'Bel Ami\r'

'French 0080 declination 13, 2004 The Devil’s Workshop The Ameri rouse moon sustained by millions of immigrants in the last common chord centuries is built upon blind, optimistic faith that hard sour and effort give bring about advanced fortune to good and righteous citizenry. However, this dream does non always become reality and bity times, it is the nation who play the least who be the intimately purify aside(predicate) in toll of riches and success. In trey famed French novels, the effects of funds, power, and looseness in Bel-Ami, The Immoralist, and The Vagabond are made kn consume as this degeneration of the morals and/or self-worth of the oddb completelys involved are depicted.Maupassant’s novel, Bel-Ami, tells the tale of Georges Duroy and his climb up the amicable ladder in the 1880’s. At the beginning of the novel, Duroy is a simple clerk who institutes hard for rattling small wages and who is forced to husband his re seminal fluids so that he can bear with the rent for his flat in the slums and his cardinal meager meal per day. This creative activity bores and disgusts Duroy however, due to his lack of formal education and sociable connections he is unable to find a better paying come in until his chance meeting with an centenarian army fri shutting, Forestier.With a gift of forty francs for a set of evening clothes, he is catapulted into aristocratic ships compevery as he is invited to dine with Forestier, his wife, and several production bank line colleagues and friends. Although his personal holds are limited, he regales his fellow dinner party guests with stories about his time pass in Africa and forward the evening is over, he is fited for an article on a cavalry creation’s view of emotional statetime in colonial Africa.The journalist’s position is drastically different from the patronage which he presendly occupies given the flexibility with work and with an improve d pay and Duroy jumps at this opportunity to promote himself into a practically respected lineage. However, he finds himself unable to compose the article that is requested of him and approaches his friend for help. When Forestier instructs Duroy to go to his wife for aid, Duroy was head-in-the-clouds â€Å"wondering what he was going to say and rest little about the welcome he might fuck off” (34, Bel-Ami).He is aware at this point that such behavior, visit some hotshot’s wife early in the morning and bandage she is dressed in a negligee, is non appropriate. However, he is encouraged by some(prenominal) Forestiers and spends time with al unitary with Madeleine, an act which was non genially acceptable at the time, and stays until the article is realised by her. Again, Duroy’s conscience forces him to hesitate signing his name to the article entirely composed by some other, entirely if he is compelled to by Madeleine. With the article pen and completely disregarding this dishonesty, Duroy submits it to the newsprint as his own work.This act of plagiarism is markedly the firstly measuring stick that Duroy takes up the social ladder and the first spirit mint the ladder of morality. Duroy is engaged as an employee of ‘La Vie Francaise’, the newspaper where Forestier works, and the second installment of his series on Africa is requested of him the next day. This position offers him well twice his former pay in terms of net income alone and he is also offered commission per line per article. He starts his days at 3 pm severally day, quite a than at 10am and his line of work is significantly less strenuous than before.However, on the first day when his article is printed, he discontinue his former clientele and spends the entire day purchasing frivolous items before going back to the newspaper offices, sans article. He is briefly repri worldded for his laziness by Forestier and is sent on his first mi ssion with another journalist, St. Potin, to question both tour dignitaries. On this outing, St. Potin ‘shows Duroy the ropes’ by fetching him out for drinks and gossiping about everyone and everything involved in the paper. He criticizes M. Walter, the head of the paper, and pokes fun at him with Judaic stereo fictitious characters.He openly shufflings inappropriate references to Mme. Forestier and her consanguinity with the Comte de Vaudrec, despite Duroy’s position as a friend to her husband. Duroy, new to such blunt and uncouth conversation deceaseics experiences perfect dis encourage and battles â€Å"an urge to insult and slap the wait of this gossip-monger” (50, Bel-Ami). The meeting ends with St. Potin telling Duroy how he has no excogitation to actually interview the dickens dignitaries and instead will rewrite an old article from an interview with connatural foreigners.Again, Duroy is rather surprised that does not vox any opposi tion he may substantiate to these dishonest acts. The next day, he is also aware that it is possible to get advances on one’s salary at the newspaper, ridding Duroy of the necessity of waiting and redeeming(a) his money. He continues his work at the paper and becomes a very well known reporter hardly due to his expenditures, the advances on his already increased salary are insufficient and he get downs just as poverty stricken as he did before, regardless of the change in his income. The next step that Duroy takes down the path of immorality is his association with Mme.De Marelle, one of the women who he had met at his first dinner with Forestier. After visiting her, she invites him out to dinner with her and the two Forestiers. He accepts and presently all four gorge themselves with delicacies, fine wines and champagnes, and grass incredibly inappropriate sexual comments and advances to each other. When discussing love, Duroy is once again shown as a bit of a roman ticist who believes that there is some goodness in the ball when it is said that â€Å"[he] believed that [love] could last, creating a bond, a kind of put up friendship, a mutual trust” (64, Bel-Ami).However, this is not sufficiency to keep him from gossiping with the other three and he vocalizes his contempt for love and tenderness despite his beliefs. curtly after, he and Mme. De Marelle become lovers and one result of this is another strain on Duroy’s already in like manner scanty salary. She enjoys to be taken out and to experience living while he works to afford his rent and his meals. He quickly falls into debt with everyone and owes the most to the cashier office at the newspaper. After confessing this to her, he finds that Mme. De Marelle adopts the habit of leaving money rough his flatbed or in his clothing.At first, he is mortified by this turn of events and his â€Å"feelings in a turmoil of displeasure and humiliation” (82, Bel-Ami). He vows to return the money to her and instead spends it on lunch and paying off debts. Although he confronts her over the issue, Mme. De Marelle continues to leave him tokens of her appreciation. He is punctually humiliated each time, moreover he does not return the money or refuse it. He becomes a woman of the street for her and uses her money for all of his purposes, such as food, debts, and even sex from a prostitute at the Folies-Berger.This descent into amorality continues as he continues to sacrifice more progress in climbing the corporate ladder. Duroy is eventually caught by Mme. De Marelle when she discovers that he has been paying a prostitute with her gifts and he finds himself strapped for money. After Forestier refuses to lend him a substantial sum and insults him when Duroy doesn’t perform his job well enough, Duroy almost immediately begins plotting against Forestier by sentiment â€Å"You wait, I’ll get you…I’m going to have your wife, o ld man” (88, Bel-Ami). Given that only shortly before he had been ready to bring in the man who implied Mme.Forestier’s infidelity to her husband, Duroy’s character has obviously changed. Until this point, the only revenge that Duroy sought was at his former place of employment when he insulted his old-timer and this thought marks the very beginning of the noticeable changes from his decent self to his corrupted and vile counterpart. Duroy continues on his ascent into parliamentary procedure and eventually does obtain the flip of Mme. Forestier after her husband’s death. He inherits his money, social position, and occupation and completely assumes Forestier’s position in manners.He has gaind the life that he had set out to make for himself. However, he is haunted by the memories of the dead man and soon, the life that he has is insufficient for him. One of the biggest catalysts for Duroy’s descent into amorality is the suspicion of his new bride; he comes to the closedown that she has been unfaithful to him and he writes off all women, accept that â€Å"all women are whores, you have to use them and not give them anything of yourself” (181, Bel-Ami). He is embittered by this turn of events and becomes unmerciful in his plans to achieve the most money and wealth that he can.When Madeleine’s patron, the Comte de Vaudrec, dies and she inherits all of his wealth, Duroy forces her to give him fractional of the sum. Duroy later turns to Mme. Walter, the wife of the head of the newspaper, and uses her to get the top of the company. After using and discarding her, he discards Madeleine after set to catch her in an act of infidelity. His lust for money and power ultimately bring about his immorality, while be one of the richest men in his circle. currency has ultimately corrupted him. In The Immoralist, Michel is a man of independent means.Born into a middle class family, he does not have to struggle to make it into society as Duroy did. He already has a easygoing occupation and on his honeymoon, spends his wealth on things of comfort and pleasure. He travels south with Marceline, his new bride, and for one of the first times in his life, leaves his work of books and study tin can him. On the way to his destination, he has a hard bout with tuberculosis and nearly dies. He reflects that he â€Å"worked to the end, did [his] duty resolutely, devotedly…” (19, The Immoralist) which reflects his lack of zest for life.He resigns himself to death, but the forethought of his wife keeps him alive and helps him to recover. Marceline chooses a attractive location for him to recuperate but he shows pocket-size interest in his surroundings and is too listless to do any work of any kind. He states that â€Å"being is occupation enough” (22, The Immoralist). Michel is an fresh man, a man who has never known what it is to truly work hard to achieve something. However , faced with his mortality, he develops a renewed zeal for life and begins to spend his wealth with more abandon than before.On his return back to Europe, the architectural sites mean nothing to him any longer and he only wants to experience life at the fullest. He takes himself and Marceline to a elevate that he possesses in Normandy and it is at that originate where he loses his loafing and becomes the trump type of man that he ever is during the novel. One can argue that it is at this furtherm where he spends the volume of his time at work, at various occupations that strike him to put forth manual labor rather than being wasted, and that is the cause of this semi transformation.He is, however, called to accept a larning position at one of the more prestigious universities in Paris and when he takes this position, begins his speech rhythm downward. Going to Paris, he spends enormous amounts of money as he and Marceline struggle to furnish their new apartments, which â⠂¬Å"the exist of furnishing the new apartment would exceed [their] income for the year” (88, The Immoralist). quite than settling for what he could afford, Michel recklessly spends what he ask to get what he wants.As his idle time increases, Marceline’s health decreases and Michel uses her failing health as an salvage to quit his new job, for he has become world-weary and disillusioned with it, and drags her back to his farm in Normandy. No longer interested in working for the betterment of the property, Michel takes up with poachers and ruins his own lands, making them undesirable and make them to lose whatever profits they had once made. It seems that his idle hands are aching to be busy with some matter and given that he is no longer interested in working, he becomes a voyeur into the lives of the most debauched around him.The farm is soon ruined under his direction and he forever ruins his relationships with the people who had worked for him and his father for years. He is confronted by one of the sons of his employee who tells him that it was [Michel] who taught [him] last year that property involves current responsibilities †but [Michel] seems to have forgotten” (138, The Immoralist). Michel is not move by this statement but rather becomes stimulate with his work and informs the grounds keeper that the farm is to be sold.Despite Marceline’s increasing health troubles, Michel picks up and leaves the farm as soon as he becomes disillusioned with it and with the people around him and drags Marceline on a touch off through Europe and back south to where they had spent their honeymoon. On this flight, Michel has nothing to occupy his time or capture his interests except for multiple acts of immoral behavior. He spends his money recklessly, without abandon, and never takes into account Marceline’s inescapably or desires. Instead, he constantly justifies his own selfishness by blaming these things on Marceline ’s needs.Her health worsens as he drags her to climates not healthy for her ailing lungs, but he is so preoccupied with experiencing the debauched lifestyle that he does not care about it and refuses to acknowledge that he is slowly killing his wife. In a softheaded way, Michel seems excited by his prospect of wasting his riches for he claims that â€Å"A turnaround time of fortune…should teach as much as a reversal of health” (144, The Immoralist). Finally, his selfishness and inability to distinguish right from incorrect cause the death of Marceline. Michel is left alone, without work or meaningful occupation.However, instead of working or attempting to reconstruct the life that he purposefully destroyed, he is meaning to do nothing except exist. At the end of the novel, he states that â€Å"nothing discourages thought so much as this perpetual blue sky. Here any exertion is impossible, so closely does pleasure play along desire” (170, The Immoral ist). This last statement of him shows truly how far he has descended into this state. The Vagabond is different from the aforementioned novels in that its main character is not one who does not appreciate the value of money or the greatness of work.Rather, its heroine, Renee Nere, works at first because she must but finally because she wants to rather than condemn herself to a life of servitude to a husband. Renee is a thirty-something divorcee who sings, dances, and acts in a second rate performing companionship and who is eventually courted by a rich, handsome man who embodies money and idleness. Rather than openly accepting the life of luxury he offers, Renee ultimately rejects him because he cannot study her aversion to a married life in captivity. scoopful, her suitor, is an extremely rich man who has no occupation at all and who lives off of the money pop the questiond to him by his family. Max cannot understand the importance of a job in Renee’s eyes and ultimatel y, it is this inability to poke her motives that cause their budding romance to fail. In a short passage, Renee displays her opinions on the effects of idleness on an actor. She states that she is touched by the concern of one of her colleagues who wants â€Å"to except [her] from hard times and the idleness which demoralizes out-of-work actors, diminishing their powers and making them go to pieces” (101-102, The Vagabond).She feels that it is necessary to keep oneself occupied and it is that think as well as the fact that she does not want to repeat her past experiences with her ex-husband that she rejects Max’s advances. The major conflict between the two is the impending tour of the theater group with whom Renee works. more times in the novel, Max voices his desire for her to detain and to leave the theater and to accept a less strenuous life with him. However, Renee doesn’t respect him for his voluntary inactivity and she likens him to a prostitute as he is the first man she had ever met who was idle.She states that â€Å"he has no profession and no sinecure behind which to conceal his lazy freedom” (140, The Vagabond). Max constantly asks her why she won’t leave the industry and he oftentimes rebukes her for her occupation. She replies to him that he has â€Å"the means to live otherwise…but as for [her], what would [he] have [her] do” (143, The Vagabond). When he offers to provide for her, she finds the idea repugnant and humiliating. When discussing the plans for the tour, Renee and her mentor, Brague, begin to discuss her relationship with Max.When Brague asks her what business Max is involved in, Renee replies, slightly broken that Max does nothing at all. Brague finds that admission to be rather fascinating, stating that â€Å"it’s staggering…that anyone can live like that. No office. No factory. No rehearsals. No racing stables” (163, The Vagabond). Neither of the two workin g people can possibly understand nor sympathize with the motives of a person who does not take part in the simple task of human work. Another source of conflict between Max and Renee is the issue of money; Max has too much, Renee not enough.An example of this worry is highlighted when Renee is packing for the tour and is planning to share a trunk with Brague in request to save on the costs. The total proposed sum to be saved is two hundred francs, but Max does not accommodate with such a situation and tells Renee that the situation was â€Å" seamy” and that â€Å"it’s all so paltry” (167, The Vagabond). She is awful offended by this uninterested attitude to money, but she recognizes that Max would not â€Å"have learnt that money, the money one earns, is a respectable, serious thing which one handles with care and speaks about solemnly” (167, The Vagabond).In the end, it is Max’s dismissive attitude to everything and his desire to control Rene e that ruins their relationship; Renee goes on with plans to further her chosen career and leaves Max with best wishes for romance in his future. In Bel-Ami, The Immoralist, and The Vagabond, money and idleness are major factors that determine the path of each of the characters involved. In Bel-Ami, the more money Duroy obtains, the less work he does for it and his moral state shows much worse for the wear.The Immoralist discusses Michel and how he becomes a degenerate being with self-imposed idleness and his strong desire to cast by all ties to his prior lifestyle. Renee in The Vagabond shows how self-direction and independence is extremely vital to a no-hit relationship and how depending on one person for all of life’s pleasures can only decease to disillusionment and failure. These lessons, though not all good, are important to be learned in order to successfully prioritize one’s life.Only one of the three characters above became financially successful and he ru thlessly sacrificed the reputations, happiness, and sanity of others in order to achieve his goals. Apparently, the ‘American dream’ does not always have the desired fairytale ending but one can derive this lesson from these tales; riches may not be guaranteed, but the chances of living a fulfilling life are greatly increased by tutelage oneself occupied and focused on the future, rather than being lazy and uninvolved with life and the world around him. As can be concluded from these novels, idle hands are truly the Devil’s tools.\r\n'