The degeneration of the characters in Le Chevalier Des Touches of Barbey d´Aurevilly

Abstract

In the analysis of the Chevalier des Touches (1864) by Jules Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly, one can see characters disconcerted after the French Revolution. Prisoners in a remote past that prevents them from advancing, inexorably condemned to remain in a nonexistent space and forced to understand the time they have to live, are subjected to both physical and mental deterioration. By counteracting the present life, the characters will be marked by a tenacious and unconscious will of degeneration materialized by various pathologies.