SWANN AND HAMLET
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from Beatrice, but the light of truth which Swann seeks (and the
formula is in Proust), is that which concerns the actions, the
projects and the past of Odette. The world of Beatrice, apogee of
Dante's voyage, is Paradise. The world of Ophelia is that purity
of which Hamlet must make himself worthy before contemplating
it. The world of Odette, composed of places vaguely known by
Swann but which he would like to explore in order to suffer there,
is the demi-monde of facile fidelities. From a purely psychologi·
cal viewpoint, Swann is the intellectual and Odette is the instinctive
type. Proust the artist is curious to study and understand a tem·
perament opposed to his own which is capable of living imme–
diately in the world and enjoying the moment. Swann is the initial
representation of Marcel, whose drama is not essentially that of
love. It is the drama which recaptures certain moments when love
had been apprehended sensuously and when, by that very fact, the
tragedy and dissolution of such a love became as real as the expe·
rience which was being lived. The future for Hamlet remains
always the future, and his tragedy occurs at the end of the play.
But in the episode, "Un Amour de Swann," the future is constantly
becoming the past, because the tragedy is known, accepted and
experienced throughout the inner action of Swann's self-analysis.
In Shakespeare, a character gradually develops into the hero and
at the end, assumes the burden of the tragedy. In Proust, the hero
makes countless efforts to diminish his stature into that of a man
and thus to live and to feel like a man. He is tragic at the outset
and tries to disburden himself of that honor.
Pride is the constant and implacable corollary of love for
Swann. In his agitation, which at times resembles almost a kind
of witchcraft dance, (the night wanderings of Swann have a curious
magical glow about them) his taste becomes increasingly exclusive.
A
taste dedicated to one principle. The taste of a witch doctor, a
priest, a hierophant. The need to possess Odette is the rite of this
religion. And, as in all religions which remain active, this need is
insensate and profound. Swann's taste, which in our analogy
becomes a kind of religious doctrine unaffected by time, represents
his point of honor, his "glory" as the seventeenth century would
have called it. So imperious is this taste-because, of course, all
his life had been dedicated to its development and fulfillment–
that when he knows it cannot be satisfied;-that is, in looking for
