Maupassant's writings suggest that the monde, demi-monde and brothels, usually conceived as entirely different universes, resemble each other. They are imperfect copies, which can be mistaken for one another. The characters moving in these worlds are essentially false, hypocritical and superficial beings, prisoners of a role which forces them to play a comedy in society. Some adopt to perfection the values and conventions attached to their role, to the extent of no longer differentiating the true from the false, and forgetting their identity. / As the distinction between appearances and reality disappears, the boundaries between the milieux become unclear. Do they exist? Have the boundaries arbitrarily been drawn to preserve social order? If Maupassant implicitly asks these questions, he does not provide an answer. His attitude towards social comedy is rather ambiguous. Though he makes fun of the latter, emphasizing its absurdity and ridicule, he does not condemn it. Spectator and actor of this vast comedy, Maupassant stays detached: of course life is only a game, but why not play it?
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26678 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Boucher, Marie-Violaine. |
| Contributors | Duquette, Jean-Pierre (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Département de langue et littérature françaises.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001571265, proquestno: MQ29483, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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