Desert, Desire, Dezesperance: Space and Play in Balzac's La Duchesse de Langeais

Spatial metaphors in Balzac's La Duchesse de Langeais (1839) tell us a lot about the amorous struggles of its two protagonists. These metaphors fall into two groups: games and rituals. Game metaphors demonstrate the struggles of Antoinette and Armand, each to dominate the other, and the strategies that each employs. (The game theories of Johan Huizinga and Roger Caillois help analyze this competition.) Ritual metaphors are centered around the symbolic journeys completed by Antoinette and Armand: his desert crossing and her kidnaping scene are both rites of passage by which each becomes able to love and worthy of being loved. (JWM)