Critical Character Analysis of James Thurber's “Walter Mitty” and Guy De Maupassant's “Mme. Loisel”

Critical Character Analysis of “Walter Mitty” and “Mme. Loisel”

The chosen stories are written by James Thurber in 1939 and Guy De Maupassant in 1884. The stories come from two varying settings and cultures. Mitty's story is from America while the other story is from France (it was published in French). The stories may seem to be different but their essence is the same that man is a complex species and where ever s/he belongs from, it is in human nature that s/he is not contented with what s/he has, s/he always wants more than what s/he has acquired. Both, complex personalitites and the characteristics, will be discussed in the paper. The authors belong to different eras of time but the form, genre and style are the same. The content of both the stories differs but the basic idea is the same.

Walter Mitty is the protagonist of James Thurber (Thurber, 1939. Pgs.55). He is a middle aged man who is forgetful and makes mistakes often. He is usually controlled by his wife who tends to take care of him like a small child; she even wants to take his 'temperature' for him. While on the other hand Guy De Maupassant's Mathilde is a character who is rarely listens to anyone but herself, and wants to be someone who she is not. One can say that both of these characters are dissatisfied in their own respective lives. Mitty is bothered by the people around him and doesn't pay much attention to them and Mathilde is always busy in her own perspective and does not deem anyone else important.

These characters have made a world of their own in which they can easily live and mold the imaginative world into anything they want to. Mitty keeps daydreaming how he is a successful man and he himself is the protagonist of his dreams. Mathilde knows that she is beautiful but she is very aware of the situation she is in, that is living the life she never dreamt of. She lives in her own little world, thinking about the elite-class life that she could have lived if her fate has been kind enough (Maupassant, 1884).

Mitty and Mathilde both are fighting with their unconscious to dream about a life that they never had. In Mitty's case, people do not pay much attention to him and usually laugh at him, but in his dreams, he is the only one who is the savior of the world. For example, in the text he day dreams about him being a surgeon and a VIP wants him to operate on him (Thurber, 1939). Even the best surgeons pull off their caps for him so that he can do the operation which seems impossible to do. In another daydream, he dreamt that he was a navy pilot, he is a calm and collected person, even in the midst of a crisis. He handles his colleagues and is even ...