Parallel Structures and Binary Oppositions in André Gide's L ...

important role in the lives of both characters. It is from his mother that Michel is encumbered
with the strictness of the protestant faith, and it is therefore through her eyes that he looks down
upon himself. Although with time, he has not only erased this harsh upbringing from his mind
but his mother’s picture as well. While Michel’s mother was an influence on his youth, Alissa’s
will be her undoing. Alissa’s mother, Lucile Bucolin, was not altogether well and her reputation
was stained by extra-marital affairs and an irrepressible sexuality. Jérôme himself falls victim to
this sexuality; he remembers,
. . . sortant son petit miroir, elle attire contre le sien mon visage, passe autour de
mon cou son bras nu, descend sa main dans ma chemise entrouverte, demande en
riant si je suis chatouilleux, pousse plus avant… J’eus un sursaut si brusque que
ma vareuse se déchira; le visage en feu, . . . je m’enfuis ; je courus jusqu’au fond
du jardin ; là, dans un petit citerneau du potager, je trempai mon mouchoir,
l’appliquai sur mon front, lavai, frottai mes joues, mon cou, tout ce que cette
femme avait touché. (21-2)
This woman who should be a paragon of motherly virtue is in fact just the opposite, and Alissa,
physically resembling her mother, cannot separate herself from the intensity of of Lucile’s vice.
Lucile Bucolin demands to be surrounded by Juliette and Robert but consistently separates
Alissa from the others. Alissa is left alone in her room while the other children sit at their
mother’s bedside. “Ces tristes jours, Alissa s’enfermait dans sa chambre, où parfois son père
venait la retrouver; car il causait souvent avec elle” (22). Alissa’s future isolation will be self-
inflicted, but it has at its origins this feeling of rejection at the hands of her mother. Lucile is
intentionally absent from her daughter’s life long before she physically takes her leave of the
entire family to run off with a young lieutenant. It is important to note that it is her mother’s
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