The eternal woman and the eternal feminine in the light of Claudel's vision

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to examine some of the feminine portraits in the literary gallery of Paul Claudel, poet-ambassador, to determine the function and position that woman is assigned in his world perspective. Now, since the feminine half of humanity is the main consideration here, man is relegated to the background, but this does not lessen his importance in the poet's estimation or ours; for, the concept of woman's relationship to man and her role in his life constitute a major portion of the present investigation. Furthermore, man shares with woman the same ultimate destiny for they are equal as human beings, although their function differs because their abilities are not the same; hence woman's masculine counterpart will by no means be forgotten in the course of this exposition.