The space as invitation

In the novel Die Jalousie oder die Eifersucht ¹ by Alain Robbe-Grillet – the French language and the original title only have one word for both terms, jalousie and jealousy: ‘la jalousie’ – this word always refers to the venetian blinds providing shelter from the sun in a country house, never to jealousy. A … , wife of the narrator, plans to go into town with Franck, a friend of the house, to do some shopping. She does not specifically say what kind of shopping. We also don’t know whether she will come back to the country house later in the evening as she intimated; maybe there will be a change of plans. All this uncertainty unsettles the reader, even if – or perhaps precisely because – her husband/narrator/observer does not offer any comment about himself or his feelings. At the point of the novel where all suspicions consolidate without being explicitly verbalized in Chapters 6 and 7, everything is suddenly empty: ‘Now the house is empty.’ ‘Meanwhile the house is empty.’ ‘The patio is equally empty.’ ‘The courtyard is empty.’ ‘The whole house is empty. It has been empty since this morning.’ ‘If the bedroom is empty, there is no reason not to open the blinds.’ ‘The patio is also empty.’ ²