Saturday, August 26, 2017
Franz's Version of Living in Truth
Sabina and Franz’s views on privacy are, as we discussed this week, polar opposites; but I think that, more than these opposing views, the difference here that truly distinguishes their characters is that Franz, who believes that he cannot live honestly unless his actions are seen by the public eye, doesn’t seem to try to make a concerted effort to actually live his life “honestly,” at least not to the extent that Sabina does. Franz is preoccupied with the idea of the public eye constantly judging him often fails to be truthful. Even when he separates from Marie-Claude, his relationship with the student has so many levels of dishonesty. In fact, what exactly is “living in truth” to Franz? Does it only mean living life with a merged public and private life, and how much does that actually have to do with living honestly, if you can’t even be honest with yourself about who your wife is under your own idealized version of her?
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Speaking of Franz and his idealized version of his wife...
It's mentioned that Franz doesn't necessarily respect his wife (clearly he does not, since he cheats on her), but he does respect the "woman" in her. But then, what is exactly is woman, beyond just the textbook definition? A woman is made of flaws too, and is not always meant to be totally pure, chaste, and full of grace as the Virgin Mary is so often depicted—and as Sabina obviously is not.
I think it's interesting that one of the first words misunderstood between Franz and Sabina is "woman." A word that might be thought of as so fundamental and simple, perhaps especially in the context of a romantic relationship, is changed into something complex, which leads us in turn to a rather difficult question to answer: What or who exactly is a woman? What does that really mean? Obviously Franz and Sabina disagree. All Franz seems to see is the beautiful surface, the intelligible truth; whereas Sabina reaches deeper towards the unintelligible lie.
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