Mankind's search for truth is one of its most primal urges. The subsequentsearch led to mythology, religion, literature, philosophy and science, and thesearch continues. Eyvind Johnson's Dreams of Roses and Fire provides amethodology for the search for truth using an incident which took place insouthwestern France in the seventeenth century. Johnson's fictional treatment ofthis historical event suggests that, paradoxically, the road to truth is pavedwith lies.
The title of the first chapter identifies Daniel Drouin as a minor character.Indeed, Drouin plays an insignificant role in the events leading to UrbainGrainier's persecution and execution. Drouin's one line in this melodrama,"There is a devil who is not congru!" expresses a doubt aboutthe diabolical possession of the Ursuline nuns, and is not related to Grainier'scondemnation. Nevertheless, Johnson chooses Drouin as the vehicle through whichmost of the story of the events in Loudun is told.
Drouin has several qualification which make him a reasonable choice asJohnson's reporter. He is well educated, having attended a Jesuit school. Hebecame acquainted with Grainier at this school. He keeps himself informed oflocal and national current events. As a high-level official he is privy to manyfacts which would not be generally known. Since his religious feelings are notstrong he is not prejudiced against either the Catholics or the Huguenots. Hishome is located on the same square as the Church of Saint-Pierre and PhilippeTranchant's residence (both before and after her marriage); Madeleine de Broneeven lives on the upper floor of his home. Finally, the narrator suggests thatDrouin has the intellectual temperament to be a historian: "[D]eep insidehis breast there was another assessor who scrutinized, weighed and saw throughthings ..." (p. 12). "He has a sense for data and for judicial,clerical and historical relationships." (p. 15).
But despite these qualifications, Drouin is quickly revealed to be anunreliable narrator, especially where he is concerned. For example, Drouinintroduces himself in his protocol as follows:
However, the reader has already been told that Drouin's father sent his sonto school in order that he might become a successful rug merchant; the father onhis deathbed begged his son not to become a government official.
Drouin is proud of his ability to quote Latin authors in appropriatesituations. He also considers himself an authority on cooking and even thinks ofwriting a cookbook. His regular visits to The Hen for "a small glass ofabsinthe" become a running joke. But Madeleine de Brone expresses theprevailing opinion of the townsmen when she says Drouin "is insufferablewith his cooking and his Latin and his tipppling." (p. 21).
Bust aside from Drouin's self-delusion and his propensity to rewrite hispersonal history, the protocol itself presents numerous problems. Drouin states,"My diary notes should be looked upon merely as props for my memory. It isself-evident that I keep the most interesting things to myself." (p. 79).The events most mentioned in Drouin's Protocol are his wife's announcementof another pregnancy, the birth of his children and the ensuing rituals, andvisits to The Hen. The matters that seem to weigh most heavily on Drouin's mindare his vineyard and the walls of the city which are bineg razed. Drouin alsomuses on his past affair with Seraphique Archer in entries written in code. Onmany occasions, Drouin's wife's pregnancy and a child's birth is announced onconsecutive entries, with no entries during the intervening six months. EitherDrouin is an extremely erratic diarist or the diary is very heavily edited;therefore, the diary's usefulness as a source of historical truth is limited.
Drouin's diary reveals much about Drouin, and when Drouin leaves out"the most secret things" he gives the reader little assistance inunderstanding what happened in Loudun in the early part of the seventeenthcentury. Much later in his protocol, Drouin states:
Drouin realizes that the deafening roar of history will obliterate his smallvoice. Nevertheless he must speak. Drouin's Protocol, then, is not acontribution to the historical understanding, but rather it is an expression ofhis ego and his desire for immortality.
An additional admission renders Drouin's Protocol almost useless as acontemporaneous source of historical truth. Drouin states: "The protocol... has been read through, examined, and revised repeatedly. The last time itwas examined and put aside was in the year 1637." (p. 79). Drouinconsciously and unabashedly rewrites history. Some amendments are obvious. Forexample, when Drouin speaks of Cardinal Richilieu's plan to raze thefortifications of Loudun, he says, "I will, as I said before, not expressany opinion." (p. 93). This is the first appearance of this particularphrase which, however, appears frequently in the protocol. With the example ofGrainier before him, Drouin is aware of the consequences of criticizing theCardinal. Most of Drouin's revisions undoubtedly were made for the purpose ofself-protection, and Drouin's original remarks are lost forever. Some revisionsare more obvious, but the reader cannot know what parts of the protocol werewritten currently and what parts were rewritten. The integrity of theentire protocol is impaired.
Drouin makes another revelation about his method which makes questionable theusefulness of his protocol as a source of truth. He says:
Drouin again admits his protocol is not the entire story. Although Drouinclaims to see the dark side of events, the reader is left to wonder if this isanother example of Drouin's self-delusion.
Dan Drouin's Protocol forms the superstructure of Dreams of Roses and Fire,and the text of the novel itself constitutes the Narrator's Protocol. Drouin'sProtocol is limited in scope, but the Narrator's Protocol is a broader searchfor the truth of what happened in Loudun in the early part of the seventeenthcentury. All of the flaws of Drouin's Protocol, however, must still apply to theNarrator's Protocol: The Narrator's limited self-knowledge unconsciouslyinfluences his presentation; the Narrator must must select and organize hismaterial, which requires ignoring some details that might have a criticalbearing on an accurate presentation; the Narrator's interests and objectives maynot coincide with the interests of the reader; the process of revision tendsto create distortions; and the Narrator's acknowledged biases also createdistortions. The Narrator's Protocol attempts to resolve some of these problemsby supplementing Drouin's Protocol, but the Narrator only presents additionalobstacles to discovery of the truth.
The Narrator's Protocol beings with a series of biographies of the majorcharacters, a group of portraits which forms a rogues gallery of liars. PierreBarrot professes to adore his parents, but his memories of his childhood arevery selective:
Sister Anne is completely deluded. She says of herself: "No one couldclaim that she was a habitual drunkard, but wine for many years helped herattain strength, courage and mental balance." (p. 62). All othercharacters, however, agree that Sister Anne is nearly crazy. Sister Jeannedelights in putting on masks in order to achieve her ambitions. She is onlypartially deluded: she is aware of her masks, but she is mistaken when shethinks all of them have been removed.
The search for truth is an explicit theme of the Narrator's Protocol, and theNarrator shows how this search is perverted through improper methodology. Minetsincerely believes that he has discovered the truth about Grainier; he says he"can prove [his] contention with numbers and dates." (p. 211). ButGrainier responds:
Grainier points out that Minet has reached his conclusion first, and nowseeks only those facts which support that conclusion. Grainier also states thatanything can be 'proven': "From a certain point of view, every human beingis, or may become, guilty of all that is evil. It is only a question of placingoneself at the proper lookout point in order to get the desired angle." (p.215). Thus, proof is not the same as truth.
The Narrator's Protocol involves the reader in the search for truth byaddressing the reader directly or having a character address the reader. SisterJeanne says, "I cannot see myself from the outside, but can you who havelived after me and live today, see me clearly, see me from the inside?" (p.99). The Narrator raises, but does not answer, the question of whether distance,both chronological and psychological, from the events being described aids orimpedes understanding. Grainier also addresses the reader:
Through Grainier, the Narrator points out that he can only presentinformation; the reader must become an active participant in the search if thetruth is to be found. Mere information is meaningless without interpretation andanalysis by the reader.
With the involvement of the reader, the Narrator's Protocol leads toJohnson's Protocol. The world of the Narrator's Protocol is limited to the textof the novel, but the world of Johnson's Protocol includes the author, thereader and the text. At this level, Johnson's Protocol is a commentary on theNarrator's Protocol, and provides guidance to the reader in interpreting thetext. Johnson's Protocol builds on the structure of the Narrator's Protocol andraises additional issues concerning the search for truth.
One important issue is the problem of accuracy. The names of most charactersin the text are not the same as their historical counterparts: Grandier becomesGrainier, de Brou becomes de Brone, Mignon becomes Minet. The names of othercharacters remain the same: Richilieu, Laubardemont, d'Armagnac, Aubin. Johnsonalso indicates uncertainty about time: "My friend ... Daniel Drouin, whohas been gone from the surface of the earth for nearly three hundred years, yesperhaps three hundred and ten or three hundred and twelve years ..." (p.18-19). Some of the Narrator's facts are contradictory: at one point the textstates that Philippe is Louis Tranchant's only daughter (p. 30); elsewhere welearn that Tranchant has two daughters. Through distortion, uncertainty andinconsistency of minor facts, Johnson suggests that the accuracy of some factsmay not be necessary for an understanding of the larger truths; sometimes anapproximation is sufficient.
Johnson's Protocol is revealed only when the reader reads between the lines,as it were. Nothing in the text can be accepted at face value. Drouin is shownto be an unreliable reporter, and when the Narrator states that Drouin is aqualified historian, the Narrator's own reliability must be questioned. Drouinedits and revises his diary, and although the Narrator supplements Drouin'sProtocol with biographical sketches, autobiographical papers, dialogues betweenGrainier and Minet together with other narrative materials, the Narrator mustalso edit and revise. What is missing may be the most interesting material.
Johnson's Protocol is embedded in the text of the Narrator's Protocol; manystatements made in one contect apply as well to an understanding of the novel'stheme of the search for truth. For example, in the dialogue between Grainier andMinet, Grainier states:
Grainier is warning Minet that facts obscure the truth, but Johnsonsimultaneously makes the same warning to the reader.
Johnson's Protocol also relates to the intellectual world in which the textis set. Descartes' Discourse on Method was published in the earlyseventeenth century, and the primary theme of the Discourse is the searchfor truth. Descartes asserts that whatever is clearly and distinctly perceivedis true. Many of the characters of the Narrator's Protocol clearly anddistinctly perceive things the reader knows are untrue. Johnson's Protocol,then, is an anti-Cartesian meditation.
Finally, the reader must recognize that Dreams of Roses and Fire is awork of fiction, that is a collection of lies. Daniel Drouin's Protocol iswritten by Eyvind Johnson; Grainier's autobiographical papers are also afabrication. Johnson attributes thoughts, desires and actions to historicalcharacters which he cannot know. Johnson strives for verisimilitude by providinga wealth of detail, but his novel remain s a simulacrum of the truth. We mightcompare his method to a holograph on three glass plates: when a single plate isexamined, one only sees an indecipherable smear, but when three plates arecombined and illuminated by the proper light source, a convincingthree-dimensional image appears. It is still, however, an image, despite itsstartlingly life-like quality.
That the truth can be determined through a lie is demonstrated by thefollowing: A traveler comes to an unmarked fork in the road. Two men standthere, one who always lies and one who always tells the truth. How can thetraveler learn the correct road to his destination by asking only one question?He turns to either man and asks, "If I asked the other fellow which is theroad to town, what would he say?" The liar, knowing the other will tell thetruth, lies, and the truthful one, knowing the other will lie, truthfullyrelates the lie. In either case, the wrong road is identified, and the travelersimply takes the other road. The truth can be discovered if one knows whatquestions to ask and how to interpret the answers. Johnson's Protocol, then,provides the reader with questions to be asked on his search for truth.
Johnson explicitly asserts that humanity's ability to grasp the truth islimited:
Despite Johnson's doubts about man's capacity for knowing the truth, he doesnot doubt the existence of truth. He clearly believes that one shouldnevertheless search for truth. He presents "one of the possibilitiesleading to truth," and warns of the pitfalls which will face the seeker onhis journey. Dreams of Roses and Fire is an invitation to begin theReader's Protocol in which the reader builds on the three underlying protocolsand makes his own search for the truth.