Art is something that cannot be clearly defined to mean
only one thing. Once "art" leaves its "creator," the creation takes on a life of its own
becoming as unique as each person that interacts with it. This is
my perception of what the story
means.
"The Secret Room" was published by Alain
Robbe-Grillet in 1962. The story seemingly presents a murder mystery; the villain is a
dark-caped man; the naked woman—the "sacrificial victim"—is chained, dead. The woman has
been shackled in a spread-eagle position, making sex with her not only possible but
guaranteed—she would have been unable to resist. She is lying on a black velvet cover,
thrown over purple pillows. The black cover is symbolic of
death.
Purple has been symbolic of many things over the
years: the Greeks saw purple not as a color but as...
...a sheen or iridescence, a mixture of light or
dark on the surface.
This
definition would allow that the purple might symbolize hidden depths or perhaps hidden
meaning. Homer uses it to also describe blood. Shakespeare uses "purple" to refer to
"gore." For example, in Richard II, Act Three, scene three, he
writes:
...the
purple testament of bleeding
war.
On a more
literal level, purple dye was so expensive that only "kings,
emperors and aristocrats" could afford it.
In that the body
lies on oriental rugs in plush surroundings suggests that this is not a place of
but opulence and wealth. The murderer's clothing hints that he is not a common criminal.
The room without visible boundaries symbolizes a situation that is widespread (not a
singular event):
...this is not the whole room, whose
considerable space must in reality extend all around...in every direction, perhaps
toward other sofas, thick carpets, piles of cushions and fabrics, other tortured
bodies...
The inability to
pinpoint a light-source might indicate an event that is never
displayed in the light of day, inferring this is hidden from the public eye. The
presence of an incense burner may refer to the church. The woman's "milkwhite" body
conveys a sense of purity or innocence. The man is
described:
...a black silhouette...fleeing, a man wrapped
in a long, floating cape, ascending the last steps without turning around, his deed
accomplished.
The villain is
"fleeing," and "his deed is accomplished." Later his face is
described:
The
man’s features are impassive, but tense, as if in expectation—or perhaps
fear...
Based on these
details, the dead woman may be symbolic of the loss of virginity: the death of
innocence. The chains could imply marriage, and the incense, the church's blessing
(which marriage would afford). The wound is on the woman's left breast, where her heart
would be, suggesting that it was broken when the illusion of
courtship and/or "feigned" love were destroyed with the "right of assault" that belongs
to a man by virtue of marriage vows.
Mine
is not a blanket statement regarding matrimony at all, but the idea
of a woman sold into marriage with a lie. Specifically, the
presence of wealth brings to mind the buying and selling of daughters/women based upon
financial arrangements or the merging of upper echelons of
society.
The man goes unmolested—"deed accomplished;" this
might point to incidents when a woman is not joined in marriage by love, but with deceit
and malice of intent—with social acceptance, as Robbe-Grillet might see
it.
Additional
Source:
Ferber, Michael. A
Dictionary of Literary Symbols. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1999.
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