Ethan Wang Mrs. Cota Honors English, Period 4 September 7, 2016 “The Necklace” Essay 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 Loisel uses verbal irony to benefit herself, when speaking to Monsieur Loisel, showing her manipulativeness and selfishness. First, after she does not have a dress for an invitational reception, she tells Monsieur Loisel to “give the card to some friend at the office whose wife can dress …show more content…
better than I can.” (5). This shows her manipulativeness, by tricking Monsieur Loisel into buying her a new dress. In addition, even after receiving her dress, Mathilde says “I’d almost rather not go to that party.” (10). Since, she wishes to obtain a complementary jewel, she declares that she would not go to the reception. This incident displays Madame Loisel’s vanity, and her selfishness. Even after getting her dress, she still demands to have more. Ultimately, the Mathilde’s usage of verbal irony proves her conniving and selfish characteristics. Additionally, Maupassant’s use of dramatic irony helps the reader understand Mathilde Loisel’s deceitful and unappreciative characteristics.
First, there is a demonstration of dramatic irony, when Mathilde returns a necklace to Mme. Forestier. After Mathilde lost the borrowed necklace, she replaced it and returned back to Mme. Forestier. However, Mme. Forestier did not know that Mathilde had “[replaced] that piece of jewelry.” (9). This shows that Mathilde cares about her reputation more than her friendship. Mathilde did not want anyone to know that she lost a borrowed necklace. It would have tarnished her reputation, and caused her a lifetime of embarrassment. It also demonstrates how Mathilde is materialistic. She also considers an item more precious than her friendship. As a result, she deceives Mme. Forestier and gives her a necklace that looks exactly the same. Additionally, Mathilde uses Monsieur Loisel’s saved money, which had been “set aside...to buy a rifle...” to buy a dress (5). Monsieur Loisel does not tell Mathilde about his intention to use the saved money. Since Monsieur Loisel does not tell Mathilde, he knows that she most likely would have taken it anyway. This shows her ungratefulness toward Monsieur Loisel and the
money. Consequently, Maupassant uses a combination of dramatic and verbal irony to demonstrate to the reader how Mathilde Loisel is selfish, ungrateful, and manipulative. From tricking Monsieur Loisel, to replacing a lost necklace, the uses of dramatic and verbal irony continue to contribute to the reader’s understanding of Mathilde Loisel.
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
Madame Liosel a young woman born through a family of artisans thought she deserved more than a middle class life. Instead of a rich, wonderful life, Mathilde had a gruesome, rough life in which she shares it with here rich high class husband who cannot pay off the fake necklace. This small pieces of situational irony, or unexpected twist, comes from Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace.” in Maupassant’s tale, she employs situational irony too, not only surprise the reader, but to also fill the reader with a sense of horror. Authors often utilize this unexpected twist to produce an odd emotion in the reader's mind. O. Henry does this in the story “The Ransom Of Red Chief.” Shirley Jackson also does it in his tedious short story “The Lottery.” By reading and scrutinizing these short stories, “The Ransom Of Red Chief” and
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.
Situational irony occurs throughout most of The Necklace; it appears when Madame Forestier lends Madame Loisel a diamond necklace since “[she’s] upset because [she] haven’t a single piece of jewelry or a gemstone or anything to wear with [her] dress.[She’ll] look like a pauper. [She] almost think[s] it would be better if [she] didn’t go” and lets her borrow it for a ball one night so Madame Loisel can fit in; however, she ends up losing the necklace(174).Madame Loisel was not informed of the fact that the diamond necklace was actually fake. In a panic, Madame Loisel and her husband work hard and pay the loans off for many years trying to replace the necklace only to find out it wasn’t real; they gave up their decent lifestyle and had to save up for ten years. The situational irony is the fact that Madame Loisel thought that if she borrowed the diamond necklace it would help her become closer to the life she wanted, but the necklace ended up putting her and her husband into poverty and without the life that she longed for, instead. The ten years of poverty that Madame Loisel and
In “The Necklace,” Maupassant uses irony to help amplify the mood and theme of the story. After getting a ticket to a gorgeous ball, Mathilde claims she needs a pretty dress and expensive jewelry. Living with a poor husband however causes her to have to borrow from a friend. Her friend presented her with some fine jewelry, but even that wasn’t enough for her, as she wanted something nicer, “All at once, in a box lined with black satin, she came upon a superb diamond necklace, and her
As the day drew near Mathilde’s envy overtook her once more and she became distraught. She decided that she could not go. When Mr. Loisel asked why, she replied that she had no jewelry to wear and that she would look l...
Mathilde is unable to look beyond the wealth and realize if she loves her husband like he loves her, she could live a better and happy life instead of always dreaming of wealth leading her to misery. Similarly, Daisy is incapable to look past money and understand that if she did not care about money and reputation, she could have a better and grateful life. Both women fail to comprehend that something’s need to be done without thinking about wealth and status. Moreover, Mathilde’s greed for high stature leads to her misery. “ [Matthilde] ‘I lost it’. ‘I brought you another just like it and we’ve been paying for it for ten years now’… [Mme. Forestier] ‘But mine was only paste.’” (Maupassant 217). Mathilde’s achievement of wealth and status have a negative impact on her life as she spends most of life working as a maid to pay off the money that her and Mr.Loisel borrow to replace the lost necklace. When Mathilde finds out the Mme. Forestier necklace was a fake, she realizes if she was paying attention, she would have known that no one lends a real diamond to anyone but she is unable to notice the fake jewelry because she needs it be real. Her dreams of wealth and status lead to her
She suffered all those ten years just for a necklace that she absolutely had to have. It’s ironic because she suffered and worked for a necklace that was not worth all of that at all. The author didn’t reveal this until the very end of the story. “Oh, my poor Mathilde? Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at moat five hundred francs” (Maupassant 558). This is situational irony in the short story The
Mathilde lives in an illusive world where her desires do not meet up to 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 rejects the request due to her fear of others judging her “middle class appearance”. But her loving husband offers her the hard earned money he had been saving up so she can treat herself to a brand new dress for the party. Her actions are centered around the happiness of herself, and have no good intentions towards her husband or
First, deception is shown through appearance. In the necklace Mathilde wanted to look rich among the guests at the ball. The appearance of the jewelry around her neck and the lie told to Madame Forestier about the necklace ended up affecting the Loisels. It all started because of Mathilde's desire to be appear rich. When her husband gave
“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
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
Initially, “The Necklace” draws several parallels to the fairy tale “Cinderella.” To explain, Mathilde’s magnificent night at the ball, and all the events leading up to it, are on the verge of transforming into a fairy tale. Mathilde “was prettier than any other woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling and wild with joy” (4). In both stories, a poor woman with a lust for something better go to a ball for the higher class, and gains a beautiful gown and an item of importance. This item makes them feel powerful, as if they truly belong to the rich. However, they are forced to leave in the middle of the night, and on their way back home, they lose their significant accessory. Upon arriving, they return to being poor and upset with their living conditions. As can be seen in both tales, no matter how hard one tries, they cannot become someone who they aren’t. To add to this, in both stories, Cinderella and Mathilde live very similar lives prior to the ball. For instance, they both have strong, supportive male figures in their lives. In “Cinderella,” her deceased father is her inspiration, and in “The Necklace,” it’s Mathilde’s husband. These characters help guide the young women through the
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.