What Can Be Learned from the Story The Devil by Guy de Maupassant - Book Report/Review Example

La Rapet ironically called the priest to give Honore’s mother the Holy sacrament that the priest did. The Priest was respected and equally feared. To the disappointment of La Rapet and fun of Honore, his mother did not die as first as La Rapet anticipated. As a result, La Rapet started narrating and acting devil-like stories to scare Honore’s mother to death. The sick woman was disturbed and died three days and one night since La Rapet started caring for her. As such, La Rapet made a profit of twenty sows out of Honore (Maupassant, 2012).

The most prevalent theme in this story is the theme of poverty. It is overwhelmingly evident from the story that the main actors were so poverty-stricken that they had to gamble and trade over the life of a loved one. It can indeed be argued that the title, devil, depicts poverty as the real devil. When the doctor asked Honore to stay with his sick and ailing mother, he ironically argued that he must attend to the wheat in the field. He actually asked his mother for permission and the ailing but the protagonist woman agreed since she understood the importance of attending to the wheat farm.

She knew it was their only source of livelihood. Ironically, Honore could not spare some time with his mother as a show of last respect although he expected her not to last long. The theme of poverty is best demonstrated in Honore bargain for La Rapet services “How much will you ask to stay with her till the end? You know that I am not rich, and I cannot even afford to keep a servant girl” (Maupassant, 2012). Certainly, this is perhaps the worst it could get for the family. However, it was also ironic that the family could get to such abject poverty after the woman lived and worked hard for 92 years.

The protagonist nurse had two prices for her services, one price for the rich and another for the poor. She actually declined to set the price for the service until she saw the ailing woman, which further develops the theme of poverty. The worst-case scenario, depicting the theme of poverty, came when the nurse began frightening the ailing woman with stories of the devils so that she would die quickly. Accordingly, “Terrified, with an insane expression on her face, the dying woman made a superhuman effort to get up and escape; she even got her shoulders and chest out of bed; then she fell back with a deep sigh” (Maupassant, 2012).