Maria Chapdelaine

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, illness, and death.

Maria Chapdelaine is the novel’s protagonist, a reserved young woman who lives on her family’s farmstead in the woods of Northern Québec. Maria’s guileless demeanor, beauty, and domestic skills endear her to her three suitors, François Paradis, Lorenzo Surprenant, and Eutrope Gagnon. Maria’s choice between the three men symbolizes the choice between duty and personal freedom faced by many Québecois during the early 20th century.

Maria is a selfless and family-oriented person. She is motivated by a sense of duty, striving to be a good daughter and to live within the tenets of her Catholic faith. Amid the often-trying experiences of pioneer life, she maintains a good-natured and optimistic outlook. Maria is deeply connected to the landscape around her, and the narrative often utilizes pathetic fallacy, with changes in the weather reflecting her emotions: For example, her love for François Paradis grows as the woods around her blossom in springtime. His death marks the end of her life’s springtime, forcing her to abandon her youthful optimism.

Maria’s life is constrained by the patriarchal society of her time. As a young Catholic woman, she is expected “to marry and bring up a Christian family of her own” (56) even after François’s death.