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Sociopolitical Issues In Stendhal's Le Rouge Et Noir

701 Words3 Pages

Society has an established status quo that has a historical context behind its structure. The sociopolitical scene is united with the insistence on a hierarchy of social groups based on unfounded principles. This paper intends to deconstruct accepted false ideas of society through the analysis and historical correlation of sociopolitical issues derived from Stendhal 's novel, Le Rouge et Noir, a pioneering work in realism that chronicles the 1830 Bourbon Restoration. The myopia of the Bourbon Restoration society in exerting its status quo is analyzed based on political inclusivity, interpersonal relations, organizational social responsibility and national identity. These issues were found to mirror numerous sociopolitical aspects of modern …show more content…

Such hypocrisy was rampant within the clergy in the historical context of Le Rouge et Noir. The post-Napoleonic era described in the book approximated the period of overwhelming power of the Catholic Church in most aspects of society. Stendhal 's realism in writing exposed the clergy for its hypocrisy despite his audience being conformist to the status quo of romanticized ideals of the church at the time. Julien, the protagonist of Le Rouge et Noir, manifested the hypocrisy that the cassock allowed him to perpetrate in his lustful and adulterous exploits to climb the social ladder. Both Madame de Rênal and Mathilde de la Mole fell for Julien 's sexual escapades that they deemed to be love. According to him, he betrayed the trust by society as a member of the church in doing so. The book 's anticlerical notions resided in the unfettered exploitation of power by the clergy in the name of being agents of a higher being. Their attempts at aiding the disadvantaged in society were underwhelming. Instead, peasants in the autocratic society used the church in their quest for material wealth and bourgeoisie lifestyle. Therefore, their goals of self-enrichment and materialism cloud the needs of the entire society due to their position of advantage. This materialism has extended to Congress as with financially

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