Human Emotions In Swann's Way By Marcel Proust

In Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust portrays how human senses are always indirect, and human emotions circulate through the fact. Proust demonstrates this phenomenon various times in his novel, and the indirect sensory experiences and the circulation of emotions are always in correlations with each other. This can be observed from various passages in his novel.
When the narrator falls in love with Swann’s daughter Gilberte, he does not love ‘her’ exactly; but loves the Gilberte he himself created (pg. 138). In other words, the subject of his feelings is not Gilberte herself, but an imagined figure portrayed through the name Gilberte; which was constructed by the narrator through a partial information given by M. Swann, a third party also. What is interesting here is that even that simple fraction of her that provided the basis of his love towards her is not really about …show more content…
137). This piece of information has already been processed through his invisible screen of admiration toward Bergotte. Then, even though he knows absolutely nothing about her (appearance, personality, height, etc.), his feeling of admiration of Bergotte is transferred or circulated towards Gilberte. In other words, Gilberte is reflected through Bergotte in the narrator’s mind.
Therefore, his feeling of love towards Mlle Swann increases when his feeling towards Bergotte increases. For instance, as pure admiration of Bergotte develops into love, as we can see from the fact that the narrator’s world, at least when he writes, revolves around Bergotte, the feeling of wanting to be with him intensifies. Consequently, the feeling towards the one who regards that “privilege” as not a privilege but a common, everyday thing – nothing of importance – also intensifies, and the object of the feeling, Gilberte, is regarded as a more superior and more noble figure in his