Summary of Matteo Falcone by Prosper Merime

Mother’s love and father’s love. What is the difference? In his book, The Art of Love, the American philosopher and psychologist Erich Fromm offers the following understanding of mother and father love for his child. Nature is wise. Everything was arranged in silence. Maternal love is inherently unconditional. Mother loves her child for everything: for a smile, for the first step, for the first word. Whatever her child has created is talent and achievement. Any of his pranks is a fleeting punishment and no less rapid forgiveness. The relationship between the child and the father is completely different. If the mother’s world is the south with its infinite warmth, then the father is the opposite pole where the weather is changeable and the climate is harsh, but fair in the north. This is a world of law and order, a world of overcoming, logic, duty and honor.

Paternal love is not born with the first cry of the baby, it must be earned. However, once conquered, it may be lost. The main virtue in it is obedience, and obstinacy and rebellion is the most serious sin. The latter, in the eyes of his father, must be followed by inevitable retribution. What should she be like? What is the punishment and who or what has the right to determine the degree of its severity? We read the summary of the work "Matteo Falcone". It poses questions.

Prosper Merimee, Matteo Falcone: Summary

Southeast coast of Corsica. If you go northwest, inland, then after three or four hours of walking the terrain will begin to change. Thus begins the short story, and we will try to convey a very brief summary of Matteo Falcone in our article. Passing winding paths, meeting along the road fragments of rocks, overgrown ravines, at the end of the journey, every traveler went to the vast thickets of poppies. Since ancient times, poppies have been considered the homeland of Corsican shepherds and all those hermits and outcasts who once turned out to be illegal. If a person killed or committed any other serious crime, then he certainly went to the poppies. It was enough to bring along a good gun, gunpowder, bullets and a good-quality brown cloak with a hood, which at night would become a warm, waterproof blanket or bedding, and shepherds would give milk, cheese and chestnuts.

Since ancient times, a Corsican farmer, coming to new lands, burned part of the forest to create fields. It was believed that the crop will only become richer on the land that is fertilized with ash from burned trees. However, the roots of plants destroyed by fire remain untouched and next spring give new “fruits”, more frequent, and after a few years reach incredible sizes. This stormy vegetation from mixed up branches of trees and bushes is called poppies.

Matteo Falcone

What will the summary of Matteo Falcone tell about the main character of the short story? Prosper Merimee presents it very ambiguously. Not far, literally half a mile from the poppies, there lived a rich man at that time. He lived righteously and honestly. The only source of his income was the numerous herds belonging to the family, which were herded by shepherds in the district. His name was Matteo Falcone. He was known as a kind, generous, direct and fair man. He lived peacefully with residents in the district. However, everyone knew that he could be both a faithful friend and a dangerous enemy. It was said that, before moving to these places, he brutally cracked down on his opponent, firing at him at that moment when the “offender” was shaving in front of the mirror. Accuracy is another “virtue” of Matteo. He easily hit the target in complete darkness without much difficulty.

We continue the summary. Matteo Falcone lived in a large house with his wife Giuseppa, who first gave birth to three daughters, which led him to indescribable rage, and finally the son of Fortunato, the long-awaited successor to the Falcone clan. By the age of ten, the boy was sufficiently developed, intelligent and endlessly pleased his father.

Fortunato

Autumn has come. One fine morning, Matteo and his wife decided to go to the poppies to check their herds. They decided not to take their son, because times were turbulent, and it was necessary to guard the house. No sooner said than done. Parents hit the road, and Fortunato stayed home.

A few hours passed. The boy lay calmly under the still hot rays of the sun, looking into the blue distance and dreaming of how he would spend the next weekend visiting his uncle corporal. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted. The sounds of gunfire were heard nearby, and a few minutes later a figure of a man appeared on the road leading to Matteo's hut. In rags, with a grown beard, he barely moved his legs. It was clear that he was wounded and did not have time to get to the coveted place of all the bandits - Maki.

Contract

Summary of Matteo Falcone continues. The fugitive was a certain Giannetto Sanpiero, who was hiding from justice, but was ambushed in the city. He deftly slipped from under the very nose of the "yellow collars", but did not get ahead of them much because of a heavy wound in his leg. He knew that this was the house of the just Matteo Falcone, who would never, under any circumstances, refuse an outcast to help, even if it was a known criminal, otherwise he would violate the eternal and unchanging law of the Corsicans.

However, Fortunato was in no hurry to help the rebel. Quick-witted and dodgy, he acted prudently and with complete composure. Why help some tramp, risk his life for him, if you get nothing from it? He will not be able to kill the boy, since his gun is discharged, and even with a dagger he can not keep up with the nimble boy. The son was a little like his father - a man of honor, a hospitable but ardent Corsican. He was much inferior in character and character. However, be that as it may, nothing can be done, time is running out, and life is more expensive than money. Giannetto Sanpiero pulled out a five-franc coin, and only then, at the sight of a silver sparkle, was the contented boy allowed him to hide in a hay pile.

The arrival of the soldiers

In less than five minutes, soldiers in brown uniform with yellow collars led by Sergeant Theodoro Gamba, who was a distant relative of the Falcone family, appeared on the doorstep of the house. From the first seconds, Theodoro, a thunderstorm of bandits and a rather active person, realized that Fortunate was a little rogue and a scammer. He saw and knows where the wanted person is hiding, but he will not say anything. How to be The sergeant decided to intimidate him with two dozen strikes with his saber flat. But it was not there. The boy laughed insolently in response, knowing for sure that Gamba could not use force or take him away, put him in shackles and imprisoned for harboring a criminal. Firstly, they were relatives, and in Corsica, more than anywhere else, they honor family ties, and secondly, Matteo Falcone was too respected in those places to quarrel with him.

The sergeant was in difficulty, but decided not to concede, but to play a different game. The power of affection and bribery has never failed him. He pulled an expensive silver watch from his pocket. The boy’s eyes sparkled ...

The inevitable temptation

A blue dial, a long silver chain, a lid polished to an incredible brilliance ... The sergeant realized that he had hit the spot. For the right to possess this priceless treasure, the son of Matteo will hand over Gianneto. The commander of the soldiers spoke without stopping, affectionately assuring his nephew of the sincerity of his intentions and not forgetting to bring the clock closer and closer, almost touching the boy's cheek-white cheek. Fortunato's eyes relentlessly watched the slightest movement of Gambo's hand, he was breathing heavily from the outbreak of a struggle inside - between duty, honor and a passionate desire to possess an inaccessible treasure. After a short battle, the latter won, the boy raised his left hand and with his index finger pointed to the hay. Then the soldiers rushed to the mop, and he became the sole owner of the watch. From now on, he could walk along the streets of the city with his head held high and boldly answer the question of what time it was ...

Traitor's house

The bandit hiding in the hay was quickly disarmed and tied up. Lying on the ground, Giannetto rather disdainfully and disdainfully, than angrily, looked at Matteo's son. He in response threw the silver coin he received, realizing that he no longer had the right to it. Suddenly at the bend appeared the figure of Matteo Falcone and his wife. At the sight of the soldiers, they stopped for a minute. What could bring them here? Having thoroughly rummaged in memory and not having found any serious misconduct in the past decade, Falcone, however, took a second gun into his sight and boldly moved forward. We continue the summary of Matteo Falcone. Prosper Merimee subtly, slowly, brings the reader to a tragic denouement. Every sound, every movement is symbolic and significant.

Gamba, too, was somehow uncomfortable. Overcoming fear and doubt, he went to meet him, deciding to openly tell what had happened. Upon learning that they covered Giannetto Sanpiero, Giuseppa was delighted as he stole their cash goat last week. But, having heard the whole story of the capture of the fugitive, the main character of which was their son Fortunato, the couple Falcone became indignant. From now on, the home of Matteo Falcone is the house of the traitor, and the child is the first traitor in the family.

Pay

Continuing with the summary of the story “Matteo Falcone”, we pass to the moment of the highest tension in the development of the plot. Falcone, snatching the watch from the boy’s hands, threw it with incredible force on the stone. The dial smashed to smithereens. Fortunato wept bitterly, begging his father to forgive him. Father was silent and for a long time did not take his lynx eyes off his face. Finally, throwing his gun on his shoulder, he turned sharply and quickly went along the path leading to the poppies. The boy went after him. Giuseppe screamed, kissed her son and returned to the house. The only thing she could do was fall to her knees in front of the icon and pray fervently.

Father and son went down to the ravine together. Matteo ordered the boy to stand by a large stone and read aloud all the prayers that he knew. At the end of each, he firmly pronounced "Amen." The boy uttered the words of his last prayer completely silently and, sobbing, again began to ask for mercy and beg his father to forgive him. Matteo threw up his gun, aimed, calmly said the last phrase: “God forgive you,” and pulled the trigger. The summary of Matteo Falcone does not end there.

Alarmed by the shot, Giuseppe ran to the ravine. She could not believe what had happened, but her boy was dead. Matteo walked towards her: “I will bury him now. He died a Christian ... I must say to my son-in-law ... that he moved to live with us. "

Summary of Matteo Falcone: Conclusion

Could Matteo Falcone do otherwise? Yes and no. He could pity the boy for his immaturity, for the fact that he succumbed to the temptation, to understand that he was still a small stupid child and, perhaps, simply could not resist the temptation. On the other hand, Fortunato not only did not live up to his father’s hopes, but most importantly, he violated the island’s main law, betrayed the very nature of the Corsican mountaineer — hospitality and willingness to help the persecuted. It is not for nothing that the author at the very beginning gives a detailed description of the area where subsequent events occurred, and talks about what the poppies are like. The surrounding nature affects a person and imposes his stamp on him. Today you helped a person escape justice, and tomorrow the Corsican’s harsh and fiery temper, similar only to the dense and impenetrable thickets of poppies, can play a trick on you, and then you will find yourself in the place of the persecuted. Therefore, Matteo Falcone did not have a choice: to kill or spare. Only one blood flowed in his veins: for betrayal there is no forgiveness or exile, only death.

Once again, I want to remind you that the article was about the novel by Prosper Merim, "Matteo Falcone." The summary cannot convey the whole subtlety and depth of the feelings of the main characters, so reading the work is simply necessary.