Research On The Prostitute Images In Maupassant’s Short Stories

As a special image type in literary works, prostitutes are always favored by both writers and readers because they reflect the social reality as well as the human nature more truely and deeply than the others. Through his keen observation and unique perspective, Maupassant described a large number of prostitutes that belong to different classes, different regions, and have different characteristics, different life experience. Based on realism, Maupassant showed fully the characteristic feature and miserable fate of prostitutes. Besides exploring deeply into the social as well as cultural origins which pulls women into isarable lives, Maupassant also uncovered and criticised the forced prostitution of capitalist society.Taking the 53 short novels which appears prostitute wrote by Maupassant as study object, making the development of prostitute system of France in 19 th century and the transformation of prostitution industry as skeleton, througe detailed analysis and classfying, these prostitutes are classfied into three types: legal prostitutes, illegal prostitutes and potential prostitutes. Combined Maupassant’s life experience and literary thoughts with the thoery of Jungian psychology, the origin why Maupassant created so many pristitute images is investigated. Based on a fully exploration of image characterastics, these prostitute images are studied and interpreted from fields of feminist, sociology, aesthetic,etc..It is believed that why Maupassant creates so many prostitute images is just because of his life experience in childhood. It injected personnality background to his life, which formed his prostitute complex. These prostitute images are not only a reflection of his outlook of life, value, female and aesthetic, but also his careful observaton and unique sensibility of life as a great realistic writer. These images are an merciless expose and lash of the evil capitalist system and ugly social realities, they are also Maupassant’s deeply thinking and hardly exploration of life and reality. By setting these typical images into various typical environments, Maupassant not only exposed the greedy and ugliness, but also praised the goodness and glorious of human nature. He also exhibited the distortion of human nature caused by the fallen social enironment and the small and helpless of singal person in the society, as well as eulogized these noble souls that came out of mud unsoiled, which deepened and promoted his works’ aesthetic significance and artistic value.