# Letter 23: The Viscount de Valmont to the Marchioness de Merteuil explained — Dangerous Liaisons

> Chapter companion for Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.

## What happens

Valmont recounts to Merteuil his successful manipulation of Madame de Tourvel after his charitable act. He describes how Tourvel praised him publicly, allowing him to embrace her, and later, in a dimly lit salon, he feigned vulnerability and confessed his love, causing her to weep. He nearly seduced her but restrained himself, preferring a prolonged conquest. Tourvel fled to her room in distress, and Valmont wrote a letter to her, though he later deemed it unsatisfactory.

## Themes in this chapter

### Seduction and Manipulation

Valmont orchestrates a false confession of love to elicit Tourvel's pity and emotional surrender, demonstrating his calculated seduction tactics.

### Hypocrisy and Appearance vs. Reality

Valmont feigns vulnerability and moral struggle while secretly plotting Tourvel's downfall, highlighting the gap between appearance and reality.

### Gender and Power Dynamics

Valmont exerts control over Tourvel through emotional manipulation, exploiting her piety and compassion to gain power over her.

## Character check-ins

### Viscount de Valmont

Narrates his calculated seduction of Tourvel, revealing his strategic restraint and manipulative confession.

### Madame de Tourvel

Praises Valmont publicly, becomes emotionally overwhelmed during his confession, and retreats to her room in tears.

### Madame de Rosemonde

Valmont's aunt; provides the setting and leaves Valmont and Tourvel alone after retiring.

### Marchioness de Merteuil

Recipient of Valmont's letter; his confidante and co-conspirator in the seduction plot.

## Key lines

> I have also some news to tell, said she, and immediately related my adventure with an exactitude that did honour to her historian’s accuracy.

Tourvel eagerly recounted Valmont's charitable deed with precise detail, unwittingly revealing her admiration.

_Valmont observes Tourvel's unconscious praise as a sign of her growing affection._

> My purpose is, that she should yield, yet combat; that without having sufficient force to conquer, she should have enough to make a resistance; let her feel her weakness, and be compelled to own her defeat.

Valmont aims for Tourvel to surrender after a struggle, so she recognizes her own weakness and admits defeat.

_Valmont articulates his strategy of prolonging the seduction for greater satisfaction._

> I beheld this adorable woman bathed in tears, on her knees, praying most fervently. What deity dared she invoke? Is there one so powerful as the god of love?

Valmont spied on Tourvel as she wept and prayed, mocking her piety and asserting his own power over her.

_Valmont views Tourvel's religious devotion as futile against his romantic conquest._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/dangerous_liaisons_se/chapters/letter-23-the-viscount-de-valmont-to-the-marchioness-de-merteuil
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/dangerous_liaisons_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/dangerous_liaisons_se/chapters