The Immoralist
Andre Gide

   Ironically, this is what Melanque criticizes in others: “people don’t want to be like themselves. They all choose a model to imitate, or, if they don’t choose a model themselves, they accept one ready-made”. Melanque is saying that we forget who we are, and are oblivious to our special needs, real desires, and how we really want to live. The reason being what Melanque calls our “moral agoraphobia” i.e. fear of social disapproval. Individuality and fulfillment are sacrificed for conformity and social acceptance.

   Melanque is naturally right, but only explains part of the problem. There is no such thing as our “real self” hidden behind the layers of education and morality. How could there be one? Would that self be our infant personality with which we were born, untouched by outside influences? Our self seems to be who we choose to be at a certain time or other, and what makes human beings special is this constant transformation, this continuous re-invention.

   A proof for the non-existence of a “real” self is Michel’s example. Did his free, sensual life bring him happiness or fulfillment? As he himself noted “one can only tell of the origins of happiness and its destruction”. So was his experimentation merely the destruction of his “comfortable” happiness? Apparently, inhibition and his old morality were so deep-rooted that he couldn’t disassociate himself from them without feeling guilty. Why else did he call upon his old friends to “save” him and put an end to his debaucherous life? Was he too weak for freedom? Was that kind of life where he oppressed his talents and spirit for the sake of the body a free one?

   What constitutes “life”? This is another important question raised in “The Immoralist”. Michel is reborn when he begins questioning his life: “after all what did I mean by ‘living’?” Even here the flaws in Michel’s philosophy are apparent. The Christian doctrine of “blessed are the poor” goes against Michel’s doctrine of a leisurely, sensuous life and that “poverty makes slaves of men”, and yet he strives to get rid of his possessions…

   Who am I? What do I want? These are the kind of questions the reader will ask himself while reading “The Immoralist”. The author is too wise to give definite answers to such great questions. Neither does Gide encourage the reader to decide who is wiser, Marceline, or Michel? Thus Gide succeeds in being more truthful and believable in the presentation of the problem, in the “drawing of the picture”. As to the answers, who knows anyway?