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Summary of the necklace by guy de maupassant
Summary of the necklace by guy de maupassant
Summary of the necklace by guy de maupassant
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Fate is the concept of a pre-determined life by a greater power. Fate is a life without consequences. Fate is our destiny; it is uncontrollable. At some point in everyone’s life, we experience a perfect, magical moment that feels like the stars aligned for that one occasion, but it does not come free. In Guy de Maupassant’s story The Necklace, fate grants the perfect wish for the ultimate price. Mathilde is a peasant in France, yet she dreams of riches and desires sparkly, rare gems like any normal girl. She spends her days captivated by her own fantasies. Mathilde believed that “fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans” (Maupassant). Her destiny was to be a part of a normal family and not an aristocratic family. Mathilde would never have the chance to escape her bondage and fulfill her fantasies. / …show more content…
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.
Maupassant describes Mathilde at the party as, “the prettiest of them all, elegant, gracious, smiling, and mad with joy. She danced with delight, with passion, intoxicated with pleasure, thinking of nothing, in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a sort of cloud of happiness made up of all these tributes.” Fate granted Mathilde a glimpse of the lifestyle she hopelessly desired. Fate entices mortals to grasp the most unreachable illusion; it provides a false hope for
To start off with, Mathilde had many conflicts she had to face during the story. First, she was poor and low in the social class. In the textbook it says, “she dressed plainly because she could not afford fine clothes.” She does not have money to buy new clothes because she is poor. Secondly, she got invited to the ball but had no evening clothes. “Only I don’t have an evening dress and therefore I can’t go to the affair.” Mathilde is poor and does not own an evening dress and can’t afford a dress she thinks she can’t go to the ball. Next, she has no jewelry to wear. . “It’s embarrassing not to have a jewel or gem-nothing to wear on my dress. I’ll look pauper.” She has no jewels or gems to go with her dress. Finally, she overcame many conflicts
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.
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.
Maupassant delighted me with this story. I especially liked how he present the character Mathilde, she seemed to be extremely ungrateful with her mediocre life. She dreamed of wealth and fame and it seemed like nothing would please her. She focused so much on her desire to have social status that when she got the opportunity to go a social gathering with elite members of society, she would not go unless she had a fancy dress and fancy necklace. For one night, she felt like “somebody”. I found this story to display themes of gross vanity, irony and suffering. Because in the end Mathilde worked hard to replace the necklace that she presumed was real. She was never able to have another day of pleasure or go out to any other events. She made such a big deal of the one event, she lost herself in the feeling of being social accepted by a higher class in society.
Trevor Noah is a world-renowned comedian. He recently hosted the Grammy’s, and he had a popular comedy show called “The Daily Show” which he left in 2022. In 2016, he wrote a memoir titled “Born a Crime” detailing his early childhood and teenage years in South Africa as a mixed child. He was born during apartheid, but Nelson Mendela eradicated it when he was still a young boy. Even though apartheid is no longer prominent, Trevor continues to have issues growing up in South Africa being a mixed race.
This is the story of a woman who allows her bitterness and resentment to take her along a pathway of pain and misery. I think the key to understanding this character is to analyze what we know about her past and apply it to her reactions to her present. Mathilde’s problems start even before the beginning of the story. Her obvious bitterness and di...
" 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
Mathilde lives in an illusive world where her desires do not meet the reality of her life. She yearns for the status of being upper class, and she believes that her beauty and charm are worthy of much more. Mathilde spends her life doing everything in her power to create the dream life she has always imagined, to be beautiful, rich, and admired. Her husband provided her with a well-off lifestyle that she neglected and treated poorly due to her selfishness and greediness, and took advantage of his hard work at the first chance possible. When presented with the invitation to the party, she immediately rejected the request due to her fear of others judging her “middle class appearance”.
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.
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
...aits about Mathilde that have been established. Her materialistic, unappreciative, and egotistical tendencies make it apparent that if the readers knew Mathilde personally, they could instantly pick-on her stuck-up ways. Psychologically, it is clear to the audience what is uncovered when it comes to Mathilde. The readers gain the understanding that she has major issues not only with herself, but everyone that comes across her path. She feels as if people owe her something. It is relevant that the audience learn the kind of person Mathilde really is. The reader’s point of view of Mathilde is not very understanding of her inconsiderate ways, and that is what Maupassant wanted readers to leave feeling.
One day her husband came home from work and handed her an invitation to attend a ball. She wanted to attend; yet she had no dress to wear. After digging in to money they had been trying to save, Mathilde purchased a dress for the ball. Mathilde decided she needed jewels to wear with the dress, so she went and visited her only friend to borrow some jewels for the evening of the ball. Mathilde picked out a stunning diamond necklace.
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.