Chap­ter V delves deep­er into the com­plex psy­che of six­teen-year-old Ade­line as she nav­i­gates the rigid con­fines of soci­etal expec­ta­tions in Vil­lon-sur-Sarthe, France, dur­ing the spring of 1707. Unlike the oth­er young women in the vil­lage, who eager­ly antic­i­pate ful­fill­ing the roles of wives and moth­ers, Ade­line dreams of a life far removed from these lim­it­ed choic­es. She imag­ines her­self as a soli­tary fig­ure, akin to the grandeur of an ancient tree, firm­ly root­ed yet free to reach toward the sky. Her desire for inde­pen­dence is pal­pa­ble, as she finds com­fort and refuge away from the pry­ing eyes of her vil­lage, whether by the riv­er, where she is free to dream, or in the soli­tude of her own home where she secret­ly nur­tures her pas­sion for draw­ing. With each stroke of the pen­cil in her hid­den sketch­book, Ade­line express­es the vast expanse of her inner world—one filled with dreams of escape, of adven­ture, and a life beyond the con­fines of the vil­lage’s nar­row expec­ta­tions.

In her art, Ade­line begins to carve out her own space, one where she can exist with­out the lim­i­ta­tions placed upon her by soci­ety. The pages of her sketch­book, filled with intri­cate draw­ings, become her secret rebel­lion. These illus­tra­tions cap­ture not just the sim­ple beau­ty of her sur­round­ings but also her yearn­ing for a dif­fer­ent kind of life—one where she isn’t defined by mar­riage or domes­tic­i­ty, but by her own desires. Her most beloved cre­ation is the stranger who inhab­its the pages, a reflec­tion of the qual­i­ties she seeks in a com­pan­ion, qual­i­ties absent from the men who court her in the vil­lage. This fig­ure is more than a mere fan­ta­sy; he embod­ies the free­dom she craves and the life she feels is right­ful­ly hers—one of inde­pen­dence and explo­ration. The stranger, with his enig­mat­ic nature, becomes both an escape and a promise of the life Ade­line could have if only she were able to break free from the expec­ta­tions sur­round­ing her.

Adeline’s resis­tance to the advances of the men in her vil­lage, George Caron and Arnaud Tulle, reflects her deep-seat­ed reluc­tance to con­form to the pre­scribed life that seems to be the fate of every woman around her. While oth­er girls might dream of the com­fort of mar­riage and the secu­ri­ty it offers, Ade­line is deter­mined to pre­serve her auton­o­my. She turns to prayer, offer­ing sac­ri­fices to both the ancient gods and the new­er ones, seek­ing a way to change her fate. These rit­u­als, per­formed in secret by the riv­er, become a form of per­son­al defi­ance, a way to pre­serve her sense of iden­ti­ty and auton­o­my while the world around her press­es in with its demands. Despite her prayers and acts of rebel­lion, she finds her­self con­tin­u­al­ly pulled between the expec­ta­tions of her com­mu­ni­ty and her own deep desire to remain free. These inter­nal con­flicts shape her dai­ly life, as she must nav­i­gate the ten­sion between the real world she inhab­its and the world of pos­si­bil­i­ties her imag­i­na­tion cre­ates.

Through her art, Ade­line con­structs a fan­ta­sy world where she can live vic­ar­i­ous­ly through the sto­ries of far-off places and exot­ic crea­tures. The stranger in her draw­ings serves as a gate­way to these imag­ined lands, a sym­bol of every­thing that lies beyond her small vil­lage and her con­trolled life. In her fan­tasies, the stranger shares tales of tigers and dis­tant realms, each sto­ry tak­ing her fur­ther from the sti­fling real­i­ty of Vil­lon and into a realm where she is free to dream, explore, and live with­out the weight of soci­etal expec­ta­tions. These day­dreams pro­vide her with the solace she can­not find in her phys­i­cal sur­round­ings, allow­ing her to tem­porar­i­ly escape into a world of her own cre­ation. In this way, her art becomes both a cop­ing mech­a­nism and a method of resis­tance, as it allows her to express desires that are for­bid­den in her real­i­ty. It’s through these sto­ries and illus­tra­tions that Ade­line asserts her inde­pen­dence, even if only in the pri­vate con­fines of her mind.

This chap­ter of Adeline’s life poignant­ly con­trasts the restrict­ed roles women of her time were expect­ed to ful­fill with her desire to break free from those con­straints. The jux­ta­po­si­tion of her secret sketch­es and her imag­i­na­tive day­dreams against the rigid struc­ture of her vil­lage life under­scores her long­ing for more—more free­dom, more adven­ture, and more mean­ing. The pres­ence of the stranger in her art sym­bol­izes a life filled with pos­si­bil­i­ties, a stark con­trast to the life that soci­ety expects her to lead. Her deep desire to remain unteth­ered, to explore the world beyond the con­fines of Vil­lon, reveals a young woman who is both strong and vul­ner­a­ble, deter­mined to carve out a path for her­self despite the over­whelm­ing forces try­ing to shape her des­tiny. Through her resis­tance to mar­riage, her acts of rebel­lion, and the qui­et escape she finds in her art, Ade­line demon­strates the com­plex dance between soci­etal expec­ta­tion and per­son­al desire—a dance she is deter­mined to lead.