feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/shmoop/The Red and the Black/section_63_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Red and the Black.part 2.chapter 34
feat_summary_id: part 2, chapter 34
feat_summary: {"name": "Part 2, Chapter 34", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200920104425/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/red-and-the-black/summary/part-2-chapter-34", "summary": "The Marquis de La Mole finally caves and gives Julien some of his property in the town of Languedoc for his future income. After that, the marquis doesn't want to have any more relationship with Julien or his daughter. Mathilde writes back and begs her father to attend the marriage ceremony. The marquis' first thought is to give Julien a ton of money to leave Europe forever and write a note to Mathilde saying he was going to kill himself. In the end, he decides not to. The main question that the marquis worries about is whether Julien began his relationship with Mathilde with the intent of scamming money. In the end, the marquis gets Julien a high posting in the army, which basically makes him a respectable dude in French society. This is really the final thing Julien needs to rise out of his lower class status. He even takes on the new name of Julien de La Vernaye. Everything finally looks like it's all wrapped up nicely.", "analysis": ""}
text: CHAPTER LXIV
  
  A MAN OF INTELLECT
  
  
          The prefect said to himself as he rode along the highway
          on horseback, "why should I not be a minister, a
          president of the council, a duke? This is how I should
          make war.... By these means I should have all the
          reformers put in irons."--_The Globe_.
  
  
  No argument will succeed in destroying the paramount influence of ten
  years of agreeable dreaming. The marquis thought it illogical to be
  angry, but could not bring himself to forgive. "If only this Julien
  could die by accident," he sometimes said to himself. It was in this
  way that his depressed imagination found a certain relief in running
  after the most absurd chimaeras. They paralysed the influence of the
  wise arguments of the abbe Pirard. A month went by in this way without
  negotiations advancing one single stage.
  
  The marquis had in this family matter, just as he had in politics,
  brilliant ideas over which he would be enthusiastic for two or three
  days. And then a line of tactics would fail to please him because it
  was based on sound arguments, while arguments only found favour in his
  eyes in so far as they were based on his favourite plan. He would work
  for three days with all the ardour and enthusiasm of a poet on bringing
  matters to a certain stage; on the following day he would not give it a
  thought.
  
  Julien was at first disconcerted by the slowness of the marquis;
  but, after some weeks, he began to surmise that M. de La Mole had no
  definite plan with regard to this matter. Madame de La Mole and the
  whole household believed that Julien was travelling in the provinces
  in connection with the administration of the estates; he was in hiding
  in the parsonage of the abbe Pirard and saw Mathilde every day;
  every morning she would spend an hour with her father, but they would
  sometimes go for weeks on end without talking of the matter which
  engrossed all their thoughts.
  
  "I don't want to know where the man is," said the marquis to her one
  day. "Send him this letter." Mathilde read:
  
  "The Languedoc estates bring in 20,600 francs. I give 10,600 francs to
  my daughter, and 10,000 francs to M. Julien Sorel. It is understood
  that I give the actual estates. Tell the notary to draw up two separate
  deeds of gift, and to bring them to me to-morrow, after this there are
  to be no more relations between us. Ah, Monsieur, could I have expected
  all this? The marquis de La Mole."
  
  "I thank you very much," said Mathilde gaily. "We will go and settle in
  the Chateau d'Aiguillon, between Agen and Marmande. The country is said
  to be as beautiful as Italy."
  
  This gift was an extreme surprise to Julien. He was no longer the cold,
  severe man whom we have hitherto known. His thoughts were engrossed in
  advance by his son's destiny. This unexpected fortune, substantial as
  it was for a man as poor as himself, made him ambitious. He pictured
  a time when both his wife and himself would have an income of 36,000
  francs. As for Mathilde, all her emotions were concentrated on her
  adoration for her husband, for that was the name by which her pride
  insisted on calling Julien. Her one great ambition was to secure the
  recognition of her marriage. She passed her time in exaggerating to
  herself the consummate prudence which she had manifested in linking her
  fate to that of a superior man. The idea of personal merit became a
  positive craze with her.
  
  Julien's almost continuous absence, coupled with the complications of
  business matters and the little time available in which to talk love,
  completed the good effect produced by the wise tactics which Julien had
  previously discovered.
  
  Mathilde finished by losing patience at seeing so little of the man
  whom she had come really to love.
  
  In a moment of irritation she wrote to her father and commenced her
  letter like Othello:
  
  "My very choice is sufficient proof that I have preferred Julien to all
  the advantages which society offered to the daughter of the marquis
  de la Mole. Such pleasures, based as they are on prestige and petty
  vanity mean nothing to me. It is now nearly six weeks since I have
  lived separated from my husband. That is sufficient to manifest my
  respect for yourself. Before next Thursday I shall leave the paternal
  house. Your acts of kindness have enriched us. No one knows my secret
  except the venerable abbe Pirard. I shall go to him: he will marry us,
  and an hour after the ceremony we shall be on the road to Languedoc,
  and we will never appear again in Paris except by your instructions.
  But what cuts me to the quick is that all this will provide the subject
  matter for piquant anecdotes against me and against yourself. May not
  the epigrams of a foolish public compel our excellent Norbert to pick a
  quarrel with Julien, under such circumstances I know I should have no
  control over him. We should discover in his soul the mark of the rebel
  plebian. Oh father, I entreat you on my knees, come and be present at
  my marriage in M. Pirard's church next Thursday. It will blunt the
  sting of malignant scandal and will guarantee the life's happiness of
  your only daughter, and of that of my husband, etc., etc."
  
  This letter threw the marquis's soul into a strange embarrassment.
  He must at last take a definite line. All his little habits: all his
  vulgar friends had lost their influence.
  
  In these strange circumstances the great lines of his character,
  which had been formed by the events of his youth, reassumed all their
  original force. The misfortunes of the emigration had made him into
  an imaginative man. After having enjoyed for two years an immense
  fortune and all the distinctions of the court, 1790 had flung him into
  the awful miseries of the emigration. This hard schooling had changed
  the character of a spirit of twenty-two. In essence, he was not so
  much dominated by his present riches as encamped in their midst. But
  that very imagination which had preserved his soul from the taint of
  avarice, had made him a victim of a mad passion for seeing his daughter
  decorated by a fine title.
  
  During the six weeks which had just elapsed, the marquis had felt at
  times impelled by a caprice for making Julien rich. He considered
  poverty mean, humiliating for himself, M. de la Mole, and impossible
  in his daughter's husband; he was ready to lavish money. On the next
  day his imagination would go off on another tack, and he would think
  that Julien would read between the lines of this financial generosity,
  change his name, exile himself to America, and write to Mathilde that
  he was dead for her. M. de la Mole imagined this letter written, and
  went so far as to follow its effect on his daughter's character.
  
  The day when he was awakened from these highly youthful dreams by
  Mathilde's actual letter after he had been thinking for along time
  of killing Julien or securing his disappearance he was dreaming of
  building up a brilliant position for him. He would make him take the
  name of one of his estates, and why should he not make him inherit a
  peerage? His father-in-law, M. the duke de Chaulnes, had, since the
  death of his own son in Spain, frequently spoken to him about his
  desire to transmit his title to Norbert....
  
  "One cannot help owning that Julien has a singular aptitude for
  affairs, had boldness, and is possibly even brilliant," said the
  marquis to himself ... "but I detect at the root of his character a
  certain element which alarms me. He produces the same impression upon
  everyone, consequently there must be something real in it," and the
  more difficult this reality was to seize hold of, the more it alarmed
  the imaginative mind of the old marquis.
  
  "My daughter expressed the same point very neatly the other day (in a
  suppressed letter).
  
  "Julien has not joined any salon or any coterie. He has nothing to
  support himself against me, and has absolutely no resource if I abandon
  him. Now is that ignorance of the actual state of society? I have said
  to him two or three times, the only real and profitable candidature is
  the candidature of the salons.
  
  "No, he has not the adroit, cunning genius of an attorney who never
  loses a minute or an opportunity. He is very far from being a character
  like Louis XL. On the other hand, I have seen him quote the most
  ungenerous maxims ... it is beyond me. Can it be that he simply repeats
  these maxims in order to use them as a _dam_ against his passions?
  
  "However, one thing comes to the surface; he cannot bear contempt,
  that's my hold on him.
  
  "He has not, it is true, the religious reverence for high birth. He
  does not instinctively respect us.... That is wrong; but after all,
  the only things which are supposed to make the soul of a seminary
  student impatient are lack of enjoyment and lack of money. He is quite
  different, and cannot stand contempt at any price."
  
  Pressed as he was by his daughter's letter, M. de la Mole realised the
  necessity for making up his mind. "After all, the great question is
  this:--Did Julien's audacity go to the point of setting out to make
  advances to my daughter because he knows I love her more than anything
  else in the world, and because I have an income of a hundred thousand
  crowns?"
  
  Mathilde protests to the contrary.... "No, monsieur Julien, that is a
  point on which I am not going to be under any illusion.
  
  "Is it really a case of spontaneous and authentic love? or is it just
  a vulgar desire to raise himself to a fine position? Mathilde is
  far-seeing; she appreciated from the first that this suspicion might
  ruin him with me--hence that confession of hers. It was she who took
  upon herself to love him the first.
  
  "The idea of a girl of so proud a character so far forgetting herself
  as to make physical advances! To think of pressing his arm in the
  garden in the evening! How horrible! As though there were not a hundred
  other less unseemly ways of notifying him that he was the object of her
  favour.
  
  "_Qui s'excuse s'accuse_; I distrust Mathilde." The marquis's reasoning
  was more conclusive to-day than it was usually. Nevertheless, force
  of habit prevailed, and he resolved to gain time by writing to his
  daughter, for a correspondence was being carried on between one wing
  of the hotel and the other. M. de la Mole did not dare to discuss
  matters with Mathilde and to see her face to face. He was frightened of
  clinching the whole matter by yielding suddenly.
  
          "Mind you commit no new acts of madness; here is
          a commission of lieutenant of Hussars for M. the
          chevalier, Julien Sorel de la Vernaye. You see what I
          am doing for him. Do not irritate me. Do not question
          me. Let him leave within twenty-four hours and present
          himself at Strasbourg where his regiment is. Here is an
          order on my banker. Obey me."
  
  Mathilde's love and joy were unlimited. She wished to profit by her
  victory and immediately replied.
  
          "If M. de la Vernaye knew all that you are good enough
          to do for him, he would be overwhelmed with gratitude
          and be at your feet. But amidst all this generosity, my
          father has forgotten me; your daughter's honour is in
          peril. An indiscretion may produce an everlasting blot
          which an income of twenty thousand crowns could not
          put right. I will only send the commission to M. de la
          Vernaye if you give me your word that my marriage will
          be publicly celebrated at Villequier in the course of
          next month. Shortly after that period, which I entreat
          you not to prolong, your daughter will only be able to
          appear in public under the name of Madame de la Vernaye.
          How I thank you, dear papa, for having saved me from the
          name of Sorel, etc., etc."
  
  The reply was unexpected:
  
          "Obey or I retract everything. Tremble, you imprudent
          young girl. I do not yet know what your Julien is,
          and you yourself know less than I. Let him leave for
          Strasbourg, and try to act straightly. I will notify him
          from here of my wishes within a fortnight."
  
  Mathilde was astonished by this firm answer. _I do not know Julien_.
  These words threw her into a reverie which soon finished in the most
  fascinating suppositions; but she believed in their truth. My Julien's
  intellect is not clothed in the petty mean uniform of the salons, and
  my father refuses to believe in his superiority by reason of the very
  fact which proves it.
  
  All the same, if I do not obey this whim of his, I see the possibility
  of a public scene; a scandal would lower my position in society, and
  might render me less fascinating in Julien's eyes. After the scandal
  ... ten years of poverty; and the only thing which can prevent marrying
  for merit becoming ridiculous is the most brilliant wealth. If I live
  far away from my father, he is old and may forget me.... Norbert will
  marry some clever, charming woman; old Louis XIV. was seduced by the
  duchess of Burgundy.
  
  She decided to obey, but refrained from communicating her father's
  letter to Julien. It might perhaps have been that ferocious character
  driven to some act of madness.
  
  Julien's joy was unlimited when she informed him in the evening that
  he was a lieutenant of Hussars. Its extent can be imagined from the
  fact that this had constituted the ambition of his whole life, and
  also from the passion which he now had for his son. The change of name
  struck him with astonishment.
  
  "After all," he thought, "I have got to the end of my romance, and I
  deserve all the credit. I have managed to win the love of that monster
  of pride," he added, looking at Mathilde. "Her father cannot live
  without her, nor she without me."
  
  
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Part 2, Chapter 34
target: The Marquis de La Mole finally caves and gives Julien some of his property in the town of Languedoc for his future income. After that, the marquis doesn't want to have any more relationship with Julien or his daughter. Mathilde writes back and begs her father to attend the marriage ceremony. The marquis' first thought is to give Julien a ton of money to leave Europe forever and write a note to Mathilde saying he was going to kill himself. In the end, he decides not to. The main question that the marquis worries about is whether Julien began his relationship with Mathilde with the intent of scamming money. In the end, the marquis gets Julien a high posting in the army, which basically makes him a respectable dude in French society. This is really the final thing Julien needs to rise out of his lower class status. He even takes on the new name of Julien de La Vernaye. Everything finally looks like it's all wrapped up nicely.