Blanche Monnier Woman Who was Imprisoned 25 years for falling in love

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Anupama Nair, (www.mediaeyenews.com)

What is love? All poets have described love in many ways. From childhood we hear about tales of immortal love – Romeo and Juliet, Heer and Ranja, Pritviraj Chauhan and Samyogita, Krishna and Radha and the list goes on… Shakespeare who is famous for his love sonnets had written many times on love such as “ ‘If music be the food of love, play on (Twelfth night)’, ‘love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore winged cupid painted blind (A midsummer’s night dream)’, ‘who ever loved that loved not, at first sight (As you like it)’ ,’ love is blind and lovers cannot see, The pretty follies that themselves commit (Merchant of Venice)’ and last but not the least ‘‘Come what sorrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy, That one short minute gives me in her sight (Romeo and Juliet)’.

There are many stories of young women being locked up and kidnapped by men for their own torturous needs. But what if your kidnapper was your own mother?  It seems unbelievable, isn’t it? The story may be over a century old, but that doesn’t make it any less terrifying. I am talking about Blanche Monnier who was imprisoned for twenty five years – her fault falling in love!. Yes you heard right. Blanche Monnier (1849-1913) known in France as ‘lai Séquestrée de Poitiers’ (‘the confined woman of Poitiers’). She lived in Poiters, and was secretly kept locked in a small room by her aristocratic mother for twenty five years. As it is said “Love, the end all, be all’.

Like every other young girl, Monnier was desperate for love. At 25, she was still unmarried and was desperate to move on with her life outside her mother’s home. She found love in the form of an older lawyer, but her mother disapproved of the affair. Still, Monnier’s heart was set on marrying her lover, regardless of her mother’s wishes. Madame Monnier forbade Blanche from seeing this man, and even went as far as to force her to call off the relationship. But Blanche refused to listen to her mother.

Her mother Louise realized Blanche would never give up her emotions on her own for her lover. So, she locked her daughter in the tiny attic room, with barricaded shutters preventing any light in the room. If she wanted freedom, she would have to break off the marriage to her lover her mother disapproved. But how can she give up her lover? Even if that meant never seeing her lover again, then she wouldn’t. Monnier stayed in the room, eating dinner scraps her mother would give her, and sleeping on a hay bed left upstairs. She lived in captivity for a long time dreaming of the time she would meet her lover. Unfortunately, that day never came, after his sad demise in 1885. Even after that, she was still imprisoned in the attic with no sunlight.

How did they get away with her sudden disappearance? They told the story that, Blanche Monnier was dead, who her mother and brother would mourn at every chance to sell their story. Of course, no one doubted the story, as a young woman passing away unexpectedly was no raise for concern at that time. Her brother, Marcel, was also manipulated by their mother as he stayed at home, never married and not all questioning the ill-treatment of his sister.

An anonymous complaint was sent to the Attorney General of Paris. A letter was spend that spoke about a girl being held captive in a house with the address ‘21 rue de la Visitation’. The police knew the address belonged to the Monniers. The Monnier family was an honorable upper-middle-class family who hailed from the aristocratic Poitiers family. They, then recalled Blanche was missing and reported dead nearly twenty five years ago. Police rushed to the house, forced the door open, and found Blanche lying in a pool of feces and food debris on a bed in an attic, her head hidden under the covers. The 49-year-old woman, who now weighed a mere 55 pounds (25 kilograms), was naked, scared, and deranged. She hadn’t seen the sun in twenty five years!

She was taken to the hospital for treatment. During the subsequent investigation, the true story was revealed. Although, Blanche’s mother was arrested the next day, she died 15 days later, and her brother, Marcel, stood the trial alone, accused of being his mother’s accomplice. He was initially convicted. But after several appeals, he was set free. But no one had any clue about whether he was guilty or not.

Although Blanche Monnier did put on some weight over time, she never regained her sanity. She was diagnosed with various disorders including anorexia nervosa, schizophrenia, exhibitionism, and coprophilia. She was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Blois, France. She eventually died in 1913 in apparent anonymity in that hospital, 12 years after she was discovered captive in her room.

After reading her story, it is clear “truth was stranger than fiction”. She was a living Juliet and Heer and not fiction. Blanche commented after she was rescued as “What have I done to be locked up? I don’t deserve this horrible torture. God must not exist then, to let his creatures suffer in this way? And no one to come to my rescue!”

In 1930, Andre Gide published a book about the incident, named ‘La Séquestrée de Poitiers’, changing little but the names of the protagonists.

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