“The Red and the Black” by Stendhal (post 8): Julien and Marquis, re Julien’s black suit and blue suit, have gratuitous multiple personality scenario.

In Chapter Seven of Part Two, when Julien Sorel is working as secretary and agent for the wealthy, powerful, upper-class Marquis, the latter gives Julien a blue suit as an alternative to the black suit that Julien has been wearing since coming from the seminary.

Sometimes Julien wears the black suit, and sometimes Julien wears the blue suit. When Julien wears the black suit, the Marquis treats him as an underling, but when Julien wears the blue suit, the Marquis treats Julien as though he were a member of the Marquis’s own social class.

The presumable reason for giving Julien the blue suit is that the Marquis wants Julien to be able to represent him in schemes involving people of the upper class; he wants Julien to be taken seriously by such people. So the Marquis gives him a blue suit and spreads rumors among people in the upper class that Julien is really one of them.

The peculiar thing is that the Marquis, even when only the two of them are present, treats Julien almost as though he were two different people, of two different classes, depending on which color suit Julien is wearing. This scenario, in which one person is like two different people, who have different clothing styles, is typical of multiple personality.

But why is there a multiple personality scenario in this novel? There appears to be no conscious intention to depict any character as having multiple personality, nor does multiple personality appear to be an intentional element of the plot. Its presence in this novel is unnecessary and gratuitous, which suggests that the only reason for it is that it reflects the author’s own psychology.

Search “gratuitous” or “gratuitous multiple personality” for previous examples with other writers.

In the next chapter, “Julien had become a dandy, and understood the art of life in Paris.” This in itself is so different from his previous behavior that it would seem to be a new alternate personality. However, what particularly catches my attention is that, previously, he had told the Marquis’s daughter about his fall from a horse, but now “He appeared to have no memory whatever” of her asking or his telling about that, which may be a memory gap that his “dandy” personality has for what was said when his previous personality had been in control.

Search “memory gaps” for previous posts about this cardinal feature of multiple personality.