Literary Analysis Of The Necklace

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In Guy De Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace,” the writer presents the main character Mathilde Loisel. Throughout the story, Madame Loisel, a beautiful women married to a clerk from the Ministry of Education, is preparing for the upcoming ball. With the event daunting on her mind, Mathilde asks her husband for money to buy a new dress. However, even with the new dress in hand she is still dissatisfied with the lack of jewels to match her outfit, and after a prompting from her husband, Mathilde asks her friend Madame Forestier to lend her a diamond necklace. On the day of the even, Madame Loisel, is declared the prize of the ball, and men and women alike shower her with affection as she steels their hearts with elegance and grace. Finally …show more content…

Most of the story revolves around the necklace she borrows and then loses, but there are several key examples that Maupassant expresses to the readers to develop her gluttonous nature. One example is the meticulous calculation of how much her new dress will cost. In her inner monologue, she thinks for several seconds “reckoning up prices”, and also “wondering for how large a sum she could ask without brining upon herself an immediate refusal”, then announcing it will cost four-hundred francs. The cruel thing about this statement is the readers come to find out this money is the exact amount her husband has been saving for a new gun; thus, showing how selfish of a person Mathilde is. Continuously, the writers solidifies her desirous character when she visits Madam Forestier to borrow jewelry. She passes up a Venetian cross in gold and gems, to ask her friend if she has “anything else” to offer her, making her displeasure know in her choice of selection until, finally, she comes across the diamond necklace. What is most concerning about her manner is Maupassant description of “her hands trembled as she lifted it” and “heart begin to beat covetously”. Throughout all these examples, the reader can conclude that Mathilde is a greedy and obsessive person who values material procession at her husband’s expense, and would even misuse her friends to advance her personal

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