MAUPASSANT’IN GÜZEL DOST’UNDA BASARI TUTKUSU

Bel-Ami is the story of an adolescent who left his hometown to seek for ways to become rich in Paris. Just like many countrymen who lived in poverty, Georges Duroy also had a poor life. He was just a railway employee. But, his life started to change with an unexpected coincidence. While wandering the streets of Paris, he met his army-service friend, Charles Forester, who suggested him to become a journalist. His friend succeeded in convincing him to do a job in which he had no experience and therefore had hesitations at first. For Georges, this new job opened many doors that were close to many adolescents in Paris. In 1880, bourgeois was the dominant class in France. City-dwellers had become even richer thanks to the conveniences provided by the Industrial Revolution. Becoming aware of how much these people earned in the society he lived in, Georges Duroy did all the tricks that would open the doors to richness for him. He abused the trust of the women that helped him. Using his attractiveness, he made women fall in love with him. The only reason for getting married to one of these women named Madeleine was her success as a journalist. He married to the young lady named Suzanne only for the dowry that she would bring for him. The other women were there just to satisfy this success-addicted hero’s material and sexual needs. Viewing women as a means of achieving his goals, he never hesitated to make use of them and then throw them away. By imitating the journalists that earned money though immoral ways, he got involved in all the tricks and dishonest behaviors. Nothing was left of his rural innocence, and therefore he turned into a person who would do anything to achieve his goals. Maupassant presents the audience a success-addicted person who achieved a higher status through immoral means in the society. Using this hero, he also presents journalism as a job transforming into an endeavor in which money could be earned via immoral ways and the real face of a society in which all the relationships are dependent on the power of money. Thanks to press and policy world, Georges Duroy has reached the goal of social success. Georges Duroy who one by one took the steps required to achieve success gets a respectable status in society and becomes one of the richest men of his time by marrying Suzanne, the daughter of the La Vie Française newspaper owner. There is also a cost in that time for achieving social success. For the sake of being rich, this success buff consented to losing his rural innocence and honor. In this paper, we will deal with the function of money, journalism, and the women in the success journey of countryman Georges Duroy. The arriviste as a subject has been involved in novels due to historical events. With the 19th century Industrial revolution, French aristocrats begin to lose power in society. Industrial development and emergence of new commercial areas allowed French bourgeoisie to become extremely rich. Rural youth who do not want to live in misery any longer and want to have the same rights as rich people, try to imitate the bourgeoisies who live in luxury in Paris. Individuals who long for social success show up in big cities where it is easier to get rich by means of trickery. Those who are named success addicts (arrivistes) declare war to bourgeoisies who despise and look down on them and exhibit a kind of social revenge to reach their level. Georges Duroy, main character in Maupassant’s Bel-Ami, is a countryman and one of those success addicts. Maupassant, handling Georges Duroy’s success addiction displays scandals and trickeries in the world of politics and media. The events have passed in the 1880s. It was the 3rd Republic period, where bourgeoisies had good times in saloons, theaters and sightseeing gardens. It is not surprising that the provincial youths are jealous of these people and try to be as rich as they can to benefit from the blessings of Paris when taking into consideration the gorgeous lifestyles of the bourgeoisies. It is not possible to earn a lot of money from legitimate ways at that time. There is only one way for the provincial youth: to make money illegitimately. Bel-Ami is the story of those who make money illegitimately. Immoral and merciless rules of the world of media, capital and politics have been revealed by Maupassant without hiding anything. Georges Duroy, a simple officer in Paris, watches the luxurious lives of the rich bourgeoisies with hatred. This rural young person, who is totally foreign to the traditions of Paris, begins to adapt to this life and get accustomed to the bourgeois halls with the cooperation of the ladies. In this city where there is no rule of law, no one will stand in front of anyone who is ambitious, opportunistic and cheeky. In Bel-Ami Maupassant offers the reader a young countryman's incredible success. Unlike Frederic Moreau, the protagonist of Education Sentimentale, who surrendered to bourgeois society, Georges Du Roy de Cantel, who acted as a social revenge for the bourgeois society of his time, reaches the same level as the community into which dozens of young countrymen desire to integrate. Georges, who happens to be in the world of journalism with the suggestion of a friend whom he coincidentally met, witnesses with the fortunes earned through scandalous maneuvers in this profession. This young man who was intolerant of this much money’s being earned before his eyes goes to imitate these bourgeoisies with the passion of being rich. Thus, he himself, in time starts to lose his rural identity by cunning. Countryman Georges, protected by and under the auspices of women, starts to climb the steps of success one by one and becomes rich. However, he is never happy as he isn’t content with and always wants more than he has. In the end, he becomes a success buff who has no limits on cunning and dishonor. Georges' story of social success, in fact in one sense, is a tale of decay in the bourgeois society of the 1880s, especially in the press world. The familial and commercial traditions of that day's bourgeoisie were so distorted that the rural youth who came to Paris to earn more money were immediately appraised by these corrupt traditions. Maupassant, the witness of this imperfect society, has very nicely deciphered the rottenness and the inferiority of the people who are passionate about money. The employees of the world of politics, finance and journalism have been the criticism targets of the novelist Maupassant.