Short Fiction · Chapter
The Funeral Pile explained
The chapter recounts the secret cremation of an Indian prince, Bapu Sahib Khanderao Ghatgay, on the shore of Étretat.
What happens
The chapter recounts the secret cremation of an Indian prince, Bapu Sahib Khanderao Ghatgay, on the shore of Étretat. After his death from gangrene, his relatives and servants, with the mayor's tacit permission, build a funeral pile at night, perform Hindu rites, and burn the body. The narrator reflects on the dignity of cremation versus burial, while the next day the townspeople react with suspicion and morbid curiosity.
Themes in this chapter
Illusion vs. Reality
The townspeople's suspicion that a crime was committed contrasts with the actual dignified religious ceremony.
Isolation and Loneliness
The secretive night-time cremation and the prince's death far from home emphasize the isolation of the foreign group.
Characters to notice
- Guy de Maupassant
The narrator who witnesses the cremation and reflects on its meaning.
Key passages
“The cart went along the shingle to the very foot of the cliffs, and when its load had been emptied, the three Indian servants began to build up a funeral pile, which was longer than it was broad.”
The cart traveled over the pebbly beach to the base of the cliffs, where the servants unloaded the wood and constructed an oblong funeral pyre.
Describes the secret preparation of the pyre.
“It was indeed the ancient and sacred image, come from the heart of the Orient to this other end of Europe to watch over its child who was being burnt there.”
The shadow of Buddha seemed to have traveled from India to oversee the cremation of the prince.
The narrator's poetic interpretation of the shadow cast by an Indian servant.
“The purifying fire scatters in a few hours what was a human being, casting it to the winds, turning to air and ashes, instead of unspeakable putrefaction.”
Fire quickly reduces the body to ash and air, avoiding the slow decay of burial.
The narrator's philosophical preference for cremation over burial.