Short Fiction · Chapter
Graveyard Sirens explained
Joseph de Bardon, a bachelor, recounts to his friends a curious encounter in the Montmartre cemetery.
What happens
Joseph de Bardon, a bachelor, recounts to his friends a curious encounter in the Montmartre cemetery. He describes his love for cemeteries and his habit of visiting the grave of an old flame. During one visit, he meets a woman in deep mourning who faints at her husband's grave. He revives her and they leave together, beginning a strange affair. Later, he sees her again in the cemetery with another man, leading him to wonder if she is a 'graveyard siren' who preys on mourners.
Themes in this chapter
Illusion vs. Reality
The narrator grapples with the ambiguity of the woman's grief—whether it is genuine or a calculated performance to attract men, blurring the line between sincere mourning and opportunistic seduction.
Love and Desire
The story explores unconventional romantic and sexual encounters, as the narrator is drawn to a woman in a cemetery, and later questions the nature of her affections.
Isolation and Loneliness
The cemetery setting underscores themes of solitude and the human need for connection, as both the narrator and the woman seek companionship among the dead.
Characters to notice
- Joseph de Bardon
The narrator and protagonist, a bachelor who frequents cemeteries and recounts his strange encounter with a mourning woman.
- Guy de Maupassant
Author of the story, though not directly present in the narrative.
Key passages
“I like graveyards because they are such immense, densely populated cities. Just think of all the bodies buried in that small space, of the countless generations of Parisians laid there forever, eternally entombed in the little vaults, in their little graves marked by a cross or a stone, while the living—fools that they are!—take up so much room and make such a fuss.”
The narrator finds cemeteries fascinating as vast, crowded cities of the dead, contrasting the humble, permanent resting places of the departed with the noisy, transient lives of the living.
Reflects the narrator's philosophical musings on death and the vanity of the living.
“I was utterly nonplussed, reluctant to believe what my eyes had just seen, and I wondered to what strange tribe of creatures this graveyard huntress belonged. Was she merely a clever courtesan, an inspired prostitute, who haunted cemeteries for men disconsolate at the loss of some woman, a mistress or a wife, and hungering for past caresses?”
The narrator is shocked and puzzled when he sees the woman with another man in the cemetery, questioning whether she is a prostitute who preys on grieving men.
Highlights the narrator's suspicion and the theme of illusion versus reality.