Restless Heart by Jean Anouilh

First published:La Sauvage, 1938 (English translation, 1957)

First produced: 1938, at the Théâtre des Mathurins, Paris

Type of plot: Naturalistic

Time of work: The 1930’s

Locale: France

Principal Characters:

• Thérèse Tarde, a twenty-year-old violinist
• Monsieur Tarde, her sixty-year-old father
• Madame Tarde, her mother
• Florent France, her wealthy fiancé
• Gosta, Mme Tarde’s lover
• Hartmann, Florent’s friend

The Play

Restless Heart opens near midnight in a rundown café. The stage is dominated by a bandstand, where Monsieur Tarde’s small, third-rate orchestra is finishing a set. The group is tense as they await the arrival of Florent France, a world-famous and very wealthy pianist, who has asked Thérèse, his mistress, to marry him. Monsieur and Madame Tarde are anxious about telling Gosta, the pianist, the news. Although Gosta has been Madame Tarde’s lover for thirteen years, he is in love with Thérèse. Because he has been drinking and has a terrible temper, they are afraid that he will ruin everything: Madame Tarde does not want to lose him, and Monsieur Tarde expects to take advantage of his daughter’s good fortune.

Thérèse is “la sauvage.” She accepts her sordid background, for it has determined who she is and what she understands of the world; she does not lie, and she does not pretend to be other than what she is. She loves Florent for his decency and goodness. He offers her marriage and happiness—a key thematic concept; however, she can accept his gift only by forgetting her past. Because Florent has always been wealthy and secure, he does not understand the effects of poverty upon the human soul. Florent’s friend Hartmann does, and he functions as an observer and interpreter of both worlds. He comments on the actions of the play and interprets their significance for the audience.

Act 1 depicts Thérèse’s sudden realization of the unbridgeable gap between her world and that of Florent, a recognition which has been suppressed by her love. Although it is the evening of her twentieth birthday and she is looking forward to Florent’s arrival at the café, her parents and Gosta become embroiled in a series of arguments, all centering on her betrothal and their place in her new life. Her parents are coarse, loud, and greedy. Gosta is drunk and angry. Through it all, Thérèse remains in control, seemingly untouched by the conflict. As Florent will say of her background, “It could have made her lewd and cheap. It has merely decked her in strength and candour.”

Florent and Hartmann’s arrival has a dramatic impact on the group. The Tardes attempt to ingratiate themselves, Gosta leaves after threatening to fight Florent, and Thérèse is intimidated by Hartmann’s probing evaluation of her. As her parents devise ways to get money from him, she feels ashamed for the first time. To show how little money means to him, Florent throws what he has on the floor. The Tardes “quiver with thwarted greed,” and Thérèse, in order not to “act a lie,” falls on her knees, saying “I belong to the same breed.” Florent picks her up and holds her; the Tardes scramble to pick up the money, and Hartmann, who has watched the whole scene without moving, closes the act, saying, “You will have to tread very carefully, Florent.”

Act 2 takes place six days later, in the library of Florent’s country home. Although Thérèse has agreed to the marriage, she has spent the ensuing days trying to force Florent to break the engagement. She has brought her father, whom she encourages to drink and act crudely, she persuades a friend to write a letter to Florent warning him against the marriage, and she bribes Jeannette to come and reveal that she was Gosta’s lover. Thus she forces the vulgarity and meanness of her background on Florent, who reacts with courtesy, generosity, and a sense of humor. Thérèse hates him for this complacency.

Hartmann understands what Thérèse is doing, and he encourages her to accept the “house of happiness where pain and sorrow have no place.” She cannot, and in her final attempt to alienate Florent, she reveals her one secret, a self-induced abortion at the age of fourteen. Florent weeps for her. Thérèse is finally happy and agrees to the wedding. The act closes as she is “transfigured” in Florent’s arms.

In act 3, Thérèse is in the library, being fitted for her wedding dress. She is different, as she listens without comment to the conversations of the girls working on her gown and the heartless responses of Marie, Florent’s cousin. According to Hartmann, this smiling passive state, “which is a little bit like being dead,” is the price Thérèse must pay for happiness.

The arrival of her father and Gosta, who has beaten her mother, shatters Thérèse’s complacency, forcing her to realize that she can never deny or forget her past. She must leave Florent; she can never be happy as long as there is “a stray dog somewhere in the world.” As she departs, Hartmann murmurs: “There she goes, small, and strong and lucid, to pit herself against all the sharp corners of the world.”

Dramatic Devices

The dramaturgy of Restless Heart, an early Anouilh play, exhibits both the naturalism and beginnings of the theatricalism that came to be trademarks of Jean Anouilh’s later, more mature plays. He utilizes set and language here to underscore the radical differences between the world of the poor and that of the wealthy. The rundown café of act 1 contrasts with the paneled library with a view of the grounds of acts 2 and 3. Anouilh also uses the nuances of language to indicate class differences. The Tardes use vulgarisms, clichés, and lower-class vocabulary to express themselves; Florent and his aunt, on the other hand, speak well. In accordance with her role, Thérèse uses more metaphors to express her feelings. Her intensity and complexity are thus reinforced by the nature of the language that she uses.

Structurally, each act builds to a climax, consisting of a dramatic image that reasserts visually what has been discussed in the act. The tableaux are effective devices for emphasizing the elements of theme. Act 1 closes with the Tardes on their knees, picking up the money Florent has thrown down to demonstrate how little it means to him. Thérèse is in his arms, while Hartmann watches and comments. At the end of act 2, Thérèse is again in Florent’s arms, this time “transfigured” by his shedding a tear. The play ends with Thérèse’s wedding dress lying on the couch, “a dazzling patch of whiteness in the gloom,” as Hartmann describes her future.

The theatrical elements in Restless Heart reside in the use of music throughout and in the commedia dell’arte performance of Monsieur Tarde, as the comic buffoon, in act 2. These devices cut across the naturalism and reduce the tendency toward melodrama inherent in a play where the conflicts and characters are so clearly delineated and somewhat one-dimensional. The play opens with the off-key but spirited music of Tarde’s orchestra; it closes with Florent’s swelling Andante, executed beautifully and effortlessly. Madame Tarde sings a sexually suggestive song and gestures broadly to the lyrics in act 1; Thérèse repeats this in act 2, while she is trying to alienate Florent. The kind of music selected and the way in which it is played reflect the wide gap between Florent’s world and Thérèse’s.

Anouilh also uses lighting effectively to highlight the mood of each act and to underscore the differences between Florent, a child of light, and Thérèse’s struggles with the darkness of her reality. Act 1 ends with soft lighting, suggestive of Thérèse’s softening toward Florent’s marriage proposal. In act 3, the light gradually fades, foreshadowing Thérèse’s departure from the house of light, Florent’s country estate, into the evening darkness.

Anouilh succeeds in reinforcing his philosophical arguments about the nature of happiness and reality through dramatic devices that are accessible to the audience and function to keep them emotionally as well as intellectually attuned to the characters’ conflicts. With the comic bumbling of Monsieur Tarde, he also attempts to lighten the mood and quicken the tempo.

Critical Context

Jean Anouilh, with a career spanning more than fifty years, was one of France’s most popular and successful dramatists. While there is one central theme running through his canon—the eternal conflict between idealism and reality—he arranged his plays in groups, according to the dominant tone, his maturing view of life, and forms that range from light comedy to tragedy.

The “black plays” are bitter and pessimistic. Restless Heart, which falls in this category, marked Anouilh’s emergence as a precocious and promising young playwright. While the play is somewhat simplistic and heavy-handed, the absence of melodrama, the control of emotion, and the blend of the comic and tragic reveal Anouilh’s increasing mastery of style as he moved away from naturalism toward theatricalism. In Jézabel (pb. 1946), Le Voyageur sans bagage (pr., pb. 1937; Traveller Without Luggage, 1959), and L’orchestre (pr. 1962, pb. 1970; The Orchestra, 1967), the central characters rebel against society not only because of past experiences that prevent their integration into society but also because of their increasingly romantic nature.

In the “pink plays,” the characters escape ugly reality through fantasy and illusion. Le Bal des voleurs (pr., pb. 1938; Thieves’ Carnival, 1952), the most famous work in this category, is a farcical depiction of love amid the various classes of society. Léocadia (pr. 1940; Time Remembered, 1952) is another play in this category. In the four “brilliant plays,” written during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, levity is balanced against the darkness of life. L’Invitation au château (pr. 1947; Ring Round the Moon, 1950) is an intricately plotted fairy tale with a happy ending, while in Colombe (pr. 1951; Mademoiselle Colombe, 1954) a corrupt society defeats the hero.

The “jarring plays,” which are tragicomic in nature, depict middle-aged men striving to remain young while recognizing the absurdity of their desire. L’Hurluberlu:Ou, Le Réactionnaire amoureux (pr., pb. 1959; The Fighting Cock, 1960) and Ornifle: Ou, Le Courant d’air (pr. 1955, pb. 1956; Ornifle, 1970) reflect these characteristics. Anouilh’s “costumed plays” reinterpret the actions of such historical and legendary characters as Antigone (Antigone, pr. 1944; English translation, 1946), Joan of Arc (L’Alouette, pr., pb. 1953; The Lark, 1955), Thomas à Becket (Becket: Ou, L’Honneur de Dieu, pr., pb. 1959; Becket: Or, The Honor of God, 1962), and Napoleon Bonaparte and Louis XVIII (La foire d’empoigne, pb. 1960, pr. 1962; Catch as Catch Can, 1967). In each of these works, Anouilh suggests that while the soul of human beings remains unchanged, the mask and costume vary to suit different eras.

Because Anouilh selected traditional and theatrical modes of dramatization rather than avant-garde or sociopolitical ones, critics did not credit him with profound contributions to twentieth century French theater. He has been called “a gifted stylist with a shallow point of view.”

Sources for Further Study

Archer, Marguerite. Jean Anouilh. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971.

Della Fazia, Alba. Jean Anouilh. New York: Twayne, 1969.

Falb, Lewis W. Jean Anouilh. New York: F. Ungar, 1977.

Lenski, B. A. Jean Anouilh: Stages in Rebellion. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1975.

McIntyre, H. G. The Theatre of Jean Anouilh. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1981.