Literary Criticism - Mateo Falcon

MATEO FALCON ANALYSIS

The title itself suggests what the story is all about. As narrated by a nameless narrator two years after the event, this story is focused on its two main characters, the Father Mateo and his ten years old son Fortunato.

The first paragraph serves as an establishing period filled with descriptive words portraying the story’s setting. Partly, the story shows the typical way of life in the mountains in the story’s particular setting.

Paragraph 3 shows a vivid view about the physical appearance and the special shooting ability of Mateo Falcone. His last name, Falcone, is a metaphor to a falcon bird which somehow shows the readers an abstract picture of his hunting-for-prey ability.

Aside from Mateo, the author was also able to descriptively portray a picture of each character including Fortunato. Considered as the “hope of the family” as cited in paragraph 4, the name Fortunato may stand for the word “Fortunate”. His name Fortunato, however, is an irony of his fate of the story.

This short story can be regarded as a cruel story yet it leaves emotional imprint. This is maybe because of the act of brutal killing done by the Father to his only son. “Mateo Falcone” is a story that deviates from the traditional stories with happy endings.

The French author Prosper Merimee’s way of writing this tragic story might be credited to the influence brought by Napoleon’s war that devastated Europe. Some words of this story have roots coming from France. As an examples are the words, maquis, embroil, savage, sang-froid, dungeon, guillotine, epaulet and fagot. Porto-Vecchio, Corsica and Bastia are even places located in France. Further, characters in this story have been named with French names. The French culture of recognizing relatives even up to further degrees of relationship is also presented in this story. The bandit Gianetto used franc, the currency of France, to bribed the young Fortunato.

The watch, which Gamba used as a bait to bribe Fortunato stands as an abstract symbol for time. If Fortunato could only turn back time, he might still be alive. The two weapons of Mateo, the presence of a bandit and the law enforcers gives viewers a picture of an unsecured place.

Looking on the story’s atmosphere, readers may notice how the atmosphere evolved. At first, the story was presented lightly but readers are thrilled as the author bring them to an equally opposite situation.

Corruption is also showed in the story. It tells us that corruption is an act practiced not only by government officials but also by ordinary people whether young or old.

The story has showed the concept of betrayal. Originally, treachery came from old French word trecherie meaning cheat or trick. Man’s weakness to resist temptation is also shown in the story. With this, the nature of money as the root cause of evil is shown in the story.

The creative way of Merimee to portray the story’s various actions, especially at the ending portion of the story, is commendable. His way of writing is somehow similar to Aristotle’s concept that leaves emotional imprint through injecting pain and fear towards its readers.

The story also presents violent actions and words. To take as an examples are statements like, “He acted, further, with the ingenious cunning of a savage.” and “Come, hide me, or I will kill you”, “Do you know, you young scamp that I can take you away to Corte or to Bastia? I shall put you in dungeon, on a bed of straw, with your feet in irons, and I shall guillotine you…” which is addressed to a young boy.

Fortunato’s death at the later end of the story is considerably horrible. The author is so harsh to used Mateo, the Father to kill Fortunato, his only son through Mateo’s “conspicuous talent”, shooting. Figuratively, the brutal killing is a paradox to Mateo’s good reputation as cited on the story’s opening paragraphs. Beyond that is the character’s concept of justice. How can he justify justice through imploring unjust action? Killing the innocent is beyond justice. Mateo can still give his son a chance. However, the story revolved according to how the author thinks. It’s beyond the control of the readers. Fortunato’s death is disturbing. And I can see that this is what the author wanted to happen. Disturbing and provoking the readers might be the author’s way of making the readers remember him and his story.

The story’s concept of justice, however, might raise protests and questions from various readers. Morality of each character’s actions are subject for questions.