The Message

"The Message" by Honoré de Balzac is a story set in the past that looks at how people deal with love, sadness, and what it means to be human when something terrible happens. Two young men become friends because they both like older women only for one of them to die in an accident; before dying he asks his new friend to take love letters to his mistress, Juliette. The story follows the surviving man as he struggles with having to tell Juliette about her lover's death. He finds her living happily in her home, unaware of what has happened when he finds her. The story shows how love and sadness can be mixed together and explores relationships between people.