“‘The Necklace’ is one of the most famous of Maupassant's short stories but also one of the most enigmatic” (Adamson). Guy de Maupassant was born in Normandy to wealthy parents. His childhood setting and character reflected in his fiction writing. His mother provided the characterization of slighted, overbearing women in most of his stories. The plot is about the loss of a diamond necklace by a low-ranking officials wife. She finds outs the price of a similar necklace is 36,000 francs. Madame Loisel spent 10 years paying off her debt for the necklace only to find out that the gems were paste costume jewelry instead of diamonds. Guy de Maupassant develops his theme that objects can have a perceiving power in his short story “The Necklace” through …show more content…
“She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her” (de Maupassant). Madame Loisel wanted more, but she ended up much worse than how she started. “Mathilde focuses on her lack of jewels and fine clothing rather than on enjoying her life” (Brackett). She worried about wanting more instead of enjoying the life she lived. De Maupassant uses her physical changes to show what a large impact a small item can do. “Oh, my poor Mathilde! How you are changed!” (de Maupassant). Madame Loisel wanted to be prettier, but she became old and wrinkly. “At first not recognizing Mathilde, Madame Forestier is shocked by her friend’s haggard appearance. She cries out with sympathy over Mathilde’s transformation” (Brackett). This is ironic because all Madame Loisel wanted was to look better among the rich crowd and ended up worse than how she …show more content…
"Madame Forestier went to her dressing-table, took up a large box, brought it to Madame Loisel, opened it, and said: "Choose, my dear”” (de Maupassant). Madame Forestier wanted to help Madame Loisel look her best at the high-end party, so she let her borrow any jewelry she owned. It also shows that she is wealthy and owns more than one expensive item. "Madame Forestier’s reserved attitude toward Mathilde makes clear that, although they began life on the same level, she believes herself superior to Mathilde” (Brackett). Madame Forestier believes that she is better than Madame Loisel because she owns expensive-looking jewelry and ends up looking better than
To begin with, Maupassant displayed the necklace as everything that Mathilde had ever desired. The necklace was “…superb…and [Mathilde’s] heart throbbed with desire for it” (Maupassant 6). Mathilde had her choice of “…bracelets,…a pearl necklace,…a Venetian cross of finely worked gold and gems” (Maupassant 6), but instead she chose to take the most expensive and finest looking bauble in her friend’s jewel box. The diamond necklace revealed to the reader that Mathilde no only wanted the finest things, but she also wanted the most luxurious and expensive ones to be...
Known as a master of the short story form, Guy de Maupassant was a French writer who had a number of works published. From books to short stories, they capture and demonstrate the lifestyle of a nineteenth century individual, particularly in France and Normandy, where most of the stories take place. The collection of eight stories, The Necklace and Other Short Stories, contains different elements that may or may not appeal to readers. War and life morals are elements that may appeal to readers alongside prostitution and language, which may not.
This can describe as her being spoiled because although her husband got her the letter she wanted more and her husband gave her more. In other words, Madame Forestier is another character in “The Necklace” whose dialogue is shown. Madame Forestier let her friend Mathilde Loisel borrow a necklace that was gorgeous and unique she was going to attract attention towards her. “Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously. Her hands trembled as she lifted it. She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight of her. Then, with hesitation, she asked in anguish: "Could you lend me this, just this alone?" "Yes, of course." (Guy De Maupassant 1884). This showed that Madame Forestier was nice enough to let Mathilde borrow the necklace.
In the story, “The Necklace”, Madame Loisel is very childish. She is the main character for this story. In the beginning of the story she thinks about all of the things she wants to have in order to fit in with the other wealthy people she lives around with. She is not poor nor is she filthy rich, but she seems very ungrateful for almost everything she does have. Her husband was in charge of keeping her happy and keeping each other on track.
Other details in the story also have a similar bearing on Mathilde’s character. For example, the story presents little detail about the party scene beyond the statement that Mathilde is a great “success” (7)—a judgment that shows her ability to shine if given the chance. After she and Loisel accept the fact that the necklace cannot be found, Maupassant includes details about the Parisian streets, about the visits to loan sharks, and about the jewelry shop in order to bring out Mathilde’s sense of honesty and pride as she “heroically” prepares to live her new life of poverty. Thus, in “The Necklace,” Maupassant uses setting to highlight Mathilde’s maladjustment, her needless misfortune, her loss of youth and beauty, and finally her growth as a responsible human being.
Situational irony occurs throughout most of The Necklace; it appears when Madame Forestier lends Madame Loisel a diamond necklace since “[she’s] upset because [she] haven’t a single piece of jewelry or a gemstone or anything to wear with [her] dress.[She’ll] look like a pauper. [She] almost think[s] it would be better if [she] didn’t go” and lets her borrow it for a ball one night so Madame Loisel can fit in; however, she ends up losing the necklace(174).Madame Loisel was not informed of the fact that the diamond necklace was actually fake. In a panic, Madame Loisel and her husband work hard and pay the loans off for many years trying to replace the necklace only to find out it wasn’t real; they gave up their decent lifestyle and had to save up for ten years. The situational irony is the fact that Madame Loisel thought that if she borrowed the diamond necklace it would help her become closer to the life she wanted, but the necklace ended up putting her and her husband into poverty and without the life that she longed for, instead. The ten years of poverty that Madame Loisel and
She is constantly whining about how plain and uninteresting her life is, even though she has a comfortable home and loving husband. Having what most would kill for, she still dreams of a world of gold and wealth; a reality of extravagance and luxury that is chalk-full of rich, exciting people and parties. Fundamentally restated, she is a vain, thankless woman who possesses the steadfast credence she was born to live a better life. Monsieur Loisel, her husband, on the other hand, is a hardworking, modest man who enjoys the unpretentious simplicity of his life, completely satisfied with the food that is cooked for him as well as his routine job at the Ministry of Education. When invited to a formal ball, Mathilde borrows a necklace seemingly expensive and misplaces it.
When she introduced herself for the first time in years Madame Forestier was in shock of how rugged and different she looked. “I’ve been through some pretty hard times since I last saw you and I’ve had plenty of trouble- and all because of you! (301) “ After saying this Madame Forestier was confused, and Madame Loisel decided to tell her about all the pain her family has been through because of the necklace. “ Oh, my poor, poor Mathilde!
She envied others who have beautiful objects in their house as she feels that she deserves to be someone who is envied by others. Madame Loisel wasn’t contented of what she has and she is not happy. The only thing that can make her happy is to have a dress that she can wear to the party and a necklace to go with it. For Madame Loisel, these things are the ones that can make her look wealthy and have class because that what she believes in. She believes that when she own things that are valuable she will seem valuable to other people as well.
Mathilde eventually pays the price for her extreme self-admiration. “Mine Loisel looked old now.” “She had become the woman of impoverished households…. With Frowsy hair, skirts askew, and red hands….” Because Mathilde was always so full of herself, she suffered the consequences. Mathilde is torn apart when she realizes she had been working so hard for something fake. She realizes the last ten years of her life were a waste when Mme. Foresier says, “Oh my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!” I think this was the hardest thing for Mathilde to hear at this point because she has faced so much since the night she lost the
The author of The Necklace, Guy Maupassant, relates the many settings of his story to the protagonist, Mathilde Loisel, and her character development. The story begins in Mathilde’s apartment along the Rue des Martyrs, in Paris. Here, Mathilde lives with her husband, who works for the Ministry of Education, and the two live a comfortable life. Because Mathilde has a good sized apartment, a servant and many belongings, we could say she is a middle-class woman. However, instead of appreciating what she has, Mathilde spends her days dreaming of rich living and high society.
Mathilde only had average clothing, furniture, and possessions. When Mathilde’s husband received an invitation to attend a ball, Mathilde did not want to attend because she would not be the center of attention. Mathilde manipulated her husband to get the precious items she desired. Just as fate had planned, Mathilde borrowed a lavish, diamond necklace from her noble friend.
“The Necklace” ends up to be a very ironic story as it explains why valuing the more important things in life can be very effective towards a person’s happiness. One example of the story’s irony is when she is at the party dressed as a beautiful and fancy woman. ‘She danced madly, wildly, drunk with pleasure, giving no thought to anything in the triumph of her beauty, the pride of her success…’ (pg 193). This is a form of dramatic irony because Guy explains earlier that Mme. Loisel is just a middle class woman who dreams of a wealthy life, but she is just alluding herself as a luxurious woman. Another example of irony in the story is when Madame found out that the necklace was paste. On page 196, Mme. Forestier, Ma...
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.
Immediately, Mathilde realises necklace is not on her neck anymore it is lost. They checked the cab, but could not find it. Monsieur follows there step back, but unfortunately he could not find it. They decide to go to the jewelry store and look for similar diamond necklace Mathilde Loisel was wearing. De Maupassant let 's reader know the price of Necklace, “ The price was forty thousand francs. The store will let them have it for thirty-six thousand” ( Maupassant 177 ). Monsieur made some arrangement for the money. He had Eighteen thousand franc which his father gave to him and the rest he had to borrow from other people and promised to pay them as early as possible and with a healthy interest rate. They successfully replace the new necklace and went to Mathilde friend 's house to return it. give to her friend. And start paying up people they loaned money