“The Red and the Black” by Stendhal (post 11): Since both protagonist and narrator have multiple personality, the other major characters probably do, too.

In previous posts, I cited Julien’s explicit acknowledgement of having at least two personalities, and the narrator’s occasional slips into nosism (plural self-reference), as unsubtle evidence of their having multiple personality.

In the context of multiple personality in both the protagonist and the narrator, I would interpret Madame de Rênal, Mathilde, and the Marquis as having multiple personality, too.

The two women are described as having rather extreme switches, back and forth, between loving and hating Julien. Some might say they are women, and women are fickle, but that would be sexism, not literary or psychological interpretation. I think that their behavioral changes are radical enough to support the possibility that they, too, have multiple personality.

In another previous post, I discussed the episode in which the Marquis directs Julien to sometimes wear a black suit, but other times wear a blue suit, and the Marquis’s behavior radically changes in response to the way Julien is dressed. The Marquis treats Julien as an underling when he is dressed in black, but as a social equal when Julien is dressed in blue. It appears to me that the Marquis is switching between two personalities.

What is the meaning of the novel’s title? Nobody seems to know. The most common guess is that red stands for the military and that black stands for the clergy, but the plot gives weak support to that interpretation. My guess is that these colors had a private meaning for Stendhal in regard to the organization of his inner world of alternate personalities.

Let me conclude by returning to what originally called this author to my attention: his use of pseudonyms. While it is certainly possible for writers to have reasons other than multiple personality for the use of pseudonyms, I believe that the possibility of multiple personality should be considered whenever pseudonyms are used.