Many have seen Montherlant's first play, L'Exil, as the key to his following theatrical works. It is true that Montherlant's tragic heroes are continually in a state of exile, but it is Pasiphaë who best illustrates the exile they must endure. Because of their desire they are in exile from others, from nature, and often from the deepest part of themselves. Like Pasiphaë his tragic heroes are constantly thirsting, though the waters that will fulfill their desire are always beyond this world. And thus like Pasiphaë they must affirm themselves in their exile as they affirm their desire…. Like Kierkegaard's Abraham, Pasiphaë can find no mediation through an ethical universal. For her the tragedy of eros is to be exiled to a realm of gratuitous desire that finds justification only because she is strong enough to will it.

Once desire is considered to be the key to Montherlant's...