Professor

Amity School of Languages

Amity University

 Jaipur, Rajasthan, India 

Introduction

The author Anne Hébert in her award-winning novel “Kamaouraska” curves out a plot of vengeance by the female protagonist of her novel. Elizabeth, a young intelligent woman who is the wife of the Seigneur of Kamouraska, Antoine Tassy. She was an object of torture to her husband to the extent that medical cure became the ultimate solution for her. When she married a second time to save her honour in the neighbourhood, the marriage turned out to be a fiasco as no sharing and empathy she received from her second husband, Jerome Rolland, the latter used her to procure children only. By then, she became addicted to falling back on her past. All the while she would crave the return of her love, Dr. Nelson who had treated her wounds incurred by her first husband. Interestingly, the author took recourse to a literary ploy namely “analepsis” to highlight this characteristic of living in her memories. Kamouraskais deeply analeptic in the sense that the main character (Elisabeth) constantly returns to dark events in her life prior to the current story. To use the expression of André Brochu, it is "a novel of remembrance". It is so in terms of narration. As Alex Gagnon says, "...several literary devices mimic the chaotic functioning of the memory of Élisabethd'Aulnières, which constantly duplicates itself, dislocated by the irreducible tension between her past (that of ÉlisabethTassy) and her present (that of Elizabeth Rolland). »

This mental chaos to which Elisabeth was reduced, also shows her lamentable mental state. Mentally she is sick even if it cannot be seen; she does all her family duties due to her husband and eleven children. (eight from Jérôme, two from Antoine and one from Nelson).

Historicity of the work

Anne Hebert’s Kamarouska(1970)is inspired by a real murder committed in 1839 in the village of Kamouraska by Qué, an ancestor of the author. “Based on a “fait divers” (miscellaneous news item) from 1839, Anne Hébert’s novel Kamouraskatells the story of a murder not as an objective, exterior event, but as a lived event …by the heroine, Élisabethd’Aulnières” (Alex Gagnon, 2017).This work highlights too the shortcomings of the seigniorial cult of Quebec society. As a result, it has a historical importance related to the development of this francophone society. Canada's seigneurial system dates back to the time of Louis XIII, the King of France who had laid the foundation for the development of "New France". The lords were nobles, merchants or religious congregations, who had received a fief from the crown of France, with all its rights attached to people and property. The seigniory (a large piece of land) was granted by the governor and the intendant. This system had its genesis in 1627 and was formally abolished in 1854. Although it was a benevolent system in the early years that created a close relationship between peasants and landowners by developing small townships, over time it became an authoritarian and oppressive institution. As such, Kamouraska points out the weakness of this institution by highlighting the abusive, even monstrous behavior of the lord of Kamouraska, Antoine de Tassy, Elizabeth's first husband.

The pivotal character

 Regarding the portrait of Antoine de Tassy, he is the pivotal character around which a whole web of episodes was woven. He is a monstrous character, without balance and almost insane, who loves wine and girls to excess, tortures his wife to the point of killing her. Even his mother complains about his violent and crazy behavior. Antoine does not fulfill any duty owed to his wife nor to his parents nor to his children. Vagabond and wicked, his boundless violence pushes Elizabeth to conspire with George Nelson, the doctor sympathetic to her cause. Elizabeth's second husband is modeled after the first, a person whose looks and demeanor antagonize her and inspire no feelings of love in her. His name is Jérôme Rolland, the notary from Sorel whom she had to marry to regain her lost honor in her neighborhood. On this subject his delirious monologue deserves to be quoted: “I was only a faithful belly (to Jérôme) a womb to make children. [P.10] and Elizabeth had eight children with him and was a loyal wife for eighteen years. When the book begins Jerome was about to die and Elisabeth “felt a great peace” and the reader understands what a painful burden this man would have been for her! Seriously ill at heart, Jérôme was about to die. The doctor warns his wife of the precariousness of her husband's situation. This eventuality still made his wife happy, she longed for her deliverance being so close. So she says inwardly “Soon I will be free again. Become a widow again. I would already like to be covered in fine crepe and quality veils” [P. 10]

A lover on the run

The only consolation in the life of young Elizabeth, in her twenties, was George Nelson, the doctor whom her first husband brought in when she nearly died from the severe scars imposed on her frail body by her husband. An efficient doctor who devotes himself to the care of his patients without taking any rest even at night. He is a stranger in this environment of Sorel being from the United States. During the treatment of his patient (Elisabeth) he realizes the miserable condition of her life and his sympathy for her turns into love. The reader sees him ready to get rid of this monster personified by Antoine de Tassy. First, the two, Doctor Nelson and Elizabeth delegate Aurélie, the maid to poison Antoine but it does not succeed. Subsequently, Nelson takes it as his sacred duty to kill Antoine in Kamouraska, which he also achieves, but contrary to his promise to join Elizabeth, he flees to Canada to save himself. From this peak of the story Elizabeth does not give up her dream of Nelson's return to finally build an ideal life of love. The unexpected abandonment by her lover is all the more shocking because he is a good man. So she is traumatized again. But The history of cruelty does not end here. She was apprehended and imprisoned for two months where she lived in dire conditions.

Other Damned Women

All the female characters in this novel are unfortunate victims of their fate. The author brings to life the notion of fatality in her story. Elizabeth's mother becomes a widow after six months of married life. After the death of her husband, she wanted to cling to her status as "Madame" and refused to live out her widowhood with her single sisters. “Risking being confused with my single sisters. What an insult. (P.53) She persisted in dying at her husband's house, ignoring her little child. “Dressed up as a grandmother, despite her seventeen years, black dress, white cap, collar and cuffs of fine lingerie, she begins to grow old and to be desolate. Day and night. » (P.52) Finally, she yielded to the pressing demand of her sisters to return to her family home.

Elizabeth's three aunts remained celibate even though it was frowned upon by society at the time. Their excessive and unconditional affection for Elisabeth got the last of the very uncomfortable situations out.

Aurélie Caron, Elisabeth's first maid, who was responsible for poisoning Antoine Tassy. He was promised in exchange for this murderous act a comfortable life of a respectable lady. However, things will not go in her favor because Antoine Tassy does not die and she has to undergo two years of imprisonment.

Antoine Tassy's mother is a caring and stoic woman who helps the children of the poor and earns money by weaving clothes. She lived her widowhood in misery. Although she is against her son's wickedness she never confronts him about it and insists that her stepdaughter submit to his atrocities. Moreover, she was suspicious of Elisabeth. Elisabeth, who frequented her often to redress her complaints against her son, always came back disappointed.

Conclusion

By way of conclusion, it may be inferred that Kamouraska is a kind of documentation on the lives of women of the time. The society described is provincial or rural with a rudimentary economy, an ancient legal structure and a traditional educational system. From the point of view of the development of the youth, in particular, of the girls it does not offer much. Marriage takes place in the teens at the discretion of the parents. Married women are expected to stay home and give birth to children and raise them. In this context, Elisabeth, an eighteen-year-old girl with a romantic spirit and a taste for freedom, finds herself trapped and the victim of loveless affairs. She became a victim of depression and psychosis at the end.

References and Works cited:

Diouf, Mbaye.(2013) « Kamouraska d’Anne Hébert et Une si longue lettre de Mariama Bâ Un même « discours » féministe ? », Universiy of Victoria.

Hebert, Anne. (1970) Kamouraska. Editions du Seuil.

Gagnon, A. (2017). Mémoire Traumatique Et Mémoire Collective Dans Kamouraska. Voix et Images, 42(2), 137–150. Volume 42, No. 2. https://doi.org/10.7202/1039922ar

Watteyne, N.(2015) Les Cahiers Anne Hébert, 14 : Sexualité(s) dans l'oeuvre d'Anne Hébert. Edition de l’universite de Sherbrooke.https://savoirs.usherbrooke.ca/handle/11143/5852

Anne HÉBERT – Biographie : 1916-2000 (DOCUMENTAIRE, 2000) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqrjk-Yi8ds&t=271s

1973 : Kamouraska de Claude JutraGenvieve Bujold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJxzOjF0eUs&t=378s