Mad Shadows by Marie-Claire Blais
"Mad Shadows" is the debut novel by Canadian author Marie-Claire Blais, first published in 1959. The narrative unfolds in an unspecified time and place, beginning on a train where a young girl observes the intense fascination strangers have for her brother's beauty. The story delves into the complex and troubling dynamics of a family, particularly the contrasting affections of their mother, Louise, who lavishes attention on her handsome but simple-minded son, Patrice, while neglecting her daughter, Isabelle-Marie. This imbalance of love fosters a cycle of envy and despair, highlighting Blais's exploration of maternal indifference and the resulting emotional suffering endured by children.
The novel is characterized by its dark themes, including the creation of evil, the loss of innocence, and the tragic consequences of love. Critics have noted the starkness and originality of Blais's vision, which provoked considerable debate upon its release, earning her the prestigious Prix de la Langue Française in 1961. The characters navigate a world marked by jealousy, betrayal, and despair, culminating in tragic events that underscore the illusory nature of happiness. "Mad Shadows" ultimately presents a harrowing view of familial relationships and the devastating impact of emotional neglect, inviting readers to reflect on the complex interplay of love and suffering.
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Mad Shadows by Marie-Claire Blais
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published:La Belle bête, 1959 (English translation, 1960)
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Mad Shadows, Blais’s first published work, created considerable controversy in Quebec. Many Canadian critics disliked it intensely; others thought it was astonishingly original and brilliant. Set in an unidentified time and place, the story begins on a train, as a young girl watches strangers become captivated by her brother’s beauty. The grotesque, erotic pleasure that the mother takes in her son’s physical beauty is matched only by her indifference toward her daughter, and it sets the tone for the tortured relationships that develop. In Mad Shadows, Blais explores what will become a theme in much of her later work: the creation of evil and the suffering of children caused by the failure of maternal love.
The world that Blais’s characters inhabit is dark and loveless. The first critics and readers were shocked by the utter depravity of the relationships between the mother, her lover, and her children and the starkness of the young author’s vision. Yet the power of her vision and poetic style were undeniable; she was awarded the Prix de la Langue Française from L’Académie Française for Mad Shadows in 1961.
The mother, Louise, an attractive, vain widow, adores and spoils her simple-minded son, Patrice, a reflection of herself. Dimly aware of his own beauty, Patrice seeks his unformed self in every mirrored surface, pond, and window. His sister, Isabelle-Marie, is not beautiful; wounded by her mother’s indifference, her feelings of envy toward her brother begin to overwhelm her. Louise is afflicted by a lesion on her face, a cancerous growth symbolic of the malignancy of her soul. She meets Lanz, an elegant, declining dandy, who becomes her lover; her attentions and affection now go to him, and Patrice, abandoned, rides his horse in a frenzy of jealousy, killing Lanz. In death, Lanz’s shallowness is revealed as his wig and false beard disintegrate around him. Even so, Louise feels little rancor toward her son, the “beautiful beast.”
Among Blais’s recurring themes is the end of innocence and the fall from grace inherent in sexual awakening. For her characters, all consequences of love are tragic; in Mad Shadows, there is a sense that human beings are doomed at the moment of awareness and that happiness is illusory. For a short time, miraculously, Isabelle-Marie finds happiness in the love of a young blind man, Michael. Sight, symbolic of truth, would not allow the illusion of love to survive in Blais’s nightmarish world; fearing rejection, Isabelle-Marie deceives Michael into believing that she is beautiful. They marry and have a daughter, Anne, and for a time enjoy a kind of simple happiness. When his sight suddenly returns, Michael discovers his wife’s deception. Unable to hide his anger, he cruelly abandons Isabelle-Marie and their child, and, in misery, they return to Louise’s farm.
Driven by her rejection and envy, Isabelle-Marie disfigures her brother by pushing his face into a pot of boiling water. No longer a beautiful object, Patrice is rejected by his mother and sent to an asylum, proving the shallowness of her love. Seeing his grotesque face in a lake’s surface, Patrice is horrified and drowns in his own reflection. His suffering gives Isabelle-Marie some satisfaction, but even this does not bring her peace. Mad Shadows ends in a final act of suicidal despair, as Isabelle-Marie sets her mother’s farm on fire and waits to throw herself under a train, leaving her young daughter to wander alone on the tracks.
Bibliography
Dufault, Roseanna Lewis. Acting Mothers: The Maternal Role in Recent Novels by Marie-Claire Blais and Anne Hébert. Ada: Ohio Northern University, 1997.
Gould, Karen L. “Geographies of Death and Dreams in Marie-Claire’s Soifs.” Quebec Studies 25 (Spring, 1998): 9-14.
Green, Mary Jean. Marie-Claire Blais. New York: Twayne, 1995.
Green, Mary Jean, et al., eds. “The Past Our Mother: Marie-Claire Blais and the Question of Women in the Quebec Canon.” In Postcolonial Subjects: FrancophoneWomen Writers. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
McPherson, Karen S. Archaeologies of an Uncertain Future: Recent Generations of Canadian Women Writing. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006.
Meigs, Mary. Lily Briscoe: A Self-Portrait. Vancouver, B.C.: Talonbooks, 1981.
Stratford, Philip. Marie-Claire Blais. Toronto: Forum House, 1971.