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" La jeunesse est le temps d'étudier la sagesse; la vieillesse est le temps de la pratiquer."
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jeudi 6 décembre 2018

Politique et Histoire dans Hernani


Politique et Histoire dans Hernani

Hugo : "Comme avenir on ne peut pas proposer le passé."
En quoi l’histoire et la politique marquent-elles l’oeuvre d’Hugo ?

I] Le contexte politico-historique, réel et dans Hernani


A) La réalité

Dans la réalité, la révolution laisse place à la première république mais Napoléon qui se proclame empereur en 1804
Hugo partagé par une mère monarchique et un père dévoué à l’empire.
Il montre son intérêt pour chateaubriand dès son plus jeune âge
1824 – 1830 : Charles X ‘le roi gros ‘
1815- 1830 : restaure la monarchie absolu sans prendre compte du libéralisme absolu Louis XVIII et Charles X, retour de la monarchie des bourbons, seules les plus riches pouvaient voté.
Juillet 1830 : 27,28,29 les 3 journées de la révolution = les 3 glorieuses, cette révolution n’a pas donné à une république comme le peuple l’attendait mais à une bourgeoisie moins riche → monarchie de juillet, une monarchie presque aussi fermée que la précédente, il faut payer un cens toujours mais 2 fois moins élevé.
Il faudra attendre 1848 pour une autre révolution.
1848-1850 : IIe république
10 mai 1949 : suffrage universelle masculin

Hernani s’inscrit dans le contexte du 15e en Espagne, en 1519 harles Quint devient roi des romains.
Met en scène, un seigneur, un roi et un bandit ↘ la noblesse lutte encore contre le roi, à demi féodalité

B) Fiction : un monde politiquement partagé entre deux pouvoirs

Marque l’éclatement de l’unité par « les 4 espagnes » de Don Carlos
Dimension impériale : nouveau pt de vue
Mémoire de faits glorieux : donne une dynamique à l’intrigue et nous fait nous questionner sur la féodalité

II] La féodalité

féodalité = le fait de se constituer en puissance autonome

A) Acte III : Une image mythique du passé espagnol

Hernani = un personnage ambigu par rapport à la féodalité et au pouvoir
Don Ruy Gomez= figure de la féodalité, il donne vie à un glorieux passé, le dernier représentant de l’époque féodal, néanmoins il devient inférieur et docile lorsque le roi se déclare. Son château, le lieu lui-même est un lieu féodal, la scène des portraits de l’acte III n’est pas un acte d’orgueil mais une leçon de l’histoire au Roi, comment sa famille en est arrivé là, il se base sur ce que ses ancêtres ont construit. Il héroïse le passé d’un pays dans son épopée familiale. Une grande nation repose sur son passé. Il préfère donner sa nièce que de trahir son hôte, dénoncer Hernani, ce qui ferait outrage à sa parole, parole de l’hospitalité. Ancien pouvoir contre le nouveau.
L’espace typiquement féodal est détruit par Don Carlos. Dona Sol rappelle ses ancêtres également lorsqu’elle est menacée par Don Carlos. Il a aussi hérité des valeurs Castillan.

B) Hernani et ses relations ambigus avec le pouvoir : témoin d’une féodalité mourante

Acte III et IV : conspiration contre le roi
Hernani s’est fait bandit pour s’opposer au Roi d’Espagne. Mais il n’est plus un simple homme, il n’est plus le représentant du peuple : c’est un noble, comme il se revendique à l’ACTE III. Il retrouve sa féodalité dans son lieu natal : son château, il est heureux de retrouver sa noblesse d’antan ‘Jean d’Aragon’.
Aragon peut épouser Silva, les deux grandes maisons féodales sont réunis par l’empereur = paradoxe. Gomez montre ainsi sa résistance contre le pouvoir de Charles Quint.

Dans l’ordre féodal Hernani enfreint un crime en se déguisant pour tromper DRG pour devenir son hôte. Mais toutes ses fautes sont expiés par sa mort à la fin de la pièce. Tout ses actes se justifient sur la mémoire de son père. DRG doit également mourir pour sauver son honneur et son nom, car il ne réclame pas la mort d’Hernani pour ses valeurs mais par jalousie.

Les 3 premiers actes = triviaux. Hernani est tiraillé par l’honneur de son père, rivalité entre Don Carlos et lui. Acte IV, Hernani pardonne et accepte le pardon du roi, il n’est pas stable, il est le représentant de différentes moeurs

Nouvelle politique, un temps nouveau, un temps moderne → ce n’est plus l’honneur qui prone dans la féodalité, c’est la clémence de l’empire. Hernani meurt pour un système qui n’existe plus.

III] L’acte IV : la grandeur de Charles Quint


A) Le passage d’un monde historique à un autre

Hernani doit disparaître pour laisser place au nouvel empereur. Le passé doit mourir pour laisser place au futur.
Don Carlos est un roi frivole au début mais c’est un personnage grotesque qui remet en cause sa légitimité. Hugo dénonce les profiteurs de la couronne : Don Ricardo. Celui-ci n’apparait que 3 fois, il saisit chaque occasions pour se faire valoir. Il devient comte par une belle phrase de séduction et non par mérite. → décrédibilisation des aristocrates.
Acte IV : Don Carlos change, il est devenu empereur, à la scène 1 il critique Don Ricardo.
→ Don Carlos symbolise la révolution intérieur que nécessite un grand empereur. Ainsi, il s’interroge sur l’avenir de son pays, une fois qu’il aura pardonné ses ennemis il sera un grand empereur, la royauté commence par la clémence. C’est par les actions qu’on devient grand.
Hernani ressent le changement qui est en train de s’opérer : Don Carlos lui rappelle Charlemagne.

B) Le place du peuple
Le peuple est capable de faire chanceler le pouvoir, il est incarné au début par Hernani qui l’abandonne en proclamant sa noblesse. Le peuple n’a donc aucune place dans Hernani, alors que le peuple fait et défait les rois et Hugo en fait d’ailleurs son public. Le peuple est donc là mais est surveillé. → pièce libéral ?
Bataille d’Hernani : confirme le libéralisme et son soutient pour le romantisme
Hernani = représentant du peuple en devenir

IV] Le dénouement d’Hugo : valeurs et conséquences

A) Acte V

La pièce finit par tranché mais elle entraîne un sentiment de compassion car elle incarne malgré tout de grandes valeurs morales.
La mort d’Hernani = triomphe du grotesque, il meurt alors que la féodalité a disparu

B) La Bataille d’Hernani

Hugo grandit sous l’influence napoléonienne mais participe à la restauration.
La pièce déchaîne les passions, les Classiques n’approuvent pas du tout (dans les annotations de la pièce)



Conclusion


Le spectateur est témoin du passage de l’ancien régime au nouveau, c’est une jeunesse qui incarne le renouveau.
Impasse politique dans lequel se trouve le pouvoir royale.
La politique dans Hernani se charge dans la figure du détenteur du pouvoir.

English - Pre-romanticism


PRE-ROMANTICISM


I] The heyday of classicism

A. from journalism to the novel

Novel is born from journalism
The Tatler, 3 issues a week, launched by Steele from 1709 to January 1711 ; March 1711 : Addison joined Steele to issue a daily, the Spectator.
The 18th century, more people could read so it was a period of Literacy, they practiced they become this paper, these papers start to print novels. → the beginning of the novel as a new genre, realist novel.
Beginning of the novel and realism: Novels of Incident → they try to imitate reality, they make believe that what is don’t is the truth.
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) Journal of the Plague Year 1722, Robinson Crusoe 1719 (based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, a travel writing) he was a journalist who became a spy for the king. A mysterious man, satiric, who decided to write texts to make believe what he wrote was true. He’s also one of the first who explore the relation ship between the empire and the new colonies with his character Vendredi.
Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) A Tale of the Tub 1704, A Modest Proposal 1729 Gulliver’s travels 1726, he uses imaginary, fantasy to denounce the aspect of England against Ireland. He fought for the independence of Ireland. He denounce the point of view of the politics with a dark humour (let’s feed the rich with the poor’s children if they are too many).

B. Alexander Poe (1688 – 1744)

His death mark the beginning of pre-romanticism
The first writer who lives by his text. The first writer who actually sells books enough to live with, the first professional writer. He spent his life to write. He was a catholic like Swift, and he could never be a public figure, he cannot go to the university. He was sick, a degenerative desise and he has to stay in bed his whole life.
Essay on Man, 1734 = like Montaigne, series of reflections, between literature and philosophy, series of advice to better themselves. A period of celebrated the Reason. Pope became the embodiment, he tried to convince man that Reason was a typical human quality who has to be cultivated.
Between 1715 ans 1726, he translated all Homer, first the Iliad and then, the Odyssey, he gave access to greak and latin culture to people. He returned to the ancient to go back to the structure of latin and greac, the classical culture.
Essay on Criticism, directly inspired from and updating Horace’s Ars Poetica, same founding role in English classicism as Boileau’s L’art poétique in France.
Another aspect of Pope’s work : he was very respected but unlike, he thought the literature was too trivial.
The Dunciad (1728-1743) ; The Rape of the Lock 1714 : both text are a critic to denounce the poorness of literature

II] From Neo-classicism to pre-romanticism (1744-1798)

Literature was not to be dominated by reason, but has to be guided by imagination → big difference.

A. Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784)

He went to Oxford, and he created the first literary club, The Club in 1764. And then he was joined by Goldsmith, Reynolds, Burke. He was a figure of the intellectual life in England.
The first biography in Englis was written by his best friend, Boswell, in 1791.He was the subject The Life of Johnson
He also wrote the first Dictionary of the English Language it was very important. In 18th as in France the language was not very stabilize because of the invasion and so he establish an official statement. It became a reference because he organized a lot of definition of words with stories who develops the idea.

B. The development of the novel

  • Samuel Richardson (1689 – 1761) Pamela or Virtue Rewarded 1740 = first “novel of character”, an epistolary novel where he will describes the psychology of the character, a female character, about a women for women, he explores the psychology of his character, it’s huge book, he discovered that it was good to write for women → the story is about how men force their servants to have sex with them. Clarissa 1747 is a story with several points of view, it’s important in the story of literature, with several points of view the readers have to decide which one choose.
2 big books who change the type of the novel. He is the first man in Britain to come up with the idea of a story novel, and wants to write for women. He was very successful, but he also provoque a lot of complain because many intellectuals
  • Henry Fielding (1707 – 1754) Shamela 1741 (sham* = fake), under the name of Conny Keyber, a parodise of Pamela, story about a calculated woman. Joseph Andrews 1742, a masterpiece, a “comic epic in prose” → The preface where he fights for his point of view about the literature. He is the first author who writes with the third person and so the question of the narrator: objective, omniscient. It makes all the difference, cause it creates a narrator which you have to trust. He’s creating comedy, he wanted a novel that he called it an epic. The novel is like a picture, a presentation. He insisted, the novel is not about a psychology but about telling a story, inventing a fiction. Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), his second best novel, about a orphelin, a wide novel.
  • Tobias Smollet (1721-1771) Sir Lancelot Greaves (1762), The Expedition of Hunphry Clinker (1771) follow Fielding tradition, his caracter, like Andros or Tom Jones, but as a picaresque novel.
  • Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) a difficult novel The Life and Opinions of Tritram Shandy (1660-1767) a “work in progress”, with multiple versions. A book constantly in the making, in progress. He decided to write the book through his life, constantly re-published. It was new who had no story, there is no beginning and no end, no temporal line, no chronology. A book with many dimensions, with bizarre elements. When he finished a sentence he started again with another idea. It was a complete failure but nowadays we celebrate it as an ancestor, because he establish the fact that literature is not a copy of life, it can’t, but about practicing. Language becomes the center, language is unable to produce life, something apart. He tells event from different view points and so he introduces the idea that people have different views.


IV] Pre-romanticism and the rehabilitation of imagination



A) The pre-romanticism poets

  • Robert Burns (1759-1796), the “ploughman poet”, a Scottish. His poetry is a celebration of Scotland, of the nature of Scotland and of the regular life on Scotland. “To a Haggis”; “To a Louse”, “To a Mouse”. He is the first problematic poet, a rupture with the classicism, the poetry has to celebrate the small things, the simple things. A way to resist from the English colonization, a celebration of the original identity.
  • William Blake (1757-1827) criticized the revolution in his poems. Song of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794): “London”, the most famous about a draw back; “The Chimney Sweeper”, a tragic poem [Ref Le petit rameneur de Brecht] man is a slave by the new society. ; “The Tygerman has to rebel, he totally reinvented the live, the rules of poetry.
    *Pentamètre iambique = le vers canonique de la poésie anglaise ( comme l’alexandrin pour la poésie française). 5 accentuations, accentuation forte en anglais. Le contraire = le Trochet


B) The birth of the Gothic novel

To produce terror, and the celebration of imagination and suspense. Defeat Reason.
2 principal creators:
- Horace Walpole (1717-1797), The Castle of Otranto (1764),
- Ann Radcliffe The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)
In the Gothic literature, the story of a young English girl, blond, innocent. Often the same. In a Gothic medieval castle with a cimetary.
Beckford Vathek (1786) interesting variation, in a exotic country, he mixes the Gothic and a taste for exoticism. He coupled the fear of the Gothic with exoticism of a fairytale.
Matthew Lewis The Monk (1796) very subversive, the vilain is a woman, the monk is a nice man But he falls in love a evil woman, Matilda, she forces him to murder and make crimes. Gender reversal where the woman is dangerous. It’s going to establish a new stereotype of a dangerous woman.
In th 19th century, there was a revival in the Gothic: Jane Austen, she wrote a parody of gothic’s novel No thinger abbey, story of a young girl who read to many novels, she sees too many strange things. She lives in a fiction, she tells a story of mystery and a sort a questions of genre.

English - Flight, Doris Lessing

TEXT ANALYSIS

Flight, Doris Lessing


Did You know ? It’s in 1769 that the colonies adopt the english system decreing women cannot have their own property in their own name. In 1920, the nineteenth amendment to the constitution is ratified, ensuring the right of women to vote. In 1923 there will be the introduction of the first version of an Equal Rights Amendment but it will be only in 1963 and 1964, the Equal Pay Act passed by Congress, promising equitable wages for the same works, reagrdless of the race, color, religion, national origin and an Act passed, prohibiting sex discrimination in employment.

And so, until then (in theory) Men had power over women, in this way, society was the entirety of relations of a community, that’s the definition of the patriarchal structure. Patriarchy literally means « the rule of the father » and so refer to autocratic rule by the male head of a family.

In 1919 was born Doris May Tayler, who became Doris Lessing after her second divorce wich she had a son. Flight = one of her short stories from Habit of Loving, a collection first published in 1957 who comile lighter sketches and soberer commentaries on broken lives from England to Africa.Wherein patriarchal social system can be defined as a system where men are in authority over women in all aspects of society.


How does this text reflect a progressive failure of the patriarchal structure ?


I] The Grandfather discredits the patriarchal figure

The first characteristic of the patriarcal system is the Male Identification, the figure of authority in the family, the Male Identification based on a man’s figure that includes qualities of control, strength, forcefulness, rationality, strong work ethic, and competitiveness. Each of these qualities contribute to male identification in a patriarchal system.
In this way, the grand-father has to be this figure but…


1) Questioned with the way he talks and act
In traditional patriarchy, the elder men had power over the younger generations, in modern patriarchy (20th century) some men hold more power by virtue of the position of authority… BUT it questioned with the way he talks and act

- Repetition of « hey » l.26, 29, 33, 36 → is he stammer ? He seems uncertain
- « I’ll tell your mother » l.41 « Rubbish, Rubbish.Impudent little bit of rubbish ! » l.46 « I see you ! » l.64 These are Childishness1
like when « he stumped his feet alternatively, thump, thump » l.85
he deosn’t talk he shouted l.26, 46, 64, 86 → no self control ; he shouted angrily l. 41 he mourned l.96 he mutered l.58 he muttered miserably l.72

- Role Reversal, the grand-daughter seems more mature « their grown-up seriouness shut him out, making him alone » l.130 and with Lucy, his daughter, he act like a child who’s calling his mother, not a old man who’s calling his daughter: « Lucy » he said urgently « Lucy... » l.81
- Repetition of « Can’t you see ? » l.73 & 77 = pathetic fallacy2

How people see him
Not as a male head figure but as a pathetic old man « his daughter looked at him and her eyebrows went up in tired forbearance » l.79 ; Alice and Steven are « trying to charm away his wet eyes and his misery » l.117 who needs to be rassure « saying wordlessly that nothing would be changed, nothing could changed » l.119

2) the Narrator express the characters’s feeling
The narrator’s omniscience increase the pathos, the pathetic nature of the grand father
with the presence of the Pathetical lexical : « he would be left, uncherished and alone » l.50
« with quick, pathetic persistent glances of appeal back at her » l.55
« creak angrily under his feet » l.65
« he stopped again, looking back into the garden » l.68 → theatral scene
« he muttered miserably » l.72
(No judgement but we really have the picture of the old man mumbling with sardonic hatred l.75)
« hating himself. » l.75
« making him alone » l.131

- After Alice, the grand daughter joined Steven he felt abandonned like a child « she did not turn. She had forgotten him. » l.59, « they had forgotten him again » l.132
The narrator accentuated this figure of the old man who is going mad because he doesn’t control anything, he endure the situation « the old man stiffened » l.60
- Narrator’s voice = indirectly the description of the old man’s feelings
→ We know the Grand-daughter’s lover is Steven l.29 but even the narrator name him as the « posmaster’s son » l.63, 78, 112, or « son of the postmaster » l.40
This permits to see the evolution of the grand father’s feelings about him, how he accepts to do not controll « Alice and Steven » l.140
l.109 «he took out a handerchief and mopped his whole face. The garden was empty » = parallel act/feeling → traduce the sadness of the old man, feeling empty



For this first part we can say => Above the need for a male identification in the family in the Patriarchal structure, the narrathor highlights the family link, how the love make the difference, The grand father who loves so much his grand-daughter, it’s no longer the importance of the Patriarchal society but the desire to keep « his darling » as he says l.62 next to him. But at the end of the text, in the calm, in the silence, pigeons and daughter turn back.

To conclude he shows the limits in the patriarchal structure with the way he acts, the legitamacy of the mother’s authority, but at the same time the need for balance.

II] Role reversal with Lucy: a Daughter, a Mother, a modern Woman

Lucy is the symbol of the modern woman, she represents the fragility of the patriarchal structure, the place of the mother, the importance of the daughter’s point of view in the family for the grandchildren. She introduces the question about the male head of the family, the introdcution of the female head of the family → i’m talking about soft matriarchal structure


  • Sarcastic reflexions
- The First look we have on her is when “she’s sewing in the front room” l.66 the picture of a calm woman
And just after, the way she looks at her father : « her eyebrows in tired forbearance » l.79 It’s not disrespect, he simply lost his credibility and so Lucy allows herself to making fun of him, humouring him in asking« Put your birds to bed ? » l.80
- She’s his daughter but she act like her mother with the adverb NOW « What is it now ? » l.82 she’s not taking him seriously, she will repeat « now, now » l.89 → as she’s saying Oh god again ? What do you want now ? « come, now, dad » l.98 with the NOW she has that domineering tone,
She doesn’t stay impassive on her decision but she stays calm, she has the control on her daughter

- It’s kind of a Role reversal based on the patriarchal system
in the patriarcal marriage, it’s not the mother who « gives » her daughter, normaly she has no voice, no choice of her own, she has to abdicated her will and autonomy to her husband, it’s a cycle, her daughter is destined to replicate one day with her daughter so we can ask : Where is Alice’s father ? Maybe Lucy represents the father’s decision in the end… it explains why she asserts « She’ll marry next month. There’s no reason to wait » l.106 why she talk to her father coldly l.108
emphasizes the fact that the grand-father is no longer considered as a superior, the Male Dominance (In a patriarchal system, men make all decisions in both : society and in their family unit, hold all positions of power and authority) but the fantomatic figure of another man, another male

To some extent, maybe it’s exagerate but, the dialogue between Lucy and the Old man represents how the patriarchal structure is fading away with the modern generations. It’s like the social system shows the patriarcal system is in theory the power of the man but everybody know Moms got it because Lucy clearly has the moral authority on the weading decision of her daughter, she doesn’t care about her father’s point of view.

- Perfect Housewife
So She represents the beginning of a strong woman who stand up to her father’s « authority », but she also represents the perfect housewife she « brought him a cup, set him a plate » l.87 and at the end of the discussion she « took up her sewing » l.108 as she did at the first time we “saw” her on the text and later she continues “that woman, his daughter, stood gazing, her eyes shaded with a hand that still held her sewing” l.141,142


=> Lucy is the perfect paradoxe of the modern woman, she is a daughter but also a mother, she is a wife but she takes decisions, she has control on the situation with the moral authority and yet, at the end she cries, because the father was right, she lied about she was married at seventeen and she never regretted it l.91 She took the place of the male head to be the Matriarch. (matriark) but on second thoughts, does she really?

Alice is an extension of Lucy. She has this desire to be always right about everything, and especially with her grand father she doesn’t listen. The parallel between the homing pigeon and she point out the evolution, we can see it as a symbol of the changement.

III] The Circle of the Pigeons


In the patriarchal structure, women also have a role but only in a sense that is submissive and subservient to men. However, as I said, in extension of Lucy, our young Alice takes her natural rights, she acts freely, does what she wants. Moreover, the parralele between her and the dovecote enables us to highligh the gradual evolution of the patriarchal system.

Decription of Alice
At first we can think the way she acts is like a symbol of a wayward youth/rebellious
« Tell away ! » laughing, l.42 she’s making fun of her old grandfather, she doesn’t care about what he wanna do,
She is a young, smart girl She’s singing « I’ve got you under my skin » by Frank Sinatra
What is more, her physical description put forward the intergenerational conflict in questionning the patriarchal system. “her defiant but anxious young body” l.57 It marks the opposition Old man in crisis who is losing control of everything even his own daughter against a Young girl who clearly knows what she wants and who is determined to look forward.
But Her quest for liberty is a vicious circle:
I come back on what I said earlier, “the daughter is destined to replicate one day with her own daughter”… She is a young free girl who wants to be married, that’s the normal way at this time: freedom thanks to the mariage BUT she becomes under control of her husband if we can figure out the rest.
Futhermore, that’s why I’m talking about a gradual departure and not a clear break. In some way, even in a system as the patriarcal structure, it’s still hard to stop acting completely different
in some way Alice shows that some things cannot really change, she is not independent she is a couple at the end, “young couple” l.111 “they moved off, now serious and full of purpose” l.129 (it’s not a freedom, it’s another way to submit)

Parallele bird/Alice by the old man
The dovecote illustrate this vicious cycle
At first we can say it’s a metaphore, a metaphore of the men’s control on Women, but, otherwise, it’s the family’s miror
One of the charasteristics of a Patriarchal system is the Obsession with Control: Men living in a patriarchal system or society must be in control at all times. They have a desire to control all social and family situations and must make all decisions regarding finances and education.

So the text open on the grand father who is calling his homing pigeons in the dovecote “Pretty, pretty, pretty” l.6
- The old man’s « mood shifted » l.18 just after he saw his grand daughter→ « he .. held out his wrist for the bird to take flight, and caught it again at the moment it spread its wings » as he wants to do with his own grand-daughter « Now you stay here » he muttered l.21
? DOUBLE ENUNCIATION ?

« he saw the girl escape from the youth » l.69, 70 → like a bird escape from his cage

It follows the idea of the first group who tallked about how Pigeons are the representation of the control and the symbol of the old man’s desire to control

So at the beginning, the grand father wants to control but his grand daughter is escaping.
And there is a beautiful Ironie: when he gives the freedom, the pigeons come back.
[he] took out his favorite “Now you can go,” he said aloud” l.135, 136 we have this DOUBLE ENUNCIATION, he indirectly talk to his invisible grand-daughter.
At the end he doesn’t talk like a child anymore, he has “dry-eyed and calm” l.145, (it’s like a soft wind after a storm)
The way the pigeons act refers to this cycle aspect I talked about, “they weeled in a wide circle” maybe it’s an image from the author how events go this way. With have a repetition of one after another l. 151 ans 152, talking about pigeons as we can talk about the other grand daughters
And a retrun on this adjective ‘empty’
l. 109/110 the garden was empty and at the end “the garden was all a fluster and a flurry of returning birds. Then silence, the sky was empty” l.154,155

=> Double idea:
about the patriarchal structure – it’s not only a question of male domination, sometimes children has to listen their parents for their own good. Respect the older for his experience not because of the system.
about love of family - He has to give a bit of liberty to make them come back OR the best way to keep their love is to let them go


The link is not only between Alice and the Pigeons but also with all the family, the desire of control is not unique to the patriarchal system, it’s also a mark of affection.
The cyclic aspect of the text give us a way to interpret the mental aspect. Cut off with the predjuges of the time and just see the feeling between characters in a family.

To conclude so
The progressive failure of the patriarchal structure is based on the limits in the internal structure of the family: the place of the woman who is also a wife, a mother and a daughter and the conflict between generations. But the desire to broke up with traditions is not the easiest way, even if women in our text doesn’t listen to the older, they disown the dominance of the male head, the main point of the patriarcal system, it doesn’t significate they will be happy ever after. Sometimes it’s just an advice, it’s just love.

It’s no longer a question of male dominance but the importance of family link. The omniscience of the narrathor presents the different characteristics of the characters and raises the question of relationship into family.

After Habit of Loving, Few years later, Doris Lessing says in The Golden Notebook, 1962
"I've got the feeling that the sex war is not the most important war going on, nor is it the most vital problem in our lives."





Oral presentation