Calvary · Chapter
IV explained
The narrator persuades Juliette to reveal her troubled past, including her father's abuse and her mother's abandonment.
What happens
The narrator persuades Juliette to reveal her troubled past, including her father's abuse and her mother's abandonment. He becomes increasingly possessive and jealous of her social circle, particularly Gabrielle Bernier and Jesselin. His idealized image of Juliette clashes with reality, leading to disillusionment. After a tense birthday dinner for Charles Malterre, Juliette's passionate gaze ignites a fierce embrace, and she bids him to return the next day.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Corruption
The narrator's idealized love for Juliette is corrupted by jealousy, disillusionment, and the revelation of her past and social circle.
Memory and Childhood
Juliette's traumatic childhood memories of abuse and abandonment shape her present and the narrator's perception of her.
Class and Materialism
The superficiality of Juliette's social circle, focused on gossip, travel, and entertainment, contrasts with the narrator's romantic ideals.
Characters to notice
- Juliette Roux
Reveals her traumatic childhood in Liverdun; displays nervousness and irritation at Charles' birthday dinner; shares a passionate moment with the narrator.
- Unknown
Persuades Juliette to tell her life story; experiences disillusionment with Juliette's social circle; feels jealousy and possessive love.
- Lirat
Receives the narrator warmly for dinner; expresses disdain for painting and plans to give it up.
- Charles Malterre
Juliette's friend; his birthday is celebrated with a dinner; he is timid and hides his dislike for the narrator.
- Gabrielle Bernier
A friend of Malterre who visits Juliette; her gossipy manner irritates the narrator.
- Jesselin
A wealthy young man who leads the social circle; known for his travels and opinions.
Key passages
“I persuaded Juliette to tell me her life. Until now she had always refused. “No! no!” she would say. And she would add with a smile, looking at me with her large, sad eyes: “What will we gain, my friend?” I insisted, I begged. “It is your duty to reveal it to me and my duty to know it.” At last, conquered by this argument which I never tired of using in various and appealing forms, she consented.”
The narrator convinced Juliette to share her life story, which she had previously refused to do, by arguing that it was his duty to know and hers to tell.
Highlights the narrator's persistence and Juliette's reluctant consent.
“Instead of all this poesy—a frightful dog who barked at my feet and a woman just like others, without brains, without ideas, occupied solely with pleasures, confining her enthusiasm to the Théâtre des Varietés and the caressing of her Spy, her Spy!”
The narrator's romantic expectations are shattered by the reality of Juliette's mundane interests and her pet dog, Spy.
Reflects the narrator's disillusionment with Juliette.
“And I saw Juliette, her elbows resting on the piano, looking fixedly at me. A gleam of fierce passion flashed in her eyes, suddenly turned dark, almost terrible, marking them as with a novel flame. The wrinkle on her forehead deepened, her nostrils quivered; a strange expression of something unchaste wandered on her lips. I leaped toward her. My knees sought her own, my body cleaved to hers, my mouth pressed against her own, I clasped her in a furious embrace. She abandoned herself to me entirely and in a very low, choking voice: “Come tomorrow!” she said.”
During a tense moment after Charles' birthday dinner, Juliette's intense gaze ignites a passionate embrace, and she whispers for the narrator to return the next day.
Climactic moment of passion and desire between the narrator and Juliette.
