What Proust Has to Teach Us About Our Life Purpose
Marcel Proust was a writer, author, and spiritual thinker in the early 20th century. His most famous work, In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu) is known for being the longest novel ever written. It was a work that revolutionised the early twentieth century for its radical views on life.
Proust had some fascinating views on life and fulfillment. He saw that in order to be happy and content in life, we must have a life that gives us a sense of meaning and purpose.
Why did Proust care about having a life purpose?
Proust started out in life just like anyone else of his day. He was brought up in rather violent surroundings, during the consolidation of the French Third Republic, but despite this, his parents provided him with an opportunity to be well educated as they were. From this upbringing, Proust discovered that happiness ultimately comes from having a sense of purpose.
Proust's father, Dr. Adrien Proust, was a leading pathologist in the cholera epidemic from 1826 - 1832. He provided hygienic advice for the average person to protect themselves against the disease. At the time, not much as known about cholera which meant that the mortality rate was extremely high. No one knew how to protect themselves against it.
Nevertheless, Dr. Adrien Proust was the first to identify hygiene as a major cause of the disease. He wrote a book to help educate about correct hygiene and provided exercises for wellness too. This book alone helped many people to survive the epidemic.
Marcel Proust became hungry to find his purpose in life because of his father’s success in public hygiene; he saw the difference that one person could make. Proust wasn’t interested in the practical help that a career in medicine would provide but instead wanted to help people with medicine for the soul.
From a Proustian perspective, here’s how you can find fulfillment in your own life.
Our life purpose isn’t found in societal trappings
“In Guermantes…he admitted…to note the disparity between glamour seen from a distance and the triviality it masks when encountered at close quarters.”
Proust started off, like many of us do, exploring the 'accepted' avenues of living life. He tried climbing the social ladder of the bourgeoisie, only to find the parties and small talk uninteresting. He then enlisted in the army, hoping to gain satisfaction in defending one's country and consolidating a sense of national identity -- only to find no meaning in slaughtering the enemy. Finally, he attempted a career and tried to dedicate himself to a day-job, but couldn't find it within him to dedicate the hours of each day solely to money-making.
These are the stages we all go through in one way or another when going out into the world as adults. In Search of Lost Time explores how especially the avenue of knowing “the right people” and mingling in exclusive circles is all a waste of time. We think our lives principally dull if we are not mingling with those that seem glamorous. Yet through the protagonist’s eyes, we come to the realisation too that fulfilment cannot be bought from something external.
From a more Eastern perspective, Proust shares how fulfilment comes from marching to the beat of our own drum. For Proust, this meant pursuing a career in writing.
Fulfilment is found within yourself
“These dreams reminded me that, since I wished someday to become a writer, it was high time to decide what sort of books I was going to write. ”
When Proust was young, his father put considerable pressure on him to get a career to support himself. In his heart, he knew he wanted to be a writer, yet he worried this would let down his ambitious father. After his stint in the army, and getting to know the high-ranking members of 20th-century society, Proust managed to work his way into the literary scene in Paris.
In his early life, his ultimate dissatisfaction came solely from not pursuing the path that he felt was destined for him. He found that because he wasn‘t living in alignment with what he felt in his heart, everything he attempted came up short. That‘s because, as Proust realised himself, he was looking for fulfillment out there, instead of within himself.
In India, this concept is called dharma or living according to our soul. We are able to dodge disillusionment and disengagement because we are actively engaged with the longings of our hearts.
As Proust found, it‘s not about distracting one‘s self from life, but actively engaging with it. Proust needed to become a writer, because of the intuitive knowledge he was to share.
Proust wants us to follow our dreams
“If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.”
All his life, Proust wanted to help humanity through his writing. This inner urge to do good in the world, despite embarrassing his family by never taking up a formal job, led him to write what critics called "(the) greatest fiction to date."
He was brave enough to listen to his inner calling, which some might say comes from the soul, despite years of failed attempts at what we would consider a ‘normal‘ future. He did not find a wife (due to his homosexuality), he lost both his parents in his 30s and he was crippled by medical conditions his whole life. Yet, from following his passion he was then called "greatest novelist of the 20th-century."
The success of In Search of Lost Time teaches us about what is possible when we follow our destiny. Even after rejection upon rejection from publishers of the day for being ‘too long‘ (which later was realised as a signature style and important in the message of the novel), it would go on to be named, "the most respected novel of the twentieth century.” The book later went on to inspire artists like Andy Warhol, and writers like Virginia Woolf.
So if there‘s one thing we can take away from Proust, and his opinion of how we can find and live our life purpose, it‘s probably best said in this line; “It‘s better to live your life in dreams than reality.”