Dangerous Liaisons
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a complex and disturbing portrayal of the noble class in France. Set in the late eighteenth century just before the revolution, Les Liaisons Dangereuses weaves a web of cold, calculated betrayal of the most immoral kind. It is a mannered, elegant tale in which the languorous intrigues of the opening scenes set up the violent passions of the later ones. It is a story in which the surfaces are usually calm and only the flash of an eye or a slightly raised voice betrays the most terrible struggles going on beneath.This is a scandalous drama about the sexual machinations of two jaded French aristocrats who use sex and desire as weapons of destruction and as means to hunt for revenge and acquire power. As they climb the social ladder they ruin the lives of the innocent people who surround them. The Marquise de Merteuil lives in a world of drawing rooms and boudoirs, where she preys upon the innocent and naive, shattering their idealism with a triumphant laugh. Her partner and confidant is the Vicomte de Valmont, who was once her lover and is now her weapon against young women presumptuous enough to love. Seduction is nothing more than a game to them and in their private score keeping, nothing count
Les Liaisons Dangereuses by no means encompasses the 'whole picture' of the times, however, it does depict quite explicitly the lives of a handful of aristocrats in an all too likely posture. They disguise their depraved indifference as principles to live by and scorn those who experience true emotions. Although, it would be a mistake to depict Valmont as anything but the monster that he is, there seems to be a small measure of actual 'affection' for Tourvel, however short-lived. The seduction of Cecile comes easily and Valmont eventually beds the virgin in order to humor Merteuil. The Marquise de Merteuil, on the other hand, falls prey to a hideous, disfiguring disease, which seems fit for the crimes she perpetrates. The story begins with the Marquise de Merteuil corresponding with Vicomte de Valmont regarding a luscious new act of 'revenge', as she describes it, against her former lover, the Comte de Gercourt. s more than a heart destroyed and hopes laid to waste. Indeed, one is hard-pressed to find any real virtue in this book. This is too much for the Marquise; as her instrument, the Vicomte may make love to whomever he pleases, but he is not to fall in love with anyone. Consequently, in order to give meaning to their boring lives, they conjured acts of increasingly questionable content, lacking in morals and conscious. These privileged creatures of France possessed the vast majority of wealth and committed the most scandalous of acts against both their piers and those of lower social standing. She considers it an appalling sign of weakness. Although, these individuals seem not capable of any emotion, it is almost out of jealousy that she lashes out over Madame de Tourvel. This contrast illustrates the double standard prevalent at the time.
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