“The Red and the Black” by Stendhal (post 7): Multiple personality theme continues with “Julien ceaselessly at work designing himself a brand-new character.”

Julien Sorel is now in a seminary, and he needs to adapt to its culture in order to get ahead. As described in the last post, his modus operandi is to change his personality and physiognomy.

“He realized that, from the time he’d first come to the seminary, there had not been a single hour…that might not have had repercussions for or against him…The damage needing repair was huge; the task extremely difficult. But Julien was painstakingly, ceaselessly on guard: he was at work designing himself a brand-new character.

“His eye movements, for example, caused him serious difficulty. There was good reason, in a place like this, to keep one’s eyes lowered…After months of ceaseless effort, Julien still looked like a thinker. His way of moving his eyes and holding his mouth did not indicate implicit faith, a readiness to believe everything and endure everything, even martyrdom…How hard he strove to achieve a face of fervent, blind faith prepared to believe anything and suffer everything” (1, pp. 171-173).

1. Stendhal. The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of 1830. Translated by Burton Raffel. New York, The Modern Library, 2003.