Who is Jacques

Jacques—Fabienne’s fictional brother and Agnès’ pretend boyfriend—serves as a symbol of Fabienne’s fraught and complex relationship with Agnès. When Agnès goes to school in England, Fabienne writes to her as both herself and as Jacques. The letters vary wildly in tone. In the letters from her own perspective, Fabienne is as cruel and blunt as usual; in the letters from Jacques, she is kind and loving. Agnès cannot determine which set of letters represents Fabienne’s true emotions. In this way, Jacques serves as a conduit through which Fabienne can express the intimate and loving feelings that she has for Agnès. These appear to be thoughts and emotions that Fabienne cannot express through her own character. The fictional Jacques becomes evidence of a hidden, suppressed area of Fabienne’s emotional life.