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Why is Julien Sorel executed at the end of The Red and the Black?
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Stendhal
Stendhal, oil painting by Pierre-Joseph Dedreux-Dorcy; in the BibliothĂšque Municipale de Grenoble, France.
In Stendhalâs novel The Red and the Black, the protagonist Julien Sorel is executed for the attempted murder of Madame de RĂȘnal.12
The act of violence occurs after Madame de RĂȘnal jeopardizes Julienâs projected marriage to Mathilde de La Mole, an aristocratic woman he had seduced to advance his social standing. While Julien initially views himself as an unsentimental opportunist using seduction as a tool for career advancement, his time in prison leads him to reflect on the vanity of his worldly ambitions and to recognize the superior value of love and his inner life.12