Rosanette of Flaubert's "A Sentimental Education": The Childish Lorette
In A Sentimental Education, Rosanette, a lorette, becomes the lover of the main character Frédéric, which illuminates her childishness and subhuman status. Contrary to Scenes of a Bohemian Life, here we see a full-blooded lorette, who receives a much more negative portrayal than Musette.
During Frédéric's visits to Rosanette’s apartment, one of which is depicted in the first image, she “furnished him with amusement...He would take a cup of tea, or play a game of lotto. On Sundays they played charades; Rosanette, more noisy than the rest, made herself conspicuous by funny tricks, such as running on all fours or muffling her head in a cotton cap” [1]. Her activities – like running on all fours – are reminiscent of something that children would do for fun. It's also animalistic and bestial, giving her a subhuman quality [2]. She is characterized as a woman without substance who lives a lifestyle dedicated to leisure. Her childlike nature is further detailed when Frédéric notices that, "After periods of gaiety came childish outburts of rage, or sometimes she sat on the ground dreaming before the fire with her head bent and her hands clasping her knees, more inert than a torpid adder" [3]. Her mood swings and lack of attention span come across as immature, like the actions of a young girl.
In addition, she was materialistic. She was, "Incapable of resisting a desire, she became infatuated about some trinket which she happened to see, and could not sleep till she had bought it, then bartered it for another, sold costly dresses for little or nothing, lost her jewellery, wasted money, and would have sold her chemise for a stagebox at the theatre" [4]. Later writers have characterized Rosanette as someone who has a "childish force" and who has the "capacity for animality." [5] She is impulsive, whimiscal, childish, and unrestricted by society's traditions. She is, in a sense, free from the strict class rules that governed all behavior. This was threatening to the dominant social order; a woman who acted however she wanted wasn't palatable to the upper class. To reassert their authority, the men who desired her would also demean her, like Frédéric. Her inferiority is epitomed in his ultimate goals for his relationship with her. He says, "there was about her entire person, even to the very arrangement of her chignon over her head, an inexpressible something, which seemed like a challenge; and he desired her for the satisfaction, above all, of conquering her and being her master" [6]. Already this sets up the complicated feelings men have for lorettes - as much as they wanted her, they were also threatened by her and wanted to dominate her and conquer her, which is language used more for slaves or battle rather than a lover. This points to a Freudian fear of the loss of masculinity, since Rosanette’s animalistic qualities inspire both desire and dread because of men’s fear of castration [7]. A woman with sexual agency encroaches on their fragile masculinity.
Not only is a lorette threatening to men, but she is also threatening to their wives, or "honest women" concerned with protecting their family’s wealth. After Madame Arnoux, the wife of one of Rosanette’s lovers, discovers the receipt for a cashmere scarf that her husband bought for Rosanette in Madame Arnoux’s name, her husband lies to her, proclaiming that it wasn’t meant for Rosanette at all [7]. After her husband leaves, Madame Arnoux tells Frédéric, “I leave him perfectly free! There was no necessity for lying!” [8] Frédéric says that her husband is a good man because he loves their children; she responds, “Ay, and he does all he can to ruin them.” [9] As seen in Accessories to Modernity, cashmere is a status symbol in Parisian society. Therefore it’s not her husband’s fidelity Madame Arnoux is worried about - after all, she says that she lets him be “free” - but her family’s financial future. Her children, who will carry on the family name, risk being ruined by their father’s spending and, indirectly, by Rosanette herself. There’s a hint, too, of jealousy here, on Madame Arnoux’s part. The cashmere scarf, meant for a lorette, was bought in her name, which means that she’s being replaced by a frivolous, childish lorette. The lie is an insult to her prestigious name.
[1] Flaubert, Gustave. 1922. A Sentimental Education. New York NY/United States: Brextano’s. Retrieved April 22, 2017. (https://archive.org/stream/sentimentaleduca00flauiala/sentimentaleduca00flauiala_djvu.txt). p. 182.
[2] Gomot, Guillaume. 2010. “Est-elle bête!... Rosanette: une figure animale de L’Éducation sentimentale.” Trans. Liam Oznowich. Revue Flaubert: Animal et animalité chez Flaubert 10:4. Retrieved April 6, 2017 (http://flaubert.univ-rouen.fr/revue/article.php?id=60)
[3] Flaubert. 182.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Gomot. 6.
[6] Flaubert. 189.
[7] Gomot. 8.
[8] Flaubert. 214.
[9] Ibid. 215.