The Immoralist

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1902

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 2

Part 1, Chapters 3-5

Part 1, Chapters 6-9

Part 2, Chapters 1-2

Part 2, Chapter 3-Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Character Analysis

Michel

Michel is the protagonist and the narrator of the novel’s main narrative. He grows up in a middle-class Protestant family in France and at first has a sheltered experience of the world, devoting himself to the study of classics, Greek and Roman civilization. His personality and his perspective on life change dramatically after he marries Marceline, journeys with her to North Africa, and contracts tuberculosis. While recovering from his illness, Michel develops a philosophy that he must live in the present moment and pursue sensual pleasure, whether through pleasurable scenes in nature or sexual pleasure. He rejects the constraints that society places on him, losing interest in his career and socializing with his peers in favor of pursuing hedonistic pursuits with working-class men. He also undergoes a physical transformation that mirrors his philosophical one, becoming strong and fit in his pursuit of health and a connection with nature.

Throughout the book, Michel feels conflicted about neglecting his wife so that he can live a more authentic life. Gide implies throughout the narrative that Michel is gay and is interested in boys. For most of the narrative, Michel represses his sexual interest in boys, but he admits this attraction to his friends at the end of his narrative.

In some ways, Michel is a tragic hero. He realizes he wants to liberate himself from the material and moral constraints of French society, and he wants to give up his material possessions. However, he is also the “immoralist” the novel’s title refers to, committed to pursuing pleasure even if that pleasure is immoral. Thus, Without excusing Michel’s actions, Gide depicts Michel’s desire to break free from society’s expectations as noble. By showing that Michel is trying to live by his principles to seek a more authentic life, Gide reveals that while Michel’s actions may be immoral, he does what he does because he desires to be happy. He cannot find happiness through conventional means—marriage, material possessions, or academic accolades—so he seeks it in other ways. Although Michel tries to balance his desire for uninhibited pleasure with his responsibilities as a husband, he ultimately fails to retain that balance. The death of his wife forces him to confront his actions, making him realize that even if he can follow his hedonistic urges, they do not fulfill him as he wished they would, because he is ashamed of his actions.

Marceline

Marceline is a mostly flat character who fulfills the female stereotype of a devoted wife. She is Catholic and from a poorer background than Michel. She is beautiful, intelligent, religious, and extremely tolerant of her husband’s vices. She is reserved, often not stating outright how she truly feels. She acts as a foil to Michel because by the end of the novel, she represents everything that Michel seeks to avoid: she is a conventional socialite, and, once she becomes chronically ill, she is weak and immobile. While Michel claims to recognize Marceline’s feelings and agency, he mostly views her as an object onto which he can project his feelings of love, frustration, or guilt.

In the early chapters, Marceline drives the plot. When Michel is ill, she wields power over their relationship. She arranges for them to continue traveling until they reach a place where he can recover, and she acts as his caregiver. She also introduces Michel to Bachir, igniting his fascination with young boys. Her interest in the children who visit their hotel is maternal: she dotes on them, preferring the better-behaved children, in contrast with Michel, who prefers the children who are more transgressive. By the end of the novel, her role and Michel’s role reverse: she becomes sickly, requiring him to take care of her.

Marceline is perceptive, understanding Michel’s change in personality and new philosophy without him explaining it to her. In fact, he actively attempts to deceive her, but she sees through his deceptions. Despite Michel acting very differently than the man she believes she married, she accepts him and his behavior and does not complain when he neglects her, though she does point out the flaws in his philosophy of hedonism.

Charles

Charles is the son of Michel’s property manager, Bocage. Charles is 17 when Michel first meets him and is training to become a farm manager at a nearby model farm. Charles is good-looking and, when Michel first meets him, shy. He is knowledgeable and pragmatic, and understands how to manage the affairs of the farm better than Michel or his father. Charles believes in reforming the farm to make it more efficient. He is optimistic and forward-looking, but he also embraces the hard labor of the farm, eagerly setting traps for eels in the lake and taming a horse that no one else can tame. Charles is the embodiment of the balance between nature and society that Michel finds at the farm: he uses reason and logic to guide his decisions, but also finds joy in the natural environment through horseback riding and picking fruit.

When Michel encounters Charles again a year after they first meet, Charles has matured from a youthful, playful boy into a more serious man, confident in his ability to manage the farm. To Michel, Charles now seems pretentious. However, this belief reflects Michel’s changed perspective of Charles more than a real difference in Charles’ personality. Michel finds youth and delinquency attractive, and since Charles is no longer youthful and now takes his responsibilities seriously, Michel is no longer interested in him.

Ménalque

Ménalque is an acquaintance of Michel’s from Paris. He is known for his involvement in a scandal that was publicized in the newspaper. He is an avowed hedonist who does not care about his reputation. Ménalque often travels abroad since he works for the Ministry of the Colonies, which leads him to hear about Michel’s journey to North Africa. While Ménalque claims to not care about material possessions, he embraces luxuries. He prides himself on being unmarried and unattached since it allows him to live purely in pursuit of pleasure.

Ménalque serves as a devil figure in the novel, tempting Michel to go further down the path of hedonism. Until meeting Ménalque, the worst that Michel has done is socialize with boys and enjoy the sensual experiences of nature. Ménalque prompts Michel to consider pursuing his sexual desires. He also encourages Michel to abandon his wife and unborn child, claiming that they are holding him back from living a more authentic life in the pursuit of pleasure. Ménalque is handsome but also has a sinister appearance; his face is “like a pirate, divided into two by an enormous tumbling moustache, greying at the edges” (81). His piratical look suggests that he is duplicitous, seeking to trick Michel.

While Ménalque’s conversations with Michel mark a turning point in the novel, leading him to give up his estate and unabashedly pursue pleasure, Gide does not condemn Ménalque as evil. He portrays him as simply following a different set of moral guidelines than those of conventional morality, suggesting that Ménalque’s philosophy of trying to find joy in the present moment has its own merits, even if it means sacrificing goals like marriage, children, and property.