XXVI explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Hypocrisy and Secrecy

  Madame Jupillon feigns maternal concern and moral outrage while having orchestrated the affair for financial gain, then discards Germinie when it becomes inconvenient.

• Female Suffering and Sacrifice

  Germinie sacrifices her savings, dignity, and emotional well-being for Jupillon, only to be publicly shamed and abandoned by his mother.

• Social Class and Inequality

  Germinie's lower status and age are used by Madame Jupillon as reasons to deny her any claim to Jupillon, highlighting class barriers to marriage and respect.

Characters to notice

• Germinie Lacerteux

  Confesses her love and past pregnancy to Madame Jupillon, is humiliated and rejected, then flees in anger.

• Madame Jupillon

  Manipulates Germinie into confessing, then feigns shock and moral outrage to reject her, using Germinie's age and lack of status as pretext.

• Jupillon

  Dresses up and is sent out by his mother; remains passive and complicit in the scheme.

Key passages

• “You believed! Oh! my God; you believed! What did you believe? That you'd be my son's wife, eh?”

  Madame Jupillon mockingly asks Germinie if she thought she could ever marry Jupillon.

  Highlights the class and age prejudice that makes Germinie's hopes seem absurd to Madame Jupillon.

• “But a body only has to look at you, my poor young lady. What can I do? It's your age—your hair—I can lay my finger in the place where you part it.”

  Madame Jupillon cruelly points out Germinie's aging appearance as a reason she is unsuitable.

  Emphasizes the societal devaluation of women as they age, especially those without wealth or status.