Sarrasine

A recurring theme throughout Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine is what was known in the 19th century as “monomania,” an obsession that gradually eclipses all other concerns in a person’s life, monopolizing their attention, inflaming their emotions, and eroding their reason until it ultimately drives them to ruin. In Sarrasine, the titular character’s spiral into an obsessive infatuation with the opera singer La Zambinella exemplifies this theme.

That Sarrasine’s feelings for La Zambinella are fundamentally unhealthy becomes evident in the context of his broader characterization. Sarrasine’s passion is rooted in the innately impulsive and violent temperament that has driven him to antisocial behavior since childhood. In particular, the novella highlights a tendency toward obsession and its destructive consequences: “He would not study except as his inclination led him, often rebelled, and sometimes remained for whole hours at a time buried in tangled meditations” (Paragraph 85). Even at a young age, then, Sarrasine’s fixation on certain things or ideas leads him into conflict with others. 

Against this backdrop, Sarrasine’s first exposure to the sensual and sensory pleasures of opera entirely overwhelms his capacity for rational thought. Instead, he becomes consumed by feeling, as evidenced by the lengthy description of Sarrasine’s physical state as he latches on to La Zambinella as the