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Proposed Bibliography for La Morte Amoureuse

1. Simonis, Annette. Turning Points: Concepts and Narratives of Change in Literature and Other Media, edited by Nünning, Ansgar, Sicks, Kai Marcel, 59-71. Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter, 2012.
2. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Theophile Gautier." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 May 2015. Web. 16 Aug. 2016.
3. diLiberti, Julia. Aimer et mourir: Love, Death, and Women's Lives in Texts of French Expression, edited by Hoft-March, Eilene, Sarnecki, Judith Holland, 66-97. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars, 2009.
4. Erik R Seeman. "'It is Better to Marry Than to Burn': Anglo-American Attitudes Toward Celibacy." 1600-1800, Journal of Family History (October, 1999).
5. Radford, Benjamin. "Vampires: Fact, Fiction and Folklore." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 22 Oct. 2014. Web. 16 Aug. 2016.

Proposed Edits for La Morte Amoureuse

Plot

• adding citations to the article where needed
• analysis and significance: not really essential (don't need to talk about colors and orientalism) but if need to stay there...significance of life of priest/its rules, legend of vampire/possibly its depiction in society today
• plot summary section (what to add or change)
  • he's recounting the story to another priest ("brother"), the various warnings he foreshadows about it
  • his detail in describing his desire to be a priest from a young age and how he had been working toward it for essentially his whole life
  • ordination is on Easter (one of holiest days)
  • more description of the women he sees, specifically the level of detail he goes to in his description
  • how he feels when he first sees her, the emotions he goes through and some of his conflicting thoughts
  • the nature of how he receives the note from the page he meets and finding out what her name is/how makes him feel
  • Father Serapion instead of just Serapion
  • how he possibly sees Clarimonde when looking at the palace
  • the warnings that Father Serapion constantly gives the narrator about Clarimonde and when he tells him of her death
  • legend of Clarimonde Father Serapion tells him
  • how he goes to sleep/description of servant that comes to get narrator and description of the palace
  • man telling narrator its too late for their lady and of her death
  • narrator going to room that's holding Clarimonde's body, his description of room (lack of death smelling) and seeing Clarimonde/his general feelings in the room and seeing Clarimonde
  • what Clarimonde says to him when his kiss brings her back to life and him fainting but waking up in his own room
  • when he sees Clairmonde its after he goes to sleep
  • description of what Clarimonde looks like when she first visits him at night/his feelings about it
  • more descriptive in difference of looks of Clarimonde and the clothes she brings him, how he feels about it
  • how he feels/what he does when he's with Clarimonde compared to his feelings/what he does when he's back to being a priest
  • no one can figure out why Clarimonde is sick/how narrator feels about it
  • description of how Clarimonde revealed as vampire, the description of when she firsts tastes his blood and narrator's feelings
  • hiding (not refusing) the wine Clarimonde prepares for him when he sees her spike it, pretending to be asleep instead
  • way in which Clarimonde drinks his blood and what she says for why she does it
  • Father Serapion having enough after constant warning him, convincing him to come with him one night to dig up her grave
  • narrator's feelings toward the "double life" he's living
  • description of Father Serapion while he's digging up the grave and how narrator is just standing there watching him full of remorse/sadness
  • telling brother instead of saying telling audience

To Add from Secondary Source

• Secondary source: Smith, Nigel E. “Gautier, Freud, and the Fantastic: Psychoanalysis avant la lettre?” In Functions of the Fantastic: Selected Essays from the Thirteenth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, ed. Joe Sanders, 67-75. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995.
  • discuss how Gautier was very interested in the inner workings of the mind and did that through writing this story
    • Freud = psychoanalytic aspect of mind (possibly a little background of Freud's research before tying "Dead in Love" to this)
  • relate how story is very reflective of Freudian ideas and that many read this story as a Freudian reading
    • Lots of story takes place in Romauld's dreams
      • dreams = large part of psychoanalysis studies for Freud
  • Freudian language all over "Dead in Love" and different symbols/findings by Freud
    • vampires = castration by women
    • return of life to Clairmonde = return of something repressed
      • represents Romauld's desire
    • sexual repression of Romauld due to choosing life of priest (celibacy)
      • Romauld's wish-fulfillment in dreams
        • specifically how Romauld's dream life is a generated due to subconscious desires he has to repress being showed in dreams (life with a woman and grandeur that he can't have being a priest)
        • allows Romauld to feel more free since in dreams he's not a priest so not bound by priest rules, gets to express his unconscious desires/impulses that can't be detected in priest life
          • dreams allow Romuland to deny he expressed these desires to deal with it
  • Freud ----> desire & fear can coexist
  • Dreams/hallucinations/madness allows Gautier to challenge his readers to interpret his story
    • the seemingly intertwining of two lives Romuland leads allows Gautier to challenge his audience to decipher what is real or not
      • relates to dream vs reality (unconscious vs conscious)
      • fantastic aspect of story allows for the exploration of the grey areas of the human mind and its knowledge/perception
  • How Freud used dream narratives to use as models to study for case studies
    • example of Freud attempting literary criticism with "Delusion and Dreams in Jensen's Gradiva" (1903) confirming his findings detailed in his own work The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
      • compare/contrasting this work he analyzed with "Dead in Love"
        • specifically idea of Freud's wish-fulfillment demonstrated in both
  • Freudian approach when examining "Dead in Love"
    • not focusing on vampirism in story but more about themes of sexual desire and its repression by Romauld

Edits// Madeline

I think you could separate your secondary source additions into categories based on the ideas you plan to focus on. The themes that seemed important in your secondary source were Sexual Repression and Dreams, maybe you could use those two thematic elements (or whichever you decide) as your topics and then analyze through a Freudian lens.

Response

Madeline's suggestion about themes is a good one. Be careful about including any analysis that isn't a paraphrase of your secondary source, however -- remember, Wikipedia doesn't want original research. S.C. Kaplan (talk) 17:24, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

Final Proposed Edits for La Morte Amoureuse

Plot summary

The story opens with an elderly priest named Romuald recounting a strange adventure during his youth to a fellow member of the clergy. The beginning of his narration recounts how his life was leading up to being a priest, from his education to his passion in life; in this he also remarks he never really interacted with women. The day of his Ordination many years ago finally comes, on Easter. On his way to the ceremony, he sees a beautiful young woman outside the church. He describes her in vivid detail, really emphasizing how she was the most beautiful woman he had seen. As the ceremony is taking place, he hears a female voice promising to love him and to make him happier than he would be in Paradise; the only condition was that he would just need leave the church. This of course means he couldn't become a priest. He has intense but conflicting feelings about this, especially sensing that the female voice is the beautiful young woman he had seen. However, it was too late and before he knew it, he had finished the ceremony of entering priesthood thus also means accepting its strict rules on celibacy. Again, he describes feelings very conflicted on what he has done and the promise he's made, thinking back to the beautiful woman he saw. Then, as he's leaving the church, a cold hand grasped his arm and he hears a woman say "What have you done!". When he turned around though, she had disappeared. On his way back to the seminary, he is greeted by a mysterious looking page who gives him a card reading, "Clarimonde, Palace Concini". He connects this name to the beautiful young woman he had seen and is delighted to finally know her name.

Romuald continues his studies, but is distracted and plagued by the memory of Clarimonde. The more he thinks about her and in his mind what could've been, he regrets having taken his vows. Finally, he was notified of his new parish in the country and is to leave town with Father Sérapion, an older priest who mentored him. As they begin their days long journey to the parish, he looks back on the town; he describes it as covered in shadow with the exception of a golden palace on a hill. Romuald asks Father Sérapion about the palace, to which he answers that it was the Palace Concini, where Clarimonde the courtesan lived. Father Sérapion furthers his explanation by describing it as a place of great debauchery. As Romuald looks upon the palace one last time before they continue, he thinks he sees a figure on the terrace who he then believes to be Clairmonde.

They both reach the parish three days later, and Romuald continues his narration saying how he cannot stopping thinking about Clairmonde. He lives quietly in the country while performing priestly duties with Father Sérapion, all the while pining over Clarimonde; this goes on for an indefinite period of time. Father Sérapion senses something is off with Romuald, and talks to him about mundane details of how he's enjoying his time at the parish before suddenly telling him about the legend of the infamous Clarimonde the courtesan. He tells him that the famous Clairmonde had recently died and talks about how the lovers she take meet a violent/untimely end; he believes her to be the Devil. During the story the narrator describes Father Sérapion watching him intensely while talking about Clairmonde; he says while he remembers the words the old priest tells him, he thinks Father Sérapion suspicions as well as his own fears are exaggerated.

One night, a mysterious looking man on horseback arrives to Romuald's parish specifically asking for him to be the priest for his mistress and to leave quickly with him. They ride in a suspiciously quick on horse to a lavish castle in the country. As Romuald dismounts his horse, he is told that it is too late for the woman and that she's dead; even he doesn't know who it is, Romuald describes that he feels dead when he is told this and has a feeling this dead woman is Clairmonde. He is led to the woman's death chamber to perform the priestly duty of last rites for the dead, and finally sees is Clairmonde dead. Forgetting his promises me made becoming a priest, in his grief he kisses her. Suddenly, he feels pressure reciprocated from this kiss by her and she opens her eyes. She tells him she's been waiting for him for so long to come to her that she died and that they will meet again; after she says this he sees her soul leave through the window where he proceeds to then faint.

He wakes up in confusion at his home, and his maid tells him that he has been asleep for three days and was brought back by the same horseman with which he left. Romuald believed all that had passed with Clarimonde had been a dream and continues think about her. However, few nights later she appears to him in his room looking both dead but still beautiful. She tells him she's loved him for a long time but wishes he loved her more than he loves God. When he admits that he does she becomes elated and says she will come get him the next day, telling him to prepare for a trip with her.

The second night, she returns, but this time looking vibrant and alive. The two of them leave the parish for the Palace Concini. The narrator describes his double-life; during the day he performs his priestly duties at the parish while during the night he is Clarimonde's lover, the nobleman Signor Romuald of Venice. As he leads the two conflicting lives Father Sérapion continually warns him about the fate of his soul as he suspects Clairmonde is involved in meddling his young priest's life.

Later on, Clarimonde becomes sick to the point where she looks like she is about to die; no one knows what is wrong with her. Romuald becomes very depressed with the thought of losing and stays by her side all the time. One day, as he's preparing breakfast by her bedside, he accidentally cuts his finger. Some blood squirts out on her, and she takes on an animalistic quality and sucks on his small wound. After she drinks a bit of Romuald's blood she suddenly gets healthy again, and Romuald believes she is a vampire. As his suspicions continues, he feigns consuming the drink Clarimonde prepares for him each evening after seeing that she put something in it. That night, he pretends to sleep. Believing him to be asleep, she pricks his arm and drinks his blood while saying how much she loves him she is only drinking blood from him and after she is done bandages his arm. After this, Romuald realizes that she has been drinking some of his blood while he slept in order to survive. Even though he's conflicted how he feels about that, Romuald admits that he would have gladly given all his blood for her if she needed.

Eventually, this life took its toll on Romuald and internally grapples with which reality is real; during the day he feels shameful and doesn't touch the cross out of fear while at night he fights sleeping so he can stay in that life. The more it continues the more he grows tiresome and wants to kill himself in one life or both to end this confusion. Seeing his young priest like this Father Sérapion suspects even more what is happening and convinces Romuald to dig up Clairmonde's tomb one night. Father Sérapion digs furiously and reaches Clairmonde's coffin while Romuald watches on somber and silent. Her body is revealed and is miraculously preserved thanks to Romuald's blood; she looks almost like she is just sleeping. Seeing blood on the corner of her lip, Father Sérapion becomes more furious and calls her a demon as he pours holy water on her corpse. At this, Clairmonde's body turns to dust and Romuald describes feeling that something inside him had crumbled. He believes to be parted now from her; however, she returns the following night to reproach Romuald by saying what a fool he was for allowing that to happen. She also informs him they will never meet again and will mourn her before vanishing in the wind.

Back in the present, Romuald tells his fellow priest he has been telling the story to that he has indeed mourn her every day since then and that this was the greatest regret of his life. He then suggests to his listener to never look at a woman lest they meet the same fate as him.

Characters

• Romuald, a young priest and narrator of the story who falls in love with Clarimonde
• Clarimonde, a beautiful young woman who is later revealed in the story to be a vampire
• Father Sérapion, an older priest who is a mentor to Romuald and continually warns him about Clairmonde throughout the story

2nd Part of Plot (collaboration in class)

One night, a mysterious looking man on horseback arrives to Romuald's parish, he asks specifically for Romauld to come with him. They ride on horseback to a lavish castle in the country. As Romuald dismounts his horse, he is told that it is too late for the woman and that she's dead. He is led to the woman's death chamber to perform the priestly duty, and finally sees is Clairmonde dead. In his grief, he kisses her, temporarily breathing life into her. She says they will shortly be reunited and Romuald faints as he sees her spirit leave.

Romuald believes all that had passed with Clarimonde had been a dream; but a few days later, she appears to him in his room. She looks dead, but beautiful, and she tells him to prepare for a trip. The two of them travel to Venice and live together. Clarimonde's health wavers and she seems to be dying, but she is restored after she drinks some of Romuald's blood from an accidental finger cut. Romuald realizes that Clarimonde is a vampire, but continues his relationship with her.