The Women of Chateau Lafayette

For each of the three protagonists, the intricacies of identity play a prominent role in their ability to pursue their varied aims, as certain names provide them with a measure of agency and power that society would otherwise deny them. For Adrienne, her family names are instrumental to her social standing, her inheritance as a noble, and her faithful and unflinching commitment to her husband. By default, Adrienne has never known a day when her family name, Noailles, has not provided her with privileges and respect. As she notes when Gilbert despairs over the mockery that his lesser status inspires at court, “[H]is marriage to me […] made him a somebody. And we were invited to every royal function” (76). However, unlike Gilbert, who eventually comes to make his own name synonymous with the notion of freedom, Adrienne’s family name lends her an inherited social power that ironically becomes a liability when her association with the nobility makes her a target during the uprising in France. Likewise, her marriage to Gilbert and her adoption of his last name increase her social standing, but they also become harbingers of danger and violence when the name of Lafayette garners both reverence and hatred throughout the French Revolution.