Student Question
How does "Soeur Louise De La Misericorde" explore the idea of sacrifice?
Quick answer:
The idea of sacrifice is explored in "Soeur Louise De La Misericorde" by the rejection of the world and all its vanities on the part of the eponymous character. This privileged aristocrat, a former mistress of Louis XIV, has turned her back on the glamour of the French court life to live a life of quiet contemplation as a nun.
The Duchesse de la Valliere has led, by most women's standards of the time, a pretty charmed life. A wealthy, beautiful aristocrat, a leading figure at the French court, not to mention one of Louis XIV's many mistresses, the Duchesse's life is steeped in glamour.
And yet, she's come to be deeply dissatisfied. There's something missing from her life, a sense of spiritual calm. The bright, bustling world of the French court is only glamorous in a superficial sense. Beneath the glittering exterior, there is nothing of enduring worth or value, certainly nothing that would satisfy a soul hungry for something deeper and more meaningful.
Once the object of desire and a woman full of desire herself, the Duchesse has turned her back on desire once and for all. She's not getting any younger, and her advancing years put into perspective her carefree, amorous youth:
I have desired, and I...
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have been desired;
But now the days are over of desire,
Now dust and dying embers mock my fire;
Where is the hire for which my life was hired?
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
In a remarkable act of sacrifice, the Duchesse has decided to reject the opulent world of the French court and retreat to the confines of a convent, where she will embark upon a life of quiet contemplation as Soeur Louise de la Misericorde.
Yet one gets the impression that Soeur Louise is far from happy at the decision that she's made. The sense of loss is palpable, as in the following lines:
Now from my heart, love’s deathbed, trickles, trickles,
Drop by drop slowly, drop by drop of fire,
The dross of life, of love, of spent desire;
Alas, my rose of life gone all to prickles,
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
But then, isn't the whole point of sacrifice that you give up something that brings or once brought you pleasure?
In turning her back on the world, it does seem that Soeur Louise is protesting just a little too much. And it also seems that she regrets the loss of those desires which she harbored with such passionate intensity in her younger days.
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