Alexandre Dumas Fils’ La Dame aux Camélias
Alexandre Dumas Fils La Dame aux Camélias tells the story of Marguerite Gautier and her transformation from a prostitute who loves for money into a truly romantic lover. In Marguerite’s time period, the well-known prostitutes were given vast amounts of wealth and led luxurious lives filled with nearly constant excitement. Marguerite initially believes this lifestyle will allow her to achieve satisfaction in life. However, she neglects to consider the negative consequences that typically result when leading such a life. Her busy lifestyle leads her to become ill, so often that she exits a room during a dinner party, her friend Prudence tells the guests, “oh, it won’t be anything, it happens every day. She’ll come back. Let’s just leave her alone. She prefers it that way” (Dumas 65).
While her poor lifestyle choices seem to be leading her closer and closer to death, her life makes an improvement with the introduction of Armand, a man who is completely infatuated with Marguerite, into her life journey. She meets Armand while at a social engagement at the opera. For him, she gives up her prostitute lifestyle, hoping to rise above it and experience a true relationship with Armand. This choice has a profound effect upon her life journey. She is not used to the limited wealth Armand is accustomed to, and by choosing to live with him she must give up vast amounts of wealth and relearn how to live life with less material belongings.
However, this great transformation from selling love as a means for profit into experiencing fulfilling love relationships is not the only transformation Marguerite makes throughout her life journey in the novel. In the end, Marguerite’s life journey takes another significant detour when she breaks off relations with Armand following an exchange with Armand’s father. After this decision she decides to make a religious transformation. She makes it her new life goal to be a superior moral person, sacrificing her own happiness for the benefit of the one she loves. She is pleased with Armand’s sudden anger toward her for breaking off their relationship, saying, “…I suffered almost gladly. For not only was each indignity proof that you still loved me: I also felt that the more you persecuted me, the nobler I should appear in your eyes…” (Dumas 188). Thus her religious transformation toward the end of the novel allows Marguerite to look at the end of their relationship from a positive point of view instead of solely focusing on how much she misses Armand.
These two major events in Marguerite’s life clearly play a significant role in Marguerite’s life journey. Without having met Armand, Marguerite would have felt there was no purpose to love besides making a profit to maintain her lifestyle of luxury, thus she would have remained a prostitute if it were not for him. Also, without making the religious transformation at the end of her life, Marguerite most likely would have died sooner due to the stress her breakup with Armand had upon her. However, by looking at it through her newly found superior, religious perspective, she is able to cling to life long enough to write down thoughts of her unfailing love to Armand.
While her poor lifestyle choices seem to be leading her closer and closer to death, her life makes an improvement with the introduction of Armand, a man who is completely infatuated with Marguerite, into her life journey. She meets Armand while at a social engagement at the opera. For him, she gives up her prostitute lifestyle, hoping to rise above it and experience a true relationship with Armand. This choice has a profound effect upon her life journey. She is not used to the limited wealth Armand is accustomed to, and by choosing to live with him she must give up vast amounts of wealth and relearn how to live life with less material belongings.
However, this great transformation from selling love as a means for profit into experiencing fulfilling love relationships is not the only transformation Marguerite makes throughout her life journey in the novel. In the end, Marguerite’s life journey takes another significant detour when she breaks off relations with Armand following an exchange with Armand’s father. After this decision she decides to make a religious transformation. She makes it her new life goal to be a superior moral person, sacrificing her own happiness for the benefit of the one she loves. She is pleased with Armand’s sudden anger toward her for breaking off their relationship, saying, “…I suffered almost gladly. For not only was each indignity proof that you still loved me: I also felt that the more you persecuted me, the nobler I should appear in your eyes…” (Dumas 188). Thus her religious transformation toward the end of the novel allows Marguerite to look at the end of their relationship from a positive point of view instead of solely focusing on how much she misses Armand.
These two major events in Marguerite’s life clearly play a significant role in Marguerite’s life journey. Without having met Armand, Marguerite would have felt there was no purpose to love besides making a profit to maintain her lifestyle of luxury, thus she would have remained a prostitute if it were not for him. Also, without making the religious transformation at the end of her life, Marguerite most likely would have died sooner due to the stress her breakup with Armand had upon her. However, by looking at it through her newly found superior, religious perspective, she is able to cling to life long enough to write down thoughts of her unfailing love to Armand.