43 pages • 1 hour read
Maria Chapdelaine
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Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “One Thousand Aves”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
As New Year’s Day approaches, Maria worries that the bad conditions will prevent the family from being able to attend the midnight mass in Peribonka. Hémon notes that attending the mass is “the natural and strong desire of every French-Canadian peasant” (43), as the coming of the New Year signifies renewal and salvation. In the middle of December, Samuel and Tit’Be try to clear the road, but they are thwarted by a heavy snow.
Maria asks her mother if it is true that repeating a thousand Ave Marias on the day before Christmas will guarantee the granting of a wish and is reassured that it will. On Christmas Eve, Maria spends the day quietly reciting Aves. Madame Chapdelaine speaks wistfully of the mass they are missing, though she is careful not to complain. Samuel blames himself, lamenting that his wife would have been happier with a more settled man. Madame Chapdelaine denies being unhappy, stating that “what the good God does is always right” (44). For the Chapdelaines, life is hard but simple and full of love, guided by “obedience alike to the laws of nature and of the church” (44).
Samuel leads the family in several French hymns. Maria sits by the window and looks out at the snow-covered woods, feeling that the world is filled with “love human and divine” (47). She finishes her thousand Aves and makes the wish that François return safely to her in the spring.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Straying Tracks”
On New Year’s Day, Eutrope Gagnon again visits at the Chapdelaine home, appearing downcast. Hesitantly, he tells them that he has bad news about François Paradis. In the middle of December, François told his boss that he was taking time off to visit Maria. The train to Lake St. John was not working, so François undertook the journey on foot despite being warned of the severe weather. During the week before Christmas, as a heavy snow fell and the nor’wester blew relentlessly, François lost his way and presumably died of exposure.
The Chapdelaines and Eutrope share their grief over the loss of François; Samuel states that the death of such a capable woodsman proves that “we are but little children in the hand of the good God” (50). Everyone looks at Maria, but she does not speak or move. After Eutrope departs, the family kneels for their usual evening prayer, finishing with an additional set of Paters and Aves for François.
Maria goes to the front door, but the forest “[leaps] toward her in menace” (51), driving her back inside. Overwhelmed by thoughts of how François must have suffered in his final moments, Maria beseeches Jesus and Mary to pardon his soul.
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Interpreter of God”
In February, the snow clears slightly. Samuel, concerned by Maria’s persistent grief, suggests that they attend Sunday Mass at La Pipe in the village of St. Henri. Maria wrestles with her sorrow. Though “country folk do not die for love,” and Maria “[does] not for a moment dream that life for her was over” (55), she still feels that the future is bleak without François.
After mass, Maria and Samuel visit the curé (chief priest) of St. Henri, who serves as a general counsellor for the congregation. The curé advises Maria that excessive grief is sacrilegious, and that she should focus on fulfilling her Catholic duties—first to care for her parents, then to marry and raise a family of her own. He finishes by telling her that, “the good God knows what’s best for us; we should neither rebel nor complain” (56). On the ride home, Maria is seized by “a new dread and hatred for the bleak land…all those things she had lived her life amongst, which had now wounded her” (58).
Chapter 12 Summary: “Love Bearing Gifts”
One Saturday in March, Ephrem Surprenant invites the Chapdelaines to a party at his home in Honfleur. Among the guests are Lorenzo Surprenant, as well as the men who have recently bought his farm, a father and two sons from France. The guests are fascinated by the Frenchmen, who speak in a refined dialect and are the only members of the assembled group who can read and write. The men are immigrants from the city and unused to farming life. They came to the woods hoping to find “a free and healthy life upon a fruitful soil” (60), but they were unprepared for the realities of farming life. A few months of work have left them miserable and exhausted.
The group discusses the relative benefits of farming versus city life. Lorenzo Surprenant extolls the virtues of the city, stating that “there is no man in the world less free than a farmer” (60), who is ruled by the whims of nature. He says that his life in the city is far easier and wonders why the Chapdelaines have not tried their fortunes elsewhere.
On the journey home, Maria meditates on Lorenzo’s stories of the grand cities of the United States. Lorenzo visits the following morning, continuing to tell Maria of the virtues of Boston. He describes the spectacle of the lights, cars, and the various forms of entertainment he has access to. He tells Maria that he only came back to Québec to see her and confess his love. He asserts that the stark and dangerous woods are “no place” for Maria. He promises her a life of ease if she agrees to be his wife, complete with “good clothes to wear [and] a pretty flat in a brick house with gas and hot water” (63).
Maria is unmoved by Lorenzo’s declaration of love, but the “cheap pleasures” he describes intrigue her. The prospect of life in the city offers a chance at a rebirth and an escape from the landscape, which she has come to hate and fear. She remains silent, not yet ready to decide. Lorenzo walks Maria back to the house, where she sits by the window and contemplates her choice.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
François’s death forces Maria out of her youthful optimism and into bleak maturity. Her perception of the land is twisted as she comes face-to-face with the darker side of The Hardships and Beauty of Rural Life. The winter woods, which once were a source of joy and awe, now fill her with “fear and hate” (66). In the past, she has always been able to sense the coming spring, but now “there is naught that [speaks] of a spring to come,” and Maria feels trapped in “under the eternal rule of deadly cold” (66).
The conversation between the guests at Ephrem Surprenant’s gathering in Chapter 12 highlights the dilemma of Duty Versus Personal Fulfillment. Lorenzo disparages life on a farm as intolerably miserable. Having experienced life in the city with better wages and modern technologies, he cannot return to the hard work and poverty of the frontier. The Chapdelaines have no rebuttal to Lorenzo’s arguments. Their choice to remain on the land is grounded not in the expectation of reward or profit, but in a sense of righteous duty.
Lorenzo’s viewpoint is shared by the three Frenchmen, who bitterly regret their decision to move away from the city. Through the inclusion of the Frenchmen, the narrative suggests that breaking with tradition and lineage can have negative consequences regardless of one’s background. The former city dwellers are deeply unhappy on the farm and seem to regret their decision to emigrate to the wilderness. The narrative implies that not everyone is suited to frontier life, and that sometimes, those who break with the urban traditions of their own family might be making a mistake.
With François’s death, Maria loses her promised paradise. She is still expected to marry, but with love removed from the equation, the choice between her two living suitors becomes utilitarian: life on the farm with Eutrope, or a new beginning in a faraway city with Lorenzo. Maria’s dilemma symbolizes that of the Québécois nation during the early 20th century, as increasing migration to industrial centers eroded the rural, agricultural lifestyle of the habitants. When Maria considers Lorenzo’s offer, she understands that the amenities of the city are “cheap pleasures,” but is tempted nonetheless. The narrative appears to be framing Eutrope as the correct choice, but Maria has yet to arrive at this decision herself.
Even when faced with the tragic and untimely death of François, the Chapdelaines maintain their stoic demeanor, reflecting The Importance of Resiliency and Faith. They draw on their faith to understand the reason for the loss, with Samuel commenting that those living in the wilderness are like children in God’s hand. Both God and nature are all-powerful forces with inscrutable motivations, which give and take indiscriminately. Rather than rebelling when faced with hardship, the Chapdelaines continue to trust in God’s will, facing tragedy with the same stoicism with which they endure the long winters.
Maria’s conversation with the curé further explores how faith guides her life. The curé advises Maria to temper her grief because lingering in sadness is “sacrilegious.” She is advised to “neither rebel nor complain” (58) against God’s will. His advice reflects the unrelenting demands of frontier life. The work of tending the house and maintaining the land stops for no one, and neither do the domestic demands that Catholic traditions place on young women like Maria.
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