Letter 114: The Presidente de Tourvel to Madame de Rosemonde explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Love, Virtue, and Corruption

  Tourvel's conflicted feelings—her love for Valmont and her guilt over their relationship—highlight the tension between virtuous restraint and emotional surrender.

• Innocence and Experience

  Tourvel's naive hope that Valmont's silence is due to illness rather than manipulation reflects her innocence, while her growing anguish signals a painful acquisition of experience.

Characters to notice

• Madame de Tourvel

  Writes anxiously about Valmont's health and her own melancholy, confessing she regrets not reading his letters.

• Madame de Rosemonde

  Recipient of the letter; Tourvel inquires about her health and Valmont's condition.

• Viscount de Valmont

  Subject of Tourvel's worry; his sudden apathy and lack of correspondence alarm her.

Key passages

• “It is no novelty that melancholy and distaste for company should be symptoms of an approaching disease; bodily disorders, as well as those of the mind, incline us to solitude; and we often load those with ill temper, whose disorder we ought to compassionate.”

  Melancholy and withdrawal are common signs of illness, and we should pity rather than blame those who seem irritable.

  Tourvel rationalizes Valmont's behavior as a symptom of physical sickness, showing her desire to excuse him.

• “I was certain he at least thought of me, and saw something that came from his hands. I did not open them, but I wept over them: my tears were softer, and flowed with more ease; they only partly dissipated the habitual oppression I experience since my return.”

  Even though I refused to read his letters, just holding them made me feel connected to him and brought me some relief from my constant sadness.

  Tourvel admits her emotional dependence on Valmont's letters, revealing her inner turmoil and regret.