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Paired Texts > A Dead Woman's Secret

by Guy de Maupassant

1880

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

9th Grade Short Story 890L
The Necklace
  • Guy de Maupassant
  • 1884

In “The Necklace,” a poor woman borrows an expensive necklace for a fancy ball. When the necklace goes missing, the woman and her husband spend years living in poverty in order to pay back the debt.

Pair “The Necklace” with “A Dead Woman’s Secret” and ask students to compare these two texts by the same author. Are there any similar devices or themes in these texts?
12th Grade Poem
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
  • Thomas Gray
  • 1751

Thomas Gray (1716-1771) was an English poet and scholar. An elegy is a mournful or melancholic poem meant to lament the dead. In “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” the speaker contemplates whether remembering the dead is good or bad as he imagines the people buried in the churchyard.

Pair “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” with “A Dead Woman’s Secret” and ask students to discuss how each text discusses memory or reputations of the dead.

9th Grade Short Story 1060L
Was It a Dream?
  • Guy de Maupassant
  • 1903

In Guy de Maupassant’s short story, a distraught man visits the grave of his deceased lover and makes a shocking discovery.

Pair “Was It a Dream?” with “A Dead Woman’s Secret” and ask students to compare the themes of the two pieces. What can we learn about de Maupassant’s style as a writer through this comparison? What themes and motifs did he commonly use? What themes do the two stories share and how do they deal with these themes differently?

9th Grade Short Story 1030L
The Devil
  • Guy de Maupassant
  • 1903

In Guy de Maupassant’s “The Devil”, Honore Bontemps bargains with a nurse to take care of his dying mother.

Pair “The Devil” with “A Dead Woman’s Secret” and have students compare how all of Guy de Maupassant’s characters face death. How do the characters respond to the loss of a mother in each story? Is one set of characters more moral than another? Why or why not?