Essay Questions

Cécile de Volanges changes through the course of the novel. Explain the factors that influence her character development.

Cécile begins as a very naive young woman, betrothed at an early age to the Comte (Count) de Gercourt. Having been raised and educated in a convent, the fifteen-year-old girl has no grasp of how her aristocratic world really works.

At first Cécile is a victim and dupe of the people around her. Her own mother has arranged her betrothal to a man she has never met, and when she develops a girlish crush on her music tutor, the impoverished Chevalier Danceny, she does not know how to respond to his letters or his attention. The Vicomte de Valmont "seduces" her (the events of the text are actually consistent with the modern definition of rape) as part of a plot to embarrass her future husband. However, under the tutelage of the vicious and manipulative Marquise de Merteuil (who was the one who set her up to be raped in the first place), she begins to develop a measure of agency. She continues an affair with Valmont deliberately, becoming pregnant and suffering a miscarriage. She remains emotionally attached to Danceny, who kills Valmont in a duel. But instead of remaining in what she considers to be a morally depraved world, she rejects the manipulative and self-absorbed adults around her. She decides to take holy orders and re-enters the convent permanently as a nun.

This novel is written in the epistolary structure. Explain how the epistolary structure of the novel contributes to plot and character development and to the conflict and resolution in the novel.

The novel is a series of letters. Each writer expresses his or her own thoughts, opinions, and experiences which become known to the letter's recipient (and to the reader) but not to the other characters. The machinations of Valmont and the Marquise are very plot-oriented, but the emotional and character development comes from letters such as the ones exchanged between Cécile and her best friend Sophie. There is a great deal of dramatic irony when one character knows something another character does not. This helps shape the conflict of the story, which centers around various conspiracies and stratagems. Cécile, for example, does not realize that the Marquise, to whom she appeals for help after Valmont rapes her, was fully aware of the plot and approved of it. The contrast between the naive Cécile and the predatory, amoral Marquise allows each to act as a foil for the other.

Compare and contrast the characters of Cécile and the Marquise.

On a superficial level the two characters are similar: both are female, both are beautiful, and both are members of France's hereditary aristocracy. Cécile displays an ability to manipulate others, due in part to the Marquise's advice and instruction. However, the similarity ends there. Cécile is a fifteen-year-old girl with a naïve belief in other people's good nature, having been raised in a convent with strict moral standards and a belief in objective right and wrong. When she falls short of her moral standards (such as by losing her virginity when Valmont rapes her, or when Valmont is killed by Danceny who fights him on her behalf), Cécile is devastated. By contrast, the Marquise is a decadent product of the aristocratic class. She knows no law and no virtue aside from her own hedonism. To that end, she is willing to harm others both as revenge against those who thwart her in her pursuit of pleasure. She sacrifices Cécile almost without a thought, and she truly does not care about the damage she does to the people around her provided she gets what she wants.

During the French Revolution, members of the hereditary aristocracy were hunted down and executed partly to redistribute their wealth among the poor and partly to eradicate what many people believed to be a depraved and decadent group of people who had far too much wealth and power. This novel, set prior to the French Revolution, features people of the aristocratic class. What negative stereotypes does the novel perpetuate? Which characters contradict it and why?

The negative stereotypes about pre-Revolutionary French aristocracy focused primarily on the fact that the laws didn't apply to them. Aristocrats and their families did not have to pay taxes, the rules and laws did not really apply to them, they were extremely wealthy at a time when much of France was living in poverty, they had a great deal of political influence, and they were so entitled that they adopted their own moral code. Even the religion they nominally followed was really only in theory.

Valmont and the Marquise definitely act as though they are above conventional laws and morals. They are wealthy, finely dressed, and with refined manners. They employ servants and are independently wealthy, living at a high standard of living without having to work to support themselves. The Marquise is particularly sadistic and depraved, acting without regard to the consequences her decisions have on others. Even Valmont has trouble keeping up with her.

The Chevalier Danceny, who does not have a hereditary title or a vast personal fortune, works to support himself as Cécile's music tutor. He genuinely loves Cécile, although his expectations of her behavior are based on the far more sophisticated women who are familiar with the unwritten rules of flirtation. He is horrified when he learns how Valmont has treated her, and challenges Valmont to a duel.

Cécile tries sexual decadence but is repulsed by it. Instead of embracing the self-absorbed philosophy of the Marquise, she retires to the convent in what she considers to be disgrace and dishonor. Her choice of the religious life is partly a rejection of her aristocratic heritage.