Introduction to Literature
Lesson sixteen: de maupassant
Life Choices
Margarette Connor
Contents
• Introduction
• de Maupaussant biography
• Realism
• Naturalism
• “The Necklace” discussion
Introduction
• Slight departure slightly from what
we’ve been looking at in the previous 15
lectures.
• Reading in translation, which
slightly changes how we look at the
story.
Reading in translation
• Not very different from reading a story
in its original language, but there are
some subtle differences.
• The most important is language.
– You are reading a third party’s words, and
different translators may make subtle
differences to the text.
Language and tone
• When we discuss language and tone,
we must be aware that we are
speaking of a translator’s choice.
• For today I’ve read two different
translations of the story
– while most of the story was identical
(something easy to do with a Maupassant
story as his writing is very straightforward), there were some words that were
different.
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893)
• A master short story writer.
• His influence is felt all over the world.
Most famous short stories
• “The Necklace” (“La Parure”)
• “The Ball of Fat” (“Boule de suif,” the
nickname of a prostitute),
• “The Heritage” (“L’Héritage”),
• “The House of Mme Tellier” (“La
Maison Tellier”)
• “Moonlight” (“Clair de lune”)
• “The Piece of String ” (“La Ficelle”)
Greatest novels
• A Life (Une Vie, 1883), about the
disillusioning life of a lonely woman;
• Bel-Ami (1885), describing the career
of a selfish journalist;
• Pierre et Jean (1888), a study of the
hatred of two brothers;
• Our Hearts (Notre Cœur, 1890),
showing the emotional life of an
unhappily married man.
Beginnings
• Born August 5, 1850, in Normandy,
France.
• His father, Gustave, was a member of
the ancient French nobility. a stock
broker, gambler, and amateur painter.
• His mother, Laure Le Poittevin, was
strong and domineering
Unhappy childhood
• Maupassant’s parents’ marriage was
bitter and unhappy.
• They separated when he was 11 years
old.
• He was raised by his mother.
– The relationship was none too happy due
to his mother’s dominating spirit, and
many of the strong, overbearing women in
his stories are modelled on her.
Well educated
• First at the Lycee Napoleon in Paris.
• Then Lycee de Rouen, from which he
earned his bachelor’s degree in 1869.
Military service
• At the age of 20, Maupassant served in
the military during the FrancoPrussian War.
• He saw no combat.
Civil service
• After he left the military, he entered
government service.
• From 1872 until 1880 he served as a
clerk in various government
ministries.
Flaubert’s influence
• Flaubert decided to train his godchild
in the art of writing fiction.
• Helped to develop Maupassant’s keen
eye for observation and his attention to
detail.
• As we go through the story we’ll see
that Maupassant rarely tells us
things.
– He shows us, and it is through the showing
that the reader is led to draw his or her
own conclusions.
Flaubert’s realism
• One of the things Flaubert also
introduced to Maupassant was the
idea of realism in his writings.
Realism
• “In theory, the realist, wishing to
record life as it is, refrains from
imposing a pre-determined pattern
(based perhaps on a philosophical
orientation) upon his materials. He
allows the story ‘to tell itself,’ for
truth, he feels, resides in the events
themselves rather than in his
imagination. (con’t)
Realism, continued
• “Free of Romantic subjectivity,
realistic writing emphasizes
truthfulness of detail. The ‘theory’ of
realism, however, is not to be taken
without reservations, for any artist
must shape the materials of his art
into a form which derives from his
personal vision.” (Beckson and Ganz,
Literary Terms, a dictionary).
Topics covered
• Writers who use realism are usually
concerned with the commonplaces of
everyday life and the middle and
lower social classes.
• We see much of this in Maupassant’s
writing.
Not all realism is the same
• “From the beginning of the ‘realistic
movement,’ which dates from the midnineteenth century, there has been no
universally accepted set of principals
governing the manner or content of socalled realistic works. In French literature,
the realism in the fiction of Flaubert,
Balzac and Maupassant is as different as it
is in such American authors as Sherwood
Anderson and John Steinbeck.” (Beckson
and Ganz, Literary Terms, a dictionary).
Literary friends
• Through Flaubert, Maupassant got to
know many of the world’s best writers:
•
•
•
•
Emile Zola,
Algernon Swinburne,
Ivan Turgenev,
Henry James.
Considered brilliant by peers
• He often attended Flaubert’s famous
salons, or gatherings of the literary
elite. Among them, the best and the
brightest, Maupassant was considered
brilliant.
Zola’s influence
• Through Zola Maupassant was
introduced to naturalism, a literary
movement that is related to realism,
but is sometimes called an extreme
form of realism.
A bust of Zola.
Naturalism defined
• “This doctrine holds that all existent
phenomena are in nature and thus
within the sphere of scientific
knowledge; it maintains that no
supernatural realities exist.” (con’t)
Naturalism, continued
• “Taine applied [these ideas] to
literature, maintaining that
psychological states as well as human
actions were the results of material
causes.” (Beckson and Ganz, Literary
Terms, a dictionary).
Theorist of naturalism
• Zola is considered the great theorist of
naturalism. In his essay “The
Experimental Novel,” he argued that
the novelist should be free from any
moral conventions or preconceived
theories.
• Is this is truly possible?
• The filter of our own ruling ideologies is
almost impossible to shed.
Maupassant carries on tradition
• He often shows actions and allows the
readers to draw conclusions.
• He never comments on Mathilde’s
actions, but allows us to form our own
conclusions about her character from
her actions.
• But of course, he controls our reactions
on some level by choosing which actions
to show us.
How he makes his point
• He doesn’t comment on his characters,
but he shows us his meaning and
purpose through choosing to tell us
about greedy, covetous and vain
characters
Poet first
• Although his first publication was a
book of poetry, his poetry is not his
strength as a writer.
Maupassant and a
friend at a picnic.
Ten years of literary genius
• By 1880 he started to publish his short
stories.
• Between 1880 and 1890, Maupassant
wrote practically all of his great
literature, including six novels and
over 300 short stories.
Destroyed by syphilis
• Maupassant’s health was destroyed by
the time he was 37.
• Mainly as the result of syphilis, which
he had contracted in his youth.
• But he also helped it
along with too much
drink, rich food and
wild living.
Madness takes its toll
• Syphilis can drive people mad as it
affects the brain.
• By the time he was 40, he started
losing his mental abilities.
• As he got older and the disease became
more advanced, his stories took on a
more and more horrific nature.
– In two of his stories he describe madness
and its accompanying fear with
terrifying accuracy.
The end
• In January 1892, driven mad by the
advanced syphilis, Maupassant tried
to commit suicide by cutting his
throat.
• He was committed to a private asylum
in Paris, where he died early the next
year.
Unhappy victims
• Because of his adherence to realism
and naturalism, many of his
characters as unhappy victims of their
greed, desire, or vanity but he presents
their lives without sermonizing or
outwardly moralizing.
“The Necklace”
• In this story, we see many of
Maupassant’s characteristics:
– Vanity and pride destroying people
– No commentary on the action, but the
action speaks for itself.
Layer upon layer of irony
• The controlling irony of the story,
which we learn in the final line.
• The irony of Mathilde’s pride. That
was her problem, not fate or chance,
but she never sees this.
• The irony that when she had a middle
class life, she hated it, but when forced
into poverty, she lives without
complaint.
“Pride goeth before a fall”
• We see pride destroying the life of the
Loisels.
• Both Loisels resorted to deception.
• Their pride didn’t allow them to tell on
themselves, but they might have saved
themselves years of pain and suffering.
• Yet another irony.
Detached narrator
• Some critics have said that this
narrator is so detached that the
description seems almost cruel.
• What do you think?
View of women
• Critics often point to the misogyny in
Maupassant’s stories.
• It’s true that Mathilde is not a great
example of womanhood.
• What do you think?
Prostitutes
• Lest we condemn poor Maupassant out
of hand, I should note that many of
his prostitutes are very positive
characters.
• This might be saying something itself.
– Could the subtext be that at least the
whores are honest about selling
themselves? A thought.
But what does this tell us?
• "Now listen carefully: Marriage, to
me, is not a chain but an association. I
must be free, entirely unfettered, in
all my actions -my coming and my
going; I can tolerate neither control,
jealousy, nor criticism as to my
conduct. (con’t)
“I pledge my word, however, never to
compromise the name of the man I
marry, nor to render him ridiculous in
the eyes of the world. But that man
must promise to look upon me as an
equal, an ally, and not as an inferior, or
as an obedient, submissive wife. My
ideas, I know, are not like those of other
people, but I shall never change them."
(from Bel Ami, 1885)
Go to the story now~!!
• She has simple taste.
• She suffered from the poorness of her
family.
• 4th paragraph
• She’s hurting herself.
• She’s wants to be object of desire
• A brilliant place to stop. An irony ending.
• The point of the story what would happen to
people because of vanity, pride, and
poverty-- To cover things?