More handpicked essays just for you.
Analysis essay "the necklace" guy de maupassant
Analysis essay "the necklace" guy de maupassant
Analysis essay "the necklace" guy de maupassant
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the short story “The Necklace,” the author Guy de Maupassant describes the life of a woman named Madame Loisel. Loisel spends endless hours imagining a more extravagant existence and dreads her poverty intensely. One night, her husband returns with an invitation to a formal ball and hopes that Madame Loisel would be excited as she doesn't get to go out much. Instead, she is upset because she feels like she has nothing nice to wear and no jewelry at all. Her greed comes back at her in the end when the necklace she loses is worth next to nothing, compared to the hardships they went through. There are many key literary elements that the author uses to help the reader understand the story well. Maupassant uses imagery, characterization, and irony to make the story much more interesting and vibrant for the reader. The author uses characterization to give the reader a better understanding of what type of person Madam Loisel is. In the beginning of the story, the author writes, “She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that; she felt made for that. She would so have liked to please, to be envied, to be charming, …show more content…
After the many years that have passed by with Monsieur and Madame Loisel working hard to make up the money that they spent on buying a replacement necklace, Madame Loisel finally went to talk to her old friend. She found out the necklace cost close to nothing compared to their replacement when the author writes, “Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at most five hundred francs!” This quote signifies how Madame Loisel and her husband worked so hard and the necklace was dirt cheap. The ironical ending makes the reader feel sort of sorry for Madame Loisel as now she is living a life worse than before. It also causes the reader to be a little happy as she sort of got what she deserved. In the end, it just didn't turn out so well for
5. (CP) Madame Loisel borrows seemingly expensive necklace to satisfy her arrogance and attend a party that was way above her social class, only to lose it. She has been blessed with physical beauty, but not with the lifestyle she desires. She may not be the ideal protagonist, but she went through a tough time after she lost the necklace and had to make money to replace it.
If you have something already should be proud of what you have and not think of all the things you think you deserve because you can't get what you don't have without giving effort and the final result will be worse. Guy de Maupassant's parents got divorced when he was 11 and his mother was raising him alone. He always looked differently at the rich, so he decided to write a short story on how people should treat everything they have with care and not ask for more than you can afford because the final result may be worse. In "The Necklace" he develops his theme of how objects can change people through the literary terms situational irony and foreshadowing.
In “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant uses setting to reflect the character and development of the main character, Mathilde Loisel. As a result, his setting is not particularly vivid or detailed. He does not even describe the ill-fated necklace—the central object in the story—but states only that it is “superb” (7 ). In fact, he includes descriptions of setting only if they illuminate qualities about Mathilde. Her changing character can be connected to the first apartment, the dream-life mansion rooms, the attic flat, and a fashionable public street. [This is a well-defined thesis statement.]
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
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
The use of Irony is seen in both short stories representing the constriction in marriage. In “The Necklace” Madame Losiel receives a spectacular invitation to a prestigious gala which her husband went to great ends to get. Loisel had this desire to live a lifestyle that was way beyond her means. After purchasing a beautiful gown worth 400 franks Mathilde Loisel came to the realization that she had no jewelry to go along with the dress. Her husband suggested “You will wear some natural flowers” and she replied “ No; there is nothing more humiliating than to look poor among a lot of rich women” (Maupassant 2). Mathilde Loisel than went to her wealthy friend Mme.Forester to borrow a diamond necklace that was not affordable to replace if anything
Authors choose to use symbols for various reasons in short stories. It is a way for them to use on object or idea to convey many different meanings to the audience. In “The Necklace,” the author Guy de Maupassant uses a very lavish looking necklace as his main symbol. The necklace helps defining what type of woman Mme. Loisel is. It also acts as the central conflict of the story. The symbolism that is used throughout this story is crucial to revealing the theme and understanding the main character.
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
Around the world, values are expressed differently. Some people think that life is about the little things that make them happy. Others feel the opposite way and that expenses are the way to live. In Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”, he develops a character, Madame Loisel, who illustrates her different style of assessments. Madame Loisel, a beautiful woman, lives in a wonderful home with all the necessary supplies needed to live. However, she is very unhappy with her life. She feels she deserves a much more expensive and materialistic life than what she has. After pitying herself for not being the richest of her friends, she goes out and borrows a beautiful necklace from an ally. But as she misplaces the closest thing she has to the life she dreams of and not telling her friend about the mishap, she could have set herself aside from ten years of work. Through many literary devices, de Maupassant sends a message to value less substance articles so life can be spent wisely.
A life of glitz and glamor may not be for everyone but Mathilde may say otherwise. In Guy Maupassant’s short story the Necklace, Mathilde is a lovely looking woman who believes that she was always meant to live a life of luxury who was granted one night to live her dream but in the end of it she became the opposite of what she always dreamed off. Although it may sound as if it was a tragic downfall, it was anything but so as the story was written off of Mathilde’s selfish attitude. The Necklace is a story that portrays the protagonist, Mathilde as a ungrateful and vain women which causes her to fall to poverty and to self impose her own misery.
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
“The Necklace”, narrated by Guy de Maupassant in 3rd person omniscient, focuses the story around Mathilde Loisel who is middle class, and her dreams of fame and fortune. The story is set in 19th century France. One day, Mathilde’s husband brings home an invitation to a fancy ball for Mathilde; to his surprise Mathilde throws a fit because she doesn’t have a dress or jewelry to wear to the ball. M. Loisel gets her the beautifully expensive dress she desires and Mathilde borrows a diamond necklace from Mme. Forestier, a rich acquaintance of Mathilde. Mathilde goes to the ball and has a night she’s dreamed of, until she gets home from the ball at 4 A.M. to find
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.
Placing all your energy and well life into an object (like the necklace) can take years away from you. Sometimes what we think of as valuable may not be of actual value. It is all in the way you portray the items. He friend never mentioned how much the valued necklace costed because to her it did not matter. Thus when Mathilde lost it, she never asked its true value. She just assumed and went with it. If she had been honest with her friend she could have saved a lot of trouble.
In the story, The Necklace, Madame Loisel is a middle-class lady who is not satisfied with the life she has. Madame Loisel has a simple husband who works as a clerk and makes enough money to support both of them. She lives in an apartment, has a maid who cleans and washes for her, and has enough food for both her and her husband to eat. You can say that you think Madame Loisel has a pretty decent life, but for her, this was not enough. She daydreams of riches and jewels with a classy house and a fabulous wardrobe.