Stendhal, one of the most prominent authors of 19th century European
literature, published The Red and the Black in 1831, based on the true story of a young
man named Antoine Berthet. The author created a fictitious town to respect private life
and changed the names of the heroes. In the novel’s main theme, he devised a process
from love to death. But when it went deep, it is seen that he reflected the class
discrimination and ideology of 19th century French society. The noble class displayed
its power over the peasants and the intrigues they used to maintain this power. As a
matter of fact, it is possible to analyse architecture, social structure, the spirit of space,
and people through space, depending on the time, place, and space used in the fiction
of the literary novel. In this novel, there are traces of society, culture, space, time,
place, and the spirit of space.
When the novel is read together with its name, very different meanings can be given to
people, events, and places in fictional frames. It is seen that red symbolising life, love,
and passion, and black, symbolising sadness, pessimism, and death, are constantly
shifting. From the point of view of events, love, which ends with death, holds an
important place. In the process of love, while passion evokes red, the pain and the end
with death evokes black. From a social point of view, the dress worn by people serving
the nobles is black. From the point of view of space, sometimes it is seen that what is
experienced or felt beyond what looks like black is red, and what is experienced or felt
beyond what looks like red is black. In summary, the novel “The Red and the Black”
takes the reader on a journey in which different meanings can be associated with the
person, society, time, place, space, and the spirit of space.
Keywords: Antoine Berthet, Architectonics, Architecture in literature,
Architecture, Black, Bourgeois, Brayle-Haut Monastery, Color in architecture,
Fiction, Julien Sorel, Literature, Love, Novel, Passion, Red, Space, Spirit of
space, Stendhal, The Red and the Black, Verrieres.
