The Hated Son, Honoré de Balzac

Image via WikipediaBalzac has become a sort of new favourite to me. The previous books of his that I read were really brilliant. His character sketches are quite brilliant. It is fortunate for me, and for those who love his work, that he was such a prolific writer. This story, The Hated Son, is the next object of my study. It is a book of short length or perhaps a novella. It is available freely on Gutenberg.org.

What is quickly becoming 'a long time ago,' when I was in Concordia University, one of the pieces of literature which was required reading was Sir Robert Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess." This poem bears a striking resemblance to Balzac's The Hated Son. After a bit of research, I discovered that if there is any influence at all, it would have been Browning having been influenced by Balzac. "My Last Duchess" is a short poem which illustrates the ferocious jealousy which a Duke has over his late Duchess. The girl is described as beautiful and free loving, in the innocent way of thinking of it. The Duke does not like the way the girl handles herself, and it's assumed that he has her killed for it.

Balzac's short novel paints an even more brutal picture for the antagonist. The story starts off with a young girl, nineteen years of age, sneaking about her fifty year's old husband for fear of waking him. She wants to escape, but cannot. She is terrified that her husband will end up killing her and her unborn child, or her and her child when it will be born.

When she does have the baby, it is premature. It, or rather he, is born small and weak. This makes him hateful for the count. However, his true love is for neither the woman nor the child: it is for the rich dowry that he got through his marriage to her. This same dowry is what saves both her and her child from annihilation, as the Comte d'Herouville would have to return that fortune to whomsoever would inherit it upon her death.

When she is about to give birth to the premature boy, the count goes off to pretty much kidnap a 'bonesetter' to deliver the baby. The bonesetter himself is described as selfish and brutal. But, somehow there is something noble about him. For example, the majestic lion which is a horribly brutal creature, somehow inspires feels of admiration. Yet, he has those moments of softness, when he wonders why it is that the soft and warming emotion of love cannot be felt for him by his wife. But, he does not waste much time thinking on that.

Etienne, the son of the count become duke, is banished to an ocean side cottage. He is described as being incredibly delicate. A child of the ocean and poetry. He is so weak that a stern word is said to be potentially fatal to him. Later, the duke fathers a second son, who is robust and strong. He takes to tyrannizing those who are under him as a kind of past time. He, like his father, is a man of war. But, as he lives by the sword, he also dies by the sword. The duke believes his name to be doomed with that death, having long forgotten his first son, Etienne. But, Etienne is so weak, that he cannot handle his father's vital energy.

Etienne is referred to as poesy, poetry, and that sort of thing. But also, of being so delicate, like that of a woman. I don't know why poetry and poets need to be associated with weakness. It's hard for me to respect a man who is so weak. While I did not relish the cruelty of the father or the son, there was a certain animal association with it that still gives them a certain amount of respect. But a weakness or being so fragile like a tiny flower grown sheltered from the wind is a little harder to appreciate.

In any case, Etienne finds a lover, but one as fragile as himself, and much lower in rank. Hence, the romance is doomed to failure due to the Duke's heavy hand. The duke's greed knows no bounds. I cannot help but think, at this point in the book, that their affair is doomed to failure. Balzac is unpredictable, somewhat, in how he concludes his tales. In general, however, the rule is that they fail to achieve a happy ending.

Sure to my instinct, the old Duke is so furious at his son to obey his order to marry the woman, he lifts his sword to kill his son, who dies before the blade descends along with the girl, Gabrielle.

I really loved some of the character portraits which Balzac so often paints so well. The honeyed romantic portraits, I am not so fond of. However, to dig a little more deeply, I cannot help but wonder if Balzac was praising love or denouncing it. How easily love, in this case, was destroyed by the father. Is love, therefore, also to be considered weak? Is it weaker than anger? It seems that this is the conclusion of Balzac in this tale.