Limitations on the Individual
The response of society to individuality in the years after Napoleon were extremely limiting. The French Revolution and later Napoleon had turned previous social dogmas into more egalitarian systems, which had ruined and destroyed the self-definition of many of the wealthy upper-class. Those who merely opposed the new dogma were also turned into scapegoats; these became an embittered middle class that had terms to settle with those in power. With a release from such a contradictory system, people were allowed to recover a sense of identity, which meant a return to the old trappings of money and power. This quest to be more than just a Revolutionary involved suppressing Napoleonism in all its auspices � the social caste system became more defined, presumptuousness from the lower classes was frowned upon, and hero-worship became illegal. In a race to regain the impression of wealth, society tried to hold on desperately to its presumptions of class and turned a blind eye to the spirit of the �individual� inherent in the old Revolutionary and Napoleonists. This usually involved a pretense of sophisticated urbanity and education with a keen sense of superiority and snobbery, with no allowances for deviation.
Stendhal�s hero, Julien Sorel, in The Red and Black, aimed to enter such a society. Being at such a comparatively low level, he would have to work his way into hypocritical social circles by seduction, a method he carefully learned from Napoleon�s example. The only pathway open to him was through the clergy, a reactionary institution to the army, the monarchy and the social caste system � respectively the Black and the Red of the title. Napoleon himself entered the military and achieved his ambitions through military victory, winning over Europe within a few short years. Julien understood the driving ambition that drove Napoleon to rise from obscurity to become virtual ruler of France by age 27, as �Julien had never let an hour of his life pass without telling himself that Bonaparte, an obscure lieutenant without fortune, had made himself master of the globe with his sword.� However, he understood that �when Bonaparte first made a name for himself�military prowess was necessary and in fashion� (26).
For his own career, �the army [meant] goodbye�to all my ambition, and�to the priesthood � that fine profession which opens all doors� (22). In resolving to be a priest, he took into account the difference in social mores and thus allowed himself the chance to enter high society, something a poor peasant�s son might never hope to achieve.
Napoleon was not only a great military strategist, but a skilled propagandist as well. His stranglehold over information in France and going back to France from the battlefield was legendary; only what he wanted was published and nothing else. This stranglehold also covered the theater and public education. Bonaparte once remarked famously that �education must impart the same knowledge to all individuals living in the same society�. He was also skilled at shaping human nature to his needs � the Pope agreed to come and crown him at his coronation ceremony in 1804, allowing him to further enhance his situation by very symbolically taking the crown from the Pope and placing it on himself. One of his greatest public relations moves was to commission great paintings of himself. Within David�s brilliant renderings of the Emperor, he is displayed as an authority above the Pope during the coronation scene, as a hard working statesman and diplomat in his study at the Tuileries, and as a conqueror in Hannibal�s footsteps on the Alps. For Julien Sorel, these were large footsteps to fill.
Like Napoleon, Julien was very well prepared. He had no illusions about what he had to do: �to win over old Father Chelan, on whom�.his future depended, he had learnt off by heart the whole�New Testament in Latin� (22). He planned out his different personas to present to others: to the priests, he was a devoted scholar; to the Mayor, a gifted tutor; to Mme. Renal, a sensitive lover. Had he commissioned a painting, he would have solidified his image as Napoleon did. He took advantage of any situation and ably exploited those whom he was around. His control over the people in his life was almost complete. When he had worked his charm, he was well-endowed with trust, love and devotion by all whom he encountered.
However, his ability to change his nature to suit others implied that he really had no individuality. He seemed to be what everyone else needed him to be. Even his goals were transparent and hypocritical: though he scorned society, he still tried to gain more power and status in a society that promoted money with a herd mentality. His drive was relentless but plagued with doubt. He continuously and strenuously compared his love affairs and social maneuverings to military advances; his idol, Napoleon, once said that to �live defeated and without glory is to die every day.� To Napoleon�s generation, that martial rhetoric was revolutionary and radical, but to later generations, it was merely a social disruption and not allowed. The very fact that Julien was trying to follow in Napoleon�s footsteps increased the folly of his ambition � in aiming to become a successful individual, he was merely taking over someone else�s role.
The individual was now defined less by enthusiasm and feverish ideas than the appearance of having ideas. Even the appearance of having ideas was more or less scorned. The French Revolution had shown people the folly of having ideas. Liberty had failed, and a new kind of repression was back in style. The new man, in France, was one who was bored: according to Julien�s friend Prince Korasov, �looking miserable is never in good taste: looking bored is the done thing. If you�re miserable, there must be something you�re wanting�it�s showing yourself to be inferior. If you�re bored�it�s what tried in vain to please you that is inferior� (407-8). The narrator of the Red and the Black made it even clearer: �since the fall of Napoleon, any appearance of gallantry had been strictly banned from provincial mores. People are afraid of being deprived of office�hypocrisy has made great strides even among the liberal classes. Boredom has become acute� (47).
Julien took this new lesson to heart. He had yet another face to show to society: that of the bored fop. His use of this device in his love affair with Mlle. De La Mole had ruined her and made her bitter. She had �ceased to be bored over the past two months�Julien had lost his chief advantage�at this moment in life which gives some tender illusions�she was at the mercy of the most bitter reflections.� She knew that, to him, �her whole existence was staked on the toss of a coin� (358). However popular this fa�ade was to the rest of society, his Napoleonic ambition could not withstand such easily visible insincerity.
Julien�s empire, like Napoleon�s, was built on complete control and total victory: at the first sign of weakness, both were liable to crumble and fall. For Napoleon, this meant losing control over his ministers, then the countryside, then Spain, and finally capitulating to the combined might of Austria, Prussia and Russia. For Julien, this meant losing control over Mlle. De la Mole, the Marquis, his own goals, and finally capitulating to the Court after a fatal shooting. Not only does Mlle. De la Mole realize that Julien�s insincerity can ruin them, but his plans for future success are thwarted by his inability to stay firmly in a persona. Mlle. Fervaques was distressed by that fact that �M. Sorel isn�t a proper priest! One could admit him to some sort of intimacy, but with that cross, and the almost bourgeois suit he wears, one lays oneself open to cruel questions� (432). His military bearing was not enough to disguise his strange and nervous love affair with Mlle. De la Mole, leading to its discovery by the Marquis, who was �beside himself with rage� (450).
The moment that most revealed Julien�s loss of control over himself occured when he supported a counter-revolution, knowing full well that putting more authority into the hands of the nobles and priests would fully undermine the work of his idol, Napoleon. He fully understood what was going on but nevertheless allowed his social ambition to better his primary support for his work. He had, by his own hand, invalidated Napoleon�s primary contribution to French society and thus made himself a pure tool. He had lost his philosophy and thus had no more self-definition in a world where he needed it to rise above the bland masses.
The individual in the nineteenth century was defined by a total anti-Napoleonism. Society was encouraged to reject personality and spirit in favor of an encompassing hypocrisy and a return to all the old ways. History�s course in the post-Napoleon years were to fully remove any effect he had made on Europe; even Julien Sorel, who wanted to succeed as Napoleon did, was forced to reject Napoleon in order to achieve anything within this new society. In doing so, he lost whatever individuality he had. Just as society held on desperately to its pretensions, Julien clung to his vision of himself, a vision that pathetically, had never �looked so poetic as at the moment [his head] was about to fall� (527).