# Old Boniface's Crime explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Guy de Maupassant.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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'._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/old-boniface-s-crime
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters