SOURCE: "Marivaux's Jeu de l'amour et 'de la raison'" in Australian Journal of French Studies, Vol. XXI, No. 1, January-April, 1984, pp. 15-25.

In the essay below, Carr argues that in The Game of Love and Chance, love and reason are not irreconcilably opposed; rather, the apparent opposition is transcended in the play's resolution.

At a crucial point in the third act of Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard, Silvia declares that she requires a battle in Dorante between love and reason: "je veux un combat entre l'amour et la raison", a struggle her brother Mario suggests will be to the death. In fact, the work's entire action, not just the last act, can playfully be renamed Le Jeu de l'amour et "de la raison", and while it is possible to read Dorante's eventual proposal of marriage as the defeat of reason, in a very real sense such an...