Both protagonists are members of the , now reduced to marginal figures in modern Paris. The text juxtaposes their opulent material heritage (e.g., “les perles de la couronne”) with the bodily vulnerability induced by bondage. This tension reflects Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic capital (Bourdieu 1984): while they retain cultural prestige, their bodies become sites of negotiation where capital can be redistributed through erotic exchange.