47 pages • 1 hour read
Manon Lescaut
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Symbols & Motifs
Money
Though it is commonly believed that money cannot buy love, Prévost explores how financial success affects romantic happiness. Des Grieux believes that money is the secret to keeping Manon happy, though he claims “[n]o girl was ever less attached to money than she was” (43). Des Grieux, however, is clearly obsessed with money; when he is not talking about how much he loves Manon, he is talking about money—who has it, how to get it, and how to keep it.
Furthermore, as Angela Scholar points out in her introduction to the text, the language of money is woven throughout the text “in the form of metaphors of paying and repaying, credit and profit, borrowing, computation, and recompense” (xvi). This is perhaps another reason the story was greatly criticized upon publication: Men of good breeding were not supposed to think or talk about money. Only commoners were concerned with it. Prévost’s story, however, reveals the many ways in which financial security intertwines with romance and love. Manon rightly notes that “one can[not] be truly loving when one is short of bread” (47-48), and this base consideration appalls Des Grieux despite its truth.
Manon
Manon is as much a symbol as she is a character in the story. For Des Grieux, she is “Love itself” (31). For Tiberge, she represents the many temptations men must face and overcome on the way to heaven. For Des Grieux’s father and M. de G…M…, she represents the seductive dangers of Parisian life and must be dispatched to America lest she ruin their children. For everyone, in other words, Manon is not a person in her own right with her own thoughts, needs, or feelings, but an object of desire or of fear. After her death, Des Grieux describes her as “the idol of my heart” (142), and this is perhaps the most accurate description of her character. Manon is a thing to be owned, and once she cannot be owned, she is simply forgotten.
Alternatively, if readers consider Manon apart from the men who fear or idolize her, she symbolizes the oppressive sexism of the time. Manon is portrayed as greedy and unfaithful even by Des Grieux, who claims to love her unconditionally. However, there is no way for her to exist independently in this culture. As a member of the Third Estate and as a woman, she is completely dependent on others for survival. Her only possession of value is her body, and she uses that to support herself and Des Grieux, for which she is condemned and punished.
Circular Structure
The story is circular in nature and can be divided into four sections, each of which begins with Manon and Des Grieux’s joy in being together and ends with separation or imprisonment. In the first section, Des Grieux meets Manon and flees with her to Paris, where they are together for three weeks before Des Grieux is forcefully returned home. They are separated for two years before being reunited. In this section, they are together for much longer until they are separated by their arrests, this time only for three months.
The third section reunites them, but they are once again parted by their criminal behavior. The fourth and final section changes this pattern slightly in that Manon dies, but Des Grieux is still imprisoned for a time, falsely accused of Manon’s murder. Furthermore, the conclusion brings Des Grieux full circle. At the beginning, before he met Manon, Des Grieux was a young student about to return home for the holidays before continuing his education and entering the church. At the end of the story, after Manon’s death, Des Grieux once again journeys home, hoping to finally finish his education and enter the church.
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