The Necklace, written by Guy de Maupassant, follows the tale of Madame Loisel, a woman who feels as if her station in life was a mistake made by destiny. Maupassant illustrates how Madame Loisel and Monsieur Loisel have two completely different characteristics even though they are husband and wife. Readers can get an idea of their qualities based on how the author develops their character over time. Throughout the story, Madame Loisel and Monsieur Loisel can be seen growing into how the author portrayed them since the beginning. From start to finish, Maupassant depicts Madame Loisel as an unappreciative, materialistic, and narcissistic person. Since the beginning, Madame Loisel is presented as an outright obnoxious person. The author indirectly describes her as a someone who believes that the life of a wealthy noble should’ve rightfully been hers. As the author stated, “She suffered constantly, feeling that all the attributes of a gracious life, every luxury, should rightly been hers.” This quote shows how Madame Loisel doesn’t appreciate what she already has, but she keeps wanting more. She’s not living in poverty, but she’s still unsatisfied with everything in her life. …show more content…
One of Madame Loisel’s worst character traits is her materialism. Her concern about clothes, jewelry, and how much money she has is the only thing that gives her happiness. This shows how egotistical she is when it comes to status. As stated by the author, “She had no proper wardrobe, no jewels, nothing. And those were the only things that she loved - she felt she was made for them.” Based on this quote, Madame Loisel’s inner traits are shown as desiring fancy clothes and jewelry that she can’t afford. Even though she has everything that a person below her class could wish for, she’s still oblivious to everything except for the wealth that she does not
In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant the character Madame Loisel was always longing for expensive possessions, larger
Loisel sadly possesses is being spoiled. In the story one of the ways her spoiledness is conveyed is when she refuses to go to the reception without a jewel to wear. In the text it states, “‘It is embarrassing not to have a jewel or a gem to wear on my dress… I’d almost rather not go to that party.” This reveals her spoiledness because after her husband went through all that trouble to get her a dress, invitation and shoes she almost won't go just because she doesn't have a necklace ethir. Another way her spoiledness is revealed in the story is when she receives an invitation, that her husband got her, to the reception. In the text it states, “Instead of being delighted, as her husband had hoped, she scornfully tossed the invitation on the table, murmuring ‘What good is that to me?’ This quote shows she is spoiled, because her husband probably worked really hard to get her that invitation and she just tossed it on the table like junk mail. These are all ways her spoiledness is portrayed in the story and how it has gotten her nowhere and only hurt others.
In the short story ¨The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, the greediness and ungratefulness of Madame Loisel undoubtedly mirrors the selfishness hidden within all of us. The first way Madame Loisel is portrayed as greedy and ungrateful is because she is a very materialistic woman. In the story, it is expressed that gowns and jewels are the only items she loves. We see this when Monsieur Loisel, her husband, gives her an invitation to a ball, and instead of being excited, she is upset because she doesn’t have anything to wear. However, after she does buy a dress, with the money her husband gave her, she almost doesn’t go because she has no jewels. Even when she goes to her friend’s, Madame Forestier, house, she kept asking if she had “anything
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.
Instead she married a simple middle class man and lived a middle class life. All the while she dreamed of living the life of the rich. With beautiful gowns and glittering jewelry. Oh how happy she thought she would be. Then one day it happened that she and her husband where invited to a dinner ball. Her husband, Mr. Loisel thought this would make his wife so very happy since this is what she spent all of her time day dreaming of. Here it was, the thing that consumed her finally at her door step, but she was not happy. In fact, Mathilde was even more distraught because it brought to her attention that she had nothing proper to wear. Mr. Loisel sympathized with his wife and knowing he had money set aside for a new shot gun, he gave her 400 francs. This was enough money for a pretty dress, not too fancy, but pretty because he knew this would be a rare occasion.
Guy de Maupassant expresses his theme through the use of situational irony. Guy de Maupassant says, “She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her.”(De Maupassant). She is poor and thinks of herself too much and then he says "but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class.”(De Maupassant). She wants more than she can get which will ruin her later in the story. When she lost the necklace by the end of the week they had lost all hope to find it. Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:
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.
In a similar way, Maupassant again plays with imagery and contrast to establish strong class distinctions and attitudes towards each class by illustrating the physical realities of her current life of Madame Loisel versus the less tangible lifestyle she longs for. Madame Loisel always wanted to be a part of the upper class as she “fantasized about elegant dinners, about shiny silverware, about tapestries filling the wall” (Maupassant, 4). However, stricken by fate, Maupassant contrasts her grand desires with the harsh reality that “she had no wardrobe, no jewels nothing” emphasizing her lack of status (Maupassant, 4). Her admiration of the upper class’s fancy lifestyle is contrasted with her disgust of the deficiencies of the lower class;
224. Madame Loisel was very plain as for she could not afford to buy clothes of the finest cloth. In the beginning of the story Madame Loisel felt as though she belonged to the lifestyle of the upper class and dreamed of that often as she could. It was only then when her husband presented her with an invitation to a lavished event were here dreams becoming a reality.
Around the world, values are expressed differently. Some people think that life is about the little things that make them happy. Others feel the opposite way and that expenses are the way to live. In Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”, he develops a character, Madame Loisel, who illustrates her different style of assessments. Madame Loisel, a beautiful woman, lives in a wonderful home with all the necessary supplies needed to live. However, she is very unhappy with her life. She feels she deserves a much more expensive and materialistic life than what she has. After pitying herself for not being the richest of her friends, she goes out and borrows a beautiful necklace from an ally. But as she misplaces the closest thing she has to the life she dreams of and not telling her friend about the mishap, she could have set herself aside from ten years of work. Through many literary devices, de Maupassant sends a message to value less substance articles so life can be spent wisely.
Authors choose to use symbols for various reasons in short stories. It is a way for them to use on object or idea to convey many different meanings to the audience. In “The Necklace,” the author Guy de Maupassant uses a very lavish looking necklace as his main symbol. The necklace helps defining what type of woman Mme. Loisel is. It also acts as the central conflict of the story. The symbolism that is used throughout this story is crucial to revealing the theme and understanding the main character.
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.
Throughout “The Necklace” it is clearly obvious that Madame Loisel is not satisfied with the
Guy de Maupassant is a realist whose claim to fame is the style in which he conveys political and socioeconomic themes in his literary publications. He achieves his writing style by putting small unfortunate life events under a spotlight. His literary performance is described in his biography from Cambridge, the writer says “He exposes with piercing clarity the small tragedies and pathetic incidents of everyday life, taking a clear-sighted though pessimistic view of humanity” (Halsey, par. 1). Guy de Maupassant’s story The Necklace is a great representation of the style he uses. In The Necklace the main character Mathilde Loisel a beautiful but impoverished woman married to a clerk is in conflict with her lack of wealth and desire to acquire
At many places in the story he shows the irony of Madame Loisel’s situation. From the time of her marriage, through her growing years, Madame Loisel desires what she does not have and dreams that her life should be other than it is. It is only after ten years of hard labor and abject poverty that she realizes the mistake pride led her to make. At that point, the years cannot be recovered. In my opinion, the moral lesson of the necklace story is that we should not judge people on appearances because they may appear to be rich and successful and they may not be. It also explains us we should not pine after material possessions, but realize we are happy with what we have and we must be satisfied with what we have and what we are. We must be honest enough to confess his mistake instead of running from situations and turning back. There’s nothing wrong in have wishing though and dreams, but you must know your limits and your condition as