"Laurence is not happy, because she does not choose to be happy." The character of Laurence in Simone de Beauvoir's "Les Belles Images"

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject French Studies - Literature, grade: 68, University of Birmingham, course: BA Modern Languages, language: English, abstract: ¿[Human beings] are responsible for creating their lives according to their own values...¿ Here summarised by Ursula Tidd, this idea suggests that we as humans are responsible for our own happiness by ¿creating [our] lives¿ ¿ in other words, through our choices. If we accept this to be true, as one is likely to when examining Simone de Beauvoir¿s novel "Les Belles Images" (Barcelone : Gallimard, 1966), then it would seem that Laurence¿s unhappiness is indeed due to her passivity. However, is it correct to imply that if one wants to be happy, one can be, simply by choosing it?