Sep 5, 2008

The Fall | Characters

Jean-Baptiste Clamence, John the Baptist crying in the desert, dominates the work. There are shadowy figures in the background: the unknown woman who jumped into the Seine, the women whom Clamence frequented in his moments of debauchery, and above all, a mute interlocutor who is possibly the alter-ego of the narrator. Clamence is the only one who speaks, however. He is an intelligent, lucid, gifted talker, who tries to persuade himself that he has soothed his conscience. He had been a brilliant lawyer in Paris, a good-looking and charming gentleman. After the incident on the Pont des Arts,...