Claire du Duras' Ourika

In the novella, Ourika by Claire de Duras, the main character Ourika (a young black girl) is confronted with the judgments of a French woman, known as The Marquise. From birth to age fifteen, Ourika feels a part of French society, she's talented, well-educated, loved, and never realizes she is different. However, she is immediately devastated after overhearing a conversation where The Marquise condemns Ourika's future- "What kind of man would marry a negress?" (13) After this point, The Marquise says she sympathizes with Ourika and wants to help her, but her so-called sympathy is based on her limited beliefs about Ourika and French society and therefore is not true sympathy, which is based on feelings of love and experience with a tormented soul.

Basically The Marquise puts Ourika in a box and professes that Ourika's situation can never change, as she discusses the girl with Madame de B. (Ourika's caretaker/step-mother): "[Reason] … is powerless against evils that arise from deliberately upsetting the natural order of things. Ourika has flouted her natural destiny. She has entered society without its permission. It will have its revenge." (14) But we realize this is a box, because Madame de B. disagrees: "Since she's too remarkable to be anything less than she is, perhaps one day she will rise above her fate." (13) At least Madame de B. has faith in Ourika, in spite of her situation. This leads us to believe that Ourika is not necessarily doomed and that The Marquise's condemning beliefs need not hold as much authority. In spite of the choices the modern-day reader might see for Ourika, the girl is strongly influenced by the negativity of The Marquise and spends most of the rest of the novella in despair over The Marquise's words.

The last conversation The Marquise has with Ourika reveals the true limits of her sympathies. Here we see how The Marquise's attempts at sympathy are nothing more than mental contrivances: "And it makes me very sad indeed to see what a low state you've got yourself into. Don't you think a girl of your intelligence ought to find a brighter side to things? … that common sense suggests resignation and distraction." (40) Here we see not only a sympathy that The Marquise insists has logical remedies (she makes it sound so simple, all Ourika has to do is decide to feel better and she will), but she also contradicts herself. She gives the impression in her past conversation with Madame de B. (as quoted above) that Ourika is doomed and has no hope, against the contrary beliefs of Madame de B., but here she tells Ourika to do something to change her bad situation. Which does The Marquise truly believe? Does she believe that Ourika can escape her dilemma or not? The Marquise is an unreliable person in Ourika's life, and offering true sympathy is not expected from her. She eventually admits that her sympathy is limited, another sign that she knows nothing about true sympathy: "I'm going now. And make no mistake, with far less sympathy for you than when I entered this room." (42) Ourika is not convinced, through reason, by The Marquise that she can just snap-out of her depression, therefore the woman loses patience and withdraws her attempts at sympathizing. This proves her sympathy was not deeply rooted in her own heart to begin with.

As a result, in part, Ourika worsens, because she never receives true sympathy, until she believes in God. It seems that all Ourika was looking for was acceptance and support. Unfortunately not the kind that Madame de B. or Charles, her only true childhood companion, could give, but one with more power and authority: God. The priest informs her that God accepts her for who she is: "For Him there is neither black nor white. All hearts are equal in His eyes. And yours promises to be worthy." (45) Perhaps Ourika thought that if God is all-knowing and all-loving then He must understand, truly, Ourika's predicament and have mercy on her, giving her true sympathy. It is not certain. But her outsider status seems obliterated when she thinks of God and devoting her life to Him as a nun, "A nun, I told myself, may have renounced everything, but she is not alone in the world. She has chosen a family, she is a mother to the orphan, a daughter to the aged, a sister to all misfortune." (45) She feels a sense of belonging once again. She is able to return to her state of innocence, like she used to have before The Marquise opened her mouth.

It seems she opens to the priest's words about God, because of his experience with troubled souls, "He showed no shock at the state of my soul. Like an old sailor, he had experience of such hurricanes." (44) and God's acceptance of her (a quality of love which is a feeling, not a mental construct). She never opens to The Marquise, "But since you refuse me your trust … " (42) because the woman only thought of Ourika as a mental problem to be solved, not a worthy individual who needed a soul-to-soul helping hand. With God she feels she has a higher purpose that encourages her to act, "It is to please Him that we delight in refining our spiritual lives, in adorning them, as if for some celebration, with all the virtues that He values highest." (46) She cannot act on The Marquise's words, because they lack a higher purpose. Fitting into society as an outsider that must swim up stream is not a reason that is important enough for Ourika to act upon. But with a little acceptance and true understanding of Ourika's soul, God gives her plenty of reasons to act and find inner peace at last. In this way, Ourika finds true sympathy, based on compassion (love) and understanding, not the reasoning of The Marquise that insists on forcing a square peg into a round hole by advising Ourika to make due with her misfortunes, " You could at least find things you like doing-things that help you to pass your time." (40) Who wants to live a life that is full of a humiliation so great that all one can do is pass time? Not Ourika. Only those that truly understand her and accept her fully can give her real help and purpose and a reason to live.