understanding of the relationships unfolding around him. Moreover, the presence of nature, represented by the banana plantation and the accompanying animal sounds, underscores the struggle between civilization and the primal instincts of jealousy and desire.
Through the interplay of these settings, the narrative highlights how physical spaces can influence emotional states and relationships, ultimately leading to a climactic and chilling conclusion that leaves readers questioning the boundaries of trust and betrayal.
Jealousy: Analysis of Setting
First published:La Jalousie, 1957 (English translation, 1959)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Antistory
Time of work: Probably the early 1950’s
Places Discussed
House
House. Home of the novel’s anonymous narrator and his wife, who is identified only as “A . . . ” Located at the center of a series of squares or—boxes, the house is surrounded by other squares or partial boxes—a veranda, a garden, a courtyard, and the banana plantation, which encloses the house on all four sides of its square. The narrator-husband always remains in or close to his home. Readers see nothing that lies beyond his field of vision and are consequently at the mercy of the narrator’s judgments.
A road leads from the house to a highway, which in turn, leads to the home of Franck, who is apparently A . . . ’s lover. This road, which cuts through the boundaries around the narrator’s home, constitutes then a means of escape for A . . . and Franck, who make at least one trip to a port city, several hours away by car.
The story’s three major characters spend much of their time on a veranda that surrounds the house on three sides. The narrator notes that the chairs of Franck and A . . . are always very close together, which facilitates conversation—and conspiracy. On the other hand, the narrator-husband’s chair is at the other end of a semicircle—separated from those of the others by a cocktail table and the empty chair reserved for Franck’s always-absent wife, Christiane.
The narrator’s garden, courtyard, and plantation represent his desire to carve out a civilized domain in a hostile environment—a triumph of humankind over savage nature. The garden and the courtyard separate the house from the groves of banana trees, from which shrill animal cries emanate.
Office
Office. Principal vantage point of the narrator, from which he observes A . . . , Franck, and activities on his estate. He watches what goes on around him through jalousie blinds—whose name gives the novel’s title a double meaning. Physically therefore, the narrator’s view of things is never complete—just as his knowledge of what is in fact going on between Franck and his wife is fragmented.
A . . . ’s bedroom
A . . . ’s bedroom. Directly across a corridor from her husband/narrator’s office, the room in which A . . . primps before a vanity mirror, dresses, apparently writes letters to Franck, and stares out a window, in the direction from which Franck is most likely to approach the house. This room is referred to only as A . . . ’s bedroom, not the bedroom of husband and wife. The narrator apparently sleeps in a small bedroom separated from A . . . ’s room by a bathroom. The jealous narrator/husband can see what A . . . does in her bedroom when the doors to his office and the bedroom are ajar; however, her room has corners in which A . . . cannot be seen from outside.
At the end of the novel, when the narrator’s stress is critical, he sees spots and streaks of red (blood? ) on the windowsill of A . . . ’s bedroom and nearby. The incident leaves readers with the impression that the narrator has murdered his wife and/or Franck.
Living room
Living room. Main room of the home of the narrator and A . . . One wall of the room has a red stain left by a centipede that Franck has crushed during one of his visits to the house. Later, in the narrator’s anguished view, the stain on the wall curiously resembles the red stain on the windowsill of A . . . ’s bedroom.
Bibliography
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. Section on Jealousy emphasizes the psychological aspects of the narrator’s consciousness rather than the structural patterns of his descriptions.
Leki, Ilona. Alain Robbe-Grillet. Boston: Twayne, 1983. A thorough, readable survey of the author’s life and works. 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.
Stoltzfus, Ben. Alain Robbe-Grillet and the New French Novel. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1964. Although to an extent superseded by Stoltzfus’ later work on Robbe-Grillet, still a very useful introductory study. Sees in Jealousy the fusion of two narrative centers: the selective omniscience of the jealous husband with the hidden editorial omniscience of the author.