Roland’s flogging of Julie

Rodin’s flogging of Julie reveals how the school’s stated discipline serves as cover for his exploitation of students. Rosalie brings Therese to observe the punishment unseen; what they witness is not a fair correction but an exercise of power against a pupil whose resistance Rodin turns into a pretext for violence.

Background and Motive

Rosalie explains that her father, Rodin, is both a physician and the head of a school. She distinguishes his professed medical work from his reason for running the school: his pupils’ dependence places them under his control, and he exploits that position. On Fridays, one of the three days each week when he punishes students, he takes pleasure in inflicting corrections. This disclosure gives Therese a reason to inspect the household’s customs, even though Rodin has offered her asylum there.

The scene joins educational authority to coercion. Rodin presents himself as a disciplinarian responding to misconduct, but Rosalie warns Therese that he invents trivial accusations as excuses. His professional standing and his role as teacher do not protect the pupils; together, those roles give his control the appearance of legitimate instruction and punishment.

The Hidden Witnesses

Rosalie leads Therese to a closet in her room, which adjoins the punishment room. Through gaps in a partition, the two can see into the neighboring space without being noticed. Rosalie instructs Therese to remain silent about both the secret and what she is about to witness. The concealment makes the episode a private revelation: Therese sees the practice behind the school’s public authority rather than learning of it through an official account.

Rodin enters with Julie, a fourteen-year-old pupil who is crying and pleading for him to spare her. He accuses her of passing a note to a boy upon entering the classroom. Julie protests that she did not do so, while Rosalie quietly tells Therese that the charge is invented and that Rodin is harsh because Julie resists him. The accusation therefore functions less as an established offense than as a disciplinary pretext.

Punishment and Escalation

Rodin ties Julie’s hands to a ring mounted high on a pillar in the punishment room. He blindfolds her and proceeds with the punishment; Rosalie and Therese, watching through the partition, remain hidden as Julie is left unable to defend herself. Rodin uses a cat-o’-nine-tails that has been soaking in vinegar, and he administers twenty-five strokes. The punishment is presented as a staged exercise of authority: Rodin’s threat that Julie must suffer converts the supposed correction into an act of deliberate intimidation.

The episode does not end with the first round of lashes. Rodin continues the assault, then stops when he judges that going further would risk impairing his ability to conduct future “operations.” That calculation shows that his violence is not a momentary loss of control alone; even as the scene depicts his fury, he measures it against the prospect of repeating his abuse. He releases Julie and tells her to dress, warning that she will not escape so lightly if he again accuses her of similar misconduct.

Consequences and Significance

Julie returns to her class, but the warning leaves discipline hanging over her as a threat Rodin can renew. The scene supplies no later account of Julie’s fate; its immediate consequence is instead a change in Therese’s knowledge. Having been offered refuge in Rodin’s household, she now understands that its apparent order conceals systematic exploitation, and that Rodin’s authority makes resistance dangerous.

Rosalie’s confidence in Therese and her decision to show her the punishment establish a bond of trust between the two girls, but they also place Therese in the position of a concealed witness to Rodin’s conduct. The narrative’s contrast is stark: a classroom charge is invoked to justify punishment, while the observing girls recognize the charge as a fabrication. The episode thus exposes the school’s disciplinary language as an instrument of private power and foreshadows the danger within the asylum Therese has accepted.