Yellow and blue satin
upholstered in satin as at my grandparents’, but yellow
After the protagonist encounters his grandparents’ blue satin, he sees the yellow satin in his uncle Adolphe’s drawing-room. Proust seems to symbolize the family tiers between Adolphe and the grandparents by stating that their furniture is covered by the same, precious fabric. However, the satin on Adolphe’s furniture is not blue, but yellow. Proust seems to associate the color ‘yellow’ with ‘boldness’, and ‘eccentricity’, as seen when he mentions that the yellow of Esther’s dress in the church’s tapestry “stood boldly out from the receding atmosphere”.
Adolphe, like the color ‘yellow’, stands out from his family in his eccentricity and progressiveness. Adolphe could be called eccentric because he has “vulgar” friends, such as actresses and courtesans. Adolphe’s attraction to these women is another reason as to why he is symbolized by bright colored satin; satin was commonly used for making undergarments, so that it acquired an erotic connotation. Colorful satin was especially associated with prostitutes.