“But the only one of us for whom Swann’s arrival became the object of a painful preoccupation was I. This was because on the evenings when strangers, or merely M. Swann, were present, Mama did not come up to my room. I had dinner before everyone else and afterward I came and sat at the table, until eight o’clock when it was understood that I had to go upstairs; the precious and fragile kiss that Mama usually entrusted to me in my bed when I was going to sleep I would have to convey from the dining room to my bedroom and protect during the whole time I undressed, so that its sweetness would not shatter, so that its volatile essence would not disperse and evaporate, and on precisely those evenings when I needed to receive it with more care, I had to take it, I had to snatch it brusquely, publicly, without even having the time and the freedom of mind necessary to bring to what I was doing …”
— Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Technique
In Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust creates character interiority to show the inner anxiety of his main character, Marcel.
In the above passage, Marcel’s sentences increase in length to signify the growing emotional toll of not receiving a goodnight kiss from his mother. Marcel’s emotions are also visible in the adjectives and verbs that he uses:
- Evaporate
- Painful
- Precious
- Fragile
- Protect
- Sweetness
- Shatter
- Volatile
- Disperse
Use
- Focus on how people act in tense situations or when they feel an emotion. For example, increasingly long sentences can show hyperfixation on a topic. In contrast, an overwhelmed person could have short sentences with each one focused on different topics, such as someone who is overthinking and grappling with multiple scenarios.
The Periplous 