Mat English Essay on George Sand

Words: 949
Pages: 4

Mathew Carfi
English 2030 – W2
Dr. Jill Franks
October 5, 2013
Sand’s Marianne: The Development of Characters and the Inevitable Outcome
In George Sand’s Marianne, Sand uses her development of the three primary characters to bring together two unlikely soul mates, and at the same time separate the two most likely paired of the three figures. Her primary characters, Marianne, Pierre, and Philippe, and their make-up play an intricate role in the story. More than just playing a key role though, their make-up leads the story in a direction that is propelled by the unique personalities each hold. The drive that each strong personality contributes to Sand’s Marianne, and their unique temperaments, brings the reader into a different sort of
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Marianne and Pierre at first glance are not what the reader sees as being right. There is the age difference, and the way that Marianne seems so independent and successful, and Pierre seems so doubtful of the two’s pairing, and defeated in his own personal quest of life’s success. Pierre never is able throughout the story to just rise to the occasion and tell Marianne what he truly is feeling, and even though she knows what he feels, she is needing him to overcome that obstacle and be that man for her. Her character uses the character of Philippe to bring Pierre’s character to the place where he is not only ready, but bursting to finally share what his true feelings for her are. She does this from a position where it seems all along she knows how this will play out, and at the same time you don’t get the feeling that she is completely assured of how it will transpire in the end.

Sand tries to make her three characters represent varying degrees of consciousness and to pair them according to their similarities along this spectrum. Philippe represents brain consciousness (“You see too much!” is Marianne’s accusation of him). Pierre represents strong sensation and feeling, combined with the scientific habits of botany. Marianne represents the desire to live in the senses, tempered by an ambition