Guy de Maupassant is considered to be one of the fathers of short stories, he is a French author who lived in the 19th century. Born in 1850 at the Chateau de Miromesnil in France, to a lone literary mother who passed on her passion for books to Guy. The author’s writing style is characterized by economy of style, brilliant irony and elegant denouement. Maupassant wrote over 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and a volume of verse. Maupassant incorporated genres such as realism and naturalism within his works and his first published story; “Boule de Suif” (ball of fat) is considered by many as being his masterpiece.
“The Necklace” is an ironic, amusing and witty short story which deals with themes such as the deceitfulness of appearance, the threat of martyrdom and the power of objects. The main protagonist in this short story is Mathilde Loisel. Born in a family of clerks, the alluring Madame Loisel is convinced that her social status the “Petite Bourgeoisie” is simply a blunder and Mathilde is destined for a life of prosperity. She pursues her life in perpetual revolt against her circumstances. However she is not living in poverty, with a comfortable home and a caring husband, yet she remains oblivious of all other than the riches she craves. Her lust for wealth is a continual torment and turmoil.
Mathilde is a furious and turbulent woman consumed with jealousy who would sacrifice anything and do all in her power to cure her “misfortune” and reverse “destiny’s error” that has her living a unacceptable and incompetent life. Due to her materialistic and flirtatious personality, Madame Loisel is an unsympathetic character, she covets wealth and affection from prosperous playboys and neglecting all devotion Monsie...
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...ame Loisel comprehends the meaning of humility. Prior to the necklace Mathilde lived the life of princess in a working class home fantasizing of "thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware". After the necklace, Mathilde has metamorphosed into a determined woman who fights hard for her bread. Every so often she experiences her past daydreams but these have matured into objective and rational queries. Rather than crying and complaining she ponders upon a rational thought of her past life, this example of free indirect discourse gives us an insight into her more mature thoughts,"What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? who knows? How strange and changeful is life!". Madame Loisel develops a positive mindset and embraces failure as a lesson of life. Humbled by the events, she is truly a transformed lady.
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The central characters, setting, and tone of the story help create the central idea of the psychological and internal desires of a woman. Through the view of the central characters it is established that the lawyer’s wife wants more than her average day and is searching for more to life than the daily routine of a house wife. Jean Varin is believed to be the desire she is looking for; however, she is not fulfilled or happy with the outcome of her choices. The setting and the tone reveal the psychological need for the wife to have an adventurous, lavish, and opulent lifestyle that she feels can only be achieved in Paris.
At the beginning of the story, “The Necklace” Madame Loisel was young, beautiful, and had a loving husband, but was very concerned about her looks, reputation, and status. She wishes for an elegant upper class life and longs to have much more than she does. The story starts off by telling about the beauty and youthfulness of Loisel, “ She was one of
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:
In conclusion, Mathilde Loisel, in Guy de Maupassant’s The Necklace, reveals the theme of being spoiled and ungrateful will only make things worse in many ways. Even though Mathilde Loisel is charming and beautiful she also posses the unpleasant traits of being spoiled and ungrateful. These are all ways being spoiled and ungrateful will get you
Details about the modest apartment of the Loisels on the Street of Martyrs indicate Mathilde’s peevish lack of adjustment to life. Though everything is serviceable, she is unhappy with the “drab” walls, “threadbare” furniture, and “ugly” curtains (5). She has domestic help, but she wants more servants than the simple country girl who does the household chores in the apartment. Her embarrassment and dissatisfaction are shown by details of her irregularly cleaned tablecloth and the plain and inelegant beef stew that her husband adores. Even her best theater dress, which is appropriate for apartment life but which is inappropriate for more wealthy surroundings, makes her unhappy. All these details of the apartment establish that Mathilde’s major trait at the story’s beginning is maladjustment. She therefore seems unpleasant and unsympathetic.
In “The Necklace”, Maupassant utilizes verbal and dramatic irony to aid in the reader’s comprehension of Mathilde Loisel’s characteristics. From deceiving people to covering herself up, Mathilde Loisel continues to use many devious methods to make herself look perfect. Mathilde’s conniving methods help the reader understand her characteristics.
" Mathilde appears to regret nothing about the night except losing the necklace. She fails to realize that it was her desire to appear to be someone other than herself that led to her demise. Despite her hardships, Mathilde has failed to learn from her mistakes and instead be asking herself what would have happened if she hadn’t borrowed the necklace in the first
Janwillem Van De Wetering says, “Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.” Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace” tells of Mrs. Mathilde Loisel’s longings for the finer things in life. Her desires are so intense she risks her husband’s affections, the friendship of an old chum, and even her mediocre lifestyle to pursue these cravings. One small decision based on an ill-placed desire causes a slow drawn out death of the spirit, body and relationships.
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
Until the time of her mishap, Mme. Loisel expresses ardent dissatisfaction with many (if not most) areas of her life; discontent defines her character. Her lofty expectations cause her to believe that, because she is beautiful, she deserves the "best" that life has to offer, but the reality of her situation greatly troubles her. She should have a prestigious husband, yet "she let herself be married to a little clerk" (de Maupassant 46). Mme. Loisel thinks that she deserves to reside in an elegant home, but instead she "suffer[s] from the poverty of her dwelling"(46). She longs for "delicate furniture" and experiences "torture" from the look of her "worn-out chairs" (46, 47). Mme. Loisel is even dissatisfied with her cuisine; while her husband dutifully compliments her cooking, she dreams of "dainty dinners" and "delicious dishes served on marvelous plates" (47). Truly, this woman finds little in her life which brings joy or even contentment.
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
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
There comes a time in a woman’s life where she tends to become bitter and ungrateful. It is natural to feel that way in any time period for young women coming to age as they do not realize what they have to do stay beautiful. Some women can even get so caught up in their life, that no one, not even their husband really matter to them. In “The Necklace”, by Guy de Maupassant it reveals Mathilde’s selfish and conceited ways, as she is not thankful for an invitation Mr. Loisel gives to her to attend the ball. Although Mathilde may not be the most grateful wife, she learns the hard way of what struggle really is later on in the story. It is clear on a psychological note that Mathilde generates materialistic, unappreciative, and egotistical tendencies.
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.
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.