Sarrasine

“Memento mori” was a popular principle during the 19th century, often featuring in art and literature of the time. It centers on a remembrance of the impermanent and fragile nature of life, with death as an omnipresent presence. This is a significant recurring motif in both the frame story and main plotline of Sarrasine, tying both parts of the novella together and relating to its thematic concerns: Love and passion represent life in its fullest bloom, but Sarrasine’s courtship of La Zambinella bears no fruit and ultimately results in the death of the lover. 

The motif of death often appears alongside a corresponding representation of life, an example of antithesis that creates an uneasy and ominous mood, foreshadowing the ultimate tragic end of Sarrasine’s tale. In the opening paragraph of the story, the narrator notes that the trees in the barren garden evoke deathly imagery that sharply contrasts with the lively scene inside the ballroom, which suggests life. Similarly, the narrator describes the elderly man later revealed to be La Zambinella almost as a personification of death itself; his smile resembles that of a “death’s head,” for example. His appearance is juxtaposed with that of Madame de Rochefide, whose “youth” and “beauty” make her a symbol of life, although the two are linked together by their interaction and the narrator’s observation that “such matches” are common in society. The idealized image of feminine beauty that Madame de Rochefide presents is also very similar to Sarrasine’s impression of la Zambinella in his youth, implying that the marchioness will eventually follow in La Zambinella’s footsteps and succumb to death and decay.