Maria Chapdelaine

Maria Chapdelaine (1916) is a novel by Breton author Louis Hémon. Maria Chapdelaine tells the story of its titular protagonist, a young woman who lives on her family’s farm in a remote stretch of Québec wilderness. Against the backdrop of a brutal and unpredictable climate, Maria must choose between three suitors who each represent different lifestyles: A trapper, a farmer, and a factory worker who has emigrated to the United States. Hémon explores The Hardships and Beauty of Rural Life, The Importance of Resiliency and Faith, and Duty Versus Personal Fulfillment. 

Hémon wrote the novel while living in rural Québec, and its characters are based on the habitants, French-Canadian farmers, he lived with during his stay. Hémon died in an automobile accident in 1913; Maria Chapdelaine was published posthumously in 1916 and went on to become a classic of Québécois literature. It has been adapted into several films and continues to be taught in French-Canadian classrooms.

This guide uses the 2022 e-artnow e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain descriptions of illness, death, and racism. 

Plot Summary

Maria Chapdelaine, a reserved and beautiful young woman, lives on her family’s farm in rural Québec. The Chapdelaines are typical habitants whose daily lives revolve around the laws of nature and the principles of their deep Catholic faith. Maria’s father, Samuel, is a frontiersman whose vocation is clearing the forest around the Chapdelaine homestead, work that he believes to be his Catholic duty. Their current home is the fifth farm Samuel has built. After the work is done, he invariably grows bored and feels compelled to uproot the family and begin again on an uncultivated patch of land. Maria’s mother, Madame Chapdelaine, is an extroverted woman who prefers to be in the company of others. The family’s isolated life on the farm is hard for her, but she acquiesces to Samuel’s wishes, fulfilling her role as a dutiful wife and mother.

Maria’s beauty and charm win the affections of three suitors: François Paradis, a free-spirited backwoodsman and trapper; Eutrope Gagnon, a good-hearted farmer and the Chapdelaines’ closest neighbor; and Lorenzo Surprenant, who offers to take Maria with him to the United States, where he works in a factory. Maria is drawn to François, who is adventurous and has no desire to settle in one place. They exchange vows in the summer, before François departs to spend the winter working as a shanty foreman.

The Northern Québec winter is extremely harsh, with strong winds and heavy snowfall making life on the farm a daily struggle. As the Chapdelaine men work tirelessly to run the farm, Maria and her mother spend all day doing housework. Maria often dreams of her upcoming marriage to François. Early in January, Eutrope Gagnon arrives bearing the news that François has gone astray in the woods while traveling to visit Maria, presumably dying from exposure. Maria mourns quietly, having been advised that excessive grief is sinful. It remains her duty as a young Catholic woman to marry and raise a family of her own. With her true love dead, she now faces a more practical choice between her remaining suitors, Eutrope and Lorenzo.

Eutrope has little to offer Maria beyond a life on his nearby farm, much like the one she is already living. Lorenzo woos Maria with promises of an easier life and modern amenities in the United States. After François’s death, Maria grows resentful and fearful of the woods, anthropomorphizing the cold and harsh climate as malevolent forces that killed her lover. She resolves to marry Lorenzo, acting not out of love but out of a desire to escape the woods and enjoy the pleasures of the city. 

Months after François’s death, Madame Chapdelaine falls gravely ill. Local doctors are unable to diagnose her, and she dies within several days. In her grief, Maria contemplates her mother’s choice to live the stark and taxing life of a pioneer alongside her father. She realizes that she shares her mother’s loyalty to her lineage, and that to leave would be to betray her family’s way of life.

Torn, Maria asks herself why she should stay in such a harsh climate when she has the option of an easier life. She is answered by three inner voices that extoll the virtues of tradition and duty. Maria resolves to marry Eutrope Gagnon the following spring and stay in Québec.