M. WASSELIN (Compared with M. Pasquier)
1) They were different in appearance
M. Pasquier and M. Wasselin looked to be two very different men. M. Pasquier was a handsome man of the world. He had a permanent smile, youthful looking and smartly dressed. In contrast the tall and skinny M. Wasselin was unfashionable, and M. Pasquier’s description for him was a church sacristan witha hangdog look, which perhaps suggests a gloomy faced, pompous self-important man (p. 89):
Grand, non pas grêle mais plutôt efflanqué, le visage complètement ras, ce qu'on ne voyait, en ce temps-la qu'aux prêtres et aux acteurs, M. Wasselin avait l'allure et les façons d'un sacristain patibulaire." L'expression est de papa.
2) Both men had a similar ironical outlook
Nevertheless, there is a relationship and even a similarity in a number of facets of the two men’s character and life and that is found even in their appearance and manner. Both men looked at the world with much the same detached irony. We have spoken of the look of mockery even in the smile that M. Pasquier usually wore.Mme Pasquier explained to her husband that one of the causes of his unpopularity with her family was the impression he gave of always seeming make fun of everyone
3) Both men had the same self-righteousness and the same over-readiness to pontificate
M. Pasquier did not have the pomposity of M. Wasselin. This he first demonstrated when, having caused the deplorable quarrel with his elder son on the landing, he apologised with sententious self-righteousness Page 91:
Le coupable s’est enfui. Justice est faite !" dit M. Wasselin d'une voix grondante et, se tournant vers notre groupe aperçu soudainement, il fit un ample salut. " Quelle honte ! Quelle infamie ! Et en présence d'une famille honorable. Veuillez nous excuser, comme nous pardonnons nous-mêmes à l'enfant indigne.However, M. Pasquier also had the same self-importance to pontificate to others about their behaviour – in his case on the subjects of scratching one’s person in public, yawning, nose picking and holding babies wrongly.
4) Both men had the habit of making public demonstration, in which there was an element of play-acting
One of the titles of Chapter 9 where the outbursts of public anger of M. Pasquier are described is: “La colère considérée comme un des beaux-arts”. The author tells us thatin these heated moments, M. Pasquier, nevertheless, still seemed in control of himself and he was like an artist giving a virtuoso performance, (page 125). This eccentric feature of character is reproduced, strangely enough in the Pasquier’s next door neighbour. Laurent tells us, Page 89:
A plus de quarante années de distance, le ménage Wasselin m'apparaît comme un couple de cabotins jouant leur vie à la façon d'une pièce tragi-comique.He illustrates this by the incident that occurred on the top floor landing, soon after their arrival in the Rue Vandamme, Page 91 :
Nous découvrîmes tous la scène. Debout devant sa porte, une main dans son gilet, l'autre agitant la serviette du repas, M. Wasselin prenait des poses tragiques. Mme Wasselin, agenouillée sur notre paillasson, ses jupes bouffant autour d'elle comme dans un tableau de Greuze, poussait des clameurs factices arrosées de pleurs véritables.In his loud and forceful chatisement of his son, M. Wasselin, at that moment displayed cool self-control and depicted himself as the proper defender of correct human values:
« Le coupable s'est enfui. Justice est faite! » dit M. Wasselin d'une voix grondante et, se tournant vers notre groupe aperçu soudainement, il fit un ample salut. « Quelle honte! Quelle infamie! Et en présence d'une famille honorable. Veuillez nous excuser, comme nous pardonnons nous-mêmes à l'enfant indigne. Du calme, Paula! De la sérénité. De la résignation.5) Both men were intelligent and well-educated.
Désiré expressed his admiration for his father’s intelligence Page 161
....... mon cher Désiré. Il était presque joyeux, son regard brillait d'orgueil. Papa disait-il, tu ne le connais pas bien. Il a l'air, comme ça de plaisanter; mais il est très intelligent
Joseph reminded his father that M. Wasselin was an educated man, telling him (page 113) that M. Wasselin had his baccalaureat and another diploma. It is probable that he held professional qualifications in accountancy as this was the work that he was doing when he first appeared in the storyBoth men were apparently well-read. M. Pasquier had recognised Wasselin’s Corneille reference, when he made a mocking pun on his female boss at the shop “La Cour de Flandres Page 93:
Manuel Wasselin était, au début de cette période, comptable à la Cour des Flandres, magasin de nouveautés fondé par une illustre femme d'affaires. Il ne parlait jamais de sa profession sans parodier un vers que notre père nous dit être de Corneille.
— Il est de tout son sang comptable à sa patronne, déclamait le bouffon en insistant sur le mot capital.The cruel epithet by which M. Wasselin referred to Désiré, was taken from two lines of a poem by Lamartine, more recently quoted in a play by Edmond Rostand ( Page 96):
Courage, enfant déchu d'une race divine.
Tu portes sur ton front ta superbe origine...The nickname that he gave to Laurent, jeune Eliacin , also attested to his learning.
7) Their education gave to both of them fluency and force of expression .
Désiré admires how eloquent his father can be (page 161):
Tu ne peux pas savoir, tu ne le vois jamais qu'une minute par-ci, par-là. Mais il parle, quand il veut... Il y a de quoi pleurer tellement c'est beau, tellement ça coule."
8) Yet both these intelligent men were very prone to self-delusion.
M. Wasselin made a game of inviting the Pasquier to chicken dinner at his house. These invitations never came about but by constant repetition, M. Wasselin began to believe that these had in fact taken place:–
Ce rêve intermittent prenait parfois des formes hallucinatoires. A force d'avoir vanté les vertus du poulet d'honneur, M. Wasselin s'imaginait nous l'avoir fait, vraiment manger. Il me rencontra, certain soir, au pied de l'escalier, dans l'ombre, et me dit, jubilant, la salive à la bouche : « Il faudra recommencer, n'est-ce pas, jeune Eliacin? »The mythical affair of the expropriation of their apartment block by the railway company gave him the opportunity to star in a world of complete fantasy, page150 new edition:
Ce fut, pour M. Wasselin, une période brillante. Il avait de grandes pensées, de grands desseins, de grands mots. Il proposa tout de suite de fonder une « Amicale des locataires ». Il écrivait ce titre sur des feuilles de papier, en ronde, en bâtarde, en gothique. Il imaginait des sous-titres : « Groupement solidaire pour la sauvegarde des citoyens touchés par les expropriations imminentes. »9) Both men showed similar irresponsibility in the way in which they conducted their personal finances
Although M Wasselin was an accountant by profession, he was totally irresponsible in the way in which he conducted his personal financial affairs. He was convinced that he could make his fortune and other people’s by using subtle gambling techniques,Page 182:
Wasselin, chassé de partout, s'était mis à jouer aux courses, non plus de manière accidentelle, mais avec une persévérance, une assiduité surprenantes chez cet homme " libre et volatil." Il allait presque chaque jour en banlieue, dressait des listes, pointait des noms,* se livrait à des calculs prodigieusement compliqués, consultait des ouvrages, appliquait avec rigueur des méthodes savantes qui changeaient chaque semaine. Bref il travaillait beaucoup plus qu'il ne l'avait jamais fait dans aucun emploi régulier……… Songez, en attendant ! Ce n'est pas une question de chance ; je sais que vous n'aimez pas ça. Au contraire, c'est absolument mathématique. Vous mettez cent sous, cent malheureux sous et vous touchez dix fois, douze fois la mise.When these schemes inevitably failed, he misappropriated the money of his employer, leading to his- and his family’s – downfall.
10) M. Pasquier and M. Wasselin were also, both of them, loners, valuing their independence above all else.
Mr Pasquier resented the yoke of being in someone’s employment and M. Wasselin similarly was impatient of the discipline of regular employment, resentful of his superiors and changing jobs constantly. We are told page 92:
En fait, il changeait sans cesse de maison et d'emploi, errait de bureau en bureau, le plus souvent congédié sans procès et cherchant lui-même, quand on le tolérait, d'invraisemblables raisons de fuite. « Je suis fait ainsi, déclarait-il. Je suis un homme libre et volatil. Je suis un insoumis, un impatient. Impatient du joug, jeunes gens! La vie est faite ainsi et non seulement l'immonde race humaine. Il y a des limaces impatientes et des huîtres qui ne tiennent pas en place. J'aime l'inconnu, l'inexploré. »11) Just like M. Pasquier, M. Wasselin reacted against authority and broke the rules.
Page 94:Il était extraordinairement chapardeur. Il ramenait chaque jour de son bureau toutes sortes de menus objets, des crayons, des cahiers, des enveloppes, des pots de colle, des timbres. Ces larcins n'avaient d'ailleurs à ses yeux pas une ombre d'importance et ne l'empêchaient pas de faire à ses enfants de somptueux discours sur le scrupule et la probité.
M. Wasselin broke the rules of sexual morality also. He had adulterous relationships and brazenly justified them to his wife, claiming that his infidelity was a tribute of his love for her (End of chapter 6):
— C'est par amour, Paula, que je t'ai épousée. Et si je t'ai trompée, c'est par amour encore. 'Sache-le, Paula, je ne t'ai jamais trompée qu'avec des femmes qui te ressemblaient, oui, Paula, qui te ressemblaient plus que tu ne te ressembles toi-même. Explique-moi ça, Paula.
— Ah! gémissait Mme Wasselin, fais ce que tu voudras, misérable, ……….It is only a brief comment in our book that tells us that, in later life, M. Pasquier was unfaithful to his devoted, self-sacrificing wife. In a later book, M. Pasquier makes a similar style of self-justification, claiming that he was a man who was capable of fidelity to more than one woman.
12) Both men were prone to violent outbursts of anger.
We have seen how M. Pasquier, when frustrated or pushed too hard, reacted with destructive anger. M.Wasselin had similar outbursts, in his case involving great cruelty. Most disgracefully, he vented his anger on his youngest child. Laurent thought sadly of Désiré Page 202:
Son père, irrité de maintes mésaventures, de maints échecs, affronts et faux pas, s'était avisé de chercher du soulagement en battant son plus jeune fils. Oh! non plus par caprice, mais avec régularité, deux ou trois fois par semaine, dans une intimité farouche, toutes portes closes et Mme Wasselin préalablement refoulée sur le palier.His verbal abuse of Désiré was particularly repugnant, page 83 new edition
— Je n'en rougis pas, j'en souffre. Il est idiot.Soit! Ce sera ma croix. Toute famille a son idiot, son épileptique, son syphilitique, son tuberculeux, son escroc, sa fille de mauvaise vie. Et les familles qui ne sont pas encore pourvues le seront bientôt. Dieu est équitable!
La voix s'élevait, théâtrale. Et, tout à coup, on entendait un fracas de vaisselle ou de meubles. Une espèce de convulsion secouait planchers et murailles. Désiré commençait de supplier et de gémir.13 A similarity of detail –Both men had distinctive vocal mannerisms.
Just as the repeated hums that M. Pasquier sometimes emitted gave waning of his emotional tension, so M. Wasselin had his own “war cry”M. Wasselin ricanait et faisait rouler son bruit favori, ce prrrt qu'il appelait son « cri de guerre.
It was as a result of this mannerism that the Pasquier had nicknamed M. Wasselin M. Prrrt, Page 89:
Les premiers jours nous l'avions, sans le connaître, dès avant que de l'avoir vu, surnommé M. Prrrt, à cause de cet appel désinvolte qu'il lançait, pour avertir les siens, en faisant rouler l'air entre sa langue et son palais. Parvenait-il à l'angle de la rue, il n'abordait pas la maison sans lancer un prrrt vigoureux. Partait-il au travail, nouveau prrrt, strident comme un sifflet de machine, sans doute en signe d'adieu. Gravissait-il l'escalier sonore, prrrt et encore prrrt. Et, le matin, au lit, pour éveiller sa femme et ses enfants, c'étaient encore des prrt à percer les murailles.Conclusion - Could there be a significance in the ressemblances of the two main adult characters?
The similarity of the individual character traits of the two main adult characters in this book is very striking. We have noted that Duhamel's major concern in writing this book was to come to terms with his memories of his father. Although he had told us that he was unable to love his father and had memories of him that left him with lifelong tensions, our study of the character of Monsieur Pasquier, who represents Duhamel senior in "Le Notaire du Havre", show a character, who, while having the normal share of human faults and the generous share of human eccentricity, successfully held together his family, retained the love of his wife and sacrificed himself for the future of his children. The climax of the book showed him almost heroic making a dramatic stand to to defend it innocent and oppressed neighbours. It is possible that Duhamel expressed in the character of M. Wasselin the darker side of his father's character, which he found to painful to include in his official portrait provided by M. Pasquier. Some of these would be the dangerous potentialities of the paternal character which added constant anxiety to the life young Duhamel. In the character and life story of M. Vasselin, it would seem that the author expressed the the harsher and crueller reality and depicted as an actual event the catastrophe that a little boy lived in fear - the momemt when his father's recklessness and irresponsibility, would lead to their ruin and the knock of the police on their door, with the family destroyed.
Allocating experiences to M. Wasselin, allowed Duhamel to mention deeply embarrassing moments, such as the awareness of his father's promiscuity, and attributed to their neighbour, as we have seen in M. Wasselin’s open admission quoted above.
A profound sexual embarrassment for a child is related as involving the Wasselins. When the two boys arrived back from school at the end of the afternoon, they found the door of the Wasselin apartment locked, with no sign of life. Désiré, believing that his mother is out shopping is satisfied to wait on the landing, Laurent unaccountably looks through the Wasselin and sees that Désiré’s parents are, in fact in the bedroom, that opens onto the entrance door. The event that follows sees Désiré getting very upset and uncharacteristically threatening Laurent, the little friend he normally protects. Désiré had asked Laurent what he could see through the key-hole and Laurent replied page 102:
— Oh! je ne sais pas trop. Ton père enlève sa veste. Écoute : on l'entend rire.
Désiré venait de faire un bond. Il m'écarta de la porte, mit l'oeil à la serrure et ne regarda qu'un instant. Quand il se retourna, j'eus peine à le reconnaître : il était pâle et frémissant.
— Qu'est-ce que tu as vu encore?
— Mais, rien, rien, fis-je, bouleversé.
— Eh bien, ne regarde plus, gronda l'enfant. Ne regarde plus jamais. Désiré clenches his fists and threatens to kill Laurent if he looks again.
We are well aware of the passionate love that Mme Pasquier felt for her husband, which she described in chapter ten to Mlle Bailleul. It is perhaps likely, therefore that it was the young Georges Duhamel who came home from school, to find the door of his home mysteriously locked and looking through the keyhole, saw his parents happily engaged in intimate love. An experience so disturbing that he had to vent in much later years in his autobiographical book, being careful, perhaps, to transpose it, from the Pasquier , who represent his parents , to the Wasselin. If so, this would be a demonstration of the continuing force of a highly emotional memory of his father – and also the part M. Wasselin plays in this expression.
Much more disturbing would be a link, if we think of the abuse of Désiré by M. Wasselin and transpose in this context the names of Laurent and M. Pasquier. It would be very worrying, indeed, to speculate that Laurent representing the young Duhamel, who was weak, short-sighted and sickly was secretly made to believe that he was the runt of the family that, M. Pasquier, the handsome, man of the world could not believe that he had fathered. We could certainly understand why Duhamel/ Laurent was incapable of love for his father and had a complex about him, which burdened him the rest of his life, if these words, spoken by M. Wasselin in moments of frustration and vicious bad temper, had been spoken by M. Duhamel senior/ M. Pasquier, page 96:
Souvent, il se contentait d'appeler son fils " enfant déchu ". Il criait : " Va me chercher du tabac, enfant déchu... Remonte une bouteille de bière, enfant déchu... " Plus souvent encore, il criait, avec un terrible accent faubourien, ces mots peu compréhensibles au profane : " Enfant dédèche... Êtes-vous prêt, enfant dédèche... " * Il ajoutait tout aussitôt des injures mystérieuses : " avorton... dégénéré... phénomène... sous-produit... "This interpretation of "Le Notaire Du Havre" is, of course, founded upon speculation that cannot be verified. What is certain is that this classic of French literature gives a valuable insight into the social and political history of France in the late 19th and early 20th century and this very human story of a young family is very powerful because of the need of the author the reproduce and analyse the personal childhood experiences, which deeply troubled him far into his adult years.
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