Other branch
Frère Archangias
Lay brother, Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit
The most violently anti-flesh figure in La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret — the lay brother of the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit who is Serge Mouret's closest colleague and the instrument of his retrieval from Le Paradou. Archangias is a study in the dark underside of religious asceticism: he hates women with a rage that is barely distinguishable from desire, regarding them as the devil's primary instrument; he treats the village children he teaches with a brutality that he calls discipline; and he storms through the Provençal countryside as though the flesh itself were his enemy. He is not a hypocrite — he genuinely believes everything he preaches, which makes him more frightening than a simple bigot. When he realises that Serge has been living with Albine in the Paradou, he moves with cold efficiency to destroy it. He drags Serge back to the Church; he finds Albine and drives her off with a contempt that combines theology and personal revulsion. He is present at the novel's ending, unmoved by Albine's death — which he regards as the just consequence of sin. Zola gives him enough intelligence and consistency to make him genuinely disturbing rather than merely grotesque.
Frère laïque de la confrérie du Saint-Esprit et collègue de Serge Mouret dans La Faute. Il hait les femmes avec une intensité indissociable du désir refoulé, traite les enfants du catéchisme avec brutalité, et stoppe l'idylle du Paradou avec une froideur efficace. Sa présence à la fin du roman, indifférent à la mort d'Albine, est parmi les moments les plus glaçants du cycle.
Large-framed, thick-necked, with enormous hairy hands and a jaw like a door — a man whose physical presence suggests suppressed animal force.
Large-framed, thick-necked, with enormous hairy hands and a jaw like a door — a man whose physical presence suggests suppressed animal force.