The Metaphor of Space in Constant's Adolph

The opposition between interior and exterior by means of which space may be analyzed appears highly ambiguous: the interior may convey security, integration and protection, or its connotations may shift to confinement, solitude and danger. This study investigates transformations such as these in Benjamin Constant's Adolphe. The suggestive connotative value of space is examined in the various houses and open spaces in the novel. These spaces are metaphors that operate on a double semantic level and thus actualize the possibility of binary opposition in a narrative. (GM-S)