Cousin Bette

Introductory Theme

While standing near the deathbed of her rich cousin Adeline, Bette Fischer, an impoverished seamstress, promises to take care of her cousin, Adeline's family. However, the husband of late Adeline, Baron Hector Hulot, does not respect Bette and treats her like a mere housekeeper. Bette refuses to live in Baron's house and returns to her small apartment in a locality of Paris, where she designs attires for a theater called Burlesque. While working for theater, she makes friendship with headliner, popular courtesan Cadine, Jenny. There was a promising young artist, Wenceslas, who was hard times in life. Bette finds reassurance in Wenceslas, though, both had different lifestyles (Balzac, pp. 02).

Conflict and Irony

Obsessed by Wenceslas, Bette starts taking care of him by motivating him to continue working hard. Then, Bette talks about Wenceslas with Hortense. In order to peak at Wenceslas's work, Hortense visits an antique shop near Bette's house. After seeing him, Hortense is attracted towards Wenceslas and tells her father about marring him also pleads to her father to persuade Wenceslas to make a magnificent statue. In the mean time, Wenceslas begins to sneak out Hortense. One day Jenny tells Bette that, Jenny's lover, Lord Hulot has given her a work of an art that was made by his soon-to-be son in law. Bette recognizes that the artwork was made by Wenceslas and follows him due to her suspicion. She gets angry at Wenceslas and swears to herself of taking revenge and asks jenny for help in this regard (Gilroy, pp. 101).

Bette's Plot

The plan of Bette is to create conflict within the family by turning family members against each other. After Hortense and Wenceslas have a child, Bette's start to infringe rumors in Hortense's mind regarding Wenceslas. Bette also starts to peruse Jenny through a wealthy perfumer, Cesar ...