Short Fiction · Chapter
The Little One explained
Monsieur Lemonnier, a widower who adored his late wife, raises their son Jean with excessive indulgence and grief.
What happens
Monsieur Lemonnier, a widower who adored his late wife, raises their son Jean with excessive indulgence and grief. His friend Monsieur Duretour dotes on the boy, while the old nurse Céleste warns against spoiling him. After a violent confrontation where Céleste forces the child to eat soup and reveals that Jean is not Lemonnier's biological son but the image of Duretour, Lemonnier hangs himself, leaving a note entrusting the child to Duretour.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Desire
Monsieur Lemonnier's mad, noble love for his wife persists beyond her death, shaping his relationship with their son.
Obsession and Delusion
Lemonnier's obsessive adoration blinds him to the truth of his wife's infidelity and the child's paternity.
Cruelty and Suffering
Céleste's forced feeding of Jean and the revelation of the affair cause immense emotional and physical suffering, culminating in Lemonnier's suicide.
Characters to notice
- Monsieur Lemonnier
A widowed draper who adored his wife and spoils their son Jean; he commits suicide after learning the boy is not his own.
- Céleste
The old nurse who cares for Jean, disapproves of the spoiling, and reveals the truth about the child's paternity.
- Jeanne
Monsieur Lemonnier's late wife, who died in childbirth and is remembered with adoration.
- Jean
The spoiled, willful son of Monsieur Lemonnier, who is revealed to be the biological child of Monsieur Duretour.
Key passages
“He had loved his wife madly, with a noble and tender love, that never failed, throughout the whole of their life together.”
Monsieur Lemonnier's devotion to his wife was constant and passionate, enduring until her death.
Establishes the depth of Lemonnier's love and his subsequent grief.
“The boy was his wife's flesh, her continued being, a quintessence of her, as it were. He was her very life poured into another body; she had disappeared that he might exist.”
Lemonnier sees Jean as a living embodiment of his deceased wife, both a comfort and a reminder of her loss.
Highlights the conflicted emotions Lemonnier feels toward his son.
“I leave and entrust the little one to you.”
Lemonnier's suicide note gives custody of Jean to Monsieur Duretour.
The tragic resolution, acknowledging Duretour as the true father.