The Du Guesclin type

The Du Guesclin type is a figure invoked by Jean-Baptiste Clamence to characterize a young French prisoner of war he encountered in a camp near Tripoli during World War II. The name alludes to the medieval French constable Bertrand du Guesclin, a symbol of chivalric faith and military heroism, and Clamence uses it to describe a man whose unwavering Catholic piety and melancholy, exacerbated by his experiences in Franco's Spain and the African sun, set him apart from the other prisoners. This man, with a wild stare and unshaven face, would drum on his own ribs and declare the need for a new pope who would live among the wretched, insisting that a complete man with all his vices and virtues be chosen to keep alive the community of their sufferings. When he asked who among them had the most failings, Clamence, as a joke, raised his hand and was the only one to do so, leading to his election as pope. Clamence exercised his pontificate for several weeks with increasing seriousness, acting as a group leader and administering the suffering of the Du Guesclin type, whom he loved. The episode culminates in Clamence drinking the water of a dying comrade, an act he justifies by convincing himself that the others needed him more, and from this he concludes that empires and churches are born under the sun of death. The Du Guesclin type thus serves as a catalyst for Clamence's first experience of authority and guilt, prefiguring his later role as a judge-penitent and illustrating the novel's themes of innocence, judgment, and the human need for masters.