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Guy De Maupassant's biography and his work
Guy De Maupassant's biography and his work
Guy De Maupassant's biography and his work
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The story “The False Gems” is filled with many mixed messages. It leaves its readers puzzled at first and then leads into deeper meaning and different perspectives. So, what is the true meaning of this short story? This is a question that could have many answers but some seem to stand out. This short story was written by Guy de Maupassant in the 1900’s and makes people reconsider their very morals. Lots of messages could be taken from this story. One message that seems evident in the story is “Money Can’t Buy Happiness”. This message is shown in many different forms throughout this story. Another message that is displayed in the story is that “What You Don’t Know Won’t Hurt You”. In the case of this story, the message goes against almost every …show more content…
They always have some hero or good guy to make the right decisions. These stories also seem to have a kind moral to the story that usually can be helpful to the everyday person. Common morals of these could be anything from “Dream Big” to “Face Your Fears”. However, “The False Gems” doesn’t follow the typical guidelines that some stories might have. It shows a moral that happiness sometimes can be found by concealing the truth. This is something that is not shown in most children books. If anything, a common message would be to always tell the truth. It seems that Maupassant wanted to go against normal morality and almost wanted to show the readers a splash of reality. Showing that he was tired of typical meanings and ending to stories and decided to have the story end with tragedy and non-typical …show more content…
In “The False Gems” he portrays different messages that are somewhat hard to find in an almost depression story. A meaning that is evident is “Money Can’t Buy Happiness”. This meaning is evident in society and very common. It is in the story when Lantin is in his happiest state when he doesn’t know the jewelry is real and in love with his wife. Then when he receives the money from the jewels he is miserable. Another meaning is “What You Don’t Know Won’t Hurt You”, which is evident when Lantin is much more miserable when he actually knows how his wife had received the gems that he for so long thought was false. These messages are somewhat subliminal but can be pulled out of this very dark
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.
“Guy de Maupassant’s, “The Necklace”, is about a young couple who discovers the upper society appears to sparkles like a real diamond necklace, but in reality it is not always true. A decision that seems to protect their integrity turns out to tarnish it – like a fake necklace. However, through ironic insights we witness drama, character revelations and experience surprise” (Clugston, 2010) .The Necklace is told from a 3rd person point of view with limited omniscience. The title suggests that the plot will center on a necklace. So, naturally we, the audience or reader wants to know what the significance of the necklace is. After reading the story I believe that Maupassant used the necklace to symbolize the upper society or wealth. Another symbol that the necklace represents is appearance. In the story Mme. Loisel was a beautiful young woman that had admirers at the reception. She made all the attendees believe she was from...
There is nothing more precious and heartwarming than the innocence of a child. The majority of parents in society want to shield children from the bad in life which is appreciated. Within human nature exists desires of inappropriate behavior; envy, deceit, selfishness, revenge, violence, assault and murder. The most well-known fairy tales depict virtue and the evil in life. Even more important, the form and structure of fairy tales suggest images to the child by which he can structure his daydreams and with them give a better direction to his life. (Bettelheim).
Throughout the novel we see many incidence surrounding the aspect of money and gold. Sometimes when people receive a large sum of money they tend to let it all go to their head. They will spend their money on matericalistic accessories. The relationships they had with friends or family can drasticly change for the worse. Once greed takes over a person there is no telling what they will do or what obstacles they will knock out of their way. On...
A theme of the story is do not judge a book by its cover. "[That has] always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people would want to be around someone because [they are] pretty. [It is] like picking your breakfast cereals based on color instead of taste" (37). This shows how people look at something and judge what it is worth by what it looks like rather than what is inside. “Just remember
In lines 1-15 she discusses losing items in your life whether they are concrete or abstract. What she is trying to emphasize is that lose is something we automatically do making it easy to master. She wants us to realize that losing these items isn’t a bad move on our part but merely a habit. On line 5 she refers to her lost keys and line 10 her mother’s lost watch. Both items may seem important and have some value at the time but losing them won’t ruin her life. She makes the statement “lose something everyday” on line 4, and she is right we lose things everyday. We are constantly misplacing things and are never able to find them again. What is the point in fretting over that something you lost? Those keys and that watch may happen to be lost at the moment but they will be found and lost again it is the cycle it all goes through. When it boils down to it, it is no big deal whether you lose something or not; it happens. On line 5 she also discusses losing something more abstract, time. When she mentions “the hour badly spent” it reminds me of wasting time. In most live the wasting of time is a common occurrence. What she wants to tell us is that it is easy to waste time and shouldn’t be a big deal, since lose of time is something easy to master. That hour badly spent can be taken back and reused, so what would be the point in wasting more time by crying over that wasted time. Instead you could be doing something more with your time. In line 11 she refers to the three houses she los...
Growing up watching fairy tales stories did not really have a meaning to me at first. As a child, I remember seeing them only as cartoons. From the Uses of Enchantment, by Bruno Bettelheim, he stated: “A child needs a moral education, not through abstract implication only, conveys to him the advantages of moral behavior, not through abstract ethical concepts but through that which seems tangibly right and therefore meaningful to him. The child finds this kind of meaning through fairy tales”. I find these sentences to have a strong meaning. In my opinion, it’s basically telling readers that stories are important in our lives and not only does it help us find our identities, but it also help us gain a sense of who we are. To begin
In Guy de Maupassant’s story, The Necklace, he utilizes situational irony in order to highlight the theme. He displays this irony in order to reveal several themes that can be observed in the story. One of the major themes in this short story is how appearances can be misleading.
As just a mere fairy-tale it tells a good story that aims to show that human nature prevents people from being equal and happy, or at least equally happy because someone is always more.
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 Jewelry,” Guy de Maupassant portrays the happy union of a loving couple with an unforeseen death. The wife’s infatuation with theatre and imitation jewelry causes the couple to grow apart and leads to the start of endless arguments. The husband goes through a dramatic change after the death of his wife, while slowing uncovering the truth about his marriage. Maupassant achieves his purpose in depicting the cruel reality by incorporating fervent diction, the symbol of deception and effusive imagery to convey that money and wealth cannot buy true happiness.
“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...
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
These fairy tale poems inform us with a few stories of how a princesses or princes becomes Royal or not. In the other versions of these poems they consist of enchanted worlds and perfect finales where the princess usually goes from rags to riches. They have fooled us to believe that the world we live in is far from imperfect, which does not give us a realistic view on how cruel our society can actually be or how difficult it can be to even be considered royal. What we have seen on TV or read in fairy-tale books has given us false hope on how the world and the human beings are perceived because both can be assumed as innocent. Young kids have been kept from poems that focus on the less dreamlike side and more on the dark side.
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.