Review on Simone de Beauvoir’s All Men Are Mortal: The Burden of to Be
“If you live long enough, you’ll see that every victory turns into a defeat.” once said, Simone de Beauvoir.
There is no point in life; it only becomes more meaningless and painful as time goes on.
The Book
Apart from being a political activist, a feminist, and an intellectual, Beauvoir is a great representer of Existentialism in literature. (Sherwood, Sara) One of her great works is “Tous Les Hommes Sont Mortels” translated in English as “All Men Are Mortal.”
Beauvoir created this work by combining her own historical, social, and political remarks with a fascinating philosophical narration. In this sense, apart from directly dealing with the existential crisis, she draws attention to intellectual and social alienation as well as historical references.
As in all of the existential literary works, we have a protagonist named Raimondo Fosca, who exists in a chaotic and seemingly meaningless environment and is forced to confront his very self and determine his purpose in the world. But slightly differently, we witness the life of an immortal man, therefore, who lost all of his wills, desires, and senses.
At his very sick moment, Fosca meets a gorgeous actress named Regine, who is longing for eternal richness and happiness.
Fosca struggles throughout the novel to convince her that all his efforts had been in vain; there is no more horrible curse that can be imagined than having eternal life.
The description of the life of an immortal man addresses that no matter what we do, we find ourselves in a continuous cycle, and there is no way out. While only the way out is death, how can life be bearable if you are an immortal?
Simone adds another dimension to the existentialist approach in the novel “All Men Are Mortal” by creating such a character as Fosca to point out finding an essence in life and referring to the concept and meaning of death through the relationship between Fosca and Regine.
Raimond Fosca
Raimondo Fosca is a well-developed character who stands for more significant meaning.
His journey, which consists of three states, refers to three different aspects of Existentialism; the meaning of life, the notion of freedom, and nothingness.
Simone wisely created such a protagonist to doubt whether each futile action leaves man deep psychological scars or sets man free from everything at the end?
According to Existentialism, one is responsible for finding or creating their own essence in life rather than being gifted by a supreme power before he/she was born.
Fosca, throughout his seven centuries-long life, had always been craving for this essence. He sought a meaning, an answer, a victory, love, and any other dimension that makes life liveable.
In the first phase of the novel, we witness the struggle of Fosca by the phrase, “Man is nothing else but what he makes himself”. (Jean-Paul Sartre)
His journey to finding an essence started when he was born in 1279 in a palace in Carmona, Italy. As he grows older, he goes to war and protects his city from Genovese. After many years, he realizes that he cannot get enough and always wishes for more. He wants to do more for his country, his people. But there is such an obstacle as death for him.
At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Genovese again attacks the city. The biggest concern of Fosca is, “What if I die before I have done something remarkable?” He finds a purpose in life, but mortality scares him like hell.
Having a purpose in life and doing lots of significant jobs eventually loses importance when the night comes and one starts to think about the “death”.
In this sense, Fosca represents the nothingness of life when there is such a thing as death. This absurdist idea distracts him from his essence, and he believes only immortality could bring him freedom.
At this point, what Fosca represents is changed. Now, he has both immortality and aim. His choices are now free from death. With this joy, he does many things for the destiny of his city.
For two mighty decades, he has done his best. But, what a long time to waste it was? What remained at the end? He lost all of his beloved ones, lost many wars, and even started to forget how to feel. “I have been ruled this country for two decades, and I got tired.” says Fosca.
In this part of the novel, it is suggested that death is actually what makes life meaningful and worth living. “The literal meaning of life is whatever you’re doing that prevents you from killing yourself.” (Albert Camus).
Finally, in the last phase of the novel, we see that Fosca becomes an empty man. After many times being a ruler, a lover, a father, or a lunatic, he realizes that the longer the time, the more pointless it gets.
All the authentic actions done at the moment are matter. The very minute when we get out that moment, it is gone. “Every purpose gives the life meaning, but at the same time none of them can.” (Crowell, Steven)
Death
Death is an inevitable part of life; It gains more importance in Simone’s fantasy world.
She creates two opposite existences: one is Fosca as immortality, and the other is Regine as mortality. This seemingly simple opposition actually leads the way to the place of finitude in Existentialism.
Existentialism is associated with the meaning. However, death and meaning are both central concepts in Existential tradition. (Harris, Kenneth A.)
Death is such a concept that it opens the way for one to find one’s own authentic self. Each human being has to face the reality of death and finiteness to find his/her “meaning” in life.
In the novel, it first seems that, at least before I started to read the novel, I thought that immortality makes Fosca superior. But in reality, even though Regine is the mortal one, she has more authenticity and self-awareness in herself.
Beauvoir herself also believed that existence could not be thought apart from responsibility. Regine is obviously more responsible for all of her acts and behaviors throughout their relationship, while Fosca lives and feels everything so randomly.
He keeps his hands off and stops pushing the life. “Existence is a way of understanding what constitutes his own existence.” (Heidegger, Martin)
In this sense, birth, life, and death are the three basics of existence. So, according to the idea of Heidegger, The moment Fosca loses one of the three — death, his existence has got no matter anymore.
Consequently, the main question of philosophy is always tied with inexistence. For instance, what Regine all the time longing for is immortality but this feeling only matters as long as she has this longing.
Fosca, after telling his story to Regine, indicates his pain with these words; “I cannot risk my life for anything, I cannot laugh like anyone, I cannot cry, my heart cannot hurt deeply. I belong to nowhere; I have no past, present, or future. I do not want anything, I am no one… I have nothing to hope…” (Beauvoir, Simone de)
Fosca also says when there is no living creature remained, only the little mouse on which he tried the immortality potion, and he would stay in this world. He entitled himself as a murderer for giving that little mouse an immortal life.
After he leaves Regine and the moment she hears the jingle of the clock tower, she screams as if she is lamenting. Eventually, we see that the case between them closed, ironically.
Conclusion
Simone de Beauvoir applied her philosophical fund of knowledge to her novel in such a good way that she gave the essence of life and the concept of death in Existentialism through her character development and the relationship between them successfully.
The fantasy world is too large that one can easily move away from the storyline. Even though Simone sometimes loses track, she takes us back with the striking statements of Fosca about life.
