An Analysis Of Guy De Maupassant's The Necklace

1006 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay of the necklace

In Guy de Maupassant’s The Necklace (1884), we are shown what happens when people are not grateful for the circumstances they do have. We meet Mathilde Loisel, a selfish, conceited and ungrateful wife to M. Loisel. M. Loisel is not rich, but he does everything in his power to bless his wife, Mathilde, with material things to try and make her happy. What he is unaware of is the toils and trouble that awaits him for bending over backwards for Mathilde. Mathilde is always unhappy where she feels destiny has placed her unjustly. She, in the end, learns the trouble of her ways and thoughts, and becomes the essence of what she told herself she has been given – poor. Mathilde must become humble in order to live her life without fear of being …show more content…

Mathilde is not satisfied until she finds an expensive diamond looking piece. She is ecstatic when she goes to the ball and is swooned over for her beauty. In all of her pride she loses the necklace that was loaned to her. Instead of being honest, she asks her loving and willing husband to go out and search for the necklace. The two of them make an unwise decision to avoid the truth, and took out loans that they would not be able to pay back. Taking out the loans proves to be Mathilde’s demise as she is forced to live the poverty-stricken life that she imagined herself to always have. For ten years she must suffer and work harder than she ever has …show more content…

How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit. 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.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing 'The Necklace And King Midas'

    292 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • 'Civil Peace And The Thrill Of The Chase'

    594 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Necklace is a great example of how our desires can create tragedy rather than happiness. Madame Forestier would have rather been idolized for her wealth instead of buying items that grant her survival. She says,”It’s just that I have no evening dress and so I can’t go to the party.” which explains well how she had a finite amount of money and thought material wealth was more important than happiness. If she only knew before that she would spend the next decade working off her debt, she would have never asked for the necklace and she would have had a happy life. Furthermore, wealth isn’t the only thing that brings happiness to a life.

    Read More

  • Irony and Foreshadowing in Guy de Maupassant's The Necklace

    600 Words  | 2 Pages

    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:

    Read More

  • Use of Setting to Reflect Main Character in "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Effect of a Scar

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... both had to work very hard to pay off their debt; this shows that it is essential to find a job to make a living. People have an ego that they do not want to be frowned on. We tend to have a desire to be accepted by the society because we do not want to look like an outcast. Mathilde did not want to be “humiliat[ed] by looking poor” (4). Instead, we should buy accessories that be are capable of affording because life is difficult when we run into major debts. She had an opportunity to “Wear a flower…For ten” (4) but she refused, which led her and her husband into ten years of hard work. It is important to live a lifestyle that we can survive in.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Necklace And Guy De Maupassant's The Jewel

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Symbolism of the Necklace in The Necklace

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    From the beginning of the story Mathilde seems to have a chip on her shoulder as if she has been done an injustice because of who she is married to. The time period, in which this story was set, the only way a women could move up the class scale was to marry a man who came from wealth. Ironically, Mme. Loisel’s husband is a clerk just like her father was. She longs to be rich. Her mind is concentrated on being in the social circle and living a life surrounded by everything that is fine and exclusive. She is greedy and unhappy with her modest but still quite tolerable lifestyle. It is illustrated beautifully in the passage where she describes her intolerable “worn out chairs” and “ugly curtains.” In the very next breath she speaks of her “little Breton peasant who does her humble house work” (Maupassant 178). When her husband comes upon the opportunity to go out for an evening to a ball, he assumes his wife would be overjoyed. Instead, she relishes in thoughts of looking poor among the rich. Try as he might there is no pleasing his deprived wife.

    Read More

  • Relating the Setting to the Characters in The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

    480 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hence the situational irony had taken place. First the original necklace was fake and all that pain of ten years could have been avoided. Secondly, Mathilde’s character had a turn around as in the beginning she was greedy but after the tragic events She is more self sufficient and does work to make money. And most importantly Mathilde did not divorce on Mousier and supported him and help herself pay up the debt. Ture characteristic of a person is not shown when he has everything but rather when he has

    Read More

  • Realism In Guy De Maupassant's 'The Necklace'

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

    1340 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Values In 'The Necklace' By Guy De Maupassant

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Moral of The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

    441 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Mathilde's Pride

    1385 Words  | 3 Pages

    The punishment of losing everything is much worse than the crime of pride and wanting a better life. I suspect that many people who read this think Mathilde should have been happy with what she had and got what was coming to her. I did not. Losing the necklace, a simple twist of fate, led to such suffering. I found it difficult not to feel for Mathilde.

    Read More

  • The Conflict in Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”

    424 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about An Analysis Of Guy De Maupassant's The Necklace

Open Document