Guy de Maupassant's 'Mademoiselle Fifi'

[transemacabre]

I read this short story a few days ago, and after I read it I sat there and thought about how unusual the heroine, Rachel, is, especially for a story written in 1882. I mean, Rachel is:

A) Jewish
B) and a whore
C) who solves her problem with violence (in this case, stabbing a Prussian aristocrat in the throat with a cheese knife)

What's so intriguing about this story is that not only is Rachel the heroine, but at no point in the story is she PUNISHED for any of these things. She doesn't die. She doesn't renounce her religion and become a good Catholic. She doesn't even have a sob story behind becoming a whore, she doesn't repent of her 'sinful' life, and she even returns to her brothel after escaping the Prussian soldiers. Rachel is unapologetic for her actions, and not only that, the author never implictly implies we, the readers, should perceive her as anything other than an admirable heroine. To top it all off, she even gets a happy and romantic ending, when she marries a "young patriot" who "loves her for herself."

Really, how many heroines get such wonderful treatment?

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

She comes off a lot better than poor, chubby Boule de Suif (in the story which inspired Stagecoach)!

[delanynder.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds really interesting. I'll have to check it out.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

It's a reworking of Jael, isn't it?