Discuss Prousts theory of memory and time using specific examples of Time regained - Essay Example

Discuss Proust's theory of memory and time using specific examples of Time regained. In this essay we will try to present Marcel Proust's theory oftime and memory through his masterpiece Time regained. To do so, it is important that we understand that not only Proust's contribution to literature is important because of the aspects that he gave to these particular themes but also because "In search of Lost Time" represents a revolution for novels. Proust's work is completely opposite to symbolist and realist novels.

It is directly focused on the author and its work. In consequence the entire novel is written with an autobiographical "I" linking memory and time - as we shall see as a private experience - to the character/author who writes his memoirs. The precise aspect can be seen immediately in the lead-in of "Time regained": "I spent the whole day in my room, the windows of which opened upon the beautiful verdure of the park, upon the lilacs of the entrance, upon the green leaves of the great trees beside the water and in the forest of Msglise.

It was a pleasure to contemplate all this, I was saying to myself: "How charming to have all this greenery in my window" until suddenly in the midst of the great green picture I recognised the clock tower of the Church of Combray toned in contrast to a sombre blue as though it were far distant, not a reproduction of the clock tower but its very self which, defying time and space, thrust itself into the midst of the luminous greenery as if it were engraved upon my window-pane."1. Marcel Proust ends his search of Lost Time with a seventh volume: "Time regained".

This last volume shall be seen, not as a conclusion of the entire work but, as the reason the author decides to start to write. We have to consider "Time regained" as an introduction to Proust's previous volumes of "in search of Lost Time" because he finally links art - in his case literature - to memory and time. Art should be the way to represent and ultimately to regain the time which was lost. " This labour of the artist to discover a means of apprehending beneath matter and experience, beneath words, something different from their appearance, is of an exactly contrary nature to the operation in which pride, passion, intelligence and habit are constantly engaged within us when we spend our lives without self-communion, accumulating as though to hide our true impressions, the terminology for practical ends which we falsely call life"2When we finally understand that through the pages, Proust outplayed us, seeming to have failed to be a writer, we are revealed the true nature of his thinking constantly present in all the volumes.

Memories are the closed doors to Lost Time. The passing years can be seen on the faces of the ladies populating the salons. Only, it shall not be seen as the only aspect of lost time as we all have inside ourselves memories that can lead us to the past. These memories are explained as ecstasies because they are not only souvenirs that pass in our minds. They remind us, not only the scene but the smell, the sensation we had during that moment. Thanks to these ecstasies, we can recreate time and therefore be delivered of its passing.

The difficulty for Proust was the connection between art and time. As art represents a certain moment in time and is not relevant of the constant changes, it is therefore a door to lost time which shall be used. But art is fixed, can not be changed. So, more important then art itself is the eye of the audience because the real achievement of art is not to wake up memories in order to find, once again, lost time.To understand Proust it is therefore essential to cautiously read the title of his work.

"In search of Lost Time" means that time can be found but only within our self, not past time as some historians may describe it. As Proust believed no time is lost from the moment that one can look inside himself to find it again and memories - as fragile as they may be - are the keys to this lost territory.