Short Fiction · Chapter
The Model explained
A painter, Jean Summer, is married to a crippled woman, his former model.
What happens
A painter, Jean Summer, is married to a crippled woman, his former model. The story of their relationship is recounted: he fell in love with her, they lived together, but constant quarrels led him to try to break off the affair by offering her money. She refused the money and threatened suicide if he married. When he callously dared her to jump, she leaped from a window, breaking both legs. He married her out of remorse, and they now live in silent misery.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Desire
Summer's initial infatuation with the model is portrayed as a delusion of eternal love, quickly soured by possession and conflict.
Cruelty and Suffering
The story culminates in a cruel dare that leads to the model's crippling fall, and the couple's subsequent life of silent torment.
Illusion vs. Reality
The romantic illusion of the moonlit night is shattered by the model's petty complaints, revealing the underlying incompatibility.
Characters to notice
- Guy de Maupassant
Narrator of the frame story, observing the couple on the beach.
- Duc de Servigny
One of the two young men discussing Summer's marriage on the capstan.
Key passages
“He fell in love with her, as a man does fall in love with a rather attractive woman whom he is constantly seeing. He imagined that he loved her with his whole heart. That’s an odd phenomenon. As soon as a man desires a woman, he is sincerely convinced that he could never tire of her for the rest of his life.”
Summer's love was based on physical attraction and constant proximity, leading him to mistakenly believe it would last forever.
Highlights the theme of illusion vs. reality in romantic attachment.
“She grew terrifyingly pale and replied: ‘You’d better not drive me too far. I’ll throw myself out of the window.’ He burst out laughing, walked across to the window, opened it, and bowing like a person politely making way for another to go first, said: ‘The way is open. After you!’”
When she threatened suicide, he mocked her by opening the window and inviting her to jump.
Illustrates the cruelty and emotional violence in their relationship.