Abstract
D.Litt. et Phil.
A sense of isolation pervades all of Montherlant's writings -- the
notebooks, the essays, the novels, and the plays. Although cognisance
has been taken of his oeuvre as a whole, we have limited our study to that
of Montherlant's theatre, for it is in his theatre that many of the thematic
interests dispersed throughout the novels and the essays are crystallised
in a striking and concrete form. We have, however, had recourse from
time to time to his other writings.
The object of this study is to examine in both intellectual and theatrical
terms, the way in which Montherlant presents the voluntary distancing of
the self in his plays. Almost all of his protagonists appear isolated
within their family groups and social frameworks, but they seem
voluntarily to have embraced that condition, and, furthermore they
actively seek this isolation. Montherlant's first play, L'Exil, establishes a
leitmotif that recurs time after time in all his subsequent plays.