Beauvoir’s fiction punished female ambition with isolation and forced marriage.

Evidence

Part VI deals with the graduation: Andrée has won the Prize for Excellence, but Monique has been forced to become engaged and is already living with her future parents-in-law. Chantal has been named to a position in Chartres, and when she encounters Andrée, she averts her eyes. Chantal sneers at Andrée, musing that she “will turn into a little pedant” (W, 91; A, 162), and Andrée realizes that from “now on she would be entirely alone,” but that one day, “in spite of everything, I shall certainly end up not being young anymore” (W, 93; A, 166). — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 555

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Literary plots punish passionate women for breaches of marital convention.