The novel "Carmen" was written by the French writer Prosper Merimet in 1845. Merimee was a historian, archaeologist, ethnographer. This special knowledge was useful to him in literary activity. In France, he became one of the first masters of the short story. Due to the fact that the composer Georges Bizet turned to the work “Carmen”, creating the opera of the same name, this short story became the most famous in the writer's work. It consists of four chapters. A summary of the novel “Carmen” by Prosper Merime will be described below.
Exposition of images of the main characters
The narration is in the first person. The author acts as a wandering archaeologist. Judging by the summary, Merime’s short story “Carmen” tells of the events of the early fall of 1830. The scientist, having hired a guide, sets off to look for the ancient city of Mund. He is interested in him in connection with the last victorious battle of Julius Caesar, after which he became the sovereign of Rome. The midday heat and thirst seized by it force the narrator to search for a stream. In search of a shady refuge, the scientist goes to the stream. There he meets a stranger of a warlike appearance, armed with a musketon. Having overcome the initial fright, the author offers a stranger a cigar. Then he shares his meal with him. A stranger greedily attacks the food offered. Having talked, they find out that they are on their way, since both of them are going to spend the night in Raven Venta. Random companions decide to continue their journey together, despite the fact that the conductor makes some warning signs. In the conversation, the scientist tries to find out from his fellow traveler whether he is the famous robber Jose Maria. But he avoids the answer.
Service provided
The summary of Carmen by Prosper Merime continues with a story about an overnight stay, to which travelers arrived. The author draws attention to the fact that the hostess calls his fellow traveler Don Jose. After dinner, the robber at the request of the narrator sings a Basque song, accompanying himself on a mandolin. The conductor makes signs to the owner, causing him to talk in the stable. However, the author neglects this, thereby showing his confidence in don Jose. Travel companions spend the night together. Waking up in the middle of the night, the scientist got out into the street, where he met a guide who was going to give out the robber Jose to the ulans and get a reward for this. The narrator managed to warn his companion, and Jose Navarro disappeared.
Acquaintance of the scientist with Carmen
The following is a summary of Carmen, Merima tells of a traveler who spends several days in Cordoba. In the library of the Dominican monastery, he gets acquainted with manuscripts, and in the evenings walks along the promenade of the city. One of these evenings, the scientist met a young gypsy - the beautiful Carmen. He is fascinated by her wild and sensual beauty. Upon learning that she knows how to guess, he escorts her home and asks her to tell fortunes on maps. Suddenly a man buried in a cloak bursts into the room. In it, the narrator recognizes his recent companion, Don Jose. Carmen and don Jose argue in an unfamiliar language, gesturing. The narrator realizes that Carmen offers the robber to deal with him. Don Jose takes the scientist to the bridge and points the way to the hotel.
The missing
Having already returned to the overnight stay, the scientist discovers the loss of his golden watch, which Carmen liked. The narrator leaves the city, but after a few months returns here again. He learns from one of the monks of the Dominican monastery that he was caught by Jose Navarro, who is now awaiting execution. He had the missing storyteller's golden watch. The scientist decides to meet with the robber.
Date with Don Jose
At the meeting, don Jose, in response to a scientist’s offer for help, asks Carmen to serve the mass for him.
The next day, the author again comes to don Jose. He tells him the story of his life. Summary Carmen Merimee transmits this story to readers.
Fatal meeting
Hossa Navarro was born in Elisondo. It belonged to an old noble family. In his youth, Jose joined the cavalry regiment and became corporal. Once, while he was on guard at the Seville tobacco factory, his fateful meeting with Carmen took place. She, walking past him to work with other girls, began to flirt with him.
On the same day, a few hours later, Jose was called to accompany her to prison, as Carmen started a quarrel in the factory and mutilated the face of one of the workers with a knife. On the way to prison, she began to tell Jose about her unhappy life, trying to arouse pity in him. He believed her, not realizing that she was lying. She persuaded the young man to give her the opportunity to escape. At first she wanted to bribe him, but then, realizing the futility of her attempt, she began to speak the Basque language, persuading her to help the imaginary countrywoman. Jose could not resist her seduction and helped her escape. Punishment immediately followed - he was demoted and sent to prison for a month. While in prison, Jose was constantly thinking about Carmen. One day he receives a gift from her - a loaf of bread with a file and two piastres. But military honor does not allow him to escape. After leaving prison he was demoted to ordinary soldiers. Standing at the Colonel’s house, he again meets Carmen, who, along with other gypsies, comes to entertain the public. When leaving, she tells Jose where he can find her.
Summary of Carmen Merimee tells about their next meeting.
Having met, Carmen and Jose spent together the whole day. In the morning, the girl told the soldier that she had paid off in full. After this meeting, Jose unsuccessfully tries to find Carmen.
The next meeting with her occurred when Jose once again stood in the guard near the breach, where smugglers carry their goods. Carmen promised to give him a night in return for missing the bandits. And Jose goes for this crime for her sake. After the promised meeting, Carmen again disappears for a long time.
Rogue Jose
The next time, Jose accidentally meets her in the house of Dorothea, where their previous dates took place. The girl was with a lieutenant in his regiment. The quarrel of young people ends tragically: Jose kills the new cavalier Carmen. A gypsy woman hides a young man in an unfamiliar house. In the morning, she informs him that he has no other way besides becoming the smuggler himself. Jose is attracted to a new life in which he will have money and a lover. He, together with a gang of bandits, robs, sometimes kills, smuggles.
From the leader of the bandits, don Jose learns that Carmen has freed her husband from prison - the terrible gypsy Garcia Crooked. Now meetings are rare and bring pain to the young man. Carmen invites him to kill his husband during another gang outing. But Jose considers this unworthy. He kills Garcia in a fair fight. After that, Carmen agrees to become the wife of don Jose. The robber is trying to persuade his wife to leave for the New World, changing his life. But Carmen takes this sentence with a mockery.
Tragic denouement
Freedom-loving Carmen is burdened by the robber's love. She begins to cheat on him with Picador Lucas. Don Jose, learning about this, is jealous of his wife and again persuades her to leave for America. But she again refuses him. Many times she tells her husband that she does not love him and will not live with him. And once in a fit of anger, Don Jose kills Carmen. Having buried her in the forest, he surrenders to the authorities.
Final chapter
The last chapter, as written in the summary of “Carmen” by Merime, describes the features of life, activities, and customs of the Spanish gypsies. The author admires their hospitality, fidelity in relations with his fellow tribesmen. This is a kind of cultural and ethnographic reference about the life of this people. If we conduct a structural analysis of Carmen by Prosper Merimee, it becomes obvious what methods the author used. With his unhurried narrative, both at the beginning and at the end of the short story, he sets off the tragic love story of Don Jose and Carmen.
Heroes of the short story
In the novel "Carmen", the heroes of Merimee do not have lengthy dialogs. Following the features of the psychological novel genre, the author conveys their emotional state through appearance, behavior and actions.
In the analysis of "Carmen" Merime a special place is occupied by the images of the main characters. The image of the gypsy Carmen is static, he does not change throughout the story. In contrast, the image of don Jose is dynamic: from an honest cavalryman with ideas about military honor to a smuggler capable of murder. The social decline of the hero is caused by a fatal passion for a scammer, the meeting with which changed his life so abruptly.