CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The researchers in relation to their study, presents the review of conceptual and
research literature which provided the researched broader knowledge about the topic
under study and utilize literary basis for the analysis and interpretation of short stories.
Conceptual Literature
Conceptual Literature presents generic ideas and informs use by the researchers in
the analysis of the short stories.
Literature is a word derived from the Latin word litera that means from letter. It
is defined as a piece of presented work related to the ideas and feelings of the people that
may be line or just a product of the writers imagination (Saymo, et. al. 2004).
Likewise, literature is the product of a particular culture that concretes mans array
of value, emotions, actions and ideas. Therefore a creation of human that tells about
people and their world. Furthermore, it is an act that reflects the work of imagination,
aesthetics and creative writing which are distinguished for the beauty of style of
expression of fiction, poetry, essay or drama, in distinction from scientific thesis and
words, which contain positive knowledge (Sialango et. al. 2009).
Literature presents human experience in various forms, feelings, moods, attitudes,
thoughts and events in an intellectual series (Tan, 2001).
In order for the authors to be able to convey the readers to value and understand
his writing, the author must put his vision and interpretation into a form that the readers

can fully understand and reflect on. For the author the choice of words really matter for
them to create a clear representation of ideas in their minds as they read a certain story.
With this, the readers will be much challenge to understand what the author really means
with that word or words his work consisted of. The authors must also have a wide
imagination for the reader to explore everything behind those writings he made.
Literature is the life and spirit of a race which extends from generation to another,
to allow people of the world to understand that within diversity, there is one common
denominator which binds us all human emotions (Sebastian et. al. 2006).
Literary Criticisms
Literary Criticism or literary analysis can be defined as, An informed analysis
and evaluation of a piece of literature, or A written study, evaluation and interpretation
of a work of literature. It is a concept, formed on the basis of critical analysis and
primarily estimates the value and merit of literary works for the presence or quality of
certain parameters of literary characteristics.
Biographical Criticism
It is the type of approach or analysis that the researchers used to analyze the three
short stories of Guy de Maupassant.
Biographical Criticism examines the effect and influence of the writers life on his or her
work. The premise behind biographical criticism is that knowing something about the
writers life and influences helps the reader discover the authors intended meaning. The
assumption of biographical criticism is that interpretation of a literary work should be
based on an understanding of the context in which the work was written. Biographical

criticism is not concerned with retelling the author's life; rather, it applies information
from the author's life to the interpretation of the work. The focus remains on the work of
literature, and the biographical information is pulled in only as a means of enhancing our
understanding of the work.
According to Robert Miller, The biographical method is the collection and analysis
of an intensive account of a whole life or portion of a life; itis usually by an in-depth,
unstructured interview. The account may be reinforced by semi-structured interviewing or
personal documents. Rather than concentrating upon a snapshot of an individual's
present situation, the biographical approach emphasizes the placement of the individual
within a nexus of social connections, historical events and life experiences (the life
history). An important sub-stream of the method focuses upon the manner in which the
respondent actively constructs a narrative of their life in response to the social context at
the time of interview (the life story). The biographical perspective and the use of life
histories as a method of social research has a long pedigree, stretching back to Thomas
and Znanicki's highly influential The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918-20),
which devoted a whole volume to the Credit.
According to Benson, a biographical approach considers a works first-order
context the authors life and recognizes literary study as being an art not a science
(110). He places it at odds with New Criticism, so a work takes on a different meaning
when viewed through the lens of an authors life.

This approach begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written
by actual people and that understanding an authors life can help readers more thoroughly
comprehend the work. Hence, it often affords a practical method by which readers can
better understand a text. However, a biographical critic must be careful not to take the
biographical facts of a writers life too far in criticizing the works of that writer: the
biographical critic focuses on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided
by knowledge of the authors life.... Biographical data should amplify the meaning of the
text, not drown it out with irrelevant material.
Biography of the Author
Guy de Maupassant, in full Henry-Ren-Albert-Guy de Maupassant (born August
5, 1850, Chteau de Miromesnil near Dieppe, Francedied July 6, 1893, Paris), French
naturalist writer of short stories and novels who is by general agreement the greatest
French short-story writer.
Early life
Maupassant was the elder of the two children of Gustave and Laure de
Maupassant. His mothers claim that he was born at the Chteau de Miromesnil has been
disputed. The couples second son, Herv, was born in 1856. Both parents came of
Norman families, the fathers of the minor aristocracy, but the marriage was a failure, and
the couple separated permanently when Guy was 11 years old. Although the Maupassants
were a free-thinking family, Guy received his first education from the church and at age
13 was sent to a small seminary at Yvetot that took both lay and clerical pupils. He felt a

decided antipathy for this form of life and deliberately engineered his own expulsion for
some trivial offense in 1868. He moved to the lyce at Le Havre and passed his
baccalaureate the following year. In the autumn of 1869 he began law studies in Paris,
which were interrupted by the outbreak of the Franco-German War. Maupassant
volunteered, served first as a private in the field, and was later transferred through his
fathers intervention to the quartermaster corps. His firsthand experience of war was to
provide him with the material for some of his finest stories.
Maupassant was demobilized in July 1871 and resumed his law studies in Paris.
His father came to his assistance again and obtained a post for him in the Ministry of
Marine, which was intended to support him until he qualified as a lawyer. He did not care
for the bureaucracy but was not unsuccessful and was several times promoted. His father
managed to have him transferred, at his own wish, to the Ministry of Public Instruction in
1879.
Apprenticeship with Flaubert
Maupassants mother, Laure, was the sister of Alfred Le Poittevin, who had been a
close friend of Gustave Flaubert, and she herself remained on affectionate terms with the
novelist for the rest of his life. Laure sent her son to make Flauberts acquaintance at
Croisset in 1867, and when he returned to Paris after the war, she asked Flaubert to keep
an eye on him. This was the beginning of the apprenticeship that was the making of
Maupassant the writer. Whenever Flaubert was staying in Paris, he used to invite

Maupassant to lunch on Sundays, lecture him on prose style, and correct his youthful
literary exercises. He also introduced him to some of the leading writers of the time, such
as mile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, Edmond Goncourt, and Henry James. Hes my disciple
and I love him like a son, Flaubert said of Maupassant. It was a concise description of a
twofold relationship: if Flaubert was the inspiration for Maupassant the writer, he also
provided the child of a broken marriage with a foster father. Flauberts sudden and
unexpected death in 1880 was a grievous blow to Maupassant.
Zola described the young Maupassant as a terrific oarsman able to row fifty miles
on the Seine in a single day for pleasure. Maupassant was a passionate lover of the sea
and of rivers, which accounts for the setting of much of his fiction and the prevalence in
it of nautical imagery. In spite of his lack of enthusiasm for the bureaucracy, his years as a
civil servant were the happiest of his life. He devoted much of his spare time to
swimming and to boating expeditions on the Seine. One can see from a story like
Mouche (1890; Fly) that the latter were more than merely boating expeditions and
that the girls who accompanied Maupassant and his friends were usually prostitutes or
prospective prostitutes. Indeed, there can be little doubt that the early years in Paris were
the start of his phenomenal promiscuity.
When Maupassant was in his early 20s, he discovered that he was suffering
from syphilis, one of the most frightening and widespread maladies of the age. The fact
that his brother died at an early age of the same disease suggests that it might have been
congenital. Maupassant was adamant in refusing to undergo treatment, with the result that

the disease was to cast a deepening shadow over his mature years and was accentuated by
neurasthenia, which had also afflicted his brother.
During his apprenticeship with Flaubert, Maupassant published one or two stories
under a pseudonym in obscure provincial magazines. The turning point came in April
1880, the month before Flauberts death. Maupassant was one of six writers, led by Zola,
who each contributed a short story on the Franco-German War to a volume called Les
Soires de Mdan. Maupassants story, Boule de Suif (Ball of Fat), was not only by
far the best of the six, it is probably the finest story he ever wrote. In it, a prostitute
traveling by coach is companionably treated by her fellow French passengers, who are
anxious to share her provisions of food, but then a German officer stops the coach and
refuses to let it proceed until he has possessed her; the other passengers induce her to
satisfy him, and then ostracize her for the rest of the journey. Boule de Suif epitomizes
Maupassants style in its economy and balance.
Mature life and works
As soon as Boule de Suif was published, Maupassant found himself in demand
by newspapers. He left the ministry and spent the next two years writing articles for Le
Gaulois and the Gil Blas. Many of his stories made their first appearance in the
latter newspaper. The 10 years from 1880 to 1890 were remarkable for their productivity;
he published some 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and his only volume
of verse.

La Maison Tellier (1881; The Tellier House), a book of short stories on various
subjects, is typical of Maupassants achievement as a whole, both in his choice of themes
and in his determination to present men and women objectively in the manifold aspects of
life. His concern was with lhumble vritwords which he chose as the subtitle to
his novel Une Vie (1883; A Womans Life). This book, which sympathetically treats its
heroines journey from innocent girlhood through the disillusionment of an unfortunate
marriage and ends with her subsequent widowhood, records what Maupassant had
observed as a child, the little dramas and daily preoccupations of ordinary people. He
presents his characters dispassionately, foregoing any personal moral judgment on them
but always noting the word, the gesture, or even the reticence that betrays each ones
essential personality, all the while enhancing the effect by describing the physical and
social background against which his characters move. Concision, vigour, and the most
rigorous economy are the characteristics of his art.
Collections of short stories and novels followed one another in quick succession
until illness struck Maupassant down. Two years saw six new books of short
stories: Mademoiselle

Fifi (1883), Contes

de

la

bcasse (1883;

Tales

of

the

Goose), Clair de lune, Les Soeurs Rondoli (The Rondoli Sisters), Yvette, and Miss
Harriet (all 1884). The stories can be divided into groups: those dealing with the FrancoGerman War, the Norman peasantry, the bureaucracy, life on the banks of the Seine River,
the emotional problems of the different social classes, andsomewhat ominously in a

late story such as Le Horla (1887)hallucination. Together, the stories present a

comprehensive picture of French life from 1870 to 1890.
Maupassants most important full-length novels are Une Vie, Bel-Ami (1885;
Good Friend), and Pierre et Jean (1888). Bel-Ami is drawn from the authors
observation of the world of sharp businessmen and cynical journalists in Paris, and it is a
scathing satire on a society whose members let nothing stand in the way of their ambition
to get rich quick. Bel-Ami, the amiable but amoral hero of the novel, has become a
standard literary personification of an ambitious opportunist. Pierre et Jean is the tale of a
mans tragic jealousy of his half-brother, who is the child of their mothers adultery.
Maupassant prospered from his best-sellers and maintained an apartment in Paris
with an annex for clandestine meetings with women, a house at tretat, a couple of
residences on the Riviera, and several yachts. He began to travel in 1881, visiting French
Africa and Italy, and in 1889 he paid his only visit to England. While lunching in a
restaurant there as Henry Jamess guest, he shocked his host profoundly by pointing to a
woman at a neighbouring table and asking James to get her for him.
The French critic Paul Lautaud called Maupassant a complete erotomaniac. His
extraordinary fascination with brothels and prostitution is reflected not only in Boule de
suif but also in stories such as La Maison Tellier. It is significant, however, that as the
successful writer became more closely acquainted with women of the nobility there was a
change of angle in his fiction: a move from the peasantry to the upper classes, from the

brothel to the boudoir. Maupassants later books of short stories include Toine (1886), Le
Horla (1887), Le Rosier de Madame Husson (1888; The Rose-Bush of Madame
Husson), and LInutile Beaut (1890; The Useless Beauty). Four more novels also
appeared: Mont-Oriol (1887), on the financing of a fashionable watering place; Pierre et
Jean; Fort comme la mort (1889; As Strong as Death); and Notre coeur (1890; Our
Heart).
Although Maupassant appeared outwardly a sturdy, healthy, athletic man, his
letters are full of lamentations about his health, particularly eye trouble and migraine
headaches. With the passing of the years he had become more and more sombre. He had
begun to travel for pleasure, but what had once been carefree and enjoyable holidays
gradually changed, as a result of his mental state, into compulsive, symptomatic
wanderings until he felt a constant need to be on the move.
A major family crisis occurred in 1888. Maupassants brother was a man of
minimal intelligencetoday one would call it arrested developmentand could work at
nothing more demanding than nursery gardening. In 1888 he suddenly became violently
psychotic, and he died in an asylum in 1889. Maupassant was reduced to despair by his
brothers death; but though his grief was genuine, it cannot have been unconnected with
his own advanced case of syphilis. On January 2, 1892, when he was staying near his
mother, he tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat. Doctors were summoned, and his
mother agreed reluctantly to his commitment. Two days later he was removed, according

to some accounts in a straitjacket, to Dr. Blanches nursing home in Paris, where he died
one month before his 43rd birthday.
Maupassants work is thoroughly realistic. His characters inhabit a world of
material desires and sensual appetites in which lust, greed, and ambition are the driving
forces and any higher feelings are either absent or doomed to cruel disappointment. The
tragic power of many of the stories derives from the fact that Maupassant presents his
characters, poor people or rich bourgeois, as the victims of ironic necessity, crushed by a
fate that they have dared to defy yet still struggling against it hopelessly.
Because so many of his later stories deal with madness, it has been suggested that
Maupassant himself was already mentally disturbed when he wrote them. Yet these
stories are perfectly well balanced and are characterized by clarity of style that betrays no
sign of mental disorder. The lucid purity of Maupassants French and the precision of his
imagery are in fact the two features of his work that most account for its success.
By the second half of the 20th century, it was generally recognized that
Maupassants popularity as a short-story writer had declined and that he was more widely
read in the English-speaking countries than in France. This does not detract from his
genuine achievementthe invention of a new, high-quality, commercial short story,
which has something to offer to all classes of readers.
Literary Styles of Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant lived a short but highly productive life and his short stories
and novels are still among the most widely read of French literature. One hundred and
fifty years since his birth, Meridian Writing celebrates the life and work of one of the
most significant French writers.
Guy de Maupassant was that rare thing - a writer who was successful in his own
time, immensely popular, prosperous and feted by society. But he was never married, was
haunted by illness and depression and died alone in a mental institute. He always longed
to make literature his career, but the achievement of that ambition destroyed him. Though
he was fond of jokes and shocking people, he was over sensitive and often despairing. He
was, as his friend Emile Zola put it, the happiest and unhappiest of men.
The Young Maupassant
Maupassant grew up in his native Normandy. Though the Maupassant family was
aristocratic, and Guys father didnt need to work, they werent above petty snobberies.
His mothers claims that her son was born in the local chateau were later thought to be
untrue when researchers discovered his birth certificate.
Underneath the solid family facade there were cracks. His father, Gustave was a
womaniser and his constant affairs led to a permanent separation from Guys mother,
when the young Maupassant was 11 years old.
At school Maupassant was a good student and in 1869 he started to study law in
Paris. However, by the age of 20 he had abandoned his studies to serve in the army
during the Franco Prussian War. His letters from the field demonstrated to his parents a
skill for writing and storytelling.

On his return, his mother introduced him to one of her friends who was to become
a huge influence in Maupassants life. His lasting friendship with the author ofMadame
Bovary, Gustave Flaubert not only provided him with a father figure, but also encouraged
his entry into the world of literature. Soon he was mixing with the leading writers of the
day, among them Emile Zola, Ivan Turgenev and Henry James and, despite his boring
daytime work as a civil servant, his leisure time was spent having fun and mixing with
women of dubious reputation.
Of this time he wrote:
She was absolutely crazy into the bargain. She told us that she had been born with
a glass of absinthe in her belly, which her mother had drunk just before giving birth to her
and she had never sobered up sinceEvery week we would travel along the Seine with a
load of five strapping, light-hearted fellows, steered by a lively scatter brained creature
under a parasol of painted paper. We adored her, first for a variety of reasons and then for
one in particular
Literary Instruction
In addition to having fun, Maupassant adhered to the words of his mentor and
Flaubert counselled his disciple in his philosophy of writing. He advised his student to
write of the things that he knew about and he was to disregard any ideas of making
money from his art.
Maupassant did what he was told, but the strain of working by day, writing at night
and coping with his mothers stream of illnesses began to take its toll. In a letter to
Flaubert he made his feelings of despair clear:

For three weeks I have been trying to work every night and havent been able to
write a single pagenothing. The result is that I am gradually falling into a black
depression and will have a hard time climbing out again.
He was however suffering from more than a bout of melancholy. His symptoms
included heart palpitations and skin problems and while his doctor diagnosed a rheumatic
condition, Flaubert had other ideas:
Come my dear friend you seem badly worried. You could use your time more
agreeably. Ive come to suspect you have become something of a loafer with too many
whores, too much rowing and too much exercise. Civilised man does not need as much
locomotion as the doctors pretend.
Flauberts diagnosis was more accurate than he may have realised, for Maupassants
condition was indeed caused by the early stages of the sexually transmitted disease,
syphilis.
Naturalists
Meanwhile, through Flaubert, Maupassant joined a group of writers, which
included Emile Zola, and began calling themselves naturalists. Their aim was to show the
life, suffering and exploitation of ordinary people and in 1880 they published an
anthology entitled Soirs de Medan, which included Maupassants tale of a prostitute,
nicknamed Boule De Suif (Ball Of Fat).
At that time the short story was a very popular form of literature and Maupasants
work was well received, becoming a best seller almost overnight. His ability to portray
real people coupled with humour and candid sexuality won readers and throughout the

1880s he went on to create 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books and one
volume of verse.
At the start of Maupassants success his mentor died. His work began to reflect his
macabre thoughts and often took the forms of nightmarish stories and paranoid tales. His
pessimism aside audiences loved the simple realism of his work and his success
continued.
His ability to portray real people coupled with humour and candid sexuality won
readers.

Success
Although Maupassants literary career probably only lasted for about ten years, he
was extremely successful. He gave up his civil service work and whole heatedly pursued
a career as a writer. With the success of Une Vie (A Womans Life) in 1883, his life
became a round of luxury and sophistication. He travelled the world and maintained an
apartment with a separate annex for clandestine meetings with women. At this stage he
was described as being in full health, which is compliant with the second stage of
syphilis, and he took full advantage of the interest that society ladies afforded him. In his
usual, naturalist style, his 1885 novel Bel Ami tells the story of the unscrupulous rogue,
Georges Duroy, who moves from woman to woman in his scrabble for advantage in the
cut-throat world of fin-de-seicle Paris.
Illness

By the latter half of the 1880s, Maupassant's health was in decline. His friends
began to remark on his unusual behaviour and his writing became shocking and, on
occasions nothing short of outrageous. Maupassant had always had a taste for the
macabre but, combined with his fears for himself, he now produced a series of disturbing
stories such as Yvette, which detailed a bloody self abortion; Le Horla, presented a diary
account of the narrators descent into madness and Pierre et Jean, a profile of two
brothers was thought immoral as the hero is successful in his wrong doings.
Maupassant became increasingly sombre as the syphilis attacked his spinal cord.
He became obsessed with the notion that there were flies devouring his brain and in
January 1892 he attempted to shoot himself, when he failed he rammed a paper knife into
his throat and was committed to an asylum the next day. He died some months later, a
little before his 43rd birthday.
Following Maupassants death, his friend Zola, accurately pinpointed his appeal:
If he was understood and loved from the first it was because the French soul found in
him the gifts and qualities that have created its finest achievements. He was understood
because he had clarity, simplicity, moderation and strength. He was loved because he
possessed a laughing goodness; a profound satire which persists even through tears.
Literary Genre
Fiction, literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it
may be based on a true story or situation. The word is from the Latin ficti, the act of
making, fashioning, or melding.

Fiction has three categories that are, realistic, non-realistic and semi-fiction.
Usually, fiction work is not real and therefore, authors can use complex figurative
language to touch readers imagination. Unlike poetry, it is more structured, follows
proper grammatical pattern and correct mechanics. A fictional work may incorporate
fantastical and imaginary ideas from everyday life. It comprises some important elements
such as plot, exposition, foreshadowing, rising action, climax, falling action and
resolution.
A work of fiction is created in the imagination of its author. The author invents the
story and makes up the characters, the plot or storyline, the dialogue and sometimes even
the setting. A fictional work does not claim to tell a true story. Instead, it immerses us in
experiences that we may never have in real life, introduces us to types of people we may
never otherwise meet and takes us to places we may never visit in any other way. Fiction
can inspire us, intrigue us, scare us and engage us in new ideas. It can help us see
ourselves and our world in new and interesting ways.
Its through fiction that most writers are able to bring out their best which they are
afraid to show to the world. For them fiction is an opportunity to grow inside, a chance to
make the impossible possible and a means of becoming a different persona.
There are three main types of fiction: the novella, the novel and the short story
which is the main focus of this research.

According to the famous short story writer Edgar Allan Poe, a short story is a
piece of fiction that can be read in one sitting of about a half hour to about two hours.
Short stories contain between 1,000 and 20,000 words and typically run no more than 25
or 30 pages. Because of their limited length, short stories generally focus on one major
plot or storyline and a few characters.
Short story, a brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that
usually deals with only a few characters.
The short story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or a
few significant episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting, concise
narrative, and the omission of a complex plot; character is disclosed in action and
dramatic encounter but is seldom fully developed. Despite its relatively limited scope,
though, a short story is often judged by its ability to provide a complete or satisfying
treatment of its characters and subject.
Elements of Fiction
The six major elements of fiction are character, plot, point of view, setting, style,
and theme.
1. Character -- A figure in a literary work (personality, gender, age, etc). E. M. Forester
makes a distinction between flat and round characters. Flat characters are types or
caricatures defined by a single idea of quality, whereas round characters have the threedimensional complexity of real people.

2. Plot -- the major events that move the action in a narrative. It is the sequence of major
events in a story, usually in a cause-effect relation.
3. Point of View -- the vantage point from which a narrative is told. A narrative is
typically told from a first-person or third-person point of view. In a narrative told from a
first-person perspective, the author tells the story through a character who refers to
himself or herself as "I." Third person narratives come in two types: omniscient and
limited. An author taking an omniscient point of view assumes the vantage point of an
all-knowing narrator able not only to recount the action thoroughly and reliably but also
to enter the mind of any character in the work or any time in order to reveal his or her
thoughts, feelings, and beliefs directly to the reader. An author using the limited point of
view recounts the story through the eyes of a single character (or occasionally more than
one, but not all or the narrator would be an omniscient narrator).
4. Setting -- That combination of place, historical time, and social milieu that provides
the general background for the characters and plot of a literary work. The general setting
of a work may differ from the specific setting of an individual scene or event.
5. Style -- The authors type of diction (choice of words), syntax (arrangement of words),
and other linguistic features of a work.
6. Theme(s) -- The central and dominating idea (or ideas) in a literary work. The term
also indicates a message or moral implicit in any work of art.
Literary Approach
Formalist Criticism: This approach regards literature as a unique form of human
knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms. All the elements necessary for

understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of particular interest to the
formalist critic are the elements of formstyle, structure, tone, imagery, etc.that are
found within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such
elements work together with the texts content to shape its effects upon readers.
Biographical Criticism: This approach begins with the simple but central insight that
literature is written by actual people and that understanding an authors life can help
readers more thoroughly comprehend the work. Hence, it often affords a practical
method by which readers can better understand a text. However, a biographical critic
must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writers life too far in criticizing the
works of that writer: the biographical critic focuses on explicating the literary work by
using the insight provided by knowledge of the authors life.... Biographical data should
amplify the meaning of the text, not drown it out with irrelevant material.
Historical Criticism: This approach seeks to understand a literary work by
investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced ita context that
necessarily includes the artists biography and milieu. A key goal for historical critics is
to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.
Gender Criticism: This approach examines how sexual identity influences the creation
and reception of literary works. Originally an offshoot of feminist movements, gender
criticism today includes a number of approaches, including the so-called masculinist
approach recently advocated by poet Robert Bly. The bulk of gender criticism, however,
is feminist and takes as a central precept that the patriarchal attitudes that have dominated
western thought have resulted, consciously or unconsciously, in literature full of

unexamined male-produced assumptions. Feminist criticism attempts to correct this

imbalance by analyzing and combating such attitudesby questioning, for example, why
none of the characters in Shakespeares play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband
to murder a wife accused of adultery. Other goals of feminist critics include analyzing
how sexual identity influences the reader of a text and examining how the images of
men and women in imaginative literature reflect or reject the social forces that have
historically kept the sexes from achieving total equality.
Psychological Criticism: This approach reflects the effect that modern psychology has
had upon both literature and literary criticism. Fundamental figures in psychological
criticism include Sigmund Freud, whose psychoanalytic theories changed our notions of
human behavior by exploring new or controversial areas like wish-fulfilment, sexuality,
the unconscious, and repression as well as expanding our understanding of how
language and symbols operate by demonstrating their ability to reflect unconscious fears
or desires; and Carl Jung, whose theories about the unconscious are also a key
foundation of Mythological Criticism. Psychological criticism has a number of
approaches, but in general, it usually employs one (or more) of three approaches:
An investigation of the creative process of the artist: what is the nature of literary genius
and how does it relate to normal mental functions?The psychological study of a
particular artist, usually noting how an authors biographical circumstances affect or
influence their motivations and/or behavior.It is the analysis of fictional characters using
the language and methods of psychology.

Sociological Criticism: This approach examines literature in the cultural, economic and
political context in which it is written or received, exploring the relationships between
the artist and society. Sometimes it examines the artists society to better understand the
authors literary works; other times, it may examine the representation of such societal
elements within the literature itself. One influential type of sociological criticism
is Marxist criticism, which focuses on the economic and political elements of art, often
emphasizing the ideological content of literature; because Marxist criticism often argues
that all art is political, either challenging or endorsing (by silence) the status quo, it is
frequently evaluative and judgmental, a tendency that can lead to reductive judgment, as
when Soviet critics rated Jack London better than William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway,
Edith Wharton, and Henry James, because he illustrated the principles of class struggle
more clearly. Nonetheless, Marxist criticism can illuminate political and economic
dimensions of literature other approaches overlook.
Mythological Criticism: This approach emphasizes the recurrent universal patterns
underlying most literary works. Combining the insights from anthropology, psychology,
and history, and comparative religion, mythological criticism explores the artists
common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses myths and symbols
common to different cultures and epochs. One key concept in mythological criticism is
the archetype, a symbol, character, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal
response, which entered literary criticism from Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. According
to Jung, all individuals share a collective unconscious, a set of primal memories
common to the human race, existing below each persons conscious mindoften

deriving from primordial phenomena such as the sun, moon, fire, night, and blood,
archetypes according to Jung trigger the collective unconscious. Another critic,
Northrop Frye, defined archetypes in a more limited way as a symbol, usually an image,
which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of ones literary
experience as a whole. Regardless of the definition of archetype they use, mythological
critics tend to view literary works in the broader context of works sharing a similar
pattern.
Reader-Response Criticism: This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that literature
exists not as an artefact upon a printed page but as a transaction between the physical text
and the mind of a reader. It attempts to describe what happens in the readers mind while
interpreting a text and reflects that reading, like writing, is a creative process. According
to reader-response critics, literary texts do not contain a meaning; meanings derive only
from the act of individual readings. Hence, two different readers may derive completely
different interpretations of the same literary text; likewise, a reader who re-reads a work
year later may find the work shockingly different. Reader-response criticism, then,
emphasizes how religious, cultural, and social values affect readings; it also overlaps
with gender criticism in exploring how men and women read the same text with different
assumptions. Though this approach rejects the notion that a single correct reading
exists for a literary work, it does not consider all readings permissible: Each text creates
limits to its possible interpretations.
Deconstructionist Criticism: This approach rejects the traditional assumption that
language can accurately represent reality. Deconstructionist critics regard language as a

fundamentally unstable mediumthe words tree or dog, for instance, undoubtedly

conjure up different mental images for different peopleand therefore, because literature
is made up of words, literature possesses no fixed, single meaning. According to critic
Paul de Man, deconstructionists insist on the impossibility of making the actual
expression coincides with what has to be expressed, of making the actual signs [i.e.,
words] coincide with what is signified. As a result, deconstructionist critics tend to
emphasize not what is being said but how language is used in a text. The methods of this
approach tend to resemble those of formalist criticism, but whereas formalists primary
goal is to locate unity within a text, how the diverse elements of a text cohere into
meaning, deconstructionists try to show how the text deconstructs, how it can be
broken down ... into mutually irreconcilable positions. Other goals of deconstructionists
include (1) challenging the notion of authors ownership of texts they create (and their
ability to control the meaning of their texts) and (2) focusing on how language is used to
achieve power, as when they try to understand how a some interpretations of a literary
work come to be regarded as truth.
Summary of the Three Short Stories
A Family Affair
Monsieur Alfred Caravan is an aged chief clerk in a government office; he has trod
the same circuit as commuter and drudge for some thirty years, for which service he is
awarded a lapel pin by the bureaucracy. He is fat and officious, with an atrophied mind
and a deeply ingrained dread of his superiors. One hot July night, he and his friend Dr.

Chenet travel from Paris to their home at Courbevoie on the Neuilly steam-tram, as usual;
they pause once more to tipple at the cafe, and part. At home (the story focuses comically
and cruelly on the bureaucrats so-called home life), in a minuscule apartment, Caravan
greets his lean wife, a compulsive housekeeper and cleaner, and later encounters his filthy
young children, who usually play in the neighborhood gutter. Tedious talk rehearses
Caravans being passed overagainfor a better job at the office. He is henpecked by
his wife, while both in turn are domineer by Madame Caravan, Alfreds quarrelsome
ninety-year-old mother, who is housed above them.
The Father
There was a man who was clerk in the Bureau of Public Education and lived at
Batignolles. He took the omnibus to Paris every morning and always sat opposite a girl.
She was employed in a shop and went in at the same time every day. She was a little
blonde. One time, she generally had to run to catch the omnibus, and then she got inside
by clasping the arm of Francois Tessier.
At the first place, he already liked her face. That girl seemed to respond to some
chord in his being, to that sort of ideal of love which one cherishes in the depths of the
heart. In a few days, they seemed to know each otherwithout having spoken. He actually
gave up his place and go outside for her when the omnibus was full.They became friends.
They talk of half an hour while they ride in the omnibus. He was already falling in love

with her. However, there was no doubtthat she loved him, for one Saturday, in spring; she
promised to go and lunch with him at Maisons-Laffitte the next day.
Before they go she asks him to swear that he wont do anything that is at all
improper. And she said that if wont swear she shall return home. Then he made his
promise to her and they left.They had lunch at the Petit-Havre, had crossed the Seine, and
started off along the bank, toward the village of La Frette. Suddenly he asked: "What-is
your name?""Louise." she repeated and said nothing more.
There was a narrow path beneath the trees, so they took it, and when they came to
a small clearing, sat down.A church clock struck in the distance, and they embraced
gently, then, without the knowledge of anything but that kiss, lay down on the grass. But
she soon came to herself with the feeling of a great misfortune, and began to cry and sob
with grief, with her face buried in her hands.
He tried to console her, "Louise! Louise! Please let us stop here." Then, she left
him without even saying good bye. By the next day, she appeared to him to be changed
and thinner. And they had a closure for good bye. He didnt see her for a week. He didnt
even know her address. On the ninth day, however, there was a ring at his bell, and when
he opened the door, Louise threw herself into his arms and for three months they were
close friends. But then, he was beginning to grow tired of her, when she whispered
something to him. Through anxiety and fear of the consequences of his rash indiscretion,
he changed his lodgings and disappeared.The blow was so heavy that she did not look,

for the man who had abandoned her, but threw herself at her mother's knees and
confessed her misfortune, and, some months after, gave birth to a boy.
Years passed, and Francois Tessier grew old, without having any alteration in his
life. One fine Sunday morning, he went into the Parc Monceau, he watched the children
playing. A woman passed by, holding two children by the hand, a little boy of about ten
and a little girl of four. He knew it was her. She had not recognized him. He looks a t her
at her from a distance, but the little boy raised his head and he felt himself tremble. That
little boy was his own son and there could be no doubt of that.
However, he went to the house where she lived and asked about her. A neighbour
said that an honourable man of strict morals had been touched of her distress and had
married her then recognized the boy as his own.
Francois suffered horribly in his unhappy isolation as an old bachelor, with
nobody to care for him, and he also suffered atrocious mental torture from that need of
loving one's own child. At last heconfronts her at the park but she walks outwith the two
children and rushed away.
Months passed without his seeing her again, but he suffered, day and night, for he
was a prey to his paternal love. He wrote to her, but she did not reply, and, after writing
her some twenty letters, he desperately wrote to his husband. He requests to grant him an
interview of only five minutes. Then the husband replied to him that he expect him
tomorrow, Tuesday, at five o clock.

He came there and talked to Monsieur Flamel. He said to him that he was dying of
grief, and would only want to kiss the child. Flamel called the little boy then the little boy
rush into the room and run up to him whom he believed to be his father. But he stops
when he saw the stranger. Francois Tessiers had risen while Flamel had turned away and
was looking out of the window. Then Francois took up the child in his arms, began to kiss
him wildly all over and the youngsterfrightened at the shower of kisses, tried to avoid
them, turned away his head, and pushed away the man's face with his little hands. But
suddenly Francois Tessier put him down and cried: "Good-bye! Good-bye!" And he
rushed out of the room as if he had been a thief.
The Magic Couch
The story began with a refreshing description of Seine-a river in northern France
that flows through Paris into the English Channel. It was a beautiful, broad, indolent
silver of stream, with crimson lights here and there; and on the opposite side of the river
were rows of tall trees that covered the entire bank with an immense wall of verdure.
After receiving the letter from the postman, the narrator went to the river bank to
read it. As he opened it, he noticed the headline Statistics of Suicides and read that
more than 8,500 persons had killed themselves in that year. In a moment, he described
what it seemed to see them. Just like seeing men bleeding, slowly dying, and giving no
thought to their wound, but thinking only of their misfortunes. Also those who were
seated before a tumbler in which some matches were soaking, or before a little bottle with
a red label. They would look at it fixedly without moving, then they would drink and

await the result, or they did not know that the end would be preceded by so much
suffering. There are also some who seen to be hanging from a nail in the wall, from the
fastening of the window, from a hook in the ceiling, from a beam in the garret, from a
branch of a tree amid the evening rain. He imagined the anguish of their heart, their final
hesitation, their attempts to fasten the rope, to determine that it was secure, then to pass
the noose round their neck and to let themselves fall. And the most sinister were those
walking at night along the deserted bridges. Suddenly, in the vast silence of the night,
there was heard the splash of a body falling into the river, a scream or two, the sound of
hands bearing the water, and all was still. Sometimes, even, there was only the sound of
the falling body when they had tied their arms down or fastened a stone to their feet. And
then he asked why suicide is the strength of those whose strength is exhausted, the hope
of those who no longer believed, and the sublime courage of the conquered. He thought
of this crowd of suicides more than 8,500 a year. And it seemed that they had combined
to send to the world a prayer, to utter a cry of appeal, to demand something that should
come into effect later when they understood things better.
He began to dream, allowing his fancy to roam at will in weird and mysterious
fashion on this subject. He was in a beautiful city, it was in Paris. As he walked on the
streets, he was surprised on reading on the facade this inscription in letters of gold,
Suicide Bureau. He approached the building where footmen in knee-breeches were
seated in the vestibule in front of a cloakroom as they do at the entrance of a club. He
entered out of curiosity and one of the men rose and asked what does he wished and it is

to know what this building is. And the man offered to take him to the Secretary of the
Bureau. They walk through corridors where old gentlemen were chatting, and finally
reached the beautiful office, somewhat somber, furnished throughout in black wood.
Here, he met a stout young man with a corporation and bowed each other. As the footman
retired, he asked him whats going on inside the building. The man smiled and said that
they put to death in a cleanly and gentle but he did not venture to say agreeable manner
those persons who desires to die. That idea arose because the number of suicides
increased so enormously, killing themselves anywhere, hence, it became necessary to
centralize suicides. He asked again how to carry the establishment and the man answered
that he may become a member if he pleases. It is founded by the most eminent men in the
country, by men of the highest intellect and brightest intelligence. One may be a member
of the club without being obliged for that to commit suicide.
The man explained that in view of the enormous increase in suicides, and of the
hideous spectacle they presented, a purely benevolent society was formed for the
protection of those in despair, which placed at their disposal the facilities for a peaceful,
painless, if not unforeseen death. In this institution, death need not to be sad, it should be
a matter of indifference. They made death cheerful, crowned it with flowers, covered with
perfume, made it easy. One learns to aid others through example; one can see that it is
nothing. They have had more than forty in a day. One finds hardly any more drowned
bodies in the Seine. The first was a club member and the second was an Englishman, an
eccentric.

The man also explained how the work is being done. The establishment has an
unheard of prestige. All the smart people all over the world belong to it so as to appear as
though they held death in scorn. Then, once they get there, they feel obliged to be
cheerful that they may not appear to be afraid. So they joke and laugh and talk flippantly,
they are witty and they become so. At present it is certainly the most frequented and the
most entertaining place in Paris. The women are even thinking of building an annex for
themselves.
Afterwards, they went to the place reserved for the club members. It was a wide
corridor, a sort of greenhouse in which panes of glass of pale blue, tender pink and
delicate green gave the poetic charm of landscapes to the inclosing walls. In this pretty
salon there were divans, magnificent palms, flowers, especially roses of balmy fragrance,
books on the tables, the Revue des Deuxmondes, cigars in government boxes, and Vichy
pastilles in a bonbonniere which surprised him. As a reply to his question, the guide
pointed to a couch covered with creamy crepe de Chune with white embroidery, beneath
a large shrub of unknown variety at the foot of which was a circular bed of mignonette.
The secretary added that they change the flower and the perfume at will, for their gas,
which is quite imperceptible, gives death the fragrance of the suicides favourite flower. It
is volatilized with essences. The secretary asked him if he want to smell it for a second,
but because he was afraid that the secretary would think him coward, he tried it. A little
uneasy he seated himself on the low couch covered with crepe de Chine and stretched
himself full length, and was at once bathed in a delicious odor of mignonette.

He opened his mouth in order to breathe it in, for his mind had already become
stupefied and forgetful of the past and was a prey, in the first stages of asphyxia, to the
enchanting intoxication of destroying and magic opium. Someone shook his arm and
laughed because it he looks like as if he were almost caught. But a real voice and no
longer a dream voice greeted him with the peasant intonation.
His dream was over. He saw the Seine distinctly in the sunlight, and, coming along
a path, the garde champetre of the district, who with this right hand touched his kepi
braided in silver. The story ended when Marinel said him that a drowned man was fished
up near the Morillons, another who has thrown himself into the soup. He even took of his
trousers in order to tie his legs together with them.
Research Literature
The following are derived from unpublished theses related to the problem of the
present study.
Arellano et. al.(2002) found out that selected stories of Edgar Allan Poe were
developed by maintaining conformity in characters and setting based on his own life
experiences, frustrations and oppressions that was reflected in his stories.
According to Hernandez et. al.(2000) art is vitality and the measure of the vitality
of a culture. As a form of art, literature itself possesses such vitality. It explores nation
achievements in art, religion, science and letter, its philosophy and way of life. These are
ideals and instrumentality by which people live.

While Ausa et. al.(2012) pointed out that through thematically approach, literature
will go beyond stating facts about the subject of the literary piece. This is a key to
empower readers life through the themes and morals that are conveyed by a literary
piece.
Moreover, Candava et. al.(2002) in their unpublished thesis, literature has a great
impact on society for a man as a social being who enjoys the company of others. It
inspires us to live deeply, worthy and meaningfully.
Cerda, et. al.(2005) stated that the theme in a literary work, shortstories,
specifically is revealed by the use of sensible characters that were characterized by their
words and actions. The setting and plot are well- designed to reveal the theme.
In the study of Agpoa and Hernandez (2000), who has made a research on human
values embedded in Edgar Allan Poes work, men read to discover themselves and their
world to assess their special roles in the universe, to learn the meaning of personal
struggles in which they are engaged. They also added that literature is a written
composition in prose and verse especially of lasting quality or artistic merit.
The study of C. Panganiban (2000) found out that Bienvenido Santos gave
relevance in the contemporary life that the readers can gain out of reading different
literary pieces which is similar to this present study.
Synthesis

Studies and investigations that bear similarities and differences were gathered to
enrich and give proofs to the present study. Here, the similarities and differences of the
related studies to the present study are presented.
Arellano, et al (2002) stated that there were selected stories developed by
maintaining the conformity in character and setting based on Edgar Allan Poes life
experiences, frustrations and oppressions in life that can be seen in his works. The present
study emphasized the structures, embedded themes and moral values as a part of the
researchers analysis while Arellanos study was on the theme alone.
On the other hand, Ausa, et. al. emphasized on stating facts about literary pieces
and empower students life through the embedded themes and morals which is relative to
this study. The related study used thematic approach of the genre poem while the present
study focused on biographical criticism of the genre short story.
Meanwhile, the study of Candava, et. al., (2002) in their unpublished thesis
entitledA Value -Theme Analysis of Antoine de Saint Exuperys Novel the Little Prince,
used novel as the centre of their analysis while the present study used a short story. Both
study highlighted the themes and values found in literary pieces they have selected.
According to Cerda et. al. (2005) in their study entitled Thematic Analysis of
Four Short stories of Guy de Maupassant there are different short stories of Guy de
Maupassant that have a theme which reflect the ideologies and philosophies of life that
teaches lessons to all people and universality of events in human life which he needs to

understand and accept. Both studies showed the same scope to be covered as well as the
authors but differ with regards to the approach being used.
Moreover, the study of Agpoa and Hernandez (2000) covered social values

as

reflected in Bienvenido N. Santos works while the present study focused on how the
experiences of Guy de Maupassant influenced his literary works.
Panganiban et. al.(2000) examined the theme of the selected stories of Bienvenido
N. Santos using thematic analysis. On the other hand the present study analyzed how the
experiences of Guy de Maupassant influenced his short stories with the use of
biographical criticism. The related study found out that Bienvenido N. Santos gave
relevance in contemporary life revealed in his selected short stories and that of Guy de
Maupassants literary stories were influenced by his experiences as a writer.
Conceptual Framework
The researchers used Biographical Criticism in analyzing the relevance of Guy de
Maaupassants life to his works specifically to his three short stories-A Family Affair,
The Father and The Magic Couch. Moreover, biographical criticism is an approach
that seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and
intellectual context that produced ita context that necessarily includes the artists
biography and milieu.

Through biographical criticism, the researchers were able to have a deeper

understanding to the three selected short stories of Maupassant that lead to analyze the
meaning of themes, values, and structures-characters, setting, plot, and point of view.
The conceptual paradigm is a representation of input, process, and output of the
research. This shows that the study will focus in the three selected short stories of Guy de
Maupassant namely: A Family Affair, The Father, and The Magic Couch.
For the better understanding of the students, the researchers made audiovisual
presentations as an instructional material for the three selected short stories of
Maupassant together with printed activities to test how well they learned from the said
presentation.

Conceptual Paradigm
Three
INPUT Selected
Short Stories
of Guy de
Maupassant

PROCESS

OUTPUT
Proposed
Instructional
Materials

Biographical
Criticism

Figure 1
Conceptual Paradigm on the Analysis of Three Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant
Using Biographical Criticism

Definition of Terms
Biographical Approach. This approach seeks to understand a literary work by
investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced ita context that
necessarily includes the artists biography and milieu. A key goal for historical critics is
to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.

Fiction. Literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be
based on a true story or situation. The word is from the Latin ficti, the act of making,
fashioning, or molding.
Literature. It is a body of written works. The name has traditionally been applied to
those imaginative works of poetry and prose distinguished by the intentions of their
authors and the perceived aesthetic excellence of their execution. Literature may be
classified according to a variety of systems, including language, national origin, historical
period, genre, and subject matter.
Short Story. A brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that usually
deals with only a few characters.
1.Character -- A figure in a literary work (personality, gender, age, etc). E. M. Forester
makes a distinction between flat and round characters. Flat characters are types or
caricatures defined by a single idea of quality, whereas round characters have the threedimensional complexity of real people.
2. Plot - the major events that move the action in a narrative. It is the sequence of major
events in a story, usually in a cause-effect relation.
3. Point of View -- the vantage point from which a narrative is told. A narrative is
typically told from a first-person or third-person point of view.
4. Setting - That combination of place, historical time, and social milieu that provides
the general background for the characters and plot of a literary work. The general setting
of a work may differ from the specific setting of an individual scene or event.

5.Style -- The authors type of diction (choice of words), syntax (arrangement of words),
and other linguistic features of a work.
6. Theme(s) -- The central and dominating idea (or ideas) in a literary work. The term
also indicates a message or moral implicit in any work of art.