Ambiguity in Dangerous Liaisons Anonymous College

Although the moral ambiguity (and subsequent confusion related to Laclos’ social instruction) is the overarching obscurity within the text, it is the subtleties of the language and stylistic features of Les liaisons dangereuses that ensure this epistolary novel must be read with the awareness of ambiguity that is normally reserved for difficult poetry. Laclos’ artistic ability to « joindre à l’esprit d’un auteur, le talent d’un comédien » ensures that uncertainty constantly clouds the reader’s understanding of the motives and intended audience of the Vicomte and Merteuil’s letters. Furthermore, it is Laclos’ linguistic treatment of the emotion of love that seeks to confound, as the novel transforms a seemingly pure concept into a sadistic game, masked behind rhetoric of war and religion.

It is this ‘secret charm’ of hidden sentiments and witty repartee between “immoral” characters that entices the reader into the intimate world of the scheming aristocracy, where the letter is the ultimate weapon in revealing one’s intentions through what remains hidden. The letter Valmont writes to Madame de Tourvel, while using the courtesan Emilie’s naked body as a writing desk, is the most obvious example of a masterpiece of sustained...