The Poetics of the Hand in Le rouge et le noir

Abstract:The hand, conspicuous in Julien Sorel’s relationship with Mme de Rênal, assumes a predominant role throughout Le rouge et le noir. Engaging nineteenth-century scholars Lavater, Bichat, and Bell, and contemporary philosophers Heidegger and Derrida, this essay proposes to show that character and identity are mediated through the hand. The study examines the thinking hand, the hand as instrument of will, the speaking hand, and the writing hand as the hand of protection and betrayal. The dispersion and divergence of the hand’s functions breach the essential relationship between the being and the hand, revealing the characters’ ambivalence and duplicity.