Mind as Ruin: Balzac’s “Sarrasine”
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narrator’s explanation to Rochefide that she sees “only him” is also
for the reader. Most likely, the narrator imagines la Zambinella as half
of a mystical union. According to the conventions of Catholic mysticism, the union of two souls and two fleshes forms a perfect unity.
Translated visually, it would be perfectly logical to see only one body.
Hence, the narrator’s exclamation: “Vous ne voyez que lui!”
Analysis of the other piece of mental debris, the painting of
the Adonis, confirms this reading. The painting would probably pass
unnoticed as a puzzle piece for reconstructing the narrator’s consciousness without Madame de Rochefide’s passion for the body that
is figured in the painting and without her implausible question: “Qui
est-ce?” The narrator knows the identity of the model and promises to
reveal it to her. The text indicates that the painting is a copy by Girodet (“Endymion”) of another work by Vien, which, in turn, is a copy
of the statue sculpted by Sarrasine. Balzac thus uses a “real” painting
in order to give the reader external access to the mental state of Sarrasine while under the illusion of idealized love.
We see a hermaphrodite with both male and female traits, but
whose gender is, ultimately, masculine. Does this mean that the original model for all the copies is that of a man? The narrator explicitly
says that the statue is of a woman while contradicting himself with the
presentation of the material evidence and narrative symbolism, thus
casting doubt on his own reliability.
Yet if the narrator is Sarrasine, he cannot expose his love
story openly. For epistemological and moral reasons, he is forced to
communicate indirectly, playing a double game by presenting his union in heterosexual terms while offering clues about the concealed
truth. The statue is not a purely visual entity, but emerges from the union of a phallic voice (the symbol of idealized masculine love) penetrating the vaginal soul of Sarrasine. The sculptor exteriorizes
(personifies) this interior “spiritual” union by figuring it as a human
body. And why not a male, since the erotico-mystical images representing the voice of la Zambinella are phallic while the soul of Sarrasine is female?
Access to Sarrasine’s archaic state of mind may also be found
in Balzac’s metaphorical descriptions of Sarrasine sculpting. The narrator seems to indicate Sarrasine’s unconscious awareness that the
ideal woman is phallic, and his success in capturing this masculine
dimension of la Zambinella in his statue. Though this initially seems
133
narrator’s explanation to Rochefide that she sees “only him” is also
for the reader. Most likely, the narrator imagines la Zambinella as half
of a mystical union. According to the conventions of Catholic mysticism, the union of two souls and two fleshes forms a perfect unity.
Translated visually, it would be perfectly logical to see only one body.
Hence, the narrator’s exclamation: “Vous ne voyez que lui!”
Analysis of the other piece of mental debris, the painting of
the Adonis, confirms this reading. The painting would probably pass
unnoticed as a puzzle piece for reconstructing the narrator’s consciousness without Madame de Rochefide’s passion for the body that
is figured in the painting and without her implausible question: “Qui
est-ce?” The narrator knows the identity of the model and promises to
reveal it to her. The text indicates that the painting is a copy by Girodet (“Endymion”) of another work by Vien, which, in turn, is a copy
of the statue sculpted by Sarrasine. Balzac thus uses a “real” painting
in order to give the reader external access to the mental state of Sarrasine while under the illusion of idealized love.
We see a hermaphrodite with both male and female traits, but
whose gender is, ultimately, masculine. Does this mean that the original model for all the copies is that of a man? The narrator explicitly
says that the statue is of a woman while contradicting himself with the
presentation of the material evidence and narrative symbolism, thus
casting doubt on his own reliability.
Yet if the narrator is Sarrasine, he cannot expose his love
story openly. For epistemological and moral reasons, he is forced to
communicate indirectly, playing a double game by presenting his union in heterosexual terms while offering clues about the concealed
truth. The statue is not a purely visual entity, but emerges from the union of a phallic voice (the symbol of idealized masculine love) penetrating the vaginal soul of Sarrasine. The sculptor exteriorizes
(personifies) this interior “spiritual” union by figuring it as a human
body. And why not a male, since the erotico-mystical images representing the voice of la Zambinella are phallic while the soul of Sarrasine is female?
Access to Sarrasine’s archaic state of mind may also be found
in Balzac’s metaphorical descriptions of Sarrasine sculpting. The narrator seems to indicate Sarrasine’s unconscious awareness that the
ideal woman is phallic, and his success in capturing this masculine
dimension of la Zambinella in his statue. Though this initially seems