The Betrayal of Bodies

In the except from Denis Diderot's novel The Indiscreet Jewels, a bored Mangogul, seeks a ring with magic powers that causes women's jewels to speak and tell all of their deepest darkest secrets. Mangogul's wife, Mirzoza, is not opposed to this power, however, does not want her husband to use it on her because she wants him to trust her. In Montaigne's Of the power of the imagination, Montaigne states, "For I ask you to think, whether there is a single of of the parts of our body that does not often refuse its function to our will and exercise it against our will" (72). In the story the women's jewels speak against their 'owner's' will, answering this question in a different way that Montaigne proposed it, however still relating.

Our minds and bodies contain many secrets that we do not want to share, but somehow come out through body language or facial expressions. Although the story involves magic versus just human nature, it still shows how no secret is ever really safe, and how any part of our body can 'deceive' us. The women in the story do not realize their jewels are speaking, just as a human beings often don't realize when their body language is giving them away, and therefore this story acts as somewhat of a metaphor of Montaigne's idea. Our bodies are deceivingly uncontrollable, and therefore we must be warned that our sins will always follow us, and that lies are always revealed.