Denouement De´ nouement is a French word that means ‘‘the unknotting.’’ In fiction or drama, it denotes the resolution of conflict. The de´ nouement follows a story’s climax and provides an outcome to the primary plot situation as well as an explanation of secondary plot complications. The de´ nouement often involves a character’s recognition of…
Tag: Guy de Maupassant
The Jewels by Guy de Maupassant – Analysis – Essay
Like many great writers and artists throughout history, Guy de Maupassant took an ‘‘outsider’s view’’ of the world around him. That is, he did not subscribe to the prevailing values and beliefs of the culture in which he lived, and he was thus able to observe them from a critical distance. His outsider’s stance is…
The Jewels by Guy de Maupassant – Setting
‘‘The Jewels’’ takes place in late-nineteenth-century Paris, between the years 1870 and 1880. The subtle tremors of instability beneath its placid, urbane surface suggest the social milieu of the years following the brief Franco-Prussian War of 1871. Maupassant was mobilized as a soldier in that war, and his most famous story, ‘‘Boul de Suif,’’ is…
The Jewels by Guy de Maupassant – Themes
Wisdom A common theme in Maupassant’s work is the inability of human beings to acquire wisdom, and ‘‘The Jewels’’ makes that point clearly. The protagonist, Monsieur Lantin, is every bit as blank and empty at the end of the story as he is at the beginning. He is portrayed as a dutiful office worker, content…
The Jewels by Guy de Maupassant – Characters
The Jeweler The jeweler runs the shop from which Madame Lantin’s jewels were purchased. By chance, Monsieur Lantin enters this shop, intending to sell what he believes are cheap costume jewelry items. At first the jeweler suspects Monsieur Lantin of theft. When he figures out that the man is selling gems provided to his wife…
The Jewels by Guy de Maupassant – Summary
The plot of ‘‘The Jewels’’ is very simple, as is the case with all of Maupassant’s work. The author lays out the bones of the story and the reader is left to interpret its meaning. The reader is first introduced to the story’s protagonist, Monsieur Lantin, a clerk in a government ministry. Right away it…
Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant – Analysis
In ‘‘Two Friends’’ Maupassant presents two contradictory and unresolved tendencies. On the one hand he deals with war as a universal evil for which government (as a structure—not any specific government) is responsible and of which the common man is the victim. But he just as insistently portrays the Germans as cruel, warlike savages. It…
Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant – Setting
Franco-Prussian War ‘‘Two Friends’’ takes place during a spell of fine weather in January 1871, in the course of the German siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. The effects of the war and the siege dominate the action of the story. The war grew out of rivalry between France and Prussia, the two predominant…
Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant – Literary Devices – Symbolism
Naturalism The generation of French authors before Maupassant, including such figures as Honore´ de Balzac and Maupassant’s mentor Gustave Flaubert, aimed at realism: the depiction of everyday life in realistic terms. This was opposed to the earlier Romantic movement, which emphasized the fantastic and the exotic, in language as well as in subject matter. E´mile…
Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant – Themes
Friendship The very title ‘‘Two Friends’’ suggests friendship as an important theme in de Maupassant’s story, and indeed the story revolves around the friendship of Morissot and Sauvage. The action of the story begins when the two meet, and, made idle by the war, have nothing better to do than reminisce about their friendship in…