Moderato Cantabile | Characters & Character Analysis

Moderato Cantabile Characters

Mademoiselle Giraud ("The Lady")

Mlle Giraud, a minor character in the novelette, is a piano teacher who lives on the sixth floor of a middle-class apartment building next to a cafy where an apparent murder takes place. Giraud's apartment is close enough to the cafy that cafy patronnes can hear Giraud's pupils' piano recitals. Giraud gives lessons to Anne Desbaresdes' child, a young boy, and finds his insouciance and disrespect to be nearly untenable. Giraud is not physically described though she appears to have rather a short temper. She demands a high degree of musical ability from the child and openly berates him when he fails to satisfy. When the child is insolent, she openly complains to Anne Desbaresdes about the child's incivility. Giraud has been teaching piano for thirty years, which puts her age at approximately fifty. The narrator frequently refers to Giraud as 'the lady.'

Anne Desbaresdes

Anne Desbaresdes, the novelette's protagonist, is a...
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