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Analysis of the short story the necklace
The relationship between setting and character in the necklace
The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant Analysis
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Mathilde Loisel borrows a necklace from her wealthy friend. She loses the necklace and replaces it with a thirty-six thousand francs one. She goes into debt, and ten years later she tells her friend the story of what happened to the original necklace. Then her friend tells her it was a fake and only costed five hundred francs. In this short story, deception is shown through appearance and in actions too.
First, deception is shown through appearance. In the necklace Mathilde wanted to look rich among the guests at the ball. The appearance of the jewelry around her neck and the lie told to Madame Forestier about the necklace ended up affecting the Loisels. It all started because of Mathilde's desire to be appear rich. When her husband gave
This excerpt shows that since the beginning of time, people that are not grateful for what they have and try to get more, only to end up worse off than before. Mathilde ends up worse off than she starts out. What’s more is that her pride has gotten ahead of her, keeping her from being honest with her friend. If Mathilde would just tell Madame Forestier that she has lost the necklace, she would find that the necklace is a fake. She worries that her friend will think that she is going to “be taken as a thief” (De Maupassant, 1884, p.
...tory is basically based on the necklace itself. In fact it almost seems as if the theme of the story instead was related to the definition of “deceiving” or “lying.” It doesn’t become obvious until the end of the story when Mathilde is faced once again with Mme. Forestier and it’s then made clear that the fallacy that Mathilde had was all wrong. Guy De Maupassant makes Mathilde seem foolish when Mme. Forestier tells her the truth about the necklace price and Mathilde is somewhat seemed as a fool. All her traumas of being “poor” are almost as if it backfired on her, because she was unhappy and kept complaining of her life.
female Parisian readers at the time of the Third Republic towards the end of the 19th century could easily identify"(smith). Guy de Maupassant studied with the french writer Gustave Flaubert after his time in the Franco-Prussian War. De Maupassant belived that his work as a writer was to take common occurances and then make it them in too intesting stories about it.His own experience as a minor clerk inspired him to write "The Necklace".This short story tells the story of a women called Mathilde that is maried to a minor clerk that does not make a lot of money.They get invited to a reception were all the rich people in town are going to be, so Mathilde borrows a dimond necklace from an old friend from school and ends up loosing it and having to work very hard to repay her friend only to find out that the necklace is fake. De Maupassant develops his theme of desire in this short story through the use of symbolism,irony and characterization.
Values are spread all around the world, and many people’s values differ. These can lead to people being judged, or indirectly characterized by other people. In “The Necklace” Mme. Loisel is a beautiful woman with a decent life, and a husband that loves her, and only wants to make her happy. She is not rich but she makes it along, she insists of a better, wealthier life. When her husband gets her invited to a ball, she feels the need for a brand new fancy dress and tons of jewelry. When the couple realizes they cannot afford jewelry as well, they search out to borrow her friend, Mme. Forestiers’ necklace. She comes to notice she no longer has the necklace on when she leaves the ball. This later troubles her, as she has to work for a long time to collect enough money to buy a new necklace. This story describes the relationship between a couple, who have different dreams, and how desires can revamp your life. Guy de Maupassant, the author of “The Necklace” uses literary devices to prove people come before materialistic items.
Lying doesn't always give the best results. In the short story “The Necklace” by Guy Maupassant the main character Mme. Loiter learns this the hard way. She begins by wanting more than she can has, so when her husband gets an invitation to a grand ball she wants finer clothes and jewelry. Her husband buys her a dress and she borrows a diamond necklace from a friend. At the ball she is beautiful and extravagant but she then loses the necklace. Rather than telling her friend the truth she and her husband drown themselves in debt to buy a replacement. After 10 years of working off the debt Mme. Loisel sees her friend once again. Now haggard and old she explains what had happened only to find that the necklace they replaced was really a fake.
Deceptiveness of appearances is highlighted in, “The Necklace,” by the necklace of Mathilde’s wealthy best friend, Madame Forestier. She allows, Mathilde to borrow it for the party. The fact that it comes from Madame Forestier’s jewelry box gives it the illusion of high value, when actually it is just costume jewelry. Mathilde would not have worn the necklace if she knew the diamonds were fake, because she believes she is deserving of more. Fake jewels suggest that even the wealthiest pretend to have more than they actually claim. Unfortunately, Mathilde loses the necklace, not realizing the necklace is fake. The fact that Madame Forestier, does not notice Mathilde has replaced the fake gems with real diamonds, suggests that true value is ultimately dependent on perception. In the movie Slumd...
The fact the Madame Loisel’s friend who has a higher class than hers owns a fake jewelry; it shows that she understands that objects are only powerful as people perceived them to
Values are spread all around the world, and many people’s values differ. These can lead to people being judged, or indirectly characterized by other people. In “The Necklace” Mme. Loisel is a beautiful woman with a decent life, and a husband that loves her, and only wants to make her happy. She is not rich but she makes it along, she insists of a better, wealthier life. When her husband gets her invited to a ball, she feels the need for a brand new fancy dress and tons of jewelry. When the couple realizes they cannot afford jewelry as well, they search out to borrow her friend, Mme. Forestiers’ necklace. She comes to notice she no longer has the necklace on when she leaves the ball. This later troubles her, as she has to work for a long time to collect enough money to buy a new necklace. This story describes the relationship between a couple, who have different dreams, and how desires can revamp your life. Guy de Maupassant, the author of “The Necklace” uses literary devices to prove people come before materialistic items.
Loisel repaid the necklace together with their sweat and tears. Mathilde didn’t have a choice; she had to change from a vain, ungrateful, material, bored wife, into a hardworking proud and loving wife. She even says, right before she runs into Mme. Forestier, “What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How life is strange and changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!”(39) In that quote I saw 2 things, when she asked herself what would have happened if she didn’t lose the necklace, she doesn’t go into some fairytale about what life she could be living, she just accepts what she is now, even if it’s not the easiest life in the world. At the very end of that quote “How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!”(39) The fact that she added “or to be saved!” to her thought, tells me that she realizes that she was vain and unappreciated and that she lacked character, but now she is grateful, even though it was such a terrible thing, she was grateful that she was able to say that she was a better person now, even after everything that happened to her than she ever “dreamed” of being before. Guy de Maupassant certainly described a very difficult hardship for Mathilde in “The Necklace” but in the end, everything that happened to her, made her a much better and stronger woman inside and out. This story teaches a very important lesson, you have no idea what you can do and who you can become, until your chips are down and you’re put between a rock and a hard
The development of a character on paper is key to being able to create that character on stage. The development of character on paper is also key to understanding it in our imaginations. I read and understand stories and novels much the same way that I read a play script…through character analysis.
Mathilde Loisel lived the life of a painfully distressed woman, who always believed herself worthy of living in the upper class. Although Mathilde was born into the average middle class family, she spent her time daydreaming of her destiny for more in life... especially when it came to her financial status. Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”, tells a tale of a vain, narcissistic housewife who longed for the aristocratic lifestyle that she believed she was creditable for. In describing Mathilde’s self-serving, unappreciative, broken and fake human behaviors, de Maupassant incorporates the tragic irony that ultimately concludes in ruining her.
In “The Necklace,” Mathilde’s internal struggle is with herself. She mentally battled with the physical and financial limitations placed on her, but more with her own soul. She was unhappy with her place in life and could not accept the simplicity of her station, believing it to be truly beneath her. “All those things… tortured her and made her angry. “ Her husband’s blatant acceptance of their place only fueled her frustrations further.
In the short story “The Necklace”, the main character, Loisel, is a woman who dreams of greater things in her life. She is married to a poor clerk who tries his best to make her happy no matter what. In an attempt to try to bring happiness to his wife, he manages to get two invitations to a very classy ball, but even in light of this Loisel is still unhappy. Even when she gets a new dress she is still unhappy. This lasts until her husband suggests she borrows some jewelry from a friend, and upon doing so she is finally happy. Once the ball is over, and they reach home, Loisel has the horrible realization that she has lost the necklace, and after ten years of hard labor and suffering, they pay off debts incurred to get a replacement. The central idea of this story is how something small can have a life changing effect on our and others life’s. This idea is presented through internal and external conflicts, third person omniscient point of view, and the round-dynamic character of Loisel. The third person limited omniscient point-of-view is prevalent throughout this short story in the way that the author lets the reader only see into the main character’s thoughts. Loisel is revealed to the reader as being unhappy with her life and wishing for fancier things. “She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries.” (de Maupassant 887) When her husband tries to fancy things up, “she thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestry which peopled the walls…” (de Maupassant 887) As the story goes on her point of view changes, as she “now knew the horrible existence of the needy. She took her part, moreover all of a sudden, with heroism.” (de Maupassant 891) Having the accountability to know that the “dreadful debt must be paid.” (de Maupassant 891 ) This point-of-view is used to help the reader gain more insight to how Loisel’s whole mindset is changed throughout her struggle to pay off their debts. Maupassant only reveals the thoughts and feelings of these this main character leaving all the others as flat characters. Loisel is a round-dynamic character in that Maupassant shows how she thought she was born in the wrong “station”. “She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was as unhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper station.
The Necklace also displays distinctive realism in the use of socioeconomic influences which are essential to the plot. The major conflict in the story would be absent and the theme would not be obtainable without Mathilde Loisel’s insecurity about her own socioeconomic reputation. An example of Loisel’s self-deprivation nature is presented when she realizes she does not have a necklace, she says “I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party” (Maupassant, sec. 3). Another example of the self-conflict caused by social pressure is Loisel’s immediate attempt to replace the necklace and her reluctance to speak to her friend Madame Forestier about the necklace for ten whole years. If she were not conflicted by societal pressures she might have avoided the whole situation altogether. The Necklace establishes a realistic difference in value between the necklaces and proposed clothing. Her husband proposes flowers which were valued 10 franks so in any case if she had chosen the flowers there would have been an insignificant economic loss. Her decision not to tell her friend about the necklace ends up costing her seven times the worth of the original. The roses symbolize the simpler things in life to the theme of the story. Mathilde Loisel’s withered appearance at the end
The night of the ball came and Mathilde looked great; everyone admired her. The evening ended and everyone went home. Mathilde decided that she would look at herself in the mirror one last time before getting out of the clothes. When she did, she noticed the necklace that she admired so much was gone. Mathilde and her husband had to borrow thirty-six thousand francs from people they knew to buy another just like it so they could return it to the friend. Mathilde and her husband were deeply in debt. For ten years they worked day in and day out until finally the debt was paid off.