"'Restons mort, c'est plus sûr!' Pierrot sur les planches"

Similar to the Greek god Hermes Pierrot keeps representing, with its well known tendency to theft, its innate laziness, its innocence and cruelty, the dark side of positive and productive society. In 19th century France Pierrot often represents the bad schoolboy, implicitly criticizing Republican values. We have de ned Champ eury’s and Margueritte’s Pierrot as an “hypocritical sign” since it always betrays and bypasses representation, identity and ideology in a positive culture. We have identi ed three Pierrot gures: metaphorical; grammatical; political.