the story. (XI, LXXXI) The symbolic code (SYM) are meanings that are constitutive (stemming from the fields of rhetoric, sexuality, or economy), but cannot be represented in the text, except in metonymies, which renders the text open to different interpretations (XI, XCII). The last, cultural code (REF) refers to meanings external to the text: in science or wisdom (sagesse). (XI) Barthes does not provide an overall structure for how the codes are integrated because he wants to preserve the plurality (multivalence) of the text. Since reading is plural (IX), a different reading (reader) might invoke the codes differently and combine them differently ending up with a different understanding. Moreover, whereas the classical text tends to enforce a particular model of integrating the codes, the modern plural text does not. (XII) As Barthes guides the reader through the entirety of Balzac’s text, he systematically notes and explains the usage of each of these codes as they occur. He also offers a more academic outline of the text in Annex 3. Hermeneutic Code: the mysteries of the text The hermeneutic code is associated with enigmas of the text, puzzles and mysteries that the text may or may not eventually answer but will most likely defer and misdirect that answer, keeping the reader guessing. When Barthes identifies an enigma in the text he marks it HER (short for hermeneutic). The process of revealing truth by solving enigmas is further broken down in the following sequence (LXXXIX): Thematisation. What in the narrative is an enigma? Positioning. Additional confirmations of the enigma. Formulation of the enigma. Promise of an answer of the enigma. Fraud. Circumvention of the true answer. Equivocation. Mixture of fraud and truth. Blocking. The enigma cannot be solved. Suspended answer. Stopping the answering after having begun. Partial answer. Some facets of the truth are revealed. Disclosure of the truth. Because the hermeneutic code involves a move from a question to an answer it is one of the two codes (the other being the proairetic or action code) which Barthes calls “irreversible” (XV): Once a secret is revealed, it cannot be unrevealed—the moment of cognition is permanent for the reader. Compared to the detailed sequential actions of the proairetic code, the hermeneutic code encompasses bigger questions about the entire narrative or situation of the story. Proairetic Code: the narrative drive of the text The proairetic code encompasses the actions or small sequences of