A Dead Woman’s Secret is a short story written by Guy de Maupassant and published in 1880 that shows a saint of a woman lying peacefully on her deathbed and her children mourning by her side who later come across a horrible revelation of their mother’s life that changes the way they see her. The story explores the theme of identity and illicit love affairs.

A Dead Woman’s Secret | Summary

A woman lies on her deathbed who was perfect in life and has now left the world painlessly without any remorse. Her son, a magistrate, and her daughter, Eulalie, a nun are grieving beside her bed. The mother has been with them through thick and thin teaching them morals and the duty of life. They know their father scarcely except that he made their mother unhappy. A priest appears to give them his condolences and tells them he has come to help them go through the mourning. Eulalie requests the priest to leave them alone with their mother. They are left alone with their mother and recollect the days they spent with their mother, and now they realize how they have been attached to her and how their life will be empty without her now.

She was the one who kept them together, made them who they are today, and was their guide throughout life. Eulalie remembers their mother used to read her old letters of their grandparents, her acquaintances. She asks her brother to get those letters and read them to revive the old memories of her life. They pull out a dozen of letters from the drawer. Eulalie reads aloud the letters and interrupts herself telling them they have to bury them with their mother. She notices there is only one letter with no descriptive word on it and starts reading it. They realize it is a love letter. The magistrate stops her and snatches it from her to see who it has been referred to. He finds out it is from their mother’s secret lover. The siblings stare at each other and the magistrate after a while flings the letters back into the drawer. He gets up from his chair and without looking at their mother tells her they should leave.

A Dead Woman’s Secret | Analysis

The story begins with a woman who has died a peaceful death. She lies on her bed in tranquility and looks as if she has recently washed and cleaned herself. The narrator describes the woman as a saint, who lived her life without any troubles. The woman took care of her children without her husband and hence they barely know about him. The mother’s identity is based on what her children think of her, and how she has taken care of them. She has shaped their childhood with morality, a sense of duty, and religion. And they are now what they are because of their mother’s way of upbringing. The son is a magistrate but he used the law to dominate weak people and her daughter, Eulalie is a nun not for the love of God but because she despises men. They consider their mother to be the one who connects them with their forefathers. They ask the priest to leave them alone with their mother to grieve her.

They recollect the memories of their childhood, associated with everything their mother has done for them, the time they have spent with each other, and how their mother held the family strong.

The narrator explains how their mother had an aura of calmness, silence, and divine peace. They weep thinking of all the times their mother spoke, everything she taught, and their love grew more for her, the pain of her loss is seen through their wailing and sobbing, as they wonder how they will live without her now. They calm down after a while, like the calm after a storm. Eulalie reminds her brother how their mother used to read the old letters and thinks they can read them to relive the past, their grandparents’ words, and letters of their mother’s acquaintances.

The magistrate pulls out the letters from the drawer, all labeled with a descriptive word. The nun reads aloud the letters one by one and tells him how they should give them to their mother in the grave. The nun finds a letter that has no description on it and starts to try to read it, only to realize that it is a love letter and it is not from their father. He writes about kissing her, caressing her, and loving her. The magistrate snatches the letter from her and looks for the signature to see if it is from a man named Henry. He takes out another letter from the packet and finds it to be a love letter again. This discovery shocks them and changes everything they know about their mother and who they think she is. The son gets up from his chair after giving some thought to the letters and tells his sister they should leave without even looking at their mother.

She is not the saint they thought her to be. The identity they had created for her is destroyed by the revelation of the letters. Their mother had an affair with another man outside of her marriage. This might have affected their parents’ relationship.

The woman is portrayed at the beginning of the story as a saintly woman who lived all her life peacefully without trouble.   The children mourn their mother, reliving the time they spent with her. But the letters shatter the image they had of their mother. They realize she is not a righteous person and a person with good morals. The letters imply their mother was involved in an illicit affair that might have destroyed her marriage. And hence, the children knew their father barely. The old letters imply that she has strong feelings for Henry, as she has kept the letters all her life. The magistrate gets up and tells Eulalie they should leave without looking once at her mother, implying their rejection and abandonment of her. They decide to leave when they realize the identity and the image they have of their mother are shattered by her real identity.

The story shows how fast people’s feelings change. Her children mourn in the beginning for her, sobbing and wailing continuously, and imagining how their world will be without their mother. They remember her as the hero of their life who taught them morality and religion and took care of them. They loved her more on the day when she was on her deathbed. The overflow of emotions takes a toll when they get hold of their mother’s letters. The letters were from her lover, which changed the children’s feelings for her. They stared at her lying body with harsh judgment and even a sense of hatred. The identity they had of their mother is destroyed by the letters. Her children’s response to the letters shows the conservative society during the period. They consider her no more to be a righteous person because her deed was contrary to her preachings and beliefs.  The mother they wailed for kneeling beside her bed, holding her hand and recollecting the days spent together, and remembering everything she had done for them, is now an unholy person whom they did not bother to look at before leaving.

The tone changes throughout the story. The atmosphere is gloomy at the beginning of the Woman’s death. The children found happiness while reading the first letters and recollecting memories, but towards the end, there is a serious tone when it is revealed that their mother had an illicit affair. The story shows a conservative side of society through the children. The children are shocked by the letters, and they leave without bidding her a last goodbye. Religiousness is shown through the mother, who was a saint, as said by the priest, who taught her children morality and religion, and her daughter turns into a nun, and her son into a magistrate.

A Dead Woman’s Secret | Themes

Identity

The story shows how, in the beginning, the woman, the mother, who lies on her deathbed peacefully, is portrayed as a saint, as believed by her children as well as the priest. In the beginning, the readers are made to believe the character is heroic as she has taken care of her children, and played an important role in their upbringing helping them to be what they are today without their father’s support. The children barely know their father. They remember her preachings, her teachings, and the memories they had together as a family and now they are abandoned in the world. Their love and feelings change as they read their mother’s old letters. They realize their mother was in an illicit relationship with someone named Henry.

The identity of their mother as a saint and a religious woman is shattered with their trust. They feel betrayed and humiliated that their mother kept them in the dark. The intimate letters imply that the woman is not as righteous as they believed her to be.

Both children love their mother and are devastated by her death. But their feelings change as they get to read the letters. The identity of loving children turns into judgmental people who leave her on her deathbed without even saying goodbye.

Illicit affair

The woman’s illicit affair with a man named Henry which she had hidden in the letters all her life is revealed when her daughter reads the letter aloud. The children are humiliated by their mother’s secret, as they had created the image of their mother to be religious, righteous, and a saintly woman, based on the way she had taken care of them since childhood. Her secret stripped her of all the love her children had for her and left her alone in her deathbed as her children decide to leave without bidding her a final goodbye.

A Dead Woman’s Secret | Characters

The Mother – The mother was a saintly woman who lived all her life without any troubles or blame. She taught her children about a sense of duty, religion, and moral codes. Her children considered her their hero as they barely knew their father. But when they get hold of her old letters, their image of their holy and religious mother shatters. They took her through judgemental eyes when they realize their mother had illicit love affairs outside her marriage. They stop mourning at her deathbed and leave without bidding her goodbye.

Daughter – Marguerite is the daughter of the mother who in religion is known as Sister Eulalie chose the religion because of her loathing for men. She is broken by her mother’s death and weeps violently so that she hardly talks. She gives her brother the idea to read their mother’s old letters to reminisce about her souvenirs and memories. She is humiliated and shocked by the intimate letters of their mother and looks at her brother to see what to do.

Son – The magistrate whose name isn’t mentioned in the story, considers her mother to be a religious and saint woman. He grieves their mother until Eulalie reads the love letter. He stares at her mother’s body on the deathbed with judgmental eyes and later tells Eulalie they should leave without even looking at their mother.

The Priest – The priest enters the apartment to give his condolences to the children and stay with them to help them go through the grieving. He has just eaten and his face looks flushed as he has put brandy into his coffee to relieve himself of fatigue. Eulalie requests that they would like to be left alone with their mother, and he takes a leave murmuring that their mother was a saint.

A Dead Woman’s Secret | Literary Techniques

The irony is used in the story through the instance of the mother. The priest along with the children, considers the mother to be a saintly woman, but her secret old letters show she is not religious or righteous, the way she has preached in front of her children.

Foreshadowing is shown using the mother’s old letters. Eulalie and her brother get hold of all the old letters that belong to their mother. They notice that every letter has been labeled with a descriptive word. Eulalie picks one by one to read aloud. When she holds the next letter, she notices it has no descriptive word on it. She began reading it aloud and realized it is a love letter that foreshadows the upcoming climax of the story. The magistrate rises, and Eulalie stops reading. The magistrate looks for a signature to find it is sent by Henry, who is not their father.

A Dead Woman’s Secret | Title

The title comes from the climax of this story. A secret that changes the children’s impression of their mother, that turns the children cold. A woman who lived all her life without any trouble gets judged by her children on her deathbed. She lived her life with a dark secret keeping her children away from it only for them to read her old letters and find out her real identity. The children are humiliated as they realize their mother is not who they think she is. A secret that changes the children’s love for the woman to being distant and judgmental.

About the Author

Guy de Maupassant was a French writer of the 19th century famous for his modern short stories in western literature. He used a naturalistic style of writing and mostly portrayed the lives of the lower and middle classes in his stories.