Excerpt: `A dead woman’s secret” by Guy de Maupassa­nt

I have chosen the excerpt from a short story titled “A dead woman’s secret” by Guy de Maupassant. The first impression I noticed when I review the excerpt is the repetition of the word ‘their’ in the first paragraph. ‘It was their prop, their guide, their whole youth,…..’. The author repeatedly used the word to portray the strong bonding of family relationship within the three characters, which are the dead mother, the son and the daughter. And by the strong bonding, the author actually indirectly tells the reader how important the mother towards her children as the author mentions about the mother has became their prop, guide and eventually their whole youth. It is somehow give the reader some sort of ideas how significance the mother‘s touch influence her children’s life in every angle of their life. The repetition of the word ‘their’ also gives the reader some thought that the children barely knew their father as all the word related only with the mother without mentioning a single word that relates to the father. Thus, the whole first paragraph is to show that the mother is everything to the children.

From the excerpt, the reader learns that the children has taught highly moral by the mother as the result was the son has became the judge and the daughter has became the nun. These two jobs were highly regarded by the society at that time as there were not many people manage to get the kind of job. It is prove that the mother had successfully taught her children to become a useful human being they can be. However, one may find that these children were having a good life compared to other children their age yet the readers do not have any ideas that the mother held the biggest secret during her whole life. The readers managed to dive in the children’s emotion by the reading when the author surprised the readers by the letters. It makes the readers somehow think that one will never hold on the secret forever. Sooner or later the secret will reveal itself and when the time come, the trust people put on you will completely destroy.

Besides that, the repetition also occurs in the phrase in the excerpt. The phrase ‘I love you’ as written in the fifth paragraph was repeated three times in the letter sent by the man who secretly having an affair with the dead woman. The author purposely repeated the phrase as he wants to portray how deep was the man’s love and affection towards the dead woman. The author somehow want to tell the reader how suffered the man was when he was separated with his lover. The ways the author wrote the letter give some ideas to the reader that the secret affair between the man and the dead woman is not only for the sake of lust or sex, but it is more like the true feeling possess by the couple towards each other. There are many possibilities that the couple had hiding their affair. Firstly is maybe because the dead woman still has the husband, however the husband was away. Commonly at the time, the man will become a soldier and will be away from their family for a few months and even years to devote themselves for the country. If the woman still has the husband, obviously the woman cannot reveal her affair as everyone will put the blame on her and it will risk her relationship towards her children. Second possibility is maybe due to the ways of thinking of the society at the time. Let’s say that the dead woman was a widow as the author never mention about the existing of the husband. At that time, in some part of the world, marriage among widow was not accepted by the society and it even forbidden for some culture. The society thinks that the wife should stay loyal towards their husband even though the husband had died. In some culture all around the world, when the husband dies, the woman has to burn alive so that the couple can stay together in afterlife. These possibilities caused the dead woman to keep hiding her secret till her death.

Over the course of the excerpt, there are a few strong adverb has been applied to portrays the situation in the excerpt. For example the word ‘thenceforth’ as written in the first paragraph is rarely used to express feeling as the word is quite old and formal. “…the connecting link with their forefather which they would thenceforth miss.” The author in some way wants to give a clearer view on how hard and difficult the situation faced by the children while being in same the room with their dead mother and all the memories shared between them. The author describes the mother as the storyteller for the children about their forefather. Without their mother, they would no longer listen to any of their forefather’s stories as the mother is somehow the bridge that connected the children with their forefather. The children know all the stories about their great forefather from the mother and the dead of their mother was a huge loss for them.

Besides adverb, the author also use adjective in the story. For instance, in the third paragraph, the ‘yellow paper’ depicts that the letters addressed to the dead woman is old enough that the color had changed. Let’s say the color of the letter was originally yellow, the fact that the letter is so freaking old is supported by the next paragraph that the author wrote that one of those old-fashioned letters which smells of another century. The phrase “….smells of another century” showed that the letters were so old yet the mother still keep it. In other word, the letters were so important to the mother that she had kept hidden the letters so well that no one of her family knows her biggest secret.

Furthermore, there are many interesting yet concrete noun being used in this excerpt. For instances the using of the word ‘relic’ in the third paragraph. Why did the author using the word instead of other word? Well, in my opinion, the word ‘relic’ itself explains how valuable something is towards the person. The author describes the letters as the relic left by the mother show that the letters were very important to her. If the letters did not have any value, the mother would throw away the letters and it is no way the children will find out about the letters which may jeopardize her relationship between her and her family. All the letters maybe the reasons why the mother continuing living her life even though suffered from being apart from her lover. The letters is somehow become the catharsis for the mother and that is why the mother had keeping the letters even though she know her action will risk her own life. Apart from that, aware of how important the letters towards her mother, the daughter had suggested to her brother to read the letter to share important moments before their mother eternally buried. Furthermore, the author also using the word ‘solitary’ and ‘lonely being’ to illustrates how fragile the children were without their mother. It’s like missing something very precious that human being cannot live with.

In the second paragraph of the excerpt, the sentence structure is rather long and in the incomplete sentence. The sentence “Let us, in turn, read them; let us live her whole life through tonight beside her!.....” shows the frequent usage of commas in the sentence. The author helps the reader to have a clearer view of the ways the daughter, which is the nun, talking to her brother. The comma somehow indicated the tone of the daughter’s utterance which starting from the low tone in the beginning and begin to gain a little courage to accept the fact of their dead mother. Perhaps the author wants the reader to share and feeling the same emotion as the daughter, to dive into the feeling so that the reader continually reading the story. Besides that, the exclamation sign found in the last particular sentence shows that the daughter was trying to gain some strength yet in an extremely painful emotion to speak to her brother. She somehow wants to inject some strength of her to her brother. Besides that, in the fifth paragraph, the author purposely hanged the reading of the daughter, “I have kept in my mouth the taste of your kisses--” to express how shocking was the daughter with the content of the letter. The way the author wrote the letter was able to make the reader to dive in the daughter’s feeling when she suddenly stop reading the letter. The reader was able to put their self in the situation of the daughter. The feeling of shock and confuse clashing with each other yet the daughter trying to believe what did she read and trying to find the sense of herself.

Stylistically, there are few examples of simile that have been used in the excerpt. For instance, in the sixth paragraph of the excerpt, “..severe as when sitting on the bench” and “straight as a statue” shows the author use some simile to add meaning so that the reader have some ideas to capture every details and imagination written by the author. Simile often helps the reader to get some in depth with the situation and help the author to emphasize what they are trying to convey to the reader. The simile used by the author shows the awkward situation between the son and the daughter when the daughter read the letter sent by the stranger man named Henry. The simile helps the reader to get the clearer view of the state of both the son and the daughter in that particular time. The condition of both children conveys in the simile shows that a big surprise and shock and in the same time confused of what they have learnt while reading the letter. The author wants to convey how chaotic their feeling after reading the letter as the son suddenly straightened himself up and quickly rummaged through the package of the letters and the daughter became static, do not know how to react with the situation yet realizes that their mother had cheated on them for all this while.

The last line of the story, “Let us now retire sister” means that the son ask his sister to leave the room when the sun rose the next morning. The last line conveys the feeling of betrayed and frustrated upon their mother. They had realized what their mother did behind them. It was so frustrated that the sad and pain feeling of losses someone they love suddenly change. They felt being stabbed by their own mother who they adore and love too much. It was a huge surprise yet the sibling knows how to handle the tragic news. In conclusion, the author left the readers with the huge surprise and unanswered questions that make the readers keep thinking of the dead woman and her letters.