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Villanelle
In 1804, the cook is working for Napoleon’s army when young recruit Henri arrives in the army camp of Boulogne. The cook insists on taking the new recruits to a brothel, where the cook hits and menaces a sex worker until one of her colleagues knocks him unconscious. Later, Henri hears the cook bragging about forcing the sex worker to perform oral sex and lying about where he got his head injury. One day, the cook has drunk himself unconscious when an officer informs Henri that Napoleon is coming to inspect the kitchen tent and orders Henri to hide the cook. Henri is struggling with the cook’s bulk when Napoleon enters. Afterward, the army mocks and gossips about the cook so much that he swears revenge on Henri. The cook is sent back to Paris in disgrace, where he is put in charge of requisitioning the army’s food. He gets rich as the French army’s supplier of low-quality meat and travels to Venice, where he becomes obsessed with 18-year-old casino worker Villanelle, a young woman who often dresses as a man. He proposes to her, and when she refuses him, he sexually assaults her. Yet—emotionally devastated after ending a passionate affair—Villanelle eventually does marry him. After two years of marriage, however, she runs away. He finds her three years later and sells her to the army as a sex worker. Villanelle deserts the French army with Henri in 1812 and returns to Venice with him in 1813. When the cook finds them, he threatens to report Henri and sell Villanelle again. When he attacks Villanelle, Henri stabs him to death and cuts out his heart—ensuring that Henri is sentenced to life in an insane asylum and Villanelle becomes a wealthy widow.
The Cook/The Large Man Quotes in The Passion
The The Passion quotes below are all either spoken by The Cook/The Large Man or refer to The Cook/The Large Man. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 3: The Zero Winter
Quotes
You can’t make sense of your passion for life in the face of death, you can only give up your passion. Only then can you begin to survive.
And if you refuse?
If you felt for every man you murdered [. . .] madness would throw her noose around your neck and lead you into the dark woods where the rivers are polluted and the birds are silent.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
If the love was passion, the hate will be obsession. A need to see the once-loved weak and cowed and beneath pity. Disgust is close and dignity is far away. The hate is not only for the once-loved, it’s for yourself too; how could you ever have loved this?
Part 4: The Rock
Quotes
And the valuable, fabulous thing?
Now that I have it back? Now that I have been given a reprieve such as only the stories offer?
Will I gamble it again?
Yes.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
I think now that being free is not being powerful or rich or well regarded or without obligations but being able to love. To love someone else enough to forget about yourself even for one moment is to be free.
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The Cook/The Large Man Quotes in The Passion
The The Passion quotes below are all either spoken by The Cook/The Large Man or refer to The Cook/The Large Man. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 3: The Zero Winter
Quotes
You can’t make sense of your passion for life in the face of death, you can only give up your passion. Only then can you begin to survive.
And if you refuse?
If you felt for every man you murdered [. . .] madness would throw her noose around your neck and lead you into the dark woods where the rivers are polluted and the birds are silent.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
If the love was passion, the hate will be obsession. A need to see the once-loved weak and cowed and beneath pity. Disgust is close and dignity is far away. The hate is not only for the once-loved, it’s for yourself too; how could you ever have loved this?
Part 4: The Rock
Quotes
And the valuable, fabulous thing?
Now that I have it back? Now that I have been given a reprieve such as only the stories offer?
Will I gamble it again?
Yes.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
I think now that being free is not being powerful or rich or well regarded or without obligations but being able to love. To love someone else enough to forget about yourself even for one moment is to be free.
