Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) Theme of Versions of Reality

In Les Liaisons Dangereuses, you're always getting a constructed version of reality, usually crafted with some purpose other than to reveal the full truth. People draw conclusions about reality that don't actually match up because they've been given the wrong information in the letters. Occasionally, the same letter writer will give two characters different versions of the same event, just to deliberately create different realities for them.

Although it predates the school of thought, the novel is an exercise in—impress your friends—hermeneutic theory. The letter readers interpret reality through the letters they receive, and their interpretation is often distorted. As readers, we also get the versions of reality carefully constructed by the letter-writers. But since we get much more information (we see all the letters), we can read between the lines to see what's really going on. Given all these different perspectives, we think the author's a genius for creating a coherent narrative that we have to figure out by sifting through all the truths and lies.

One thing we learn from this novel is that knowledge is indeed power. And who controls the flow of knowledge? Our villainous Valmont and maleficent Merteuil. So for most of the novel, their reality prevails. This, Shmoopers, is why nations with dictatorships don't have a free press. For example, many citizens of North Korea believe that their country is envied all over the world and that Kim Jong Il invented the burger. 'Nuff said.

1. Which character's letters do you trust the most?
2. What are some of the lies told in the letters? How did you determine they were lies?
3. Why does Madame de Tourvel interpret Valmont's act of charity positively while Madame de Volanges interpret it negatively? If you didn't know the truth, how would you have interpreted it?
4. If everyone in the novel knew everything that the others know, would they agree on one reality to describe the situation?

It's easy for a clever person like Merteuil to create false realities for other people.

The book proves that there's no such thing as a single reality.