SOURCE: "Violating a Sacred Bond: Monstrous Mothers on Trial," in Voices of Authority: Criminal Obsession in Guy de Maupassant's Short Works, Peter Lang, 1995, pp. 45-87.

In the following excerpt, Poteau-Tralie traces the portrayal of the mother in Maupassant's works—focusing on the "good" mother, the criminal mother, the monstrous mother, and the "unnatural" mother—within the context of prevailing nineteenth-century thought; Maupassant's childhood; his thoughts on God, religion, and children; and his worldview.

2.1 Introduction

Maupassant paints a generally cynical picture of women in his fiction; however, one type of woman enjoys a unique and privileged position: the mother. There is a definite evolutionary process from the earliest short stories in which an idealization of the concept of motherhood is placed upon a pedestal, to the increasingly pessimistic portrayal of mothers which marks the final works. One could argue that Maupassant's relationship with his own mother, Laure Le Poittevin...