Metaphors in Proust: The Guermantes Fog

In Search of Lost Time is a highly metaphorical work.  Thus far, I have only briefly touched on the myriad of themes and symbolism contained within the novel.  But here I will give a couple of examples so the reader will know that there is a lot more to Proust’s literary vision and lyrical, long-winded sentences than simply moving the plot forward at a glacial pace.  In The Guermantes Way, Proust uses fog and darkness as metaphors for what the narrator experiences in book three of the novel. He takes his first steps toward becoming a player in proper society and with that comes a great deal of confusion and lack of clarity.

Let's start with the fog. It is introduced at Doncieres in Robert de Saint-Loup's room when the narrator awakens and opens the window to the morning. Proust uses windows a lot throughout the novel for various representational reasons and I'm sure someone somewhere has written extensively about how this metaphor is employed and what it might mean at various points in the story.

At this particular point, however, Marcel opens a window into a world "shrouded, still in its soft white morning gown of mist which scarcely allowed me to make out anything at all." (page 100). There is a great hill before him, he saw it the day before, but he cannot see it now and he can only guess from familiar sounds and matters of habit as to what is going on outside the window. Unlike the scenic, ocean-view window in his room at Balbec, this window – I think for the first time in the novel – reveals nothing but the lack of clarity.

Part Two: Chapter Two begins with a foggy day. "…there had been a cold fog which had not cleared until midday: and a change in the weather is sufficient to create the world and ourselves anew." This is one of the more direct passages where Proust connects the fog itself with the narrator’s sense of self. "…the new world in which this morning's fog had immersed me" was known but forgotten by Marcel, now recalled in various moments including the morning at Doncieres, in which the world is "scarcely visible to the eyes that is obliged to adapt itself to a mysterious vagueness…" (page 101) This is not just a vagueness of memory, however, it is an intimate vagueness of the present moment.

Later on the fog thickens (page 534) as Marcel prepares for dinner with the Guermantes. This is an extended section where the fog is referred to often, where street lamps seem virtually extinguished, culminating with: "…the fog had become one of those dangers against which one has to fight, so that in finding our way and reaching safe haven, we experienced the difficulties, the anxiety and finally the joy which safety, so little perceived by one who is not threatened with the loss of it, gives to the perplexed and benighted traveler." (page 546)

Metaphorically speaking, the narrator finds himself increasingly immersed in social activities, in the loss of his grandmother, in the return of Albertine amidst his own growing carnal desires for various other girls and women. This seems to me to be a state of mind Proust is creating for us over the slow progression of hundreds of pages.

Like the street lamps dimmed by the thickening fog, so too does darkness play a role in the narrator's experiences. When he goes out to meet Robert for dinner Proust gives us a passage that is most interesting in tying several threads I am rambling about together. "I proceeded on my way, and often, in the dark alley that ran past the cathedral, as long ago on the road to the Meseglise, the force of my desire caught and held me; it seemed a woman must be on the point of appearing, to satisfy it; if, in the darkness, I suddenly felt a skirt brush past me, the violence of that pleasure which I then felt made it impossible for me to believe that the contact was accidental and I attempted to seize in my arms a terrified stranger. This Gothic alley meant for me something so real that if I had been successful in picking up and enjoying a woman there, it would have been impossible for me not to believe that it was the ancient charm of the place that was bringing us together, even if she were no more than a common street-walker, stationed there every evening, whom the wintry night, the strange place, the darkness, the mediaeval atmosphere had invested with their mysterious glamour." (page 123)

Several things are worthy of note in this passage, which I quoted in my previous post as well. First of all, the way memory and carnal desire and intimacy are all contained within the darkness. Lack of clarity breeds a world within oneself that is partly fantasy of desire and partly recollection of past pleasures. It is also one of the rare moments where the Meseglise path from Swann's Way is directly connected with the happenings within The Guermantes Way.

Page 557 speaks for itself in this context: "So the cataclysm had established even between the smaller room and the bigger, among all these people stimulated by the comfort of the restaurant after their long wanderings across the ocean of fog, a familiarity from which I alone was excluded and which was not unlike the spirit that must have prevailed in Noah's Ark."

As I mentioned in the previous post, the Guermantes “way” itself is a peopled path, not a natural one like Swann's way. Nature is at best something to be recalled or seen from a distance rather than something to be immersed in – distanced by fog and darkness. Just as well, the path of Guermantes is a weaving of social functions, a negotiation of personalities and interaction with other subjective perspectives. This seems to me to be at the heart of the differences between the narrator's more youthful appreciations of Swann's Way and the young adult experiences of The Guermantes Way. 

The narrator mentions several casual carnal encounters with "common" women throughout the novel outside of his more persistent relationships. One example of this involves darkness in The Guermantes Way. It is a memory about something we are not actually privy to at the time he stayed in Doncieres. A reflection upon something that occurred at the beginning of the volume that was not mentioned at the time.

It will be recalled that, while having dinner alone in his room at the hotel one evening, his lamp goes out, prompting the “serving-girl” to lite candles, which the narrator blows out before instigating foreplay with her and having “physical pleasure” with her over the next several evenings. (pp. 542-543) Darkness is a kind of requisite for pleasure here.  It is a factor in the isolating the narrator and his desires from the public sphere that he is otherwise immersed within.

"Each of us is indeed alone." This famous line from the section regarding the death of his grandmother, is almost an ironic summation of the volume as a whole within the context of fog and darkness and the isolating aspects they have. I see it in the narrator’s observations at the parties and dinners which he attends not so much as a participant but as a witness. I see it in the way memory and reflection starts to play an increasing role in the character of the narrator as he passes youth into young adulthood. The move into society is equally a journey deeper into himself.

I consider the fog and darkness aspects of this volume to be metaphorical of the narrator’s emergence within the social scene. These parties and gatherings can be viewed as a kind of “fog” of their own. He is often observing (rarely actively participating, in fact) the happenings at Mme de Villeparisis's and at the Guermantes with a cautious and often uncomprehending perspective, one of a newcomer not fully appreciative of the happenings and intricacies surrounding him. 

Perhaps the best example of the "vagueness" he experiences in the volume comes through his interactions with M de Charlus. This is actually some of Proust's best writing to this point in the novel - the continuing vagaries of Charlus' actions, his seemingly erratic, highly self-rationalized and passionate behavior. The "official" word on Baron Charlus is that he is a womanizer. He was rumored to be Mme Swann’s lover when he was first mentioned in Swann’s Way.  Yet, however erratic his actions, he has affection for the narrator and desires better relations with him. 

But, the narrator innocently possesses no awe for the eccentric Baron and this is disastrous to their close friendship without the narrator’s (or the reader necessarily at this point, suspicions perhaps) being aware of the reasons why.  This will soon be remedied in book four.

Numerous references to fog and mist and darkness weave through the entirety of The Guermantes Way.  They serve as metaphor and psychological symbol for the narrator as he physically navigates through his emerging new world of society.  These are among dozens of other, similar, metaphors and themes contained throughout the novel.  So the reader can delve very deeply into Proust’s writing beyond the plot and the lyrical/philosophical passages.  There is far more intended than it may appear on an initial reading.