The Square Summary
Marguerite Duras

The Square Summary

French literature of the 1950s and 1960s is marked by a sense of estrangement and alienation. Writers more outspoken than Duras, such as Camus and Sartre, spoke of the absurd, and felt that human beings were trapped in life with no escape. The Square treats the same theme, but with more subtle undertones. The two protagonists, a young domestic servant in her early twenties and a travelling salesman, have no property, no social prestige, and seemingly no hope of improving their situation. The man in particular seems to have lost all ambition, and accepts his work as the sum total of his existence. He has little interest in society and its values.

The young woman, on the other hand, lives a monotonous and meaningless life, minding a child and caring for a senile woman, but hopes one day to escape this situation through marriage...

(read more from the Short Guide)