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Essay about the necklace by guy de maupassant
Essay about the necklace by guy de maupassant
Essay about the necklace by guy de maupassant
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Greed and Pride can can blind us from the truth. Living in disregard of everyone and everything and in a false perception of reality. What we possess is more important than what we have and our pride won't let us see true value until we lose it. In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassantant, Mathilde Loisel is introduced as a beautiful and charming young lady who is discontent with her life because she feels she is deserving of more “She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth” (46). Throughout “The Necklace” Mathilde is truly unhappy and sees no value in her manner of living…… Maupassantant portrays Mathilde as unrealistic, egocentric, greedy character married to Monsieur Loisel who is hard working and humble and does everything he can …show more content…
Monsieur Loisel used eighteen thousand francs of his inheritance and borrowed the rest to make up thirty six thousand francs to buy the new necklace. Mathilde returns the new necklace to Madame Forestier, and she now has to work hard to repay the borrowed money. They couldn't afford a housekeeper and Mathilde learned to do everything on her own. After ten years they pay off the debt but Matilde is no longer beautiful and young because of all the work and hard labor she put into paying off that necklace. Matilde sees Madame Forestier one afternoon after all the time that past and decides to come clean about everything that happen.The real surprise is when Madame Forestier tells Matilde that Necklace was costume and wasn't worth anything “Oh, my poor Mathilde. But mine were false. At most they were worth five hundred francs!”
In “The Necklace”, Mathilde feels she has been born into a family of unfavorable economic status. She’s so focused on what she doesn’t have. She forgets about her husband who treats her good. She gets too carried away being someone someone
Mathilde creates her own reality in which: “She let her mind dwell on the quiet vestibules, hung with Oriental tapestries, lighted by tall lamps of bronze, and on the two tall footmen in knee breeches who dozed in the large armchairs, made drowsy by the heat of the furnace. She let her mind dwell on the large parlors, decked with old silk, with their delicate furniture, supporting precious bric-a-brac, and on the coquettish little rooms, perfumed, prepared for the five o'clock chat with the most intimate friends, men well known and sought after, whose attentions all women envied and desired”(Maupassant 1). She hungers for the feeling of being rich and being noticed by other people, men in particular. This is one of the passages where her greed is brought to the attention of the
...only to find out years later that the necklace was not made of real diamonds but glass. This story shows the social pressure put on those of lower classes and how they wish to be a part of the better group. Maupassant uses Mathilde’s obsession to drive her into poverty and shame. For the time, this story analyzes how hard one had to work to even attain any bit of fortune.
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.
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.
He borrowed “asking a thousand franc from one , five hundred from another” (Maupassant 3) to spend the next ten years of his and Mathilde Loisel life to repay the thirty thousand to everyone they have had borrowed from. After completing the long and dreadful ten years of hard labor Mathilde Loisel quiensidently ran into Mme.Forester to only find out that the necklace she had worn that night was fake and worthless. Being a female that has absolutely no authority over her assets and has no say what so ever in where the are placed thus meaning that she is practically worthless. Realizing all of this it is no longer astonishing that Mr.Loisel went out of his way to borrow 36 thousand francs in loans without the permission from his wife Mrs.Losiel. She understand the fact that they would have to repay these outstanding loans and had spent the next ten years of her youthfull life paying back all the money that was owed. In efforts to pay of this debt Mrs. Losiel works around the house and does her daily duties with no intensions of having control over her finances and accepts that the debt of her husbands is a debt of
Mathilde marries Mr. Loisel, a minor clerk in the Ministry of Education. She becomes unhappy with the way she has to live. "She suffered because of her grim apartment with its drab walls, threadbare furniture, ugly curtains." (paragraph 3). She owns cheap belongings and still dreams of being rich and having gourmet food while her husband likes plain things and seems rather happy for where he is in life. She dreams these wonderful and expensive things and it frustrates her. A dream come true happens but instead of being happy she is upset and even more frustrated.
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
...assant introduces some literary elements, such as foreshadowing, “I didn’t sell that necklace, Madame,” he said “I only supplied the case.” and flashback, “But, sometimes, while her husband was at work, she would sit near the window and think of that long-ago evening when, at the dance, she had been so beautiful and admired. Maupassant hold the reader in suspense up until the end when the short story takes an unexpected twist when Mathidle finds out the borrowed necklace was fake. The story brought in horrible irony; The Loisel’s spent 10 years paying off a replacement for something that had no value to begin with. This ironic ending makes the quality of this short story so great.
It is said that “everything that shines isn't gold.” A difficult situation can result a vast illusion that is not what one thought it would be, which leads to disappointment and despair. Just like Guy De Maupassant stories, “The Necklace” and “The Jewel.” In the first story, the protagonist, Mathilde Loisel’s need for materialistic fulfillment causes her hard labor which ends her natural beauty. In the second story, the husband Monsieur Latin ends up living a dreadful life due to the passing of his wife and her admiration for jewels. “The Necklace” and “The Jewel” both share many similarities such as the unconditional love each husband haves toward their wife, the necessity each wife haves towards materialistic greed, the beautiful allurement
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.
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
As Michael Jordan, a former basketball player, once said while speaking about failure, “ I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” This statement means that even though there may be a chance of failure, you must always try your best. In “The Necklace”, Guy de Maupassant shows readers of the importance of perseverance. In Maupassant’s work of literature, Madame Loisel is a poor, unhappy woman because she is unwealthy. She believes that she deserves more than she can afford. When her husband brings her tickets to a gala, she is less than happy. Madame Loisel exclaims that she does not have a suitable dress, so her husband uses the money, which he had saved to buy a new rifle, to buy her one. Later, Matilde
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
The moral of Guy de Maupassant’s story “The Necklace” seems to be suggested by the line, “What would have happened if Mathilde had not lost the necklace?” If Mathilde had not lost the necklace, or in fact, even asked to borrow the necklace, she and Mr. Loisel would not of been in debt ten long years. Because Mathilde had to borrow the necklace to make herself and others like her better her and Mr. Loisel’s economic situation had become worse than it already was. I think that the moral of the story is that people need to be happy with what they have and not be so greedy.