Write the introduction and summary of the story named " The Terror

Write the introduction and summary of the story named ” The Terror”.

Ans.

Introduction

Guy de Maupassant is a famous France author in the 19th century. Most of his stories illustrate dark scenes and outlandish experiences in everyday life, among which The Terror is one of the most typical. This short story tells about a single faced man who witnessed the illusion of himself sitting in the room after returning home late at night. He was haunted and then decided to marry to free himself from the fear. The story is usually simply regarded as a mysterious short story about supernatural phenomena. On the other hand, it can also be considered in a more personal perspective, particularly the psychiatric perspective. One of the most stimulating questions about the story’s real meaning is whether the main character in The Terror is the victim of anxiety disorder, which leads to extremely frightening symptoms of him. It is also pointed out that emptiness in life can lead to this disorder.

In the story, the author describes that the character always feels lonely and bored. He tries to break his loneliness by looking for friends but failed. Even he himself admitted that “He is there just because I am alone!” It means he is always aware that the source of the fear is his lack of companions. He decides to solve this problem of loneliness by getting married.

Summary of the Story

Synopsis: The Terror by Guy de Maupassant is a story about a man who is getting married because he’s afraid to be alone. The narrator in the story, Raymond, has a strong compulsion to be married, not for love or companionship, but out of fear of being on h own and having no one of sound reasoning to reassure him during increasing bouts frightful paranoia, during which time he experiences an overbearing sense that someone in the room with him (but knowing full well that no one is). Written at a time when Maupassant himself was on the fringes of his mental breakdown, this is a truly chilling story.

Summary: “Yes, I am going to be married, and will tell you what has led me to take that step”, Monsieur Raymond writes in a letter to his friend, Pierre Decourcelle, the day before his wedding Raymond’s bride-to be, Mademoisellle Lajolle, is a middle-class woman of modest means who is ‘small, fair and stout’ and has no obvious faults Raymond has seen her only a few times. People describe her as ‘a very nice girl’, one that Raymond says will suit him until the time comes when he tires of her and pursues other women.

Why has he decided to marry her ? “I am afraid of being alone”, he tells his friend He does not fear intruders, he says. Nor does he fear ghosts or ‘dead people’, for he doe not believe in the supernatural. There is no life after death, he maintains. Instead, he is afraid of himself of having frightful thoughts, of losing his sanity, of experiencing” vague in easiness of mind, which causes a cold shiver to run all over me.” He even fears his own voice yet he does not fully comprehend what it is that terrifies him. In an attempt to escape his fears, he sometimes curls into a ball under his bed covers and remains there for long periods.

His problem began one autumn evening the previous year. During a rainy day, after Raymond’s servant leaves him alone after dinner, Raymond feels inexplicably tired and depressed. He sits down, then walks up and down his room, then builds a fire toward off the dampness, and finally goes out to roam the streets for someone to talk to. While walking through the street, he passes cafes where he sees only sad-looking people at the tables. After further wanderings, he returns to his building. After the janitor lets him in, he goes to his room, discovers that the door is unlocked and finds a man asleep in a chair next to the fire. Was it a friend of his ? Raymond walks over to rouse him. “I could not see clearly, as the room was rather dark.” Raymond says, “so I put out my hand to touch him on the shoulder, and it came in contact with the back of the chair. There was nobody there, the seat was empty.” Terrified. Raymond jumps back. In a moment, his fear subsides as he reasons, “It is a mere hallucination, that is all.” His eyes simply deceived him. But when he lights a candle, he notices that he is trembling. Unnerved, he paces, hums a song ad locks the door. He ponders his experience at length, then goes to bed and puts out the candle. Several minutes later, he thinks he sees the man again. He is sitting by the dying fire in the same chair. When Raymond lights a match, he discovers that he is again wrong This time he puts the chair behind his bed. A short while later, he falls asleep but dreams of what he had experienced after entering his room. He wakes up abruptly and determines to sit up the rest of the night. But twice more he falls asleep. Each time he has the same dream. He wonders whether he is going mad.

When daylight breaks, he feels better and sleeps peacefully until noon. He tells himself he had a fever and a nightmare-nothing more-and that evening, believing all is back to normal, he dines out attends the theatre. On his way home again, however, he worries that he will have ancient hallucination and wanders aimlessly for an hour before returning home. He stands outside his door for ten minutes before mustering the courage to unlock it and enter. After lighting a candle, he enters the bedroom and looks toward the fire place. Nothing. But he remains uneasy and does not sleep well.

From that time forward. a fear of being alone grips him. It is as if the spectre (ghost) of the man is in the apartment, but he does not see it. And even if he does see it, it matters not. He does not believe in such things still, he remains uneasy. He continues to feel the presence e of the spectre so he winds up his letter, “But if there were two of us in the place: I feel certain that he would not be there any longer, for he is there just because I am alone simply and solely because I am alone!” Obviously, he believes that marriage will be the perfect panacea (cure) for all his problems, for he will no longer be alone.

Point of view: The Terror (French title Lui ?”) is a short story about a terrifying episode in the life of an apparently mentally disturbed man. The narrator, Monsieur Raymond, tells his story in the first person point of view. Because he is mentally unstable and because he recounts events only as he sees or interprets them, the reader cannot be certain that he presents an accurate accounts of his experiences. He suffers from both internal and external conflicts. On the one hand, he agonizes about his mental state; on the other, he worries about what he saw on the chair next to the fireplace. True, he rejects the existence of supernatural. However, when he hides the chair, he betrays a fear that the supernatural being is real.

Fear: In Maupassant’s story, there are no dragons, no frankenstein or Dracula. One can escape such creatures-or slay them. Instead, there is the worst terror of all: a man that is out of control. The story Monsieur Raymond tells is the anguished account of a man haunted by the bugbears of his own creation. He is powerless to banish them, and he cannot escape them or kill them. They are part of him; they are his own obsessional thoughts.

Mental disorder: Monsieur Raymond’s fatigue, anxiety and melancholy, together with the hallucination, indicate that he suffers from a serious mental disorder. In his debilitated but still some what rational state of mind, the narrator is afraid of going insane. This fear is relatively common place in persons suffering from anxiety, hypochondria, depression, or other conditions or disorders symptoms of this fear can also manifest themselves in people who are otherwise normal and mentally stable. Monsieur Raymond’s symptoms, however, suggest the presence of a serious mental disorder.

Attitude towards women: Monsieur Raymond plans to marry a young woman he hardly knows for the sole purpose of having her keep him company. It is clear that he does not love her and has no more regard for her than he would for a pet, such as a dog or a cat. He has no intention of remaining faithful to her, for he tells Decourcelle, “She belongs in a word to that immense number of girls whom one is glad to have for one’s wife till the moment comes when one discovers that one happens to prefer all other women to that particular woman whom one has married.” Raymond’s callous attitude toward Mademoiselle Lajolle reflects the mindset of some men toward women in nineteenth century western society. It also suggests the presence of a characters flaw that makes it difficult for him to form a mature and loving relationship with a woman. Such a flaw would obviously tend to isolate him and exacerbate his fear of being alone.

Irony and paradox: These are powerful figures of speech in the story. First, the narrator fears being alone while entertaining the notion that he is not alone. Second, he appears to believe in the existence of a ghostly presence even though he declares that he does not believe in such things, he fears the unknown but is about to marry a woman he knows very little about.