# Médéric Gautruche — Germinie Lacerteux character guide

> Médéric Gautruche in Germinie Lacerteux by Edmond de Goncourt.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Gautruche

**First appearance:** 0032-xxx

## Snapshot

A working-class man whose path crosses Germinie's in the later stretches of her hungry, unmoored life.

## Who they are

Gautruche moves in the same quarter and the same rough milieu as Germinie, a man of the people whose presence enters her story as her other attachments fray. He belongs to the world of shops, gossip, and small transactions that the novel renders with such precision, and his connection to Germinie belongs to the period when her needs have grown desperate and her secrets heavier. His role is bound up with the widening distance between the servant Mademoiselle believes she knows and the woman Germinie has become.

## Relationships

### [Germinie Lacerteux](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/characters/germinie_lacerteux)

_romantic_

Germinie has a passionate but destructive love affair with Médéric Gautruche, a younger man who exploits her affection.

### [Germinie Lacerteux](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/characters/germinie_lacerteux)

_romantic_

Germinie has a passionate but destructive love affair with Médéric Gautruche, a younger man who exploits her affection.

## In the story

### [XXIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/chapters/xxiv)

Referred to as Jupillon; he is the object of Germinie's love and later her hatred, as she blames him for her child's death.

### [XLVIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/chapters/xlviii)

Gautruche, the painter, makes a flamboyant speech about his bachelorhood and ends up with Germinie.

### [XLIX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/chapters/xlix)

Gautruche is a drunken, cheerful house-painter who lives for wine and amusement, and he becomes Germinie's new companion.

### [L](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/chapters/l)

Mentioned as part of Germinie's debts for food and drink, adding to the weight of her secret life.

### [LI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/chapters/li)

Gautruche is absent, haunted by a former mistress, and has not given Germinie the key to his room.

### [LII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/chapters/lii)

Returns drunk to his lodging, explains his fight at the saloon, eats the food Germinie provides, and engages in violent passion with her.

### [LIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/chapters/liii)

Gautruche, suffering from liver disease, proposes marriage to Germinie as a practical solution for a settled life, but is met with her scornful refusal.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/characters/mederic_gautruche
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/germinie_lacerteux_se/characters