Marriage and puppets From the actor to the spectator in “Les Nuits du Ramazan”

Traveling to the Orient after his first bout of madness, Nerval hopes to prove his mental health. In the text of his Voyage, when the narrator falls in love with a young Druse girl, he sees himself as the hero of a novel, choosing marriage, rather than death, as his denouement. Forced to break off the engagement, he ends his journey as a mere spectator in the theaters of Constantinople, fulfilling his quest vicariously through the plays’ characters, and no longer confusing dream and reality.