Imagination and Desire

One of Montaigne’s main ideas, that “a strong imagination creates the event”, can directly be applied to Diderot’s The Indiscreet Jewels. In a way, everything that happens in The Indiscreet Jewels is just a figment of the characters’ imaginations. First, the sultan imagines that there is a possible way for him to discover all the “amorous adventures” of the ladies in his court and so he asks the genie for this power. The genie then allows him to do this through a ring that will allow ladies’ jewels to speak, which is a creation of the genie’s imagination. Finally, the ladies’ jewels embody this statement through the events they recount for the sultan and the whole town to hear. Throughout The Indiscreet Jewels, there is always the uncertainty of whether or not these jewels are truly telling the truth or to what extent they are embellishing or fabricating these tales. The events may seem realistic, but through Montaigne’s theory they could simply be a product of a “strong imagination”.

In The Indiscreet Jewels, the jewels can symbolize each of the ladies’ desires. Each woman had her own desires which she acted on, yet they all criticized each other for it. The case of Flora, a young maid only about fifteen years old, was particularly interesting because they condemned her and forced her to repent for simply having feelings and thoughts of desire, even though she didn’t act on them. There seems to be a need to control these desires, and when thinking about it this way, the jewels can represent the unleashing of desire. The ladies of the court are constantly hiding their desires, yet throughout the story, their jewels make their desire known. The town is threatened by this, and at the end prays that the jewels remain quiet, because they feel safer with everyone’s desires unknown. In many ways this idea that desire should be controlled or suppressed is still present in our society, although desire cannot really ever be contained.