Analysis and summary of "Carmen" Merimee Prosper
Analysis and summary of "Carmen" Merimee Prosper

Video: Analysis and summary of "Carmen" Merimee Prosper

Video: Analysis and summary of
Video: CARMEN – Long Story Short 2024, September
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The novel "Carmen" was written by the French writer Prosper Mérimée in 1845. Merime was a historian, archaeologist, ethnographer. This special knowledge was useful to him in his literary activity. In France, he became one of the first masters of the short story. Due to the fact that the composer Georges Bizet turned to the work "Carmen", creating the opera of the same name, this short story became the most famous in the writer's work. It consists of four chapters. A summary of the novel "Carmen" by Prosper Merimee will be presented below.

summary of the short story Merimee Carmen
summary of the short story Merimee Carmen

Exposition of images of the main characters

The story is told in the first person. The author acts as a wandering archaeologist. Judging by the brief content, Merimee's short story "Carmen" tells about the events of the early autumn of 1830. The scientist, having hired a guide, goes to look for the ancient city of Munda. He is interested in him in connection with the last victorious battle of Julius Caesar, after which he becamerule of Rome alone. The midday heat and the thirst that has taken possession of it make the narrator look for a stream. In search of a shady shelter, the scientist goes to the stream. There he meets a belligerent-looking stranger armed with a blunderbuss. Having overcome the initial fright, the author offers the stranger a cigar. Then he shares his meal with him. The stranger greedily pounces on the offered food. After talking, they find out that they are on the way, as both of them are heading for the night in Voronya Venta. Random fellow travelers decide to continue their journey together, despite the fact that the guide makes some warning signs. In a conversation, the scientist tries to find out from his fellow traveler if he is the famous robber Jose Maria. But he avoids answering.

Prosper Merimee Carmen Summary
Prosper Merimee Carmen Summary

Service rendered

Summary of "Carmen" by Prosper Mérimée continues with a story about the lodging for the night, which the travelers reached. The author draws attention to the fact that the hostess calls his fellow traveler Don Jose. After dinner, the robber, at the request of the narrator, sings a Basque song, accompanying himself on the mandolin. The guide makes signs to the owner, calling him to talk in the stable. However, the author neglects this, thus showing his confidence in Don José. The travelers spend the night together. Waking up in the middle of the night, the scientist got out into the street, where he met a guide who was going to betray the robber Jose to the ulans and receive a reward for this. The narrator managed to warn his fellow traveler, and José Navarro fled.

The scientist meets Carmen

Further in briefMerimee's "Carmen" is about a traveling scientist who spends a few days in Córdoba. In the library of the Dominican monastery, he gets acquainted with the manuscripts, and in the evenings walks along the city's embankment. On one of these evenings, the scientist met a young gypsy woman, the beautiful Carmen. He is fascinated by her wild and sensual beauty. Learning that she can tell fortunes, he escorts her home and asks her to tell fortunes on the cards. Suddenly, a man wrapped in a cloak bursts into the room. In it, the narrator recognizes his recent companion, Don José. Carmen and Don Jose are arguing in an unfamiliar language, gesturing. The narrator guesses that Carmen offers the robber to deal with him. Don Jose leads the scientist to the bridge and points the way to the hotel.

summary of the novel
summary of the novel

Missing

Having returned for the night, the scientist discovers the loss of his gold watch, which Carmen liked. The narrator leaves the city, but after a few months returns here again. From one of the monks of the Dominican monastery, he learns that Jose Navarro has been caught, who is now awaiting execution. The missing gold watch of the narrator was found on him. The scientist decides to meet with the robber.

Date with Don Jose

When Don Jose meets, in response to the scientist's offer of help, he asks to serve Mass for him and Carmen.

The next day the author comes to don Jose again. He tells him the story of his life. Summary of "Carmen" Merimee conveys this story to readers.

Fateful meeting

Josse Navarro was born inElizondo. It belonged to an old noble family. In his youth, José joined a cavalry regiment and became a corporal. One day, when he was on guard duty at a tobacco factory in Seville, he had a fatal meeting with Carmen. She, passing by him to work along with other girls, began to flirt with him.

Merimee Carmen Analysis
Merimee Carmen Analysis

On the same day, a few hours later, Jose was called to accompany her to prison, as Carmen started a quarrel in the factory and disfigured the face of one of the workers with a knife. On the way to prison, she began to tell José about her unhappy life, trying to arouse pity in him. He believed her, not realizing that she was lying. She persuaded the young man to give her the opportunity to escape. At first she wanted to bribe him, but then, realizing the futility of her attempt, she began to speak in Basque, persuading him to help an imaginary countrywoman. José succumbed to her seduction and helped her escape. For this, punishment immediately followed - he was demoted and sent to prison for a month. While in prison, Jose constantly thought about Carmen. One day he receives a gift from her - a loaf of bread with a file and two piastres. But military honor does not allow him to escape. After leaving prison, he was demoted to ordinary soldiers. Standing as a sentry at the colonel's house, he again meets Carmen, who, along with other gypsies, comes to entertain the public. As she leaves, she tells José where he can find her.

Summary of Merimee's "Carmen" tells of their next meeting.

merimée carmen heroes
merimée carmen heroes

Having met, Carmen and Jose spent togetherwhole day. In the morning, the girl told the soldier that she had paid him off in full. After this meeting, Jose tries unsuccessfully to find Carmen.

The next meeting with her happened when José once again stood guard near the gap where smugglers carry their goods. Carmen promised to give him the night in return for letting the bandits through. And Jose goes to this crime for her sake. After the promised meeting, Carmen disappears again for a long time.

Robber José

The next time Jose meets her by chance at Dorothea's house, where their previous dates took place. The girl was with the lieutenant of his regiment. The young people's quarrel ends tragically: Jose kills Carmen's new beau. A gypsy hides a young man in an unfamiliar house. In the morning, she informs him that he has no other way but to become a smuggler himself. José is attracted by a new life in which he will have money and a lover. He, along with a gang of bandits, robs, sometimes kills, and smuggles.

Merimee Carmen analysis of the work
Merimee Carmen analysis of the work

From the leader of the bandits, Don Jose learns that Carmen has freed her husband, the terrible gypsy Garcia Crooked, from prison. Now meetings become rare and bring pain to the young man. Carmen invites him to kill her husband during another gangster outing. But José considers it unworthy. He kills Garcia in a fair fight. After that, Carmen agrees to become the wife of Don José. The robber tries to persuade his wife to leave for the New World, changing his life. But Carmen takes this offer with a sneer.

Tragic denouement

Freedom-loving Carmen is burdened by the love of a robber. She begins to cheat on him with picador Lucas. Don Jose, having learned about this, is jealous of his wife and again persuades her to leave for America. But she again refuses him. Many times she tells her husband that she does not love him and will not live with him. And one day, in a fit of anger, Don Jose kills Carmen. After burying her in the forest, he turns himself in to the authorities.

summary of carmen
summary of carmen

Last chapter

In the last chapter, as written in the summary of "Carmen" by Merimee, it tells about the features of life, occupations, customs of the Spanish gypsies. The author admires their hospitality, fidelity in relations with their fellow tribesmen. This is a kind of cultural and ethnographic information about the life of this people. If we carry out a structural analysis of Prosper Merimee's Carmen, it becomes obvious what methods the author used. With his unhurried narration, both at the beginning and at the end of the novel, he sets off the tragic love story of Don José and Carmen.

Heroes of the novel

In the short story "Carmen" Merimee's characters do not have lengthy dialogues. Following the peculiarities of the psychological novel genre, the author conveys their emotional state through their appearance, behavior and actions.

In the analysis of Merimee's "Carmen" a special place is occupied by the images of the main characters. The image of the gypsy Carmen is static, it does not change throughout the story. Unlike her, the image of Don Jose is dynamic: from an honest cavalryman with ideas of military honor to a smuggler capable of murder. The social fall of a herodue to the fatal passion for the scammer, the meeting with which so abruptly changed his life.

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