29 pages • 58 minutes read
Guy de MaupassantBoule De Suif
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1880A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Allusion
An allusion is an indirect reference to another work of literature or an otherwise well-known event, person, idea, etc. While allusions are often deployed directly by a work’s narrator, several of the most significant in “Boule de Suif” come from the characters. In their efforts to persuade Boule de Suif to sleep with the Prussian officer, the women in the group reference numerous women from history and myth:
Examples from ancient history were cited: Judith and Holofernes, and then, without any apparent connection, Lucretia and Sextus, Cleopatra admitting to her couch all the hostile generals, and reducing them to the servility of slaves. […] [T]he women of Rome were seen on their way to Capua, to rock Hannibal to sleep in their arms (42).
As ostensible examples of women who have wielded sex for patriotic causes, these allusions are meant to serve as inspiration for Boule de Suif. However, a reader familiar with the stories behind the allusions will recognize that Boule de Suif’s fellow travelers are ignorant, self-serving, or both. Judith, for example, is a biblical heroine who saved her city from the besieging general Holofernes; although she played on her beauty to gain entrance to Holofernes’s tent, where she plied him with wine and then killed him, there is no suggestion that she actually had sex with him. Lucretia, meanwhile, was a Roman noblewoman who was, according to legend, raped by Sextus, the son of the Roman king. By purportedly instigating the overthrow of the monarchy and the installation of a republic, her story became associated with Roman civic pride; however, her own actions, including her subsequent suicide, center on the supposed “shame” of sexual violation and therefore run directly contrary to the women’s intended point. As a narrative device, the allusions therefore underscore the cynicism and deceitfulness of the wealthy passengers, developing the theme of The Dangers and Hypocrisies of Patriotism.
Irony
Irony is a literary device that involves a gap between expectation and reality. “Boule de Suif” is ironic on multiple levels, beginning with the premise of its core conflict: Boule de Suif, the character most marginalized by French society, is the most patriotic of all and therefore refuses to sleep with the Prussian officer. This irony lends pathos to her ostracized position while underscoring the hypocrisy of the other characters, who for all their privileges, resources, and professed ideals refuse even to inconvenience themselves for the sake of their country.
Moments of verbal or situational irony accentuate this broader critique. For example, when the countess engages the older nun in a conversation about morality and divine ordinances, the narrator describes the nun as “unraveling the intricacies of the will of the Almighty” (44). In context, however, it is clear the narrator views neither the nun nor the organized religion she represents as having anything worthwhile to say on this subject; in professing herself willing to “instantly kill[] mother or father at an order from above” (44), she shows herself to be heartless and dogmatic.
Point of View
Point of view is the perspective from which a story unfolds. Guy de Maupassant uses the third-person omniscient point of view, which allows readers inside each of the characters’ thoughts and feelings. This is typical of 19th-century Realist/Naturalist literature and clarifies the characters’ motivations throughout the story. For example, when the other characters unpack the food they have brought for the remainder of the trip to Havre, the narrator explicitly notes Boule de Suif’s hurt, outrage, and desire to maintain her dignity: “[S]he felt that she was on the verge of tears. […] She sat up very straight, her face pale and rigid, hoping that nobody would notice” (52).
The narrator’s omniscience also contributes to the story’s satire, as it facilitates direct commentary on how the characters’ foibles relate to those of society at large. This is evident, for instance, in the narrator’s description of the countess and Madame Carré-Lamadon “nourish[ing] in their hearts the unreasoning hatred of all well-bred people for the Republic” (21), which underscores the depth and extent of aristocratic and bourgeois opposition to democracy.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary technique that involves hinting at something that will happen later in a story. For example, when Loiseau discusses eating Boule de Suif in the coach, it foreshadows how the passengers metaphorically devour her for their own needs. Like this instance, much of the foreshadowing in the story relies on the repetition of key images and motifs. However, Maupassant also employs more straightforward foreshadowing, as when he notes the altercation between Boule de Suif and Cornudet in the coach, hinting at Cornudet’s desire for her. Such foreshadowing serves in part to frame the story’s events as inevitable; it suggests that the narrative could not unfold in any other way, in keeping with the story’s Naturalist sensibility.
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