The Age of Reason (Penguin Modern Classics)

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I mention the characters because there is little else and there doesn't need to be; the characterization is simply brilliant. Sartre cuts the frills to the bone and at times I wondered what period we were in-the 1930s, the 1870s or the 1960s. Are they selfish early yuppies? Beautiful people? Spoilt brats or pioneers of 20th Century personal freedoms? My own view is that they are all of these. David Turner spent fifteen months on the script. [2] While Sartre's trilogy is divided into three more or less equal parts – The Age of Reason, The Reprieve and Iron in the Soul – Turner's adaptation was divided as The Age of Reason (6 episodes), The Reprieve (3 episodes) and The Defeated (4 episodes), thereby placing greater emphasis on the protagonists' pre-war lives in Paris. Listen, there’s a misunderstanding here: I care little whether I’m a bourgeois or whether I’m not. All I want is’ and he uttered the final words through clenched teeth and with a sort of shame ‘to retain my freedom.’ The Age of Reason only concerns a handful of days, I should point out, during which time personal freedom is the main theme established.

This sense of duty is in stealing a book, although he wonders if he’s offended Sereno with his rejection. Regardless, with Daniel’s departure he duly has off with a textbook without even attempting to conceal the thing. You have, however, reached the age of reason, my poor Mathieu,’ said he, in a tone of pity and of warning. ‘But you try to dodge that fact too, you try to pretend you’re younger than you are. Well… perhaps I’m doing you an injustice. Perhaps you haven’t in fact reached the age of reason, it’s really a moral age… perhaps I’ve got there sooner than you have.’ Delarue, a socialist, despises the bourgeoisie (i.e. a dislike of materialism and conventional attitudes) but is ironically finding his financial struggles something of a burden. He is currently wondering how he can survive on only 500 francs until late in the month.

Your age of reason is the age of resignation, and I've no use for it."On and on it goes, as Mathieu reëvaluates his life, his situation, and his relationship with Marcelle. Mathieu hesistated, then he said turning away: ‘I can’t endure the idea of not seeing you again.’ A silence fell, then Ivich said in a faltering voice: ‘You… you mean that your… motive for offering me the money is a selfish one?’–‘Purely selfish,’ said Mathiue, curtly, ‘I want to see you again, that’s all.’

Sartre shows how difficult it can be to take charge of one's own life -- to accept that one has the responsibilities that come with 'the age of reason' -- and none of his characters achieve it in this volume. The relationship between these two becomes central in the whole trilogy as it plays out over a couple of years. It seems doomed to failure from the off, with Lola paranoid she’ll age beyond his reach and Boris too youthful to really care about anything. She’s so anxiety-ridden she’s become an open cocaine addict, which Boris and Ivich agree is a “good thing” following on from a furtive discussion. Michel Contat, "General Introduction for Roads of Freedom," in: Jean Paul Sartre, The Last Chance: Roads of Freedom IV, Continuum Books, 2009, p. 195 (reprinting an excerpt from an unpublished 1973 interview). Boris considered it indecent for a fellow of his age to aspire to think for himself. He had seen enough of such people at the Sorbonne, pretentious young wiseacres, bleak, bespectacled products of the Ecole Normale, who always had a personal theory in reserve, and invariably ended by making fools of themselves somehow.Like lepers in the past, madmen were banished from society. They wandered and became useful to others because they made people feel safe by being outcasts. As a result, those who were cast aside gave the rest of society a sense of stability and strength. Delarue pressures him into revealing why he is marrying Marcelle, to which he replies: “Because I’m fond of her.” The Age of Reason [1] ( French: L'âge de raison) is a 1945 novel by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. It is the first part of the trilogy The Roads to Freedom. Today, there is little connection between society and those who are severely mentally ill. Instead, doctors bear the responsibility of healing these patients, so they have no choice but to let the doctor handle everything for them. One of the people Mathieu hits up for money is his older brother, Jacques, who went through his own dissolute stage ("he had dallied with surrealism", among other things) but now is entirely prim and proper.

After the two depart awkwardly, Delarue finds himself alone in his flat at last. He is left to muse: “If only Marcelle did not exist.”

Success!

With alcohol in his system, Delarue begins to opine over the nature of Ivich, remarking: “I love that girl for her purity.” But with Ivich becoming increasingly tight, her petulant nature begins to come forward. Boris busies himself with girlfriend Lola, and the jazz band plays whilst the characters take turns to dance. Even Mathieu and Ivich share a moment on the dancefloor (this, of course, being the 1930s—no breakdancing would have occurred). It’s clear his brother has been waiting for such a moment to try and bring Mathieu down a level. “Your whole life is built upon a lie”, he begins: