The Love between Marguerite and Armand ——The ——The Lady of the Camellias
"The Lady of the Camellias" was written by Alexandre Dumas, fils. It's a story of Marguerite Gautier, a young courtesan, in Paris in the mid 1800's; it's a story of how she fell in love with a young man, Armand Duval, and then tried to escape from her questionable past; it's a story of how she ended up returning to her former life and died painfully and lonely. I had been thinking that it was Armand Duval's father who strangled Marguerite's love, while after reading the book I realized actually it was Armand' s vanity and suspicion did it. There are two ways in pursuing a courtesan: money and sentiment. Armand's 8000 franc was absolutely insufficient. Therefore he could only use "sentiment" to pursue Marguerite. Finally after several years of effort, Armand not only made Marguerite his lover, but also won her true love. A courtesan sells her body and soul for living, but she also has love which one is not willing to sell. Perhaps it is because she has seen too much hypocrisy that she treats love more carefully, and also longs for true love. When mistaking Armand's admiration for the true love, Marguerite devoted all to him without hesitation. However, Armand actually did not believe that a courtesan knew true love, therefore Armand sent Marguerite a letter asking for rupture just the third day after winning her heart. Whereas, when he realized that Marguerite, an attractive lover, could save face for him, for vanity he sent her a letter requesting forgiveness. To Armand, it's much more satisfying to possess a famous courtesan than to possess Marguerite's love. It means that what he wanted truly is the vanity of possessing a famous courtesan, not a woman's love. True love sublimes human beings. Armand became even more degenerate, while Marguerite turned truly lofty. Armand enjoyed the vanity all day long. He never considered about giving Marguerite a normal life. In the light of his behavior, Armand's love to Marguerite is not worth mentioning. On the contrary, Marguerite firmly abandoned his past, and turned over a new leaf. Although they had lived a happy life, Armand never believed in his subconscious that Marguerite was truly willing to escape from her past life. So when Marguerite left him and reluctantly returned to her former life because M. Duval, 's father, pled for her to leave Armand to save both Armand's reputation and that of his younger innocent sister, Armand denied Marguerite's true love entirely and immediately. What is more pitiful, instead of thinking over why Marguerite left him unexpectedly and trying to retrieve Marguerite, Armand crudely and despicably carried on all sorts of shameless retaliation. Finally, Marguerite died in debt and basically lonely. We cannot deny that Armand truly loved Marguerite. However, he never believed that Marguerite also truly loved him. He didn't know how to love selflessly without receiving value in return. Vanity may satisfy one who haven't encountered with love, but once did, vanity may become vulgarly. So when Marguerite fell in love with Armand, she was eager to get rid of vanity, but Armand didn't give her the chance. He just wanted to maintain the sumptuous life and enjoy being the envy of all the other men. Marguerite is just like the camellia, she could never escape from the destiny of withering. But it wasn't her fault; it's because of the vanity of that society.
