The Lover: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Lover: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex relationships and dynamics among the characters in Marguerite Duras' semi-autobiographical novel. The story is narrated by an older French woman who reflects on her formative years in Indochina, particularly her tumultuous affair with a wealthy Chinese man when she was just fifteen. This relationship is marked by societal pressures, cultural differences, and personal awakenings, as the narrator grapples with her burgeoning sexuality and the implications of their romance within a racially stratified society.
The narrator's lover, a Chinese heir, is portrayed as both affluent and constrained by familial expectations, ultimately leading to the dissolution of their relationship when the narrator leaves for France. The narrator's mother, a schoolteacher who struggles to support her family after her husband's death, represents the challenges of poverty and the burden of single parenthood. The narrator's brothers also contribute to the family dynamic, with one embodying destructive tendencies and the other being a victim of circumstance. The culmination of these character arcs reflects themes of love, loss, and resilience in the face of societal and personal adversity, inviting readers to explore the emotional and cultural landscapes that shape their identities.
The Lover: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Marguerite Duras
First published: L'Amant, 1984 (English translation, 1985)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Indochina and France
Plot: New novel
Time: The early 1930's
The narrator, an older French woman. Now a successful writer in France, the narrator reminisces about her childhood and adolescence in Indochina, focusing on an image that appears to be central to her identity, an image of herself dressed in gold lamé high heels, a silk dress with a very low neckline, and a man's fedora. As she crosses a branch of the Mekong River, she is watched by a Chinese millionaire in his black chauffeur-driven limousine. Although she is only fifteen and he is twelve years older, she becomes his mistress, accepting money and elegant dinners at expensive restaurants for herself and her impoverished family. They accept his generosity but humiliate him, refusing to acknowledge him because he is Chinese. Even the narrator denies the depth of her feelings when she is confronted by her mother. Although marriage is of no interest to her, he awakens her sensibility and desire, her love of lovemaking. After finishing high school, she leaves Saigon for France to continue her education, thus ending the one-and-a-half-year relationship with her Chinese lover.
The narrator's lover, a wealthy Chinese heir. Attracted to the young girl he sees standing by the rail on the ferry, he offers her a ride to her boarding school. They become lovers, frequenting his apartment in Cholon, where he awakens her sexual desire. Their relationship cannot last because he is Chinese and she is white. His rich father is adamantly opposed to any future union, and the son, weak and timid, will not oppose him and risk being disinherited. After the narrator's departure for France, he marries a young, well-to-do Chinese woman, the marriage arranged ten years earlier by their families. As he reveals years later, he never loses his love for the narrator.
The narrator's mother, a schoolteacher. Verging on despair and madness, she, after the death of her husband, rears her three children on her salary as a headmistress of a girls' school in Sadec. In an effort to combat their constant poverty, she invests her savings in land that, to their dismay, is flooded annually by salt water let in by the crumbling dikes.
The narrator's older brother, a gambler. Cruel and insensitive, he steals from his mother, his sister, and even the housekeeper to support his opium and gambling habits. He is sent away from the family home on several occasions to protect the other children. Finally, at the age of fifty, when there is nothing left for him to take, he holds his first job, as a messenger for a marine insurance company. He keeps the job until his death fifteen years later. When he dies, he is buried, at his mother's previous request, with her in the same grave.
The narrator's younger brother, an accountant's clerk in Saigon. Intimidated and tormented by his older brother, he is loved by his sister, two years younger than he. At the age of twenty-seven, he dies of bronchial pneumonia during the Japanese occupation of World War II. His sister is devastated to discover that someone she thought should be immortal could die. His death spurs the narrator to attempt suicide.