Category: Maupassant

The short story Toine by Guy de Maupassant presents the narrative of a man whose sudden medical condition turns into an opportunity to become a father. I will first discuss themes of the story then the writing style .

Toine is a bon vivant greatly appreciated by the people of his county. Right at the beginning, the reader can grasp his character by the way Maupassant introduces several positive monikers to name Toine (le gros Toine, Toi-ma-fine, Brûlot). The name Toine – the story title – itself is a nickname. Toine is an important person of his county ; the whole hamlet seems to be his property.

He seems however to be the antithesis of his wife, who’s described as beeing ‘‘born ill-tempered, and (going) through life in a mood of perpetual discontent.’’ They constantly fight – Toine in an humoristic way, his wife with real anger. Her anger towards her husband surely comes from the fact thet he doesn’t contribute much to the production while she constantly works to be more efficient. The wife’s expression, ‘‘Wait a bit! Wait a bit! You’ll see what’ll happen. He’ll burst like a sack of grain!”, mentionned at the end of every argument, foreshadows Toine’s sad destiny. (It is important to note that Maupassant’s use of past tenses to describe Toine’s life also hints at Toine’s life change – his attack and new condition).

After the attack, Toine is confined to his bed. His friends start to visit him in his room and Toine enjoys life almost as before, which upsets his wife. At this point the balance of power changes and Toine must now follow his wife’s orders. The jovial Toine becomes anxious and docile in front of his wife who’s quite decided to make her husband productive. She makes him brood eggs under his big arms as if they are wings (what he had mentioned – but surely not thought true – earlier in the story).

At the end, Toine becomes proud when finding a paternity that he never had : the chicks that he brooded became, in some way, his children. And when he calls his friend son-in-law, that time it is almost true.

Style

The writing has interesting, constrasting aspects in both its form and register. The text has a fluidity almost as though it is told in oral tradition. Many sentences or paragraphs start with a coordinating conjunction (and, but) as if the story was coming out of a mouth without pausing. While it possesses this characteristic, the writing style is highly literary. In the narration, the simple past – a literary tense – is constantly used.

Another important contrast is the gap between the register used in the narration and that of the dialogue. The use of the simple past, sentence constructions and vocabulary used in the narration contribute to the literary register. On the other hand, dialogue is written such that we can almost imagine French peasants speaking in the 19th century countryside. From the simple syntax and colloquial words used as well as ellipsis (like in these lines: ‘‘J’verrons c’qu’arrivera’’, ‘‘Qué que tu veux ?’’, ‘‘Pourquoi que tu ne bé point la mé, pé Toine ?’’), the register used for dialogues is popular.

Finally, the story has the feel of a legend. Toine’s and his wife’s personalities seem exaggerated, but it really is the description of the brooding and the chicks’ birth that make the story special : there was a great ‘‘commotion’’, ‘‘newcomers filled the bar’’ asking how many chicks there were, it was a ‘‘triumph’’ ! This singular paternity surely contributes to making Toine a legendary character.

Karen O’Regan

The Uncanny in Guy de Maupassant’s Toine

In Toine, Guy de Maupassant’s realistic style evokes the familiar images of peasant life only to subvert reality with the uncanny predicament of a paralyzed innkeeper forced to hatch eggs. Initially, the humorous description of rural life entertains the reader as impartial observer. Soon, however, the author’s use of the absurd forces his audience to participate in the creation of the text and reflect on the unresolved denouement.

While the linear narrative begins in a deceptively traditional manner, interpreting the text becomes increasingly problematic as the tale unfolds. An omniscient narrator introduces the characters and the environment that governs their behaviour. As with the rest of the natural world, the peasants’ physical needs are the focus of their lives. Thus, Toine resembles a pig, his wife a bird of prey, and later their friends are compared with a fox and a tree. The dehumanizing descriptions are humorous at first while the reader retains the position of spectator. However, the distance between the observer and the observed soon diminishes.

The reader begins to identify with the characters when they display certain human qualities. The innkeeper is first likeable because of his social nature and his affinity for physical pleasure, and his wife less so for her puritan work ethic. However, when the second and central action of the text reveals the unsettling strangeness of Toine’s situation, his weaknesses appear less comical and more disturbing. The unfortunate innkeeper has become a rather pathetic figure, inspiring both sympathy and revulsion. This ambivalence undermines a binary world of good and evil, and reflects the ambiguity of social mores. In this way, the text presents a mirror (the same yet different) image of the world that challenges the reader’s perception of reality. As a result, the reader participates actively in the narrative in an effort to interpret the text.

The rupture with reality is complete when Toine is asked to hatch the eggs. A plausible situation becomes fantastical, and the resulting confusion of the reader reflects that of the villagers. This blurring of the line between the possible and the impossible creates a liminal space in which the reader can create a new ‘truth’ or understanding of the world.

The concluding scene invites the reader to contemplate a reality outside of common experience. The protagonist has come to terms with his fate, yet the reader remains unsure of the outcome. Accustomed to the short story format, which traditionally propels the narrative towards closure, the reader is left perplexed and forced to examine why it is difficult to appreciate the character’s happiness. Ultimately, the innkeeper is imprisoned in a hell of his and his puritanical wife’s making. Moreover, all those around him are both products of and fodder for his insatiable pursuit of pleasure and her determination to control this weakness. Even Prosper Horsville falls victim to Toine, the progenitor of all his gendres, for his cleverness has turned him into yet another of Toine’s chicks. The characters in Maupassant’s looking glass are both victims and perpetrators of the violence done to them, and as their doubles his readers must re-evaluate their conception of reality.

FHIS 501

Toine: Staying on Top

Sometimes it is difficult to determine what is good and/or what is bad. The difficulty lies, perhaps, in the subjective experience or learned values of he or she who gazes at a situation to be contemplated. Determining then whether something is good or bad may be irrelevant because of the varying opinions the situation or object in question may generate. There is however something that remains from anyone who gazes. It is precisely the gaze that remains. Then, if the gaze was not altered with the subjective values or the use of polarizing language to describe or explain, the gaze is an objective text that can be read and effectively argued. Guy de Maupassant offers an “objective” gaze of a place and of a people in the short story Toine.

Toine is the man that gives his name to the story and therefore much attention, focus, is vested onto his character. In this story he is the character that would be impossible to say that he is anything but a good man. That however does not seem to be the stories objective to show that he is good or to show that he is bad. In this objective gaze, let’s remember that that is realisms objective, we easily see what ‘seems to be’, Toine is a Jolly good fellow who gets fat, has a nagging wife, and then has health problems, but it is also easy to miss, perhaps because of this happy, pleasant fellow, the connections that can be made with the material which makes up this gaze, the words, the language. In his town, in his land, Toine is a man of power, and as such must maintain that power, stay on top, by any means, even in the sneakiest of ways, sneaky because he doesn’t resort to violence but rather other undetected methods that allow things to go on as they should, as he wants them to be.

It would be difficult to make a full analysis in a short blog post but the argument, an observation in the text, has been made. A few examples can be given in support of this, although without deep explanation. First there is the opening of the text. It is the start of the gaze into Toine’s life but also into the dynamic of the town area where the story takes place. It describes Toine and his importance in the land. He is talked about and recognized as a focal point, perhaps he is even liked. Then the story presents him personally. He is a man that ‘gives back to the people’, even if just a drink or one meal, a man that uses language, humor, to maintain those important around him. The use of this language can be said to create subjects for Toine; people whom he has persuaded. After this, there is an underlying fact that is also symbolically connected to his growing body, this is his growing wealth. He takes and he grows without giving anything substantial back. The contrast to him is his wife, nagging wife who hates him, and has been described as a “peasant woman”.  This is the only person whom he has a problem with, and the only person who hates him for his bodily and wealth growth while she herself must do peasant work.

At the end we have a particular situation. Toine seems to be emotionally changed by the birth of the chicks, which “he has birthed”.  But in a matter of moments he turns to having no care for life in order to give a gift, perhaps a gift of persuasion, perhaps a gift of pleasure. At work in the text are politics such as politics of life, social division, and wealth distribution shown in conjunction with, or underneath, the image of a pleasant man and the land of which he is lord.

Antón es un cuento que permite, sin lugar a dudas y pese a su brevedad, un amplio abanico de lecturas e interpretaciones. No obstante lo anterior, quisiera centrar mi breve análisis en dos elementos que a su vez se entrelazan en uno: la relación entre el género y el trabajo en el marco de la Francia de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX.

Como bien se sabe, la revolución francesa significó, entre otras cosas, el triunfo de la burguesía y el derrocamiento de la nobleza. El siglo XIX en general, ligado a los procesos industrializadotes transformaron totalmente la forma de concebir el ser humano. Entre las nociones trastocadas está sin duda las construcciones de género (de lo femenino y masculino) junto con la relación con el trabajo. Se pasa de una producción de subsistencia a una que apunta a la acumulación, el intercambio y el trabajo remunerado.

Pensemos a continuación de qué modo se refleja lo anterior en el cuento de Maupassant. Antón, protagonista del cuento y quien da nombre al relato, es el dueño de la que es –probablemente- la única posada del pequeño pueblo de Tournevent. Lugar que, como da a entender el autor en las primeras líneas, sólo se constituía de un reducido número de casas que eran “una especie de feudo para el señor Antón”. El evocar la idea del “feudo” nos traslada inmediatamente a un escenario de “Antiguo Régimen”, más aún, al comprobar que efectivamente el protagonista vivía y gozaba acorde a una lógica laboral que no era propia de la sociedad burguesa. Este es precisamente el reproche que le hace constantemente su señora (la que como buena “mujer burguesa” no puede huir de su rol de acompañante): “La molestaba su alegría, su fama de hombre campechano, su inquebrantable salud, su obesidad. Le miraba despreciativamente al verle ganar dinero sin hacer nada y al verle comer y beber por ocho”. Es precisamente el hecho de que su marido no trabaje y gane dinero (al igual que en un régimen feudal), mientras que ella sí trabaja para ganar dinero (engordando pollos), lo que hace que ella se enfurezca.

El momento de la parálisis de Antón representa en cierta medida la saturación de una forma o estilo de vida (nobiliario si se quiere) del vivir sin esfuerzo. Es precisamente en este momento en que su mujer lo lleva a transformar su masculinidad desde una percepción propia del antiguo régimen a una burguesa, el trabajo. Es allí cuando la mujer (trabajadora) debe transformar a su marido en un elemento “útil”. Es interesante que la paradoja que se presente sea precisamente que la “utilidad” de Antón derive de su “incapacidad física”. Mientras tuvo salud no trabajó, pero cuando careció de ella debió hacerlo. Es precisamente esto lo que le recalca su mujer al acomodar los huevos bajo sus brazos: “Antón, asombrado, preguntó: -Pero ¿qué piensas? – Que sirvas de algo: incuba”. En ese momento debió entrar bajo la lógica del trabajo capitalista del siglo XIX, o trabaja o muere de hambre, sólo que esta vez no es “el mercado” quien procede a ejecutar el castigo sino su mujer.

Es precisamente en este momento en que se genera una transformación interesante en términos de género. Antón, quien seguía un modelo aristocrático de vida y masculinidad, pasa a desempeñar un papel femenino ligado a la maternidad. Sin embargo, esta maternidad no es en un sentido aristocrático, sino más bien burgués. Esto se evidencia principalmente en las últimas líneas del relato. Al nacer el último de los pollos, la alegría del protagonista no puede ser escondida: “Y el gordo, borracho de alegría, besó al último con tanta efusión, que a poco más lo espachurra entre sus labios. Quería quedárselo en la cama toda la noche, dominado por una ternura de madre hacia el pobre ser que debía la vida”. Sin embargo, una vez pasado el éxtasis inicial, se aprecia aquel elemento tan cotidiano en un contexto industrial, la utilización del hijo como fuerza laboral, o dicho o en otros términos, la utilización de los hijos para la supervivencia de los padres y la familia. Es precisamente aquel elemento el que aparece en el último diálogo del texto: “—¿Me convidas, para cuando estén ya cebados, a comer uno con tomate? La idea sublime de comer un pollo con tomate iluminó el semblante de Antón, el Triple Antón, con sincero entusiasmo repuso: — ¡Vaya si te convido! Quedas convidado para lo que dices, yerno”. Y así fue como Antón, quien nunca tuvo hija ni casada ni por casar, terminó por acceder a engullir lo más parecido a un hijo que había tenido. Por supuesto, la proyección del cuento queda abierta, no sabemos si tras el parto Antón volverá nuevamente a su vida aristocrática, lo que sí sabemos, es que al menos por el instante único del relato, se lograron trastocar las nociones de clase y de género en la posada del pequeño pueblo de Tournevent.

So from what I understand about this story, it seems like it is about peasant life. However, the author is not discussing any ordinary peasant life. Instead, he denounces the customary perception that peasant life is wretched and difficult, and describes it as jovial and praise-worthy even. In fact, the name Toine (short for Antoine) is a French name meaning “highly praised” or “praise-worthy”. By doing this, the author is rejecting the notion of social status. He creates a character that is well liked, well received, and comical.

Toine’s zest for life and relationships with the town’s people contrast that of his wife’s. The author is defying social norms by making a peasant the talk of the town and, more surprisingly, a well-respected member of the community (even the mayor knows him). Even when paralyzed, Toine remains jovial – not losing his spirit and maintaining to be the person that he is. The author is effective in making him to be a larger than life character (no pun intended), at one point saying that “he could even make a tombstone laugh” – all things considered, even “Death” treated Toine differently. Ironically, his bad health and paralyzed state was what allowed him to bear life to the chicks that hatched under his arms. It is almost as if the author wants to emphasize that, regardless of social norms or social status, we should not let labels and/or status define the people we are. Instead, we should choose to be the people we want to be; do not let yourself be a slave and succumb to the perceptions of what you ought to be.

Also, the author may be suggesting the idea of equality in society and caring for one another. Toine’s personality and vigour to engage all those he comes across display his adoration for his fellow man. In fact, there is a sense of community amongst everyone in town to visit Toine, see how he is doing, and check on the status of the eggs. It is as if there is no social divide between the people of the town. Not only that, he is even connected with nature, as displayed by his anxieties over how the Hen (who is also attempting to hatch eggs) is doing. This conveys a holistic nature to his personality that the author is suggesting is a quality that should be admired.

Peasant life is often times portrayed negatively, as depicted by Toine’s wife, but it is the way in which we choose to view our life that determines its outcome. Although Toine’s corpulence and excessive gaiety is not typical of a peasant, it highlights that we should not give others the power to determine our identity. The author redefines the meaning of peasant life by depicting a town where there is no hierarchy. This story is remarkable because it shows how the perpetual joy of one peasant brings all walks of life together. This is further illustrated at the end where Toine is delighted by the simple fact of being able to see his friends more often. It is not more chickens that Prosper (Toine’s cunning friend) was concerned about when suggesting to the wife that she could hatch more eggs under Toine’s arms; he simply needed an excuse to spend more time with Toine. By valuing such simplicities, the author shows his disagreement with the wife’s pessimistic attitude toward peasant life. Toine’s love for life and people underlines that happiness is not only found in the exceptional, but also in the commonplace.

Maupassant’s Toine is a combination of mundane issues and contrasting humor that build up perfectly into the irony of everyday life. This “everyday matter” approach given to the relationship between Toine and his wife works as a humorous cover for an in reality fairly tormenting relationship. However, as the story progresses, one comes to the realization that the antagonism between these two characters is not superficial, the feelings of envy and frustration the wife has in regards to her husband surpass the levels for a normal quarreling couple. And Toine’s ability to make fun of his wife’s concerns and his complete disregard for her emotions seem like the perfect set-up for a tale full of comical conflict. This realization immediately creates expectation, who is going to win the annoyance game? Toine or the wife?

Furthermore, as each one of the main characters is developed as the complete opposite of the other; Toine is a corpulent, joyous man “a friend of all”, the wife is an “ill-tempered” woman who lived in “perpetual discontent”, it is inevitable for the reader to pick sides and hope that in the end one of the characters will benefit over the other. This adds to the twist of the ending, since one might or might not get what one was expecting for the narration.

Along these margins there is something very interesting to note, that is the way in which Maupassant manages to weave whimsical remarks between the lines of the story that mainly serve as clues for what might occur in the end. Antoine rolling his sleeves back and saying: “That would make a fine wing now, wouldn’t it?”. We learn later on that that arm will work as a wonderful wing to hatch eggs under. And the fact that he called everyone his “son-in-law” even though he had no daughters is also a perfect example of the small hints the author skillfully hid amid sentences.

The conclusion of the of the story can be observed from two different points of view, both equally ironic. The first one would be to understand it as a defeat for the wife. Her actions were intended to bother Toine, but backfired and helped him become more content than he was before, they gave him a purpose in life further than just lying in bed and moreover he was able to experience parenthood in someway, an unfulfilled desire that is clearly portrayed throughout the narration.

The other way of approaching the ending could be as a win-win situation. Even though the wife did not completely succeed in troubling Toine, she also got something that she profoundly desired: a husband that would help her earn money through hard work.

Ces derniers jours, j’ai lu Toine, un conte de Guy de MAUPASSANT, c’ est une histoire intéressante. Maupassant choisit généralement les menus événements de la vie quotidienne comme le sujet de ses œuvres, on s’informe et synthétise les vérités vivantes de la vie par les exemples typiques.

D’abord, je me suis familiarisée avec le style de vie des hameaux paysans de la France au dix-neuvième siècle. Les Toines sont une famille typique aux champs à Normandie.

Maupassant est un romancier qui a bien dépeint ses personnages, surtout leur caractère. Le père Toine, le cabaretier de Tournevent, est un homme gros et optimiste, qui se livrait au vin et se plaisait à rester oisif tout le temps. Au contraire, sa femme, qui se querellait avec lui tous les jours, on la connaît par beaucoup d’intrigues dans ce conte, elle était dure, elle était toujours préoccupée, elle avait la culte de l’argent, elle était mécontente de tout, toute la rancœur qu’elle avait amassée contre son mari et leur vie éclataient chaque jour.

Quant au sujet de ce conte, « faire son mari paralysé ouver des œufs» est une idée ridicule, très drôle, certainement, ce n’est pas une idée sérieuse, à mon avis, c’est assez plaisant! Je crois que Maupassant exagéra un peu sur cette affaire, avec un regard acéré, il ironisa les paysans cupides, ils étaient avide de profit maximum, ils profitaient de toutes les occasions pour commettre des méfaits, en d’autres termes, ils étaient habiles et diligents, bien qu’au commencement on croyait «couver des œufs» est une plaisanterie laborieuse, après le père Toine a réussi à éclore des œufs, comme une mère enceinte suant d’angoisse et d’inquiétude, ce travail a devenu glorieux, même sacré! J’ai vu ce film Toine, adapté du conte Toine et realisé par Jacques Santamaria en 2007, Il y a beaucoup d’assistants curieux à la chambre à ce jour-là, mais y compris un rôle ajouté, le docteur qui soignait Toine, quand le mère Toine l’invita à s’asseoir, il dit : « On se sent si petit devant le mistère de la vie. En attendant une naissance, la science se doit rester debout». Il est à noter que malgré l’esprit étroit des paysans, la société de la France et les sciences humaines en ce temps-là étaient influencés par le développement de l’industrialisation et les pensées de la révolution.

Bref, Toine est un conte satirique, il me rappelle Le Père Goriot et Eugénie Grandet, les héros courent après l’argent, ils sont capables de tout pour gagner ou épargner plus d’or, toutefois, la différence la plus grande entre ces œuvres est leur fin, Toine est une comédie humaine, le père Toine et sa femme ont finalement obtenu un succès fou, de plus, ils continueraient à faire ça, leur vie aurait connu une certaine amélioration. En tout cas, c’est une histoire avec espoir. Le projet absurde sera réalisé si l’on le prend comme une chose sérieuse et y accorde de l’importance. A cet époque, je suis sûre qu’on ne le fait plus, évidemment. J’apprécie quand même le style précis de Maupassant, la créativité littéraire est de grande portée pour un écrivain, la source littéraire de Maupassant est réelle, en outre, il avait des vues pénétrants, ainsi, Toine est une de ses œuvres les plus célèbres et ce conte est connu parfaitement par le public.

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These days, I read Toine, a story by Guy de Maupassant, it is an interesting story. Maupassant usually selects the menu events of daily life as the subject of his works, so we can synthesize the truths of living life by those typical examples.

First of all, I am familiar with the lifestyle of agricultural settlements of France in the nineteenth century. The Toines were a typical peasant family in Normandy.

Maupassant is a novelist who has portrayed his characters meticulously, especially their personalities. Father Toine, the innkeeper in Tournevent, is a huge and optimistic man, who was engaged in the wine and loved to be idle all the time. Instead, his wife, who quarreled with him every day, which could be known by a lot of details in this tale, she was stern and always anxious, she had the cult of money, she was dissatisfied with everything, the resentment she had raised against her husband broke every day.

As for the subject of this story, “let her husband hatch eggs” is a ridiculous idea, very hilarious, indeed, this is not a serious idea, in my opinion, it’s pretty funny! I think Maupassant exaggerated a little on this matter, in an incisive style, he quipped greed of peasants, they were eager to maximize profit, they took advantage of every opportunity to make money, in other words, they were skilled and diligent, although initially we thought “hatching eggs” is impossible, after the father Toine was able to hatch eggs as a pregnant mother sweating with anxiety and worries, this work has become glorious, even sacred! I saw the movie Toine, which is adapted and directed by Jacques Santamaria in 2007, There were many curious villagers in the room that day, including a new role– the doctor who treated Toine, when mother Toine invited him to sit down, he said: “You feel so small before the mystery of life. Science must stand when the new life is coming. ” It should be noted that despite these peasants were narrow-minded, the society of France and the humanities at that time were influenced by the development of industrialization and the thoughts of revolution.

In short, Toine is a satirical story, it reminds me of Father Goriot and Eugenie Grandet, the heroes all run after money, they would like to earn or save more gold by doing everthing, however, the greatest difference between these works is their end, Toine is a comedy, the father Toine and his wife finally got a hit, in addition, they would continue to do that, their lives might have more improvements. We could say this is a story with hope. Even an absurd project could be carried out if we take it as a serious matter and attach importance to it. I’m sure that, nowadays, nobody would do that anymore. I still appreciate the particular style of Maupassant, literary creativity is of importance for an author, the literary source of Maupassant is actual, moreover, he had a penetrating mind, that’s why Toine is one of his most famous works and this story is perfectly known by the public.