The Glass Cage
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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La Cage de verre (1971, The Glass Cage) is a 'roman dur' by Georges Simenon.
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Summary
Émile Virieu is a printer's proofreader in Paris. He comes from Étampes, after his baccalaureate, works at a few mediocre jobs and eventually finds himself in the glass cage (als found in Four Days In A Lifetime and The Iron Staircase), where he is locked up with his sets of proofs all day long, the enclosed place that provides him with security at a distance from his fellow men. To escape the hotel life, he has married, without real love, a young widow three years older than him whom he knew as a typist at the printing office. After the marriage, Jeanne works from home as a translator for a publishing house.
The monotony of this quiet, flat life, with no events other than a vacation trip to Italy and the purchase of a young dog, is interrupted by the disruption of the household of Géraldine, Emile's sister, who has long since moved to Paris. Her husband, Fernand Lamarck, is a resourceful and exuberant man. One day, he falls in love with a young girl whom he intends to marry after a divorce to which Géraldine, a responsible mother, who does not intend to agree.
Things turn tragic when Fernand learns from his wife's lawyer that the family expenses resulting from the divorce will no longer allow him to live comfortably, while the young Lise Bourdet decides to put an end to their relationship. After a violent scene at the Virieu's, who can't take it anymore, Fernand, drunk and desperate, kills himself in front of his mistress' door.
This tragedy marks Emile more than his inertia, his exterior apathy, would indicate. One morning, on his way to work, he discovers the existence of a neighbor who goes out at the same time as him to do her shopping. The scene is repeated the following days and the Kellers - a newly married couple recently settled in the building - invite the Virieus to their home. Lina Keller will take advantage of the morning meetings with Emile to tease him. Although a little disturbed, he does not react. Soon, his discomforts, until then occasional, are complicated by more or less obsessive dreams. A doctor he consults sends him to a neurologist, which completes Émile's exasperation. In the meantime, Lina, playing the game of a provocative child, proposes to him to come to her house, one afternoon when Jeanne is absent. Emile goes there: in front of his frozen features, his face without expression, Lina is afraid. But it is not Lina that Émile sees: it is "them all. Them. The Men." So he strangles the young woman, goes home, takes the dog on his lap and, when his wife returns, it is almost with relief that he tells her the news.
Production
Simenon finished writing this novel on March 17, 1971, in Epalinges (canton of Vaud), Switzerland.
Special aspects of the novel
The novel traces the subterranean path that turns a psychopath into a criminal. A "stranger everywhere," the main character manifests an indifference to the world as long as the world does not bother him: this is the case of the man whose normal appearance conceals his inability to establish a positive relationship with society. The terseness of his words in dialogue is commensurate with his passivity, secretly hostile.
Work description
Space and time frame
Space
Paris.
Time
Contemporary time.
Characters
Main character
Émile Vrieu. Corrector at Imprimeries Jodet et fils. Married, no children. 43 years old.
Other characters
- Jeanne Vrieu, wife of Emile, typist, then translator, 46 years old
- Géraldine Lamarck, Emile's sister, married, three children, 42 years old
- Fernand Lamarck, her husband, designer in an advertising company, 46 years old
- Lise Bourdet, Fernand Lamarck's mistress, 20 years old
- François Keller, sales representative, and his wife Lina, 20 years old.
