Question

a thematic study of the pen of my aunt

Answer 1

Madame’s Character

The Madame in this play is the ‘Protagonist’, that is, her conflict is the main focus of the play. She is also a protagonist in the way that she is the upholder, the defender of her country. Madame represents a stereotypical French citizen; she is artistic, calm, clever and cunning. Her attitude with the corporal represents the attitude of the French with the Germans. Madame acts as a ‘collaborator’, someone who is helping the Germans in ruling France.She has gained the trust of the enemy by acting as a collaborator but in reality she is working in an undercover resistance against them by deceiving them skilfully. Madame is a disciplined and highly organized person. She is careful about her manners as the French are civilized people, not ‘barbaric’ like the Germans. She is sharp and witty and knows how to handle tough situations. When she is confronted by the stranger and the corporal as being the authority, she does not lose her composure neither abandons the stranger. She cleverly handles the situation by staging a deception to fool the corporal. She does not slip on her words and she is courageous and fearless in her conversations with the corporal. She does not fear the enemy, instead she has the strength to threaten and manipulate the enemy by saying that she could make the corporal lose his job if he does not agree with her. She knows that her homeland is not free any more, that they are under the rule of Germans and still she is extremely patriotic and wants to help her nation in resisting the Germans. She poses her authority and uses her skills in making the corporal believe that the stranger is actually her nephew and even gets the corporal to take the stranger to a safe place without getting in trouble. Her servant Simone was fearful of what was happening but the way Madame took care of the situation, it gave strength to her too to stage a deception with the stranger by quarrelling over how ‘messy’ the stranger always is. In this play, Madame is a strong image of the French people shows that they have the strength to resist their enemies.