Analysis of Human Relationships in Balzac's The Passion in the Desert - Essay Example

?Analysis of human relationships The short story by Honore’ de Balzac, ”The passion in the desert” as is typical of his style, twirls around realism and unearths a much deeper meaning that draws parallels to human existence and relationships. The story itself set in a faraway desert has a sense of remote exoticism, and although talks about the everyday mundane events like eating, lazing and sleeping is based on a strong theme that is deeper than and conveys more than the words used. The whole story is about human life and their relationships, but I think what Balzac tries to bring to light is how close man and animal really are in their basic instincts. Feelings and emotions are not unique to just humans and that humans possess as much animal instinct as animals do. The story very beautifully illustrates both these factors and we will examine how they are expressed in Balzac’s imagery. 1. Man is as much a predator when stripped from his natural surroundings. 2. Animals have as much human in their feelings and expression of love. Man is a predator The relationship between the soldier who has just escapes from the clutches of his (Maugrabin) captors and the panther which had made its home on a rug in the expansive desert revolves around two beings cut off from their regular settings is the crux of this story. The story goes to show that the predatorily instincts of a man, cut off from his normal and civilized surroundings and that of an uncivilized beast of the jungle, are divided by a very thin line. Even in the absence of the beast, the man after escaping his captors is on his guard all the time. His animal instincts help him survive the harsh landscape of the desert and keep him alive. He is forever on guard even when in the presence of love from another living being, the panther. In Balzac’s description of the days that followed hints many times how the panther dropped its guard and was enveloped in its love for the soldier but the soldier always had his scimiter, as Balzac calls it, at his side ready to strike if attacked. "Ah, but when she's really hungry!" thought the Frenchman (5) expresses this constant fear in his heart. The soldier however gives in to his animal instinct when he mistakenly suspects that the panther is about to attack him and grabs his scimiter and kills her in a fit of pure predatory instinct. Using the story Balzac tries to establish that underneath once all our exterior robes of civility are taken off we are all animals and possess the same instincts. Animals have as much human in their feelings and expression of love Man and beast are the same when they are isolated from their surroundings, we have tried to establish that so far. The stronger message that Balzac tries to bring forth in this story is that feelings and love are common to humans and animals alike. Feelings like love and caring which we as human beings pride ourselves with is in fact also very native to animals and all living things created in nature. In the interminable desert stage set by Balzac he describes the beautiful feline almost as someone who would describe a women without any sexual connotations. “It gave him pleasure to contemplate the supple, fine outlines of her form, the whiteness of her belly, the graceful pose of her head.”(7) He marvels at her grace and poise almost as if she were not an animal but a human being. The attraction that the soldier talks about is very real and that of a man and a woman rather than a soldier and a panther. There is constant reference to her soft coat, white belly and beautiful sleek shape. The imagery of the fur near its legs as bracelets and adornments further enhances this likeness to a woman. Ironically the soldier even names her after his previous love Mignonne. A beautiful analogy is created when the soldier thinks of his previous love and how she was always jealous and threatened him with a “knife” which can also be taken as imagery for exhibition of rage. This exact scenario is reenacted between the soldier and the panther when she attacks him in playful rage in a fit of jealousy over his attention to an eagle. The panther in the story is all giving and almost very human in its expression of unconditional love and does not suspect any danger. She does not intimidate him in any way in fact here she allows her guard to drop down. There is something very human about the way she keeps her love and modes of survival separate. In the jungle, an animal’s life revolves around the hunt and survival of the fittest. A hunt in the jungle can be equated to a job in a human world. They are both modes of survival. She goes away from the man for the hunt, and comes back to her home where her love, the soldier is. Her love is exclusive and all giving. Even the jealousy exhibited by the animal shows a very human side of it. She grabs the soldier’s ankle in playful display of anger. Even in that instant she is more like a jealous lover than a beast in anger. The man however shows his predatory instincts and pounces on her and slits her throat. Even at death the beast has only love in her eyes. This sad ending to the love between the beast and the soldier is a testimony to how closely linked human feelings are with the animals. In the soldier’s story we see instances of role reversals. The soldier becomes an animal, or exhibits qualities and reactions that we attribute to animals and the animal becomes the human. Conclusion Balzac has very beautifully explained the above-mentioned concepts by a simple and thought provoking story. The framework of his story is that of a story within a story. The story actually has two framing devices, the menagerie of M.Martin that the story begins with man and the woman who come of the show and, the conversation between the man and the soldier. We will examine the frames were executed in this story. The story begins with the woman coming out of the menagerie of M. Martin and exclaiming aloud to the man she is with, "By what means," she continued, "can he have tamed these animals to such a point as to be certain of their affection for----" (1). This creates a suspense element, as the reader is left wondering what the menagerie was about and what made her exclaim so. This may be the main framing device but the suspense is enhanced when the man ventures to respond to her query and relates an earlier incident. He relates how he was at a similar show by Martin and sitting next to a Napoleonic war veteran who knowingly exclaimed at the end of the show, “Well known.” (1). The story that he relates to elaborate on his point is the crux of Balzac’s story and explains both the framing devices. Balzac’s story very poetically reiterates that when living beings are stripped away from their natural habitat, a very symbiotic balance falls into place and they can interact with one another as equals without any fear or need to establish supremacy. This balance gets interrupted once one of the actors in the drama of life start exhibiting characteristics exclusive of their natural surroundings and habitat. Works Cited Honore de Balzac. A Passion in the desert. Trans. Ernest Dowson. Published by. Year. Read More