27 pages • 54 minutes read
Claire de DurasOurika
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1823A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Blackness
Ourika’s dark skin is the most prominent symbol of her alienation. Slavery in the colonies was still alive, and most black people in 19th-century France were relegated to positions of labor and servitude. Well-educated and raised among the aristocracy, Ourika has a complicated relationship with her skin color.
Early on, Ourika is raised as if racial difference does not exist. She tells the doctor, “I didn’t regret being black. I was told I was an angel. There was nothing to warn me that the color of my skin might be a disadvantage” (9). Because she is raised in a “color blind” environment, Ourika is at first shielded from the realities of racism and slavery. The marquise then takes off the blinders, contending that Ourika has “flouted her natural destiny. She has entered society without its permission. It will have its revenge” (14).
Blackness is not acceptable in 19th-century, French high society, so Ourika’s presence in Mme de B.’s salon requires constant justification, which pains Ourika. Ourika internalizes racist concepts about black people: Her “black hands seemed like monkey’s paws” and her skin color appeared “like the brand of shame” (15-16)—an “irremediable stain”(27), as if it were something impure. Raised with white, aristocratic sensibilities, Ourika is exiled her from society, other black people, and herself.
The Reign of Terror
The French Revolution arises against the decadence of the royalty and the country’s aristocracy, advocating for the rights of the common man. The Revolution, partly inspired by the ideals of the American Revolution, quickly spirals out of control. In September of 1793, the Revolution’s Committee of Public Safety initiates a wave of executions that last for almost a year, later known as the Reign of Terror. Led by Maximillian Robespierre, the Committee targets nobles, aristocrats, priests, and the wealthy.
Ironically, the Reign of Terror represents a refuge from loneliness for Ourika as she unites with Mme de B. and Charles under common fear. When Mme de B. and Charles are in danger and put under house arrest, Ourika moves beyond her own grief. She is greatly comforted by Charles’ presence and tells the doctor that “I should have been ashamed to feel a victim among so many greater tragedies. In any case all the world was miserable, and I no longer felt alone” (22-23).Though the Terror was a disastrous and bloody time, it provides Ourika a brief respite from her sadness. Grief and fear can be a unifying force; for a time, Ourika does not have to suffer alone.
Motherhood
The recurring motherhood motif underscores Ourika’s alienation. To Ourika, Mme de B. is both a substitute mother and a figure of worship. Ourika’s very existence depends on the benevolence of Mme de B. Yet motherhood is also a source of grief in Ourika’s life: Because of her social position, she will never be a mother. Ourika suffers when Charles and Anaïs have a child. She tells the doctor, “I alone was obliged, by a perverse fate, to view them sourly. I glutted myself emotionally on this vision of a happiness I could never know” (39). When Ourika joins the convent, she reconciles her life’s maternal disappointments as she figuratively becomes a mother to the orphans she anticipates helping.
