37

In Le Rouge et le Noir, the works of art through which the characters picture their feelings are liable to reduce singular sentiments to mere clichés. However, they can also guide self-discovery, and thus provide a valuable emotional education. Finally, they can be the medium of a revelation when their paradigm scenarios, invested with desire, allow aspirations hitherto confused to seep into the conscious. The best use for such models proceeds from a connaturality of the erotic and the aesthetic, as passions find in art a language fit to express their nuances and potentialities.