The Aristocats

The Aristocats

The Aristocats, Duchess, Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse are living the great Parisian life of the 1910’s. This period in French Society, later called “La Belle Epoque” is a time of modernity and carefreeness that describes the way of life in Paris in between the Franco-Prussian War and the First World War. Being the Capital of Arts in the 19 th century, Paris is the hub for writers and artists of any kind. It was the place to be for foreign writers like Oscar Wilde and Ivan Turgenev. There is a multiplication of literary and artistic movements with Realism, Naturalism and Modernism. The envy for a peaceful and enjoyable life is particularly visible with the multiplication of entertainments like the cabaret Les Folies Bergères reaching its height of fame during that period through the 1920’s. Becoming a symbol of French Society and Parisian life. It is an era of reinvention and improvements, with the electricity, the invention of the automobile and the projection of the first movie in 1895 by Louis Lumière. In world changing, with the industrial revolution, differences between men and women in the working world are increased. Women of the working class are being payed less than men and struggle finding a descent work. This situation leads numerous women to be house-wives. At the same time, in the bourgeoisie and aristocracy, women start to have the possibility to study and work in journalism. Thus, women get involved in society, through sciences with Mary Curie who becomes the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (1903) and the first person and woman to win the Nobel Prize twice (1911). Women get also involved in politics with the movements of the suffragettes that fight for women’s right to vote. Women are starting to get recognition for their work in fields still dominated by men, highlighting the changes occurring at that time.

In this wave of modernity, the author Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette, better known as Collette, becomes a key-figure of early feminism and independence by claiming women sexuality in her novels Claudine. In 1893, she marries Henry Gauthier Villars, known as Willy, an older man famous in the milieu of literature and arts. He publishes Colette memories of school under his name in 1900 in book named Claudine at School. She becomes an invisible figure of literature in her first years as a writer, regardless of the success of her novels. Despite being in the shadow of her husband, she is the one who will stay in history by practicing numerous professions like journalist and critic, by playing in several musicals in the Moulin Rouge and the Bataclan. She lives accordingly to the period in this spirit of freedom and carefreeness.

She is an incredibly modern figure of French society. She has open homosexual relationships with women from the aristocracy like Mathilde de Morny, daughter of the duke de Morny. Those years of her life are years of scandal and liberation of morals, with her divorcing her first husband, Willy, in 1906. She takes back the rights of her previous novels by signing the last book of the Claudine called La Retraite Sentimentale in 1907.

Her attitude and freedom of character made her a controversial figure of French society, however it does not make her less essential. On the contrary, it makes Colette a worldly-known persona. She is the second woman to be elected at unanimity at the Congourt Academy in 1945. Moreover, she is nominated for the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1948 and is the first woman writer to have national funerals. She went from being a “nobody” in a milieu directed by men to an icon a female independence.

Her relationships with women open to the public eye places a precedent that society is evolving in terms of accepting homosexual relationships. If it is still controversial, France is a precursor of tolerance by not condemning homosexuality.

The two poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud are worldly known for being cursed artists and lovers. Their love story is one of the most chaotic and famous of their period. Verlaine is married to Mathilde when he meets Rimbaud in 1871. He is intrigued by the talent of the seventeen-yearold. Their relationship causes a huge controversy in the media by provoking the bourgeoisie and abusing of alcohol. The scandal reaches its climax during a diner party in 1872 where Rimbaud attacks and hurts the famous photograph Etienne Carjat with a swordstick. Verlaine’s wife leaves him later on this year and the two lovers escape their reputation in the capital and leave for London. Verlaine is torn apart between his love for his wife and for Rimbaud which is the subject of several poems in his collection Romances sans Paroles. In 1873, in Brussel, Verlaine wants to go back to Mathilde and threatens to kill himself if he cannot have her back. Rimbaud, not taking the warning seriously, announces his departure to Paris, without Verlaine. The 10th of July 1873, drunk and hurt by the rejection of his companion, Verlaine shoots two times at Rimbaud who get slightly injured. Verlaine gets arrested. Mathilde divorces Verlaine in May 1885, after one last attempt from him to get her back. After his release in 1875, Verlaine meets Rimbaud in Stuttgart one last time, where they finish their relationship like it started, in great passion.

If the Arisocats did not have the easiest journey, “La Belle Epoque” was not a smooth sailing either. The 19 th century is a great period of evolution in the French society with the acceptance of new norms, morals and values. Those who were once marginalized are brought under the spotlight of Medias in a flourishing cultural ambiance. Like Marie would say: “Ladies don’t start fights, but they can finish them”. Although, it is a period remembered with nostalgia, it is also a time of inequalities, excess and passion.

Composed by,

Cecilia Fardoux, Undergraduate of English Literature