Reading & Questions for Prevost, Manon Lescaut, Chapters IV-VII

NOTE: Wednesday classes should do the questions below before these ones. We'll be discussing Chapters I-III in class on Wednesday; these are the questions for next Monday and Wednesday.

As before, answer 2 of the 4 questions in a short response, enough to show you thinking and not just answering the questions. 

Q1: Throughout the book, we have to remember the double narration of the narrator (Prevost?) and des Grieux, who narrates the story. In many ways, des Grieux exhibits many of the qualities of the "unreliable narrator" who you can find in many first-person stories, such as Poe's short stories and Bronte's Wuthering Heights (which some of you read last semester!). Where do you find des Grieux most unreliable in his recounting of events? Are there certain kinds of things he seems to exaggerrate or misrepresent? Or might he even be oblivious to his mistakes, as a way of seeing what he wants to see (but which we know isn't quite accurate)?

Q2: One of the only times Manon is allowed to speak directly (and not second-hand) is through the letter on page 49 (Chapter IV). If we believe that these are really the words she wrote (and not edited/manipulated by des Grieux), what does it reveal about her character and values? Is it consistent with the portrait of Manon presented elsewhere in the book?

Q3: In Chapter V, des Grieux makes the argument that "most men are touched by five or six passions...But characters of a more delicate texture can be tossed around in a hundred different ways; they seem to have more than five senses, and to be a prey to ideas and sensations surpassing the ordinary limits of nature" (59). Do you think des Grieux believes this himself? Does his superhuman ability to feel and emote allow him to transgress the moral law of 'ordinary' human beings? Or is this a ploy to excuse these very crimes in the eyes of the author?

Q4: Later in Chapter V des Grieux engages in a passionate religious debate with his old friend, Tiberge. Some of this debate might be colored by Prevost's own ideas and opinions--a critique slipped into the narrative itself. According to des Grieux, why is love a better faith than religion itself? What makes it difficult for those who practice sensibility to embrace--or be consoled by--Tiberge's notion of faith? Also, why might this have sounded quite shocking for audiences of the 1730's?