Short Fiction · Chapter
Old Boniface's Crime explained
Postman Boniface, while on his rural delivery route, becomes deeply affected by a gruesome crime story he reads in a newspaper.
What happens
Postman Boniface, while on his rural delivery route, becomes deeply affected by a gruesome crime story he reads in a newspaper. When he arrives at the house of the new tax-collector, Monsieur Chapatis, and finds it locked and shuttered with groans coming from inside, he panics and runs to fetch the police, convinced a murder is in progress. The inspector and constable return with him, only to discover that the sounds are not a crime but the intimate noises of the newlywed couple. The chapter ends with the police laughing at Boniface's misunderstanding, leaving him humiliated and bewildered.
Themes in this chapter
Illusion vs. Reality
Boniface's imagination, fueled by a sensational crime story, leads him to perceive an innocent marital moment as a violent murder, highlighting the gap between perception and truth.
Cruelty and Suffering
The chapter opens with a detailed account of a brutal triple murder, which colors Boniface's interpretation of ordinary sounds, and the mockery he endures at the end adds a layer of social cruelty.
Characters to notice
- Old Boniface
The postman who misinterprets the sounds from the tax-collector's house as a crime, leading to a humiliating misunderstanding.
- Maître Chicot
A farmer greeted by Boniface during his delivery; mentioned briefly as a recipient of the newspaper.
Key passages
“He was so strongly affected by the story of a crime committed in a gamekeeper's cottage that he stopped in the middle of a patch of clover to read it slowly through again.”
The gruesome murder account so captivated Boniface that he halted in a clover field to reread it carefully.
Shows how the newspaper story preconditions Boniface to interpret ambiguous sounds as criminal.
“The inspector drew himself up to his full height and said: 'You did not render assistance in person?' 'I was afraid that I was not present in sufficient strength,' replied the frightened postman.”
The inspector questioned why Boniface hadn't intervened himself, and the postman admitted he was too scared to act alone.
Highlights Boniface's fear and the inspector's initial seriousness before the comic reveal.
“But as he could neither speak nor stop laughing nor make them understand what was affecting him, he made a gesture, a quite vulgar and scandalous gesture.”
Unable to speak through his laughter, the inspector resorted to an obscene gesture to explain the true nature of the sounds.
The vulgar gesture underscores the comic misunderstanding and the sexual nature of the 'crime'.