Cousin Bette: Difference between revisions

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* [[Affably Evil]]: Crevel.

* [[Anti-Hero]]: Hector is a [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|type V]].

* [[Big Good]]: Marshal Hulot is the benevolent overseer of his wayward brother's family - frequently rescuing them from ruin - and an all-around swell guy. {{spoiler|It's really quite a thankless task, leading him to not just ''in'' despair, but ''from'' it.}}

* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]

* {{spoiler|[[Bittersweet Ending]]}}

* [[Brilliant but Lazy]]: Wenceslas - his artistic talent could have taken him to great heights had he been more diligent.

* [[The Casanova]]: Hector is a deconstruction and perhaps a subversion: his conquests come at great cost to him and his family. Which brings us to:

** [[Casanova Wannabe]]: Hector beds almost every woman in the story. Why is he a "wannabe", then? {{spoiler|[[Gold Digger|They're all bleeding him dry.]]}}

* [[Character Title]]

* [[Christmas Cake]]: Bette (albeit an atypical one, in that there's no indication of her ever having been attractive). Her ongoing solitude is a large part of what makes her so bitter.

* [[Death by Despair]]: {{spoiler|Both [[Big Good|Marshal Hulot]] and [[Big Bad|Bette]].}}

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: {{spoiler|Montes!}}

* [[Evil Makes You Ugly]]: Inverted: Bette's ugliness is the cause of much of the drama in her life that led to villainhood.

* [[Fat Bastard]]: Crevel: a petty, covetous and devious piece of work.

* [[Funny Foreigner]]: Shades of this in both Steinbock and Montes. This is a 19th-century French author we're talking about, after all.

* [[The Ghost]]: Jenny Cardine.

* [[Gonk]]: Bette. Her appearence is described in greater detail than any other character's and it's made clear that she's quite frightful to look at. This is the source of much of the drama that led up to villainhood.

* [[Hot Guys Are Bastards]]: A very handsome fellow in his youth, [[Informed Attractiveness|according to backstory]], Hector is nonetheless a [[Dirty Coward]] who creates a litany of problems for his family.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: [[The Dog Bites Back|While allowances should be made for all the humiliation and manipulation he went through]], it's still a bit disturbing that {{spoiler|Montes ''literally'' gets away with murder (and a remarkably gruesome one at that).}}

* [[Kavorka Man]]: Crevel. While perhaps not ugly per se, he's significantly overweight and never commended for his looks. Nonetheless, his list of conquests rivals Hector's. {{spoiler|Of course, it isn't so much ''him'' they want, but rather his money.}}

* [[Love Dodecahedron]]: And how!

* [[Love Makes You Evil]]: It sure did for Bette: see Woman Scorned below. While "evil" and "love" may both be putting it a bit strongly, Hector's insatiable lust makes him a [[Jerkass]] and [[Love Makes You Stupid|stupid.]]

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Bette is a soundalike for "''bête''", French for "beast".

* [[Morality Pet]]: Wenceslas was this to Bette {{spoiler|until he went off with Hortense and things soured: [[Kick the Morality Pet|Bette's subsequent treatment of him cements her status as a villain.]]}} Bette is this to Hector: she's one of the few women he doesn't pursue, but he shows genuine concern for her at numerous points {{spoiler|(none the wiser, of course, to the havoc she's wreaking on his family.)}}

* [[Nice Guy]]: Marshal Hulot (Hector's older brother) is this, {{spoiler|making his death the book's main [[Tear Jerker]].}} Adeline and Hortense are female examples.

* [[The Resenter]]: Bette towards the Hulot family{{spoiler|(Hortense especially).}} Crevel towards Hector.

* [[Revenge]]: A prime motive for Bette, among others.

* [[Sadistic Choice]]: Crevel's attempts to solicit sex from [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|Adeline]] seem doomed for failure. {{spoiler|They gain some traction, however, when the Hulot family's finances end up in the red. Adeline is therefore forced to choose between faithfulness to her husband and financial security. When she finally gives in, Crevel just [[Moral Event Horizon|rejects and taunts her, gloating over his victory.]]}}

* [[Start of Darkness]]: Bette's abandonment by Wenceslas.

* [[The Stoic]]: Adeline. [[Stoic Woobie|Painfully so.]] She bears Hector's many infidelities without complaint.

* [[Unwitting Instigator of Doom]]: Jenny Cardine: the cause of much of the Hulot family's financial woes, as well as Crevel's grudge against Hector.

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Or Villain Title Character in any case.

{{quote|The peasant-woman's face was terrible; her piercing black eyes had the glare of the tiger's; her face was like that we ascribe to a pythoness; she set her teeth to keep them from chattering, and her whole frame quivered convulsively. She had pushed her clenched fingers under her cap to clutch her hair and support her head, which felt too heavy; she was on fire. The smoke of the flame that scorched her seemed to emanate from her wrinkles as from the crevasses rent by a volcanic eruption }}

* [[Villainous BSOD]]: {{spoiler|Bette, when the Hulot family reconciles, despite her best efforts. She dies of a non-specific illness shortly thereafter.}}

* [[Woman Scorned]]: There are definitely shades of this in {{spoiler|Bette's treatment of Wenceslas -- calling in his debts in hope of having him imprisoned -- once it becomes clear that he's with Hortense. Then again, it's likely that Hortense is the primary target of Bette's revenge and Wenceslas is a proxy}}.

* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: The likeliest reading of Bette. Having been plain while her cousin Adeline was beautiful, Bette was beaten and neglected while her cousin was pampered. Having failed to find a well-off suitor (the only sort for whom one could settle in those days), Bette had to do menial work for a living while Adeline led a (seemingly!) ideal life as a baroness. Bette finally crossed the [[Despair Event Horizon]] when the man she loved made clear his intention to marry her attractive young cousin Hortense (significantly, Adeline's daughter) and wants nothing but the family's destruction from then on.

 

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