Rene by Chateaubriand Overview of the Story

Rene by Chateaubriand

Overview of the Story

This story involves a young man who leaves Europe to emigrate in the U.S. early in the 18th Century, where he joins with the Natchez Indians. For a while he is reticent to explain to his Native American friends why he is so moody and melancholy, but he finally gives in and explains to the blind Indian chief, Chactas, his whole repertoire of laments. To wit, his mother died during his birth, his father died too, and Rene traveled around Europe trying to find peace and joy but failed in that effort. Upon returning to France he discovered it was clouded with corruption so he was drawn ever closer to his sister Amelie, whom he loved dearly, likely in a sexual way, and Amelie did in fact love him so fervently the reader had the impression is was incestuous on her part. In fact Rene threatens to kill himself if Amelie does not return to him. A lengthy sub-plot emerges from that association. Upon receiving a letter from Europe, announcing that his loving sister Amelie had in fact died, makes him bitterly tearful. In the end, "…at last he perished in Louisiana…in a massacre of the Natchez Indians" (Johnson, 1908, p. 1-2).

There is in literature and in historical records a certain belief (thought of as a myth) that by heading to the wilderness -- the deep dark woods -- a person can find regeneration. In 18th century Europe the "New World" -- America -- was for some, a kind of "garden of Eden" that was primitive yet restorative and would allow "new beginnings" for wayfaring hearts (Call, 1988). Chateaubriand uses this myth / belief for the setting, tone, and theme of his story. The author views Rene's sojourn to the forest in Louisiana as an act of "purification" of the soul, and Chateaubriand should know something about the U.S. The suspicion a reader arrives at upon reading about Chateaubriand's life and times -- juxtaposed with the story of Rene -- is that Chateaubriand is playing out his life using Rene as his fictional character.

Was Rene's relationship with sister Amelia incestuous? These passages seem to reflect just that. Amelia's eyes "…rested upon me with trustful attention," Rene explains. "A sweet conformity of temper and of taste, strongly attached me to this sister." On May 11, 1814, p. 4, col. 2-3, Amelia has criticized her brother for thinking about suicide, and now she "…covered my brow with kisses. Alas! My heart again opened itself to joy…we were more than a month in habituating ourselves to the enchantment of being together… " (Goodrich, 1814).

Critic Eric Gans suggests that Amelie's sisterly devotion was indeed "…tainted with incestuous passion" and that passion -- the point of the passion -- is the "punishment for Rene's reveries… [and] to demonstrate the incompatibility of the intimate world of the family with adult existence" (Gans, 1983). The incest motif is used by Chateaubriand to bring out the paradox of desire and the juxtaposition between childhood and adulthood, Gans suggests. Why does Amelie run away from her attraction to her brother? Gans believes that Amelie is seeking "refuge in a religious community" because that nunnery is a place where she can live "beyond worldly desire" (Gans, p. 5).

When Rene discusses his own past, he is "repentant and self-critical," according to D.G. Charlton. He admits that before Amelie moved away to a convent, his "melancholy" had been "in good measure self-generated and without objective cause" (Charlton, 1969). And when he comes to terms with his sister's incestuous feelings towards him, he then is able to measure the "full insubstantiality of his previous unhappiness," Charlton. In other words, he was blue and unhappy for reasons he could not understand. But once he fully realizes that his sister has sexual feelings towards him, it lights a bulb in his head as to the real cause of his melancholy -- that is, he felt the same toward her but he couldn't at that time identify his deep emotions.