Mrs Bixby and the Colonel s Coat V Roald Dahl Useless Beauty V Guy De MaupaussantCompare
In the stories ˇ§Mrs Bixby and the Colonelˇ¦s Coatˇ¨ by Roald Dahl and ˇ§Useless Beautyˇ¨ by Guy De Maupaussant, both address the theme of infidelity within marriage. ... While ˇ§Useless Beautyˇ¨ generally focuses on the development of individual characters and their relationships, ˇ§Mrs Bixbyˇ¨ relies on the situation rather than the characters to highlight the theme. Dahl introduces the story against the background of modern relationships, which sets up a tone of the desire of men to avenge their wifeˇ¦s infidelity. Maupaussant uses the beginning paragraphs to establish the era, and introduce a more traditional relationship where a wealthy man perceives his wife as an object of beauty and sexual desire. Dahlˇ¦s tone is emphasised by his short, punctuating sentences, leading to the abrupt ending which is the climax. ... In ˇ§Useless Beautyˇ¨, the woman claims to have deceived her husband, and this apparent infidelity agonises him to the point where she commands the dominant position in the relationship. ... Whereas in ˇ§Mrs Bixbyˇ¨, both the man and the woman deceive each other, though the man is portrayed as the deceived at the beginning of the story. The lecherous wife devises a plan to keep a beautiful coat from her lover by tricking her husband into pawning it for her, but gets a taste of her own medicine in the end when she sees the coat on her husbandˇ¦s secretary.