Bel-Ami, Guy De Maupassant – the Haunting of Forestier
The Haunting of Forestier
Guy de Maupassant’s novel, Bel-Ami, tells the tale of Georges Duroy and his ascent from the poverty-stricken backstreets of Paris to the height of power in the aristocratic society of the 1880’s. Duroy uses multiple methods to secure his place among the Parisian elite and never minds taking whatever means necessary to achieve his goals. He readily uses his charm and sex appeal to manipulate the women of the aristocracy and uses these contacts to secure positions higher and higher in the hierarchy of society. One of the women that provide him access to a great deal of his success is Madeline, the intelligent and beautiful wife of Charles Forestier. Forestier was a friend of Duroy during their time together in the French military and is the first to take notice of Duroy and provide him with the means to change his fortunes. Later in the novel, Forestier dies of tuberculosis and Duroy marries his widow and assumes Forestier’s place in terms of wealth, job position, and title. As the story progresses, the memory of the late Forestier haunts Duroy. The haunting disturbs Duroy’s contentment with his ill-gotten wealth, destroys his marriage to Madeline, and ultimately transforms him into the ruthless, cutthroat character of Bel-Ami, the Baron Du Roy de Cantel.
The first hauntings of Forestier occur immediately after the marriage and on the train to the Duroys’ honeymoon destination of Canteleu. Madeline, while explaining her plans for the marriage, announces that they will live at her home where she had lived with Forestier and that Duroy shall take Forestier’s position at their mutual place of work. She refuses the playful advances made by her new husband and instead returns to the topic of the late Forestier and how he was “very thrifty, very steady and hardworking” (159). She then mentions that, should he have survived, Forestier would have made a great deal of money. At the time, these mentions do not annoy Duroy as much as her rejections do and it is not until he establishes himself in Forestier’s home and occupation that he is truly haunted by the memory of his dead friend.
When Duroy and Madeline arrive at their home in Paris, Duroy begins to acclimate himself to the luxurious lifestyle provided to him by his new wife. However, even in his own home, he is forced to assume the place of his predecessor without any thought as to his own preferences. When he walks into his study after a dinner with his wife and a friend of her late husband, he describes the room and states that “the same books stood in the bookcase, which now bore on its top shelf the three vases Forestier had bought in Golfe Juan, the day before his death. Under the table, the dead man’s foot-warmer awaited the feet of Du Roy who, after taking a seat, picked up the ivory pen-holder, the end of which had been slightly chewed by the teeth of the other” (172). In itself,