Student Question
Compare and contrast Guy de Maupassant and Anton Chekhov as short story writers.
Quick answer:
Guy de Maupassant and Anton Chekhov are both pivotal figures in the development of the modern short story, influencing writers like Somerset Maugham and Ernest Hemingway. Both excel in character psychology and narrative compression. However, Chekhov is more philosophical, using archetypes for broader themes, while Maupassant is polished but often relies on stereotypes. Chekhov's stories typically have open endings, whereas Maupassant prefers decisive conclusions, influencing writers like O. Henry.
Guy de Maupassant and Anton Chekhov could both claim to have invented the modern short story and to have exercised a profound influence over the development of the form in the twentieth century. The same writers, from Somerset Maugham to Ernest Hemingway, often cite both predecessors as being central to their work. Both Maupassant and Chekhov conducted intricate examinations of their characters' psychology, and both possessed the gift of compression, revealing a great deal in a few words.
The differences, however, are more numerous than the similarities. Chekhov is a more philosophical writer than Maupassant. Where his characters are occasionally flat, as in "The Bet," it is because they are archetypes, employed by the author in a wider examination of the human psyche. Maupassant is more polished but shallower. Chekhov would never have written such stereotypes as the German officers in "Mademoiselle Fifi." Unlike Chekhov, who values the atmosphere of unease created by an uncertain ending, Maupassant closes his stories decisively, like an aphorism or a joke. In this respect, his influence on O. Henry is clear.
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