Combray: Section 1
The novel opens with the narrator drifting in and out of consciousness, describing all the thoughts and memories that sneak into his mind as fatigue blurs out his rational thinking. The main story told was from his childhood, he recounted the days spent in his grandparents’ house where he was sent to bed early to face his insomnia alone as the adults continued with dinner. His only consolation was the anticipation of his mother’s goodnight kiss, which was frowned upon by his father. The only nights where his mother did not come upstairs to kiss him were the evenings when they had guests over, usually M. Swann, who the narrator described as “the unconscious author of my sufferings (p. 44).”
At the beginning of this reading, I struggled with the complex writing and lengthy sentences. It was difficult to follow the narrator’s story as he jumped from himself to others and from the future to the past. I kept circling back and re-reading paragraphs because of confusion surrounding the setting and characters, which increased my frustration and impatience. However, when I started to just read forward, the pieces fell together in a much more coherent manner and the story of the narrator’s childhood in Combray slowly began to unfold. A quote that stood out to me was from M. Swann’s father about the death of his wife: “It’s odd, I think of my poor wife often, but I can’t think of her for long at a time (p. 15).” This line perfectly captures some people’s grief after the loss of a loved one; you find their presence in everyday things such as a brush of wind or a distant melody, but you cannot bear to think about them for too long before the pain of their absence creeps in.
Combray: Section 2
Entering the second section of the story, it appears that the narrator jumped further back in time to relive the memories spent at his Aunt Léonie’s house. Although the narrator does a wonderful job painting a picture of the steeple of Saint-Hilaire (Combray’s church), the length and complexity of his sentences somehow escalated. There were instances when I finished a sentence but had to search for the beginning of it to remember what he was talking about in the first place. Overall, Proust’s writing was deep and thoughtful, revealing fragments of his past life to show readers the intricacy of human relationships and memories.
Questions
The narrator experiences high levels of anxiety before bed, leading to my question “What makes the character so anxious before bedtime? Is it external factors (such as his family) or internal factors (such as the fear of being alone)?” Ever since his Uncle Octave (Léonie’s husband) died, his aunt has been “always lying in an uncertain state of grief, physical debility, illness, obsession, and piety (p. 50).” This leads me to wonder if the narrator’s anxiety was perpetuated by his aunt’s mental health, as she was plagued with the belief of getting sick.
Hi Fiona, Thank you for your sharing and thoughts!
Similar to you, I also find the novel difficult to read and follow along. Part one was mainly about his sleep anxiety and fear of night during childhood. However, it may be a mix of internal and external factors. What had always been fearful for him was the tension and frowny face his father showed when he asked for his mother’s kiss. This tension in a sense reinforces a vicious cycle, where his fear toward facing night pushes him to ask for a kiss, the asking for a kiss leads to his father’s frown. In terms of internal factors, the narrator seems to be a sensitive child, long nights and feelings of loneliness are indeed stressful.
Esther Zhou 🙂
Thanks for this, Fiona. But do you have a question for us?
Hi Professor,
Yes, the questions were “What makes the character so anxious before bedtime? Is it external factors (such as his family) or internal factors (such as the fear of being alone)?” and “This leads me to wonder if the narrator’s anxiety was perpetuated by his aunt’s mental health, as she was plagued with the belief of getting sick.”
The questions were included along in my paragraphs, but I will update them to stand out more if it was difficult to find.
Ah yes, many thanks! 🙂
Hey Fiona!
It’s great to see your perspective on this. I also did initially struggle with reading the text, as I found the prose to be rather verbose at times. At the same time, I also found it endearing because the author is mostly writing about snippets from his childhood – which are described with a ton of sensory detail. As for your question, I do believe that it stems from a combination of internal and external factors. He seems to be very lonely from experiences with his family and experiences a common fear among children of darkness in the night. There’s also the struggle to just fall asleep already – which is a very relatable one.
Fiona,
You make a very interesting point in reflecting on your re-reading. I think sometimes it’s easy to think that “good readers” only read once, but re-reading is a great sign of an engaged reader that is doing a good reading. It’s a great practice!
That reflection of little doses of memory was moving to me as well, it reminded me of a cultural practice we have of holding a religious service after losing a loved one. The first week it’s every day; the first month it is once a week and so on with less and less frequency but they never stop: every year we host one to remember. IT’s interesting to see how these human necessity to not forget and avoid pain interact with believes to create cultural practices.
Thanks for your comment and don’t forget to send over your questions!
Hi Tesi!
Thank you for sharing your cultural practice.
As for the questions, they were included in the paragraphs but it must be difficult to find as they didn’t have their own section (the professor didn’t see them as well). I’ve moved them to the bottom of the page with their own heading to make them easier to spot 🙂
Hi Fiona! I’m in the same boat as you, I think I had to reread the first couple of pages probably 5 times until it went into my head haha. To answer your question, I believe it is more external factors that led Marcel to be so anxious. In the book, he states that he was getting used to his mother becoming angry at him when she didn’t kiss him goodnight. I think that because he was so used to his mother’s kiss when he was younger, that he grew some anxiety when she stopped as a result (since he would always wait for his mother to come to his room before he went to sleep).