Ourika

Both the French Revolution and Ourika’s distress intensify after Charles leaves home to travel abroad. The Revolution is the sole topic of conversation in the salon and actually provides Ourika with a sense of relief. She believes the societal upheaval will help her fit into the new social structure, but this hope is short-lived. As the Revolution becomes more violent, opportunistic, and materialistic, rather than idealistic, the notions of fraternity dissolve. Ourika tells the doctor that during this time “talk started of emancipating the Negroes” (21), but the Haitian uprising and the Santo Domingo massacre quash her hope.

A new decree calling for “the confiscation of the property of those who had escaped abroad” causes Mme de B. to call Charles back to France, while his older brother joins the royalist army. The King of France is executed soon after, and Mme de B. spirals into grief. Ourika loses herself in Mme de B.’s sadness and forgets her own problems for a time. Though she may be an outcast, Ourika holds firm to the principles of justice that she believes drive her friends.

Mme de B.’s friends have all fled, aside from an old, gentle priest.