Simple Passion

Within this text time is only mentioned in regards to her relationship with A. While the author is trying to explain the style of writing used during this text in regards to chronology of events, she wrote, “As far as I was concerned, that notion did not enter into the relationship; I could experience only absence or presence (20).” Time is nothing more than a way for her mark the amount of time that has passed since she has seen or heard from A. She refers to events as “before meeting A” or after “A left France.” The ending of the text doesn’t make it clear that the author has moved past her relationship with A, so there isn’t much hope for her to regain a normal sense of time until this happens. During the span of time immediately after A left France, “all my thoughts and all my actions involved the repetition of history. I wanted to turn the present back into the past, opening on happiness (44).”

I thought that the “simple” in the title implied that the relationship between the author and A would be straightforward, uncomplicated and easy. The “passion” in the title implied strong feelings of desire. It is clear that the author has abundant passion for A, possibly bordering on obsession. A’s feelings for her aren’t clear, but it doesn’t seem as though their relationship is important to him. Even the author isn’t certain about the feelings that A has for her. “I wasn’t quite sure how to qualify his relationship with me. In the beginning I had deduced from certain signs that he experienced the same passion as me… This certainty gradually wavered. He seemed to be more distant… (23).” Their relationship is anything but simple. He is a married man and they are, essentially, meeting in secret to carry on their affair. This relationship dominates her life and seems to be little more than a blip on the radar in his life.