# Are We to Teach Latin? explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Guy de Maupassant.

## What happens

The narrator recounts his youth at the Institution Robineau, a boarding school famous for its Latin instruction under the usher M. Piquedent. Piquedent, a lonely and passionate Latinist, confides his misery to the narrator. The narrator playfully convinces Piquedent that a young laundress is in love with him, leading to a boat outing where the pair impulsively decide to marry. Piquedent is dismissed after the escapade, and years later the narrator finds him happily running a grocery store, having abandoned Latin entirely.

## Themes in this chapter

### Isolation and Loneliness

Piquedent's profound loneliness as an usher with no private life, no key to lock a door, and no escape from constant surveillance.

### Illusion vs. Reality

The narrator's fabricated romance leads Piquedent to believe in a love that initially exists only in pretense, yet it becomes real.

### Social Class and Money

Piquedent's lowly position as an usher with no diploma contrasts with the laundress's poverty; their marriage and grocery store represent a shift in social standing.

## Character check-ins

### Guy de Maupassant

The narrator, a young student at the Institution Robineau, who orchestrates the match between Piquedent and the laundress.

### Monsieur Parent

The narrator's father, who places him as a day-boarder at the school and later sends him away after the escapade.

### Irma

The young laundress who becomes engaged to Piquedent and later marries him, running a grocery store together.

## Key lines

> I am like an oak in the desert, said he. Sicut quercus in solitudine.

Piquedent compares his isolation to a lone oak tree in a desert, using Latin to emphasize his solitude.

_Highlights Piquedent's loneliness and his habit of mixing Latin into everyday speech._

> A key, the key of a door that I could lock—that would be happiness—the only happiness I want.

Piquedent longs for a private room he can lock, seeing it as the ultimate happiness he lacks.

_Emphasizes the theme of isolation and the desire for personal space._

> Quantum mutatus ab illo!

The narrator exclaims how much Piquedent has changed from his former self, now a grocer.

_Shows the dramatic transformation from Latin scholar to shopkeeper._

> Oh! good heavens, Latin, Latin, Latin! I tell you there's no nourishment in it for a man.

Piquedent dismisses Latin as useless for making a living, now valuing practical trade.

_Reflects the story's critique of classical education versus practical work._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/are-we-to-teach-latin
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters