Short Fiction · Chapter
Mouche explained
A boating man recounts his youthful days on the Seine with four friends and their shared mistress, Mouche.
What happens
A boating man recounts his youthful days on the Seine with four friends and their shared mistress, Mouche. When Mouche becomes pregnant, the friends collectively decide to adopt the child, but a tragic accident during a boat outing leads to a premature labor and the loss of the baby.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Desire
The complex, shared romantic and physical relationship between Mouche and the five friends, marked by both affection and betrayal.
Cruelty and Suffering
Mouche's tragic accident and the loss of her child highlight the physical and emotional suffering inherent in her situation.
Gender and Power
Mouche is objectified and shared among the men, yet she exercises a degree of agency and emotional power over them, particularly through her pregnancy.
Characters to notice
- Mouche
The shared mistress of the five friends, who becomes pregnant and suffers a tragic accident leading to premature labor.
- Guy de Maupassant
The narrator who recounts his youthful adventures on the Seine with his friends.
Key passages
“She deceived him without difficulty and without making any resistance, at the first word of request from each of us.”
Mouche readily cheated on N'a-qu'un-Œil with each of the other friends at their first request.
Illustrates Mouche's unfaithfulness and the casual nature of the relationships.
“This is no time to desert her, and any attempt to settle the paternity is forbidden.”
We must not abandon her now, and no one should try to determine who the father is.
N'a-qu'un-Œil's declaration of collective responsibility for Mouche's pregnancy.
“She was too weak, and only the top of her foot touched the edge of the stone quay; she slipped, hit her stomach full on the sharp corner, gave a loud cry, and disappeared in the water.”
She was too feeble; her foot barely grazed the quay's edge, causing her to slip, strike her abdomen against the sharp corner, cry out, and fall into the water.
The tragic accident that leads to Mouche's premature labor.