Confessing

Short Story Analysis
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Short Story Analysis
Confessing is short story authored by Guy de Maupassant. The story contains intricacies of Madam Malivione affairs with her daughter Celeste. Confessing unmasks a hidden secret being kept by the daughter from the mother. The author, Maupassant brings up thematic issues such as love, trust, secrecy and family affairs into the limelight. In the story, Celeste is the main cast while Madam Malivione (Celeste’s mother) and Polyte the career are minor characters. Three months after being impregnated by Polyte, Celeste opens up to her mother in one of the unusual of places and time. The mother is angered, but after a while, she encourages her daughter and asks her to keep it a secret too for them to gain more from Polyte (Maupassant, 2004).
The story Confessing has a rural setting from the vivid description by Guy. On the first paragraph, walking towards the cows is described, and the plantations covering the land are described too. All these portray a rural setting. Also, the existence of cows and their sheds bring about a geographical context of life in upcountry. Guy brings about time setting of the event taking place early in the morning. The description given indicates the two; mothers and daughter were walking to go and milk the cows, an activity that takes place in the morning or evening. The setting in this story reminds one of the late 18th centuries where only a few individuals owned vehicles, in this case, Mr.

Polyte, the career man.
Confessing features a lot of themes. To begin with, the theme of love is depicted between Celeste and Polyte. Guy creates a vivid impression of the two lovebirds enjoying themselves in the car during market days. These were the days when Celeste could take their supplies of milk and other farm products to the market. Polyte takes advantage of the situation. Later Celeste after doing her math right regarding saving bus fare she fell for Polyte. This resulted in Celeste unprepared pregnancy. Polyte says “Well, it’s not got any thinner.” According to this statement, Polyte seems attracted to Celeste by describing her physique in a more impressive and admirable demeanor. This brings out the force of attraction Polyte has towards Celeste (Maupassant, 2004).
There is the theme of secrecy. Celeste keeps her love life with Polyte as a big secret. This resulted in her untimely pregnancy. Later on, she hides her pregnancy from her mother until it becomes three months old. She confirms it to her mother who becomes angry and annoyed at first but later on accepts the rude shock. Madam Malivione further went ahead and advised celeste to keep it as a secret from Polyte so that they could exploit him even further. This was regarding the free rides given to Celeste to and fro the market as a sign of affection from Polyte. He asks Celeste “Aren’t we going to have our little bit of sports today?” (Maupassant, 2004). This implies that the two lovebirds shared some intimate time together playing the game of a lad and a lass.
Family issue is also the main ingredient of this short story, the writer from the onset describes a mother and daughter going to milk the cows. The daughter Celeste becomes afraid to disclose her pregnancy to her mother Madam Malivione as she is well aware that she has failed to be pure in the family’s eyes. Madam Malivione takes it upon herself as a mother to forgive her daughter and ironically organizes sweet revenge to Mr. Polyte without his knowledge.
Fraud as a theme comes in the sense that during Celeste and Polyte relationship. Celeste defrauds Polyte by not being paid the bus fare in return for them being friends. Later on, after Celeste mother realized the reason for her daughter’s untimely pregnancy, she encouraged Celeste on so that they could extract even more cash from Polyte regarding the free fare. She saves the bus fare according to the plan to de-fraud Polyte. Madam Malivione asks, “Well, what did it cost?”. This question intends to determine the amount of money Polyte offered Celeste in terms of uncharged bus fare. The plan was to swindle Polyte of the money for the next months before Celeste pregnancy becomes visible.
Conflict is depicted when Madam Malivione engages Celeste on a war of words after learning about her pregnancy. This is a domestic conflict between mother and daughter. The result is a reconciliation of by the two and a consensus to defraud Mr. Polyte before He gets to know that Celeste is pregnant with him. Celeste says “I think there’s a baby on the way” (Maupassant, 2004). This is a way of affirming to her mother that she is indeed pregnant.
Different character traits of different characters in the short story are revealed. Polyte is regarded as a cunning individual. Polyte uses sweet words and favors to Lure Celeste into having an affair with him. After a while, Celeste falls into the trap, and she ends up pregnant. This also brings another trait of Polyte as being convincing. Polyte is portrayed as loving. He falls in love with Celeste, and He goes ahead to offer her free rides just to impress Celeste. She says “I didn’t pay my fare!” Celeste sites this as the reason she got pregnant by Polyte (Maupassant, 2004).
Celeste, on the other hand, is seen as an opportunist. She uses her friendship with Polyte as an excuse for not paying the fare to Polyte. She is calculative, she calculates the amounts she spends as fare to and fro the market and opts to save by befriending Polyte. Celeste is seen as highly secretive this is evident as she never disclosed to anybody that she was pregnant until three months later. Celeste is also seen as loving; this is evidenced by allowing herself fall for Polyte’s charms and become her lover. Celeste says, “I think it was in Polyte’s coach.” Through this statement, she is hinting that Polyte is responsible for her pregnancy and the place they could meet and engage in making love.
Madam Malivione, Celeste mother, is portrayed as a hardworking woman; this is depicted by the way she leads Celeste to go and milk the cows. Madam Malivione is also depicted as being reactive. After learning of Celeste pregnancy by Polyte, she pounces on her with blows. Malivione is also seen as secretive, after coming to terms with her daughter’s pregnancy she asks her daughter to maintain it as a top secret. She is forgiving, after tarnishing the family name by Celeste Madam Malivione still forgives her and encourages her daughter to soldier on. Madam Malivione asks “What’s the matter with you?” This question portrays Madam Malivione as a concerned and forgiving mother (Maupassant, 2004).
The tone imposed in this story varies with the setting of the story. A soothing and lovely tone is implied by Polyte as he tries to woo Celeste. This is evident from the sweet words that Polyte tells Celeste to do. The other part of the setting whereby Celeste reveals her pregnancy to her mother brings about a harsh tone as Madam Malivione becomes over-reactive. The general tone of the short story is reactional either soothing tone or harsh tone as seen above.
In conclusion, Maupassant has brought about real-life experiences to humanity, a situation of unplanned pregnancies, parental reaction and responsibilities and enchanted cases of love triangles and the secrets surrounding them. This is depicted in the short story Confessions. Maupassant indirectly advises ladies not to go for material wealth in exchange for their body as the results can be irreparable and consequential not only to them but her family as a whole.

Reference
De Maupassant, G. (2004). “Confessing.” Englishlibrary.org. Retrieved 21 February 2018, from <http://www.englishlibrary.org/stories_confessing.htm>