A Dead Woman's Secret (Maupassant)

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Guy de Maupassant

A Dead Woman's Secret

Le Secret · 1880

Summary of the Short Story

Microsummary: A judge and a nun discovered their dead mother's secret affair through old love letters. Shocked, they struggled to reconcile this with her virtuous image and ultimately rejected her memory.

Short Summary

France, late 19th century. An elderly woman died peacefully, leaving behind her son, a judge, and her daughter, a nun, who were mourning by her bedside.

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The Dead Woman — elderly woman, mother of a judge and a nun, long white hair, blameless life, strict moral code, unhappily married.

The siblings, raised with a strict moral code, decided to read their mother's old letters to relive her life. Among the letters, they discovered passionate love notes not written by their father.

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The Judge — son of the dead woman, middle-aged man, magistrate with inflexible principles, strict moral code.

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Sister Eulalie (Marguerite) — daughter of the dead woman, nun, influenced by virtue, loathing for man.

One letter read:

My adored one, I love you wildly. Since yesterday I have been suffering the tortures of the damned, haunted by our memory. I feel your lips against mine, your eyes in mine, your breast against mine. I love you, I love you!

Shocked by this revelation of their mother's secret affair, the judge and the nun struggled to reconcile their image of their virtuous mother with this newfound truth. The judge, maintaining his severe demeanor, threw the letters back into the drawer. As dawn broke, he decided they should leave, effectively severing their emotional ties with their mother and the idealized version of her they had held.

Detailed Summary

The division of the summary into chapters is conditional.

The Peaceful Death

A woman passed away peacefully, her life having been blameless. As she lay in her bed, her features were calm, and her white hair was carefully arranged.

The whole pale countenance of the dead woman was so collected, so calm, so resigned that one could feel what a sweet soul had lived in that body, what a quiet existence this old soul had led

Kneeling beside her bed were her son, a magistrate, and her daughter, Sister Eulalie, both weeping uncontrollably.

She had, from childhood up, armed them with a strict moral code, teaching them religion, without weakness, and duty, without compromise. He, the man, had become a judge ... She, the girl ... had become the bride of the Church

The Priest's Arrival

A priest arrived, red-faced and out of breath from his interrupted digestion. He offered to help them through the sad hours, but Sister Eulalie declined, preferring to remain alone with her brother and mother.

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The Priest — male, middle-aged, red-faced, out of breath, assumed sadness.

After the priest left, the siblings remained with their dead mother. The room was filled with a sense of peace and melancholy.

An infinite peace, a divine melancholy, a silent serenity surrounded this dead woman, seemed to be breathed out from her and to appease nature itself.

Memories and Discovery

As they grieved, the siblings began to recall memories of their mother. They remembered her words, smiles, and gestures, realizing how much they would miss her presence in their lives.

They now became solitary, lonely beings; they could no longer look back.

Sister Eulalie suggested reading their mother's old letters to relive her life. They found packages of letters in a drawer and began reading them aloud.

As they read, they discovered passionate love letters that were not from their father. The judge, shocked by this revelation, searched for a signature and found the name 'Henry' instead of their father's name, Rene.

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The Father — deceased husband of the dead woman, made her unhappy, name Rene.

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Henry — unknown man, author of love letters to the dead woman.

The Siblings' Reaction

The judge, visibly shaken by the discovery, stood up and walked to the window, gazing out into the dark night. Sister Eulalie remained standing near the bed, her head bowed and her eyes now dry.

When he turned around again Sister Eulalie, her eyes dry now, was still standing near the bed, her head bent down. He stepped forward, quickly picked up the letters and threw them pell-mell back into the drawer.

The judge then closed the curtains of the bed, symbolically shutting out the newly discovered truth about their mother. As daylight began to appear, he told his sister it was time for them to leave, without looking at their mother again. Their perception of her had been irrevocably changed by the revelation of her secret past.