# The Little One explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Guy de Maupassant.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/the-little-one
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters