The Real Lormerin

he Real Lormerin

The word reality means everything that actually exists. The definition of reality makes it seem easy, but reality is not that simple because what one person may think is right may not apply to others. People may have different feelings or opinions about what they see, and eyes are easy to get misguided. What people see or think is not always right. By the same token, what everyone agrees about is not always right either. Sometimes people agree that something is real, for example math, physics, and chemistry, because they can be proven. However, there are many things that are not accepted as part of reality. Things that cannot be measured or proven like love or emotions/thoughts. People may do nice things to prove that they are good people; however, no one truly knows another person’s conscious mind. Today, in the news actors, soccer players, and other celebrities give money to poor people, but their intentions are unknown. This raises questions about identity of seemingly good people; who are they really? Do their outer appearances show who they are? Sometimes people are influenced by what other people think of them and their environment may affect their persona. This happens to Lormerin, a character in  All Over. Guy de Maupassant writes that Lormerin sees himself as a young man in the morning, and an old man in the evening. The reason for that may be Lise, another character who was having an affair with him even though she was married to another man. Lise wants to get revenge on Lormerin; she tries to confuse him about what is outside him and inside him in reality.

    In the beginning of the story, Lormerin talks with himself describing what he thinks of himself, and the reflection of his body in the mirror. Lormerin thinks that he is young and handsome when he whispers “Lormerin is still alive.” After Lormerin dresses up, he goes to the “drawing-room” which is the place where he reads the letters that he receives. While Lormerin was reads the letters there is one letter which catches his attention. Although he does not know right away who sent it, the handwriting seems familiar. Then Lormerin opens to find it is from Lise, a woman who a had relationship with him twenty-five years ago. Lise says in the letter that she thinks that Lormerin forgets her due to the long period since they saw each other. Lise tells Lormerin that her husband died five years ago, she grew old, and that she has a daughter. In the letter, she compares her appearance like what she thinks about her age which she refers to as “elderly” and she says that Lormerin still “handsome.” Also, the letter has an invitation for Lormerin to have dinner with Lise and her daughter Renee. Even though the reason why she invited him is unknown in the letter, Lise seems to seek revenge from Lormerin, and she seems to do it through his personality. The reason behind the revenge seems to be the lack of interest that Lormerin gave her, after they broke up. The writer shows that when Lise says “I informed you of her birth.” She means that she is upset that he did not reply to her letter.

Lormerin was shocked after reading the letter because some memories came back to his mind. Lormerin seems to love her, and we can see that when we read the sentence “If he had ever loved a woman in his life it was this one, little Lise, Lise de Vance.” After the shock that he got, Lormerin says that Lise’s husband is jealous of him. Lormerin says that Lise’s husband is the one who takes her from Paris because he does not want Lormerin to see her.  However, Lormerin seems to be the one who is jealous. The feeling of envy flared in Lormerin’s heart right after Lormerin read the letter, and we can see that when he says, “the wife of that gouty.” Here, he despises Lise’s husband. Lormerin remembers the affair, and how beautiful Lise is. As soon as he sees himself in the mirror, he says Lise must be old compared to him. Lormerin went to see her, and he finds a big old photograph on the wall in her house. Lise wants to trick Lormerin to think that she still cares about him. Perhaps she wants him to feel self-confidence at that particular point. Lise seems to know him very well. Describing her beauty as less than him and putting the picture on the wall is like she wants to fill up the balloon and then pop it.

When Lormerin sees Lise, she is “an old lady” that he could not recognize because she was old and her face changed. Lormerin asks her out loud whether that is her or not. It is possible he did that because for him it looks like a dream or something that is not real. Another reason is that we intend sometimes to say that to people especially if we did not see them for so long. In the case of Lormerin and Lise it is a quarter of a century since the last time they saw each other. They chat and Lise says she feared any feelings about the past, but now she does not because it is past now: “it is all over.” In other words, Lise wants to tell him that the love between her and Lormerin has no effect on her now. At this point, she starts to heat up before the first shock to his memory, when it appears that he is confused because he couldn't remember anything that connected with Lise’s old face. Lise calls her daughter to trick his memory. At that moment, Lormerin feels like someone hit him and he could not figure out what was going on. The confusion seems to get bigger, which that makes Lormerin whispers “Lison” into Renee ear, Lise daughter. Lormerin feels like he is in crazy dream where the idea of which one is the real one came to his mind. Lormerin is unsure like he “lose his head,” and he looks too deep to find what happened in the past. Lise saw him confused, so Lise told him “You have lost your old vivacity” to make him feel down. Lormerin admits that he is weak at this point, and he says he lost many things especially that his heart feels confused about  his old love with Lise. What hurts him more is that Renee does not only look like her mother, but it is because she has some familiar expressions and the way that she speaks looks like her mother once looked. Here Lormerin left without getting to know which one is the real one the old mother or her daughter Renee. Even though the real Lise is the old mother, he gets confused about that. That must be tough for him because he was down in front of his ex.