Parallel Lines
Parallel lines appear throughout Sentimental Education and
represent the unrequited love Frédéric holds for Madame Arnoux.
Parallel lines appear in many different contexts, but they generally
mark moments when Frédéric has seen or is thinking about Madame Arnoux.
On the boat, when Frédéric first spots Madame Arnoux, he notices
that the riverbanks looked like two ribbons. After he first has
dinner at the Arnouxes’ home, the lamps on the street are described
as shining in two straight lines. On the day he is supposed to meet
Madame Arnoux at an apartment he has rented out, he sees student
demonstrators marching in two lines. Significantly, parallel lines
appear in the climactic scene when Madame Arnoux offers herself
to Frédéric: she describes her new home to him, including the “double
avenue of chestnuts.” In these moments, Frédéric may have spoken
to or come close to connecting physically with Madame Arnoux, but,
like parallel lines, their lives never succeed in intersecting.
Parallel lines appear during Frédéric’s interactions with
other women as well. At Madame Dambreuse’s home, guests sit on chairs positioned
in two straight lines. When Frédéric takes Rosanette to the races,
two lines of posts delineate the course. When he prepares to go
out with Rosanette on another occasion, he notices that the street
lamps were like a double string of pearls. Whether the parallel lines
appear when Frédéric is with Madame Arnoux or with other women,
the meaning of the image is clear: just as parallel lines can never
meet and cross, Frédéric and Madame Arnoux are doomed to remain
apart throughout their lives.
Roses
Roses appear at two significant points of the novel and
in both cases represent the impossibility of love. First, roses
play a role in granting Frédéric and Madame Arnoux their first real
intimacy. When Frédéric visits the Arnouxes outside of Paris, Monsieur
Arnoux leaves Madame Arnoux to go boating with other guests and
then gives her a bouquet of roses, which she does not want. Later,
sitting with Frédéric in a carriage, Madame Arnoux tosses the roses
out the door, an act that only Frédéric witnesses. This is the first
secret they share, but the rose incident ultimately leads nowhere—their
love is and always will be impossible. Roses appear again in the
form of the name of Frédéric’s lover, Rosanette. Although Rosanette
is a serious partner for Frédéric, someone who wishes to build a
life with him, he maintains his love for Madame Arnoux throughout
this affair, which ultimately dooms it. The true love Frédéric might
have felt for the son he has with Rosanette is also doomed, since
the child dies in infancy. Roses, traditionally symbols of love,
instead suggest heartbreak in Sentimental Education.
Madame Arnoux’s White Hair
Madame Arnoux’s white hair, which she exposes when she
comes to offer herself to Frédéric, fully reveals to Frédéric the
passage of time and represents the true end of a love affair that
never really began. Madame Arnoux has been part of Frédéric’s life
since he was eighteen years old, remaining the one constant element
in a life filled with political unrest, other lovers, social conquests,
career pursuits, and travels. Twenty years after he first sees her,
his love for her still exists, although at this point it has taken
on a life of its own. Madame Arnoux, whom he hasn’t seen in years,
is in many ways no longer a woman but a fantasy; he barely knew
her when she was physically present, so his love is rooted in his
idealized image of her rather than fact. When Madame Arnoux reappears
and reveals her white hair, she becomes, suddenly, human.
Fully present and willing to actually consummate Frédéric’s
love, the very human Madame Arnoux loses her appeal. Just like that, Frédéric’s
feelings for her are reversed, and he waits impatiently for her
to leave. Madame Arnoux has committed the ultimate transgression—she
has aged, thus changing utterly from the image Frédéric has held
in his imagination all these years. The woman he had held as an
ideal specimen of femininity has fallen from grace. Far from being
the one true object of Frédéric’s eternal desire, Madame Arnoux
is now so devoid of sexuality that she kisses him as a mother would.
The white hair signifies and reveals Madame Arnoux’s true self,
and, therefore, the love affair must end.
