The Theme in the Work
In Book I pride is the armor of a poor young man. Offended, Julien Sorel refuses the money that Madame de Rênal offers him (Book I, ch. 7), confronts his employer and calls the raise he has wrung out a battle won (ch. 10), and turns the conquest of the woman into a duty: he sets himself a deadline for taking her hand (ch. 9), decides out of vanity to become her lover (ch. 13), and draws up a plan of campaign because pride leaves nothing to chance (ch. 14). Around him, the pride of the notables is of another kind: Monsieur de Rênal hires the tutor so as not to be outdone by the Norman horses of Valenod (ch. 3).
In Book II pride becomes the terrain of love itself. Mathilde de La Mole measures men by their readiness to be condemned to death (Book II, ch. 8), reigns in the salon with epigrams (ch. 11), and writes the declaration after struggling against her own pride (ch. 14). From then on the affair is a war in which the one who loves loses: she gives herself and soon is horrified at having surrendered to the first man who came along (chs. 16 and 17), swears servitude and then takes it back (ch. 19), and declares that she no longer loves him (ch. 20). Julien wins only when he learns to show nothing, and the scene in which she falls at his feet is his triumph (ch. 29), followed by the cold decision to frighten her (ch. 31).
Caste pride enters when the pregnancy becomes known: the Marquis de La Mole cannot bear to lose the title of duchess for his daughter (ch. 33), and Mathilde answers with the heroic gesture of asking her own rival for help (ch. 39). In prison, Julien refuses to appeal so as not to die provoking laughter (ch. 42), but before Madame de Rênal he has no self-regard left at all (ch. 45).
Pride is what binds Julien to Mathilde and what separates him from Madame de Rênal. With Mathilde, every gesture is measured by its effect on the other, and love lasts only as long as the scale does not tip; with Madame de Rênal, pride is what he must overcome in himself in order to be happy. The book ends with the two movements side by side: the pride that still makes him refuse the appeal and the lack of self-regard before the one person before whom he has nothing to prove.
Where It Appears
- Book I, chapter 3: A curé: Rênal decides to hire Julien as a tutor for prestige: Valenod has just bought two Norman horses and does not yet have a tutor for his children.
- Book I, chapter 7: Elective affinities: Julien refuses, offended, the louis that Madame de Rênal offers him and says he is ready to show the mayor the account book.
- Book I, chapter 9: A night in the country: Julien sets himself a deadline for taking Madame de Rênal's hand, under pain of blowing his brains out, and the next day he responds with contempt to her husband's reprimand.
- Book I, chapter 10: A great heart: Beside himself, Julien confronts Rênal, says he can live without the post, and, alone in the woods, calls the raise a battle won.
- Book I, chapter 11: A night: Julien hurries to tell Valenod about the raise and, after the night in the garden, resolves to make the most of the victory, which he calls pure Napoleon, by asking his employer for three days' leave.
- Book I, chapter 13: The lace stockings: Julien decides, out of vanity and duty, to become Madame de Rênal's lover.
- Book I, chapter 14: The English scissors: Julien's pride leaves nothing to chance or to the inspiration of the moment, and he draws up a detailed plan of campaign.
- Book II, chapter 6: Manner of pronunciation: Insulted in a café, Julien goes to the house of the gentleman whose name is on the visiting cards, beats the coachman with a whip and fights a duel.
- Book II, chapter 8: Which decoration is the most honorable: Mathilde measures suitors by the maxim that only a death sentence honors a man, because it is the one thing that cannot be bought.
- Book II, chapter 11: The empire of a young woman: Mathilde reigns in the salon with epigrams and compares the identical letters of her suitors to the acts of greatness of the Empire.
- Book II, chapter 12: He'll be a Danton: Mathilde dismantles Caylus and the others when they attack Julien, and finds the greatest of compliments in the idea that he would be a Danton.
- Book II, chapter 13: A conspiracy: Julien celebrates Mathilde's declaration as the victory of the carpenter from the Jura over Croisenois.
- Book II, chapter 14: Thoughts of a young woman: Mathilde writes after struggling against her own pride and, thinking of the power she would give Julien, tells herself that she will say, like Medea: amid so many dangers, I have ME left.
- Book II, chapter 15: Will it be a conspiracy?: Julien concludes that refusing Mathilde's invitation would be cowardice in her eyes and in his own, and he does not want to carry that doubt for the rest of his life.
- Book II, chapter 16: One in the morning: On the night of the ladder, Julien feels no tenderness and reaches, through reason alone, only the joy of self-regard.
- Book II, chapter 17: An old sword: Mathilde says she is horrified at having given herself to the first man who came along, and Julien throws himself at the old sword in the library.
- Book II, chapter 18: Cruel moments: Mathilde makes Julien listen to her enthusiasms for other young men and, when he tells her bluntly that she no longer loves him, begins to despise him completely, certain of being loved.
- Book II, chapter 19: The Opéra Bouffe: Mathilde swears servitude to Julien and throws him a lock of hair, and two days later she treats him with polite, calm eyes.
- Book II, chapter 20: The Japanese vase: Mathilde declares in the library that she no longer loves him, and Julien tries in vain to justify himself.
- Book II, chapter 29: Boredom: Mathilde falls at Julien's feet begging forgiveness, and he thinks that there is the proud woman at his feet.
- Book II, chapter 30: A box at the Opéra Bouffe: Julien tells Mathilde that he too has pride and resists to the limit of what a man's courage can bear.
- Book II, chapter 31: To frighten her: Julien decides to frighten Mathilde and tells her, in a glacial tone, that nothing guarantees she will love him for eight days.
- Book II, chapter 33: The hell of weakness: The marquis heaps insults on Julien because his daughter will not be a duchess, and Mathilde swears to her father that she will publicly be the widow Sorel.
- Book II, chapter 39: The intrigue: Mathilde asks her rival, the Marechale de Fervaques, to come to Besançon, a heroic gesture of a proud and jealous creature.
- Book II, chapter 42: Julien refuses to appeal because he now feels the courage to die without provoking laughter, and does not know whether he will still have it in two months.
- Book II, chapter 45: Before Madame de Rênal, Julien has no self-regard at all, and he tells her all his weaknesses.
Passages
Julien's pride from the first conquest, which he turns into a campaign:
His pride did not want to leave anything to chance, nor to the inspiration of the moment. Following Fouqué's confidences and what little he had read about love in his Bible, he drew up a rather detailed plan of campaign.
The victory over his employer, told in the vocabulary of war:
I have won a battle, he said to himself as soon as he found himself in the woods, far from men's eyes. I have won a battle!
Mathilde, faced with the power she would give Julien if she loved him:
What will his pretensions be, if one day he has all power over me? Well then! I will say like Medea: amid so many dangers, I have ME left.
His triumph, at the highest point of the war of vanities:
There is that proud woman, at my feet! thought Julien.
And the end of self-regard, before Madame de Rênal:
Julien had no self-regard whatsoever before her, and told her all his weaknesses.