The Revelation of Father's Selfishness Through Coincidence in The Two Short Stories

Coincidence Reveals Fathers’ Selfishness in “Waiter, a "Bock"” and “A Father's Confession”

Within Guy de Maupassant’s “Waiter, a "Bock"” and “A Father's Confession” stories, coincidence unearths the selfishness of two fathers. To this end, Count Jean des Barrets coincidentally sees Monsieur le Comte trying to snatch Count des Barrets’ inheritance within “Waiter, a "Bock"”. Similarly, M. Badon-Leremince takes advantage of his lover’s coincidental absence and thus harms an out-of-wedlock son within “A Father's Confession”. This essay shows that coincidence reveals the selfishness of two fathers based on the following aspects: Count des Barrets coincidentally sees Monsieur le Comte trying to snatch Count des Barrets’ inheritance within “Waiter, a "Bock"”, and Badon-Leremince takes advantage of his lover’s coincidental absence and thus harms an out-of-wedlock son within “A Father's Confession”.

Given that Count des Barrets coincidentally sees Monsieur le Comte trying to snatch Count des Barrets’ inheritance within “Waiter, a "Bock" ”, this coincidence highlights the selfish personality of Monsieur le Comte. In this regard, the thirteen-year-old Count des Barrets is playing in a park near his home when he sees two adults walking on the street. Out of childishness, Count des Barrets hides himself in some bushes by the road. From this hidden position, Count des Barrets realizes that the approaching adults are in fact his parents namely Madame la Comtesse and Monsieur le Comte. These parents are engaged in some argument; Monsieur le Comte is pressurizing Madame la Comtesse to sign some document and thus grant him access to Count des Barrets’s inheritance. In other words, Monsieur le Comte is trying to steal Count des Barrets’ inheritance. This is despite the fact that Monsieur le Comte already has his own inheritance (Maupassant, n.d.a). Given his desire to appropriate Count des Barrets’s inheritance, Monsieur le Comte comes out as selfish. Remarkably, Count des Barrets discovers Monsieur le Comte’s selfishness coincidentally; Count des Barrets does not hide with the aim of spying on the father. In this scenario, coincidence reveals Monsieur le Comte’s selfishness; Monsieur le Comte intends to benefit at the expense of his son.

Likewise, coincidence highlights the selfish personality of Badon-Leremince in that Badon-Leremince takes advantage of his lover’s coincidental absence and thus harms an out-of-wedlock son within “A Father's Confession”. On this note, while living away from home in Paris, Badon-Leremince becomes romantically involved in some woman. Out of this relationship, Badon-Leremince’s out-of-wedlock son is born. To avoid scandal, Badon-Leremince’s lover moves into Badon-Leremince’s house together with this out-of-wedlock son. One day, the lover coincidentally has to be away from the house for some days as she goes to her sick mother’s house. Badon-Leremince remains in the house with the out-of-wedlock son. Given that he is uneasy about this out-of-wedlock son, Badon-Leremince opens the window in the son’s bedroom, thus exposing this infant to the cold. Thanks to this exposure to the cold, this out-of-wedlock son contracts a respiratory ailment. This infant thus evidently dies (n.d.b). Here, the coincidence involving the brief absence of Badon-Leremince’s lover from the house unearths Badon-Leremince’s selfishness. On this note, Badon-Leremince takes advantage of this coincidence to deny his infant son of life. Strikingly, Badon-Leremince retains his life. In this situation, coincidence illustrates the selfish personality of Badon-Leremince.

In conclusion, coincidence illustrates the selfish personalities of two fathers within “Waiter, a "Bock"” and “A Father's Confession”. To this end, Count des Barrets coincidentally sees Monsieur le Comte trying to snatch Count des Barrets’ inheritance within “Waiter, a "Bock"”. Likewise, Badon-Leremince takes advantage of his lover’s coincidental absence and thus harms an out-of-wedlock son within “A Father's Confession”. It would be enlightening to find out why Maupassant underlines the importance of these coincidences in highlighting the selfishness of these two fathers.