Prodigal Sons and Family Values in Eighteenth-Century France

Abstract

French preachers and philosophes used the parable of the prodigal son, like other examples of domestic order and disorder, to illustrate their versions of human nature and social relations. The preachers generally emphasized the necessity for obedience to and discipline by the husband and father in order to control sinfulness in the form of dangerous desires. The philosophes generally emphasized the opportunity for and obligation of families to cultivate benevolent feelings in husbands and wives as well as parents and children. In transforming the parable into plays and poetry, eighteenth-century authors addressed tensions in the biblical narrative involving the figures of the father and the brother. Du Cerceau (1703) made changes without changing the message. Voltaire (1736) and Daillant de La Touche (1785) assigned female characters essential roles in their adaptations, which illustrate changing family values.