Question- What is the theme of the story The Terror' and describe it in your own words?

Ans-

The Terror' story by Maupassant, is about a man who is getting married because he's afraid to be alone. The narrator in the story, Raymon, has a strong compulsion to be married, not for love or companionship, but out. of fear of being on his own and having no one of sound reasoning to reassure him during increasing bouts of frightful paranola, during which time he experiences an overbearing sense that someone is in the room with him

Theme: "Yes, I am going to be married, and will tell you what has led me to take that step", Monsieur Raymon writes in a letter to his friend, Pierre Decourcelle, the day before his wedding. Raymon's bride-to-be, Mademoiselle Lajolle, is a middle-class woman of modest means who is "small, fair, and stout" and has no obvious faults, Raymon has seen her only a few times. People describe her as "a very nice girl", one that Raymon says will suit him until the time comes when he tries of her and pursues other women.

Why has he decided to marry her? "I am afraid of being alone", he tells his friend. He does not fear intruders, he says. Nor does he fear ghosts or "dead people, for he does not believe in the supernatural. There is no life after death, he maintains. Instead, he is afraid at himself of having frightful thoughts of losing his sanity, of experiencing "a vague uneasiness of mind, which causes a cold silver to run all over me". He even fears his ownvoice. Yet he does not fully comprehend what it is that terrifies him. In an attempt to escape his fears, he sometimes, curls into a ball under his covers and remains there for long periods.

His problem began one autum evening the previous year. During a rainy day, after Raymon's servant leaves him alone after dinner, Raymon feels inexplicably tried and depressed. He sits down, then walks up and down his room, then builds a fire to word of the dampness, and finally goes out to room the stress for someone to talk to. While talking through the street, he passes cafes where he sees only sad-looking people at the tables. After further wanderings, he returns to his building. After the janitor lets him in, he goes to his room, discovers that the door is unlocked, and finds a man asleep in a chair next to the fire. Was it a friend of his ? Raymon walks over to rouse him. "I could not see clearly, as the room was rather dark", Raymon says, "So I put out my hand to touch him on the shoulder, and it came in contact with the back of the chair. There was nobody there; the seat was empty". Terrified, Raymon jumps back. In a moment, his fear subsides as he reasons, "It is a mere hallucination, that is all. His eyes simply deceived him. But when he lights a candle, he notices that he is tembling unnerved, he paces, hums a song, and lacks the door. He ponders his experience at length, then goes to bed and puts out the candle. Several minutes later, he thinks, he sees the man again. He is sitting by the dying fire in the same chair. When Raymon lights a match, he discover that he is again wrong. This time he puts the chair behind

his bed. A short while later, he falls asleep but dreams of what he had experienced after entering his room. He wakes up abruptly and determines to sit up the rest of the night. But twice more he falls asleep. Each time he has the same dream. He wonders whether he is going mad.

When daylight breaks, he feels better and sleeps peacefully's until noon. He feels himself he had a fever and a nightmare - nothing more and that evening, believing all is back to normal, he dines out and attends the theatre. On his way home again, however he worries that he will have another hallucination and wanders aimlessly for an hour before returning home. He stands outside his door for ten minutes before mustering the courage to unlock it and enter. After lighting a candle, he enters the bedroom and looks towards the fireplace. Nothing but he remains uneasy and does not sleep well.

From that time forward, a fear at being alone grips him. It is as if Spectre (ghost) of the man is in the apartment, but he does not see it. And even if he does see it, it matters not. He does not believe in such things still, he remains uneasy. He continues to feel the presence of the spectre. So he winds up his letter. "But if there were two of us in the place I feel certains that he would not be there any longer, for he is there just because I am alone. Simple and solely because I am alone, obviously." We believes that marriage will be the perfect panacea (cure) for all his problems for he will no longer be alone.

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