Rosalie

Rosalie, the fourteen-year-old daughter of Rodin, is both a victim of her father’s abuse of authority and Therese’s closest ally in his household. She exposes the purpose behind Rodin’s school, shares her own history of exploitation, and turns to religious belief through Therese’s friendship; their attempt to escape together is discovered before either can reach safety.

Identity and Household

Rosalie lives with Rodin, a wealthy surgeon and schoolmaster, in his house at Saint-Marcel. He shares the household with two young women who serve as governess and cook, as well as with Rosalie. Therese, recovering in the house after Rodin offers her shelter, describes Rosalie as having striking beauty, intelligence, liveliness, and an unusually gentle nature. Her first impression of the household is therefore divided: its warmth and apparent respectability sit alongside her suspicion that Rodin has an undisclosed reason for wanting another young woman there.

Rosalie’s age and dependence matter to the account. She has only just turned fourteen, and Rodin controls both her home life and her access to the world beyond it. The school he runs also gathers children under his authority: he admits pupils from the age of twelve and dismisses them at sixteen. The respectable functions of father, doctor, and teacher give him access to young people while making the household’s underlying abuse difficult to see from outside.

Confidante and Witness

As Therese grows closer to her, Rosalie recognizes her as someone she can trust and tells her why Rodin pursues both medicine and teaching. She explains that his surgical work is driven by personal interest, while the school gives him power over dependent pupils that he exploits for his own gratification. She then invites Therese to observe one of the school’s punishments from a concealed closet adjoining the room where Rodin conducts them.

The scene makes Rosalie a crucial witness as well as an informant. She warns Therese that Rodin invents minor offenses as pretexts for punishment and explains that his harshness falls especially on pupils who resist him. After Therese sees Rodin punish children, Rosalie reveals that the abuse extends beyond the punishment room and affects both boys and girls. She says that eight of the fourteen girls and nine of the boys have already been subjected to his abuse, and that the two women serving in the house are also exploited.

Rosalie’s confidence is not merely an account of what happens to others. She tells Therese that Rodin began abusing her when she was eleven, when she was too young to defend herself. She also explains that he suppresses religious practice and leaves the children with little religious instruction, making it harder for them to seek help or understand what has been taken from them. Her confession gives Therese a clearer view of the household: its secrecy is sustained not only by Rodin’s authority but by his deliberate isolation of those under it.

Friendship, Faith, and Resistance

Therese responds to Rosalie’s disclosure with sympathy and a wish to restore what Rodin has tried to extinguish. Because Rodin will not permit a priest near his daughter and does not allow Rosalie to go out without him, the two cannot simply turn to an outside religious authority. They wait for an opportunity while Therese teaches Rosalie about religious duties and belief. The friendship thus becomes a form of resistance within a household where Rodin restricts both movement and religious observance.

When Rosalie disappears, Rodin tells Therese that the departure was arranged to spare them both an emotional scene and promises that Therese will see her again. Therese doubts this explanation, given Rosalie’s affection for her and her knowledge of Rodin’s character. Searching the house while alone, she hears sounds from a cellar concealed behind a narrow door blocked by firewood. Rosalie calls to her from inside, confirming that the promised departure was a deception and that Rodin has kept her captive.

Rosalie tells Therese that Rodin had ordered her to submit to an examination by his colleague Rombeau. After she resisted, Rodin handed her over to Rombeau, and the two men kept her under their control for several hours. Rodin then arranged for her to leave under an older woman’s guardianship, but she was brought back to the house after nightfall. He imprisoned her in the cellar and told her that he intended to marry her. The account links her disappearance, the confinement, and the proposed marriage to Rodin’s attempt to retain control over her future.

Failed Escape and Narrative Significance

The danger to Rosalie becomes immediate when Therese overhears Rodin telling Rombeau that, after five years of using her, he has decided to kill her. Realizing that there is little time, Therese rushes to the cellar and tries to force the door. She finds the key, opens it, embraces Rosalie, and urges her to flee, promising to follow. Rosalie crosses the threshold, but freedom remains only a few steps away: Rodin seizes his daughter while Rombeau restrains Therese.

Rodin recasts Therese’s attempt to save Rosalie as a servant’s crime of abducting a daughter from her father. Therese answers that she had to act because Rodin was plotting against Rosalie’s life. The accusation reverses the moral meaning of the scene: Rodin invokes paternal authority to conceal the violence that makes escape necessary. The two women are dragged back into the house, and Rosalie is tied to a bedpost while Rodin and Rombeau turn their anger on Therese. Their rescue attempt fails, and the evidence ends with Rosalie once again in her father’s power, with the threat against her life unresolved.

Rosalie’s role is therefore more than that of a captive whose fate is revealed through Therese’s narration. Her disclosure changes Therese’s understanding of Rodin’s household, while her friendship with Therese supplies the religious and moral alternative Rodin seeks to suppress. Yet the attempted escape also establishes the limits of their resistance: truthful testimony and compassion expose the household’s crimes, but Rodin’s control of the home and its inhabitants allows him to punish those who challenge him.