Adèle Hugo and Victor Hugo

Adèle Hugo and Victor Hugo’s marriage appears briefly in Simone de Beauvoir’s discussion of marital infidelity: Adèle apparently watched her ardent husband take his passions to other beds without regret. The example exposes the gendered asymmetry of adultery in the surrounding argument, where a husband’s affairs may coexist with companionship at home, while a wife’s infidelity is treated as a more radical break from her husband.

The Marriage as an Example of Wifely Tolerance

The text offers no extended account of the couple’s life together. It presents one pointed circumstance: Adèle apparently saw Victor Hugo pursue sexual relationships elsewhere and did not regret it. The qualification matters—the account is reported as an apparent response, not as a detailed record of Adèle’s feelings or of the terms of their marriage.

Her example occurs among descriptions of wives who graciously accept their husbands’ other partners, and even of women who help arrange such encounters. It therefore serves as evidence of a social pattern rather than as a developed portrait of either spouse. The passage does not say that Adèle acted as a procurer; it distinguishes her apparent acceptance from that more active role.

Infidelity and Unequal Standards

Simone de Beauvoir sets the example against the possibility of separating conjugal companionship from sexual exclusivity. A husband, she argues, may be inconstant while continuing the shared enterprise of domestic life with his wife. In principle, a wife might likewise seek other sexual relationships while remaining committed to a common home and family; prudence and hypocrisy, rather than adultery itself, make such arrangements degrading.

The apparent ease with which Adèle accepted Victor’s affairs sharpens the contrast with the treatment of a wife’s infidelity. The passage describes a traditional sexual order in which a woman’s sexual surrender confirms the man’s status as master, while her desires and choices are judged through the unequal conventions of marriage. The example thus records a wife’s tolerance within that order, not proof that the same freedom was available to both partners.

The Relation’s Argumentative Significance

The marriage is a concise illustration of how men’s and women’s affairs acquire different meanings under social convention. A husband’s infidelity can be represented as a sexual caprice that leaves his marital partnership intact. A wife’s affair, by contrast, is figured as taking her more completely away from her husband, because the conventional model casts her as his dependent reflection and treats her sexuality as something he possesses.

Adèle’s apparent lack of regret does not resolve this asymmetry; it makes the asymmetry visible. Her response exemplifies the tolerance a wife may extend to a husband in a marriage structured around male privilege, while the broader argument questions why reciprocal freedom is not granted to women on equal terms. The passage supplies no further account of the couple’s later relationship or its outcome.