ABSTRACT
Marcel Proust shows that sadomasochism is the result of an inner conflict. Mlle Vinteuil’s masochistic nature is temporarily suspended by way of the perverse phantasy. Mlle Vinteuil loves her father very deeply but, as the narrator does to his mother, she robs him of any hope for a “respectable future” for the daughter for whom he lives. Mlle Vinteuil’s father tries to do the exact opposite. Although she is sensitive by nature, she behaves in a crude and mannish fashion and is admonished to act more like a bashful girl. Mlle Vinteuil has a solid, almost masculine build, but her father treats her as if she were a frail girl. “Mlle Vinteuil must be riddled with guilt feelings about the pain she causes her father”, the mother says somewhat insinuatingly to the narrator. Mlle Vinteuil identifies with her father as victim and with her friend as executioner, which provides her with the advantage of enjoying both sadistic and masochistic lust.
