The Red and the Black Dissatisfaction Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

Despite his prudent reflections, Monsieur de Rênal's dissatisfaction did not blaze any the less brightly in the stream of vulgar comments that followed. (1.9.24)

Monsieur de Rênal feels dissatisfaction when he finds his expensive tutor (Julien Sorel) sleeping in with an apparent cold. He has gone to a lot of trouble to hire Julien, and he's not going to stand for any slacking off just because Julien is living under his roof.

Quote #2

The masters of the house suffered, at bottom, from too much pride and too much boredom. (2.4.5)

It doesn't take much to sum up why the de La Mole house is a really lame place to hang out. The owners have too much pride and too much boredom. You can hardly talk about anything around them without offending their dignity. Oh, you want to talk about politics? Well that's not really appropriate. These are the same people who don't want to talk about anything interesting, but then turn around in the same sentence and complain of boredom.

Quote #3

Still, except on rainy days, and at moments of truly fierce boredom, which did not occur very often, they were always perfectly polite. (2.4.5).

The people of the de La Mole house might be bored and empty, but they're always very polite. This is hardly any consolation to Julien Sorel, though, who finds hanging out with them unbearably boring.