We now turn to the question of Combray's family. Is it paternal or maternal? How do we identify them? The ingenuous reader is confronted with this question of recognition. On the other hand, it is inseparable from the constitution of the antithetical couple of father and grandmother. Posited at the start of the novel, this polarity is as structuring as the two "sides". Finally, an examination of kinship in Combray will enable us to reflect on the nature of the work's realism.
The first mention of family tells us that we are "at [the narrator's] grandfather's house"(RTP, I, 6). The second clue contradicts this, presenting the stove as "aunt's"(RTP, I, 28). According to the third explanation, this is "grandfather's cousin's house"(RTP, I, 48). Such a contradiction raises questions about the degree of trust that can be placed in the story.
Shortly after the first mention, the narrator introduces the bulk of his family: father, mother, grandmother(RTP, I, 10-11), to whom will be added the great-aunt, the grandmother's sisters, Aunt Léonie and Uncle Adolphe. This passage dates back to Cahier 8 of 1909, where we find an allusion to the hero's brother. In the following notebook, which Proust dictated, the father's presence becomes a little fragile. It's only at the Bodmer closet stage that the latter is characterized and ridiculed by barometric mania. The opposition between the father and the grandmother was thus established late in the story.
A simple, naive question: whose mother is the grandmother? The mother's or the father's? This is left unsaid, and will remain difficult to determine for the long term. In Combray, the clues are shifting and contradictory(RTP, I, 11, 22, 71-76, 110, 142). If the maternal and paternal sides are confused in such a way that we never know exactly where we are, it's because Proust mixes memories of Auteuil with memories of Illiers. This explains the ghostly presence of the maternal uncle, who may remind us of Louis Weil, until he is largely transposed into the great-aunt, and into the father for the walks. It is this fact that makes the text incoherent to the end.
Finally, it's worth noting that father and grandmother, who are at odds with each other, agree exceptionally on the subject of Bloch(RTP, I, 91). The aversion to this character is the point of consensus, and this is before the question of Judaism is addressed in the story.
The father is gradually introduced into the text, without us ever really knowing what the relationship is at Combray. The definitive solution to our question can be found in "Un amour de Swann", where we read: "like my grandfather who, the previous year, had invited [Swann] to my mother's wedding"(RTP, I, 305). From then on, we're set. We might conclude that Proust's realism is peculiar. As kinship relationships are not always relevant, confusion reigns right up to the last moment. There's a kind of afterglow from earlier versions, like the scar of the brother who's been erased and the trace of the house that was once the uncle's before it was the aunt's. Bringing these earlier texts to the surface makes the final text a blurred hybrid. The fact remains that the polarity of father and grandmother has gradually taken shape, even though the father is a fairly latecomer to the creation of Combray.
