L’expression des

4
émotions

RÉSUMÉ

Humans are partly made of such stuff as

emotions and feelings are made on. What
people feel and experience makes them who
they are and can even change the course of
their lives, as illustrated and demonstrated by
so many plays, novels and poems. Feelings and
emotions can contribute to (re)shaping one's
identity and world view. In other words, people
feel therefore they are, which is also why the
way they love, hate or suffer entirely depends
on their personalities. Each and everyone keeps
trying to Cnd a workable balance between
reason and emotions. Artists and writers seek
to do so through their art. Love, joy, grief, anger
and hatred, to name but the most common, are
the fuel of art, whether they are transformed
into stories, poems and dramas or simply
expressed and conveyed. Because feelings and
emotions involve self-expression, they have
given birth to many different literary and
pictorial genres and artistic movements, among
which lyrical poetry and drama, diaries and
abstract expressionism. 

I Feeling as a mode of self-

expression
There is a wide range of emotions and feelings
one can experience; joy, sadness, anger,
melancholy, for example. They determine one's
perceptions of the world around one as well as
how one relates to other people. These emotions
can be expressed or repressed in many different
ways, especially in literature and the arts. Lyricism
is often used to convey emotions. In private
writings, feelings are expressed freely. In literature
it is possible to express strong and powerful
feelings.

A Lyricism

Lyricism is a form of self-expression through

which writers explore characters' inner worlds or
the innermost parts of their own interiority.
Thanks to poetic language, emotions and feelings
morph into metaphors, hyperboles and
personi>cations. Lyricisms enables introspection
and odes to nature.

1. Introspection

Many 19th and 20th century poets and novelists,

such as Emily Brontë or James Joyce, used
introspection as a mode of (self-)expression.

Poetry provided Brontë – and the Romantic poets

before her – with the best suited language to
describe both her secret inner world and the
natural environment she cherished. Most of her
poems deal with death, seasonal changes and the
imagination. "The Old Stoic," which almost
certainly refers to herself, reads like an
autobiographical poem. 

"Riches I hold in light esteem,

   And Love I laugh to scorn;
And lust of fame was but a dream,
   That vanished with the morn:
And if I pray, the only prayer
   That moves my lips for me
Is, "Leave the heart that now I bear,
   And give me liberty!"
Yes, as my swift days near their goal:
   'Tis all that I implore;
In life and death a chainless soul,
   With courage to endure."

Emily Brontë
"The Old Stoic" - 1841

Through this rather

humble self-portrait,
she expresses her
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rejection of love and
wealth to deCne herself as essentially
free, "a chainless soul." She advocates
self-isolation in a world of one's own as
a refuge from these earthly passions,
which can only enslave people and make
them unhappy. Reading her poems, one
understands that Emily Brontë must
have inhabited two worlds at the same
time. There is the earthly reality she was
born into and the world she built inside
herself thanks to her imagination and
where she retreats as often as possible.

In another poem entitled "To Imagination," Emily

Brontë laments that "so hopeless is the world
without:/The world within I doubly prize." In this
poem, she writes that thanks to poetry and the
imagination, the poet can transform reality into a
perfect world of her own, where she can be herself
fully, at one with nature. This poem may have
inspired the following by Emily Dickinson. 

"I Dwell in Possibility – 

A Fairer House than Prose – 
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –
Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of Eye –
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky – 
Of Visitors – the fairest – 
For Occupation – This – 
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –"

Emily Dickinson
The Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson -
© Faber&Faber, 1975

In Dickinson's poem,
poetry itself represents
an alternative world
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where she can revisit
reality and reinvent herself as she
pleases. Indeed, she likens poetry to a
house with as many openings as she
needs, a house that can be limitlessly
extended to host emotions, aspirations
and poems. Because poetry
transgresses the grammatical rules of
prose, it grants one absolute freedom to
imagine and write everything that takes
the poet's fancy. Verse liberates both
imagination and creativity.

English French

Innermost Le plus intime

To morph Se transformer en/se muer en

into

To Chérir
cherish

To scorn Mépriser

To Asservir
enslave

To retreat Se retirer (du monde)

into

To lament Déplorer

Within En soi/à l'intérieur de soi

Without Extérieur à soi/à l'extérieur

(acception vieillie)

To shield Protéger comme un bouclier

A paean Une ode

To dwell Résider

2. Odes to Nature

Nature is another essential source of inspiration

for poets, who see it as reOecting their changing
emotional states.

Nature stimulates both their senses and

imaginations. When depicting nature, poets often
project their own emotions and feelings on it,
thereby turning landscapes, seasonal changes
and atmospheric variations into the mirrors of
their soul and heart. Autumn is typically
associated with grief, melancholy or nostalgia, as
in Keats's poem "To Autumn."

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
      With fruit the vines that round the  thatch-
eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
   And Cll all fruit with ripeness to the core;
            To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel
shells
   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later bowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
      For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy
cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
   Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may Cnd
Thee sitting careless on a granary boor,
   Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
   Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while
thy hook
      Spares the next swath and all its twined
bowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
   Steady thy laden head across a brook;
   Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
      Thou watchest the last oozings hours by
hours.
Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are
they?
   Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
   And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
   Among the river sallows, borne aloft
      Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly
bourn;
   Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble
soft
   The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
      And gathering swallows twitter in the
skies."

John Keats
"To Autumn" - 1820

Keats's poem offers an

ambiguous portrayal of
the season, between
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warmth and chill, life
and death. Autumn is depicted through
its effect on nature as the lively
continuation of summer leading to
winter, the "season of mist and mellow
fruitlessness." The poet's insistence on
ripeness or "maturity" may suggest that
the ode is a symbolic, but no less wistful,
depiction of adulthood, when one
achieves one's goals, before old age and
death. Maturity and experience come
with a few invaluable perks, among
which success, self-fulClment and
quietness of the soul, metaphorically
referred to as "Cll[ing] all fruit with
ripeness to the core" and "set[ting]
budding more,/And still more, later
bowers for the bees,/Until they think
warm days will never cease." Although
adulthood, like autumn, is a season of
plenty, it may make one yearn for one's
youth: "Where are the songs of spring?
Ay, Where are they?/Think not of them,
thou hast thy music too,—/While barred
clouds bloom the soft-dying day."
Melancholy has to be dismissed ("think
not of them") for individuals to enjoy
adult life fully ("thou hast thy music
too"). The busy bees mentioned in the
Crst stanza might stand for humans
striving to be successful and happy,
each in their own way. Through a
vibrantly hopeful depiction of nature in
autumn, the poet celebrates both nature
and maturity, Clling the reader with
peaceful contentment. Reading this
poem, one doesn't feel despondent, but
conCdent while aging. 

Nature was also one of Emily Brontë's favourite

sources of inspiration. She enjoyed walking on the
moors for hours on her own, resting on a crag or
admiring the wind-swept heath stretching
endlessly in front of her. The wild and hostile
Yorkshire landscapes of her childhood were her
refuge from a reality, which she often found as
stibing as her cramped home. She shares the
elating and liberating emotions stirred by the
landscape in a stanza from an untitled poem
dedicated to the heath. Brontë's well-known poem,
"The Bluebell", shows how comforting nature was
to her. 

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The Bluebell is the sweetest bower
That waves in summer air:
Its blossoms have the mightiest power
To soothe my spirit's care.
There is a spell in purple heath
Too wildly, sadly dear;
The violet has a fragrant breath,
But fragrance will not cheer,
The trees are bare, the sun is cold,
And seldom, seldom seen;
The heavens have lost their zone of gold,
And earth her robe of green.
And ice upon the glancing stream
Has cast its sombre shade;
And distant hills and valleys seem
In frozen mist arrayed.
The Bluebell cannot charm me now,
The heath has lost its bloom;
The violets in the glen below,
They yield no sweet perfume.
But, though I mourn the sweet Bluebell,
'Tis better far away;
I know how fast my tears would swell
To see it smile to-day.
For, oh! when chill the sunbeams fall
Adown that dreary sky,
And gild yon dank and darkened wall
With transient brilliancy;
How do I weep, how do I pine
For the time of bowers to come,
And turn me from that fading shine,
To mourn the Celds of home!

Emily Brontë
"The Bluebell" - 1846

This poem, which is as

tinged with nostalgia
as Keats's, is an ode to
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the bracing revival of
spring symbolized by the bluebell, a very
common bower in Britain, which heralds
the end of winter. The poem can be
divided into two main parts, one praising
the bower and one cursing winter, when
the it is no longer blooming. Moreover,
not only does the bluebell symbolize
spring, it also seems to be associated
with the poet's home, which she misses:
"How do I weep, how do I pine/For the
time of bowers to come,/And turn me
from that fading shine,/To mourn the
Celds of home!" The passage of time,
represented by season changes, is
painful to the poet, as it results in loss
and death. 

English French

Chill La fraîcheur

A perk Un avantage

Wistful Mélancolique

Ripeness La maturité (pour les fruits et

légumes)

A bud Un bouton/bourgeon

To bud Bourgeonner

To yearn for Se languir de

To strive to S'évertuer à

Despondent Triste/découragé

Moors La lande

Heath La lande

Crag Un rocher

Bracing Revigorant

To curse Maudire

To bloom Fleurir

Bluebell Un campanule

B Private writings

Private writings are a form that conveys feelings

the best. This is why epistolary >ction is often
used by writers. In diaries and travel journals
writers also express their feelings.

1. Epistolary Gction

Letters are a form of subjective writing, in so far

as it establishes a remote conversation between
two individuals who trust each other. Far from
serving to send news, letters can also serve to
express emotions, to declare love or confess
something.

What is couched in a letter is often very personal,

which implies intimacy. Epistolary Cction
developed as a genre in France during the second
half of the 18th century, paving the way to
Romantic lyricism. One can think of Laclos's Les
Liaisons dangereuses or Rousseau's La Nouvelle
Héloïse. This literary trend was also followed by a
few English writers such as Richardson and
Frances Burney. Characterization was made more
complex and accurate thanks to letter writing.
Indeed, letters provide access to the protagonists'
hearts and minds, thus often adding emotional
depth to their personalities and intensity to the
plot. Reading characters' letters, one also reads
through them. That's why feelings and emotions
are paramount in epistolary novels. 

In Evelina by Frances Burney, the letters written by

the eponymous heroine read like diary entries,
hence a lot of subjectivity. She reveals her
aesthetic sensibility in many of her letters
describing theatrical or opera performances to a
friend. Letters also allow minute introspection and
in-depth analyses of characters' emotions and
reactions, as in this one by Evelina to her guardian,
attempting but failing to come to grips with her
overwhelming emotions: 

"I attempt not to describe my sensations at

that moment; I scarce breathed; I doubted if I
existed,-the blood forsook my cheeks, and my
feet refused to sustain me: Lord Orville,
hastily rising, supported me to a chair, upon
which I sunk, almost lifeless.
For a few minutes, we neither of us spoke;
and then, seeing me recover, Lord Orville,
though in terms hardly articulate, intreated my
pardon for his abruptness. The moment my
strength returned, I attempted to rise, but he
would not permit me.
I cannot write the scene that followed, though
every word is engraven on my heart; but his
protestations, his expressions, were too
battering for repetition: nor would he, in spite
of my repeated efforts to leave him, suffer me
to escape:-in short, my dear Sir, I was not
proof against his solicitations-and he drew
from me the most sacred secret of my heart!"

Frances Burney
Evelina, Letter LXXVI - 1778

In this letter, Evelina

seems to lay her heart
bare to her guardian,
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since what she
describes after Lord Orville declared his
love to her is most intimate and betrays
her own feelings for Orville. However,
she isn't exactly straightforward,
because she keeps repeating that she is
stuck for words to express her feelings
and explains that there are scenes she
cannot – will not – relate. She sounds
both willing and unwilling to admit to her
love for Lord Orville, resorting to
periphrases to avoid naming what she
feels. Either her feelings are too
strong and new for her to be able to
describe and share them just yet, or she
is refusing to admit to them. What is
really striking is that she shows herself
overly guilty to have allowed Orville to
guess how she feels about him, as if it
was a betrayal of both herself and her
guardian. Furthermore, this letter
inaugurates a turning point in the novel.
It indicates that Evelina has grown to
become her own woman. As such, she
feels emancipated and consequently
entitled to choose what she wants to tell
and what she would rather keep to
herself, because it is too personal. She
clearly puts some distance between
herself and her guardian and wishes to
deal with her feelings on her own. 

English French

Trend Une tendance

Paramount De la plus haute

importance

To come to grips Gérer

with

To lay one's heart Mettre son cœur à nu

bare

Guardian Un tuteur

Straightforward  Direct

To be stuck for Ne pas trouver ses

words mots

2.  Diaries and travel journals

Diaries and journals are among the most intimate

forms of personal and writing. They can be
compared to a catalogue of the writer's daily
emotions, sensations and impressions, where
one can give one's emotions free rein to unburden
and take stock of experiences.

Diaries are like friends that can be told everything,

without Clters, as in Anne Frank's diary. The writer
doesn't risk being judged or misunderstood, as
they don't need to justify themselves, unless
someone reads what they have written. Much of
the plot of Elizabeth Bowen's Death of the Heart
relies on the heroine diarist's sister-in-law reading
her diary and Cnding out about her feelings for a
young gentleman. This unexpected breech of trust
and encroachment on someone else's privacy is
depicted like a break-in:

Elizabeth Bowen
 
"One's sentiments – call them that – one's
Cdelities are so instinctive that one hardly
knows they exist: only when they are betrayed
or, worse still, when one betrays them does
one realize their power." 

1938

An interesting parallel
is drawn between
experience and self-
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development or even
identity. 

Elizabeth Bowen
"It is not our exalted feelings, it is our
sentiments that build the necessary home.
The need to attach themselves makes
wandering people strike roots in a day:
wherever we unconsciously feel, we live."

The Death of the Heart

1938

The feelings
experienced
throughout one's life
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contribute to shaping
individuals' thoughts and world
viewsFeelings are described as more
meaningful than transient emotions,
because one takes stock of one's
feelings. Writing about one's feelings,
detailing and dissecting them, is
essential to the process of self-
understanding and -determination.
That's why a diary in which they are
exposed, is such an important part of