What It Is
The church of the town of Julien Sorel, where the novel places the omen at the beginning and the crime at the end.
Where It Appears
In Chapter 5 of Book I, the new church, begun when Julien was fourteen, enters his decision to become a priest, alongside the rulings of the justice of the peace.
The building of the church and the justice of the peace's rulings suddenly enlightened him
In the same chapter, on the way to the Rênal house, Julien finds on a prie-dieu a newspaper scrap about the execution of Louis Jenrel, an anagram of his own name.
A brief passage, almost lost in the middle of the chapter, works as an omen: in the church of Verrières (see the church of Verrières), Julien finds a folded sheet of printed paper on a prie-dieu, about the execution of a certain Louis Jenrel, an anagram of Julien Sorel's own name.Details of the execution and the last moments of Louis Jenrel, executed in Besançon on the…
Julien reacts with a remark that sounds like an omen:
Poor wretch [...], his name ends as mine does…
On leaving, with the windows covered in crimson for a festival, he takes the water spilled near the holy-water stoup for blood.
On leaving, Julien thought he saw blood near the holy-water stoup; it was water that had been spilled: the reflection of the red curtains covering the windows made it look like blood.
In Chapter 35 of Book II, Julien buys pistols, enters the church during Mass and shoots twice at Madame de Rênal. The windows are again covered with crimson curtains.
Julien entered the new church of Verrières. All the tall windows of the building were veiled with crimson curtains.
Julien no longer recognized her so well; he fired once and missed; he fired a second time, and she fell.
Antoine Berthet, the real case behind the plot, shot his former lover inside the village church, during Mass, in 1827.
What It Means
In Chapter 5 of Book I, with the newspaper scrap, Stendhal planted the ending at the beginning, and the first-time reader does not yet know what the coincidence announces.
The church ties the beginning to the end with three threads that the book places in the same nave: its construction helps Julien choose the cassock (see the uniform and the cassock), it is there that the red of the curtains makes the water look like blood, and it is there, under the same curtains, that blood stops being an illusion.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Destiny and free will, Violence.
- Characters: Julien Sorel, Madame de Rênal.
- Neighboring symbol: the severed head.