The Fall

by Albert Camus

You may have noticed that a man who really suffers from jealousy cannot wait to sleep with the woman, despite believing that she has betrayed him. Of course, what he wants is to make sure once again that his precious treasure still belongs to him. He wishes to possess it, as people say. But it’s also because immediately afterwards, he feels less jealous. Actually, physical jealousy is an effect of imagination at the same time as a judgement against oneself. We attribute the same bad thoughts to our rival as we ourselves have had in those circumstances. Fortunately, an excess of pleasure debilitates the imagination as well as the judgement, so pain is eased along with virility, and for the same space of time. For the same reason, adolescents lose their metaphysical anxieties with their first mistress, and some marriages, which are officially sanctioned orgies, at the same time become the dull hearses of daring and invention. Yes, my dear fellow, bourgeois marriage has put slippers on the country and will soon take it to the doors of death.