The Immoralist

During these chapters, Gide uses the contrasting settings of the countryside and the city to depict Michel’s inner conflict between his responsibilities as a husband and his desire to pursue pleasure. On the one hand, at La Morinière, the natural setting allows Michel to connect with his more primitive, sensual self, although it does not quench all his desires. On the other hand, in his apartment in Paris, he feels stifled and unable to express his ideas to anyone except for his fellow hedonist, Ménalque.

Michel romanticizes the natural landscape on the farm, depicting it as a liminal space between the wild and civilization. He describes the farm as having, “a beauty that was both human and natural, where the bursting fecundity of nature and the skilful regulation of man were so bound together, so in tune with one another, that one no longer knew which one found the most admirable” (60). On the farm, Michel does not feel as constrained by his duties, since he likes taking his pregnant wife on strolls in nature and enjoys the business of running the farm. He explains that his love for Marceline surmounts his “former turbulence” (61), the dissatisfaction he felt for conventional living while abroad. He indulges in the pursuit of pleasure mostly through his friendship with Charles, with whom he regularly goes riding, but he returns from their rides in time to check up on his wife. Though the farm balances Michel’s wild and domestic aspects, having to keep his life in an “ordered and regular pattern” also forces him to repress his hedonistic desires, causing him to become more obsessed with the Goths, whose uncivilized behavior reminds him of his own hidden desires.

Michel’s attraction to Charles follows a similar pattern to his previous attractions. Charles is young and handsome, and Michel is attracted to his youth. But unlike the boys in North Africa, Charles also has an intellect, so Michel is also attracted to his ideas. Michel finds Charles’s youthful perspective refreshing because it so greatly contrasts with Charles’s father’s strict adherence to the status quo. Unlike Bocage, Charles is interested in novel ideas and willing to suggest changes in how to run the farm. Furthermore, Gide depicts Charles as the embodiment of the type of man Michel desires to be: Charles is physically strong and able to hold dominion over the land and its creatures, such as the colt he tames and the eels he captures.

The motif of climate and setting influencing Michel’s mood continues when Michel moves to Paris. Though he does not feel fully liberated while on the farm, being in an urban environment depresses him. He compensates for feeling trapped by spending money, hoping that it will “suppress his wanderlust” (71). Even more oppressive than the urban setting is the company Michel must keep. Gide depicts the required custom of having to constantly socialize as demoralizing. Michel detests the people he socializes with, ironically calling them “people of principle” (82). In fact, he views them as fraudulent and hypocritical because they do not abide by the moral standards they claim to uphold, nor do they have any interest in experiencing life. When Ménalque critiques these people, Michel instinctively defends them, but regrets his words as soon as he says them. His immediate instinct to justify other’s conformity stems from his own fear of accepting his desire to live differently than they do.

Ménalque, on the other hand, acts as a devil figure, tempting Michel to abandon his wife and unborn child to pursue a more authentic life. Though Michel describes Ménalque as “handsome,” his physical description does not suggest any attraction to the other man. Rather than appearing as an object of sexual desire, Ménalque acts as a mentor to Michel, showing him how it is possible to exist beyond the bounds of what society deems acceptable. Ménalque has no trouble with causing scandals, and he believes that the only moral rule one needs to follow is the pursuit of pleasure. Ironically, Ménalque indulges in luxuries such as exotic curtains from Nepal while claiming he does not value material possessions. However, he does not see this as a contradiction because he only uses possessions for long enough to enjoy them, discarding them before they require him to accept any responsibilities. He encourages Michel to escape from the “comfortable happiness” of having a wife and child so that he, too, can pursue his own desires without being burdened by them.

These chapters explore the fleeting nature of happiness, showing that Michel’s shared joy with his wife over her pregnancy is short lived. At La Morinière, he compares his love for his wife to trying “to hold water as it slips through the fingers” (69). This image reflects Michel’s heightened sense of the present, since he is constantly aware of the moment. However, it also shows that he is never satisfied with the joys he does experience, always finding them lacking. Ironically, Michel’s desire to pursue a different form of happiness through his conversations with Ménalque leads to him neglect his wife. While Gide does not directly blame Michel for his wife’s illness and his child’s death, he hints at a correlation between Michel’s visit to Ménalque and Marceline’s stillbirth, since one occurs right before the other. Ménalque plants the seeds of doubt in Michel’s mind about his happiness, symbolically dooming his marriage. This figurative doom manifests as the literal death of Michel’s child.