“À présent, je n’aime plus rien” Carmen: Catching a glimpse of the archè through a lacuna in the narrative

“À présent, je n’aime plus rien”… This sentence, uttered by Carmen on the brink of death, is the key to the enigma hidden at the center of Mérimée’s novella, an enigma reflected in a contradictory motivation: overwhelmed by Don José’s jealousy, Carmen threatens to have him killed, then, after another scene of jealousy, she lets herself be killed by him. We propose a solution with the help of a psychoanalytic reading based on the analysis of the logic of the narrative.