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Theme essay on the necklace
What is the symbolism of the necklace in the short story
Major theme of the necklace
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To start off, before Mme. Loisel attends the party she was described as a very beautiful women, but with negative attitude towards life. Throughout her life she believed that she deserved better things in her life just because she was beautiful and charming. In the story “The Necklace,” Loisel states, “… feeling she had been born for all the little niceties and luxuries of living” (line 11-12). This reveals that, she visualized a grander life for herself, not the crummy life she has now. She would have everything she needed in life plus more. Also, she seems like she would do anything to get that kind of life (including, leaving her husband). She also thinks her clothes should be just like her, gorgeous. Mme. Loisel also states, “She had no evening clothes, no jewels, nothing. But those were the things she wanted; she felt that was the kind of life for her” (line 35-36). As you can see, she lives the opposite of a luxurious life, but after receiving the invitation to the …show more content…
Loisel arrived at the stupendous party she finally felt like she belonged and everything she imagine to happen at the party came true. In “The Necklace” the narrator states,””She was prettiest one there, fashionable, gracious, smiling, and wild with joy. All the men turned to look at her, asked who she was, begged to be introduced”(lines 114-116). This shows how, everyone reacts to Loisel, just as she expected. I assume she expects to be asked to marry one of the many wealthy men there. It’s like she forgot she was married. It also states, “She danced wildly, with passion, drunk on pleasure, forgetting everything in the triumph of her beauty, the pride of her success, in a kind of happiness cloud composed of all the adulation”(lines 118-120). This shows, what a great time Mme. Loisel was having. She was dancing, drinking, getting a better feeling on how luxurious her life could be. Everything she has wanted could become real, soon, that is if nothing bad
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.
and Mme. Loisel cooperate to find what seems to be an exact replica of the lost necklace, which they must purchase and return to Mme. Forestier. Mathilde attempts to find a replacement for the necklace to prevent Mme. Forestier from realizing the original had been lost. The couple travelled “from one jeweler to another hunting for a similar necklace” (175). They went together to look for the necklace, which proves that they are exerting mutual effort. M. Loisel uses all means necessary to pay for the necklace. He “made ruinous deals” (187) and “risked his signature” (188) in order to pay for the expensive diamond necklace. Though Mme. Loisel lost the necklace, her husband uses his savings and takes out loans to help her pay for the replacement. The couple acquires the necklace and must return it to Mme. Forestier. M. Loisel brings the necklace home, and “Mme. Loisel took the necklace back” (199) to the owner. The couple collaborates to get the necklace into the hands of its owner. Mathilde and M. Loisel work together to replace Mme. Forestier’s necklace, and she is none the
Mrs. Loisel and the grandmother are very similar due to the fact that they both had the same motivation prior to their accident. It was a selfish motivation that cost them their lives. Mrs. Loisel's character was selfish in "The Necklace" because instead of wearing flowers like her husband suggested, she chose to borrow her friend's jewelry. "You can wear some natural flowers. At this season they look very chic. For ten francs you can have two or three magnificent roses. 'No, she replied, there is nothing more humiliating than to have a shabby air in the midst of rich women.'" (67) This is truly an act of selfishness on Mrs. Loisel's part. If she wouldn't have been so arrogant, she could have just worn the flowers to the party and it would have saved her a lot of trouble.
Although Madame Loisel isn’t wealthy or part of the social class that is considered high, she tried to do everything to make herself appear as if she is. She believes that her beauty can bring her as far as becoming wealthy or being able to socialize with the wealthy. The ball is important to her because for once her appearance is equivalent with the fantasy of rising above middle class she has dreamt up in her head and “[she] was a success. She was the loveliest of all; elegant, graceful, smiling, and radiant with joy. All the other men looked at her, asked who she was, and wanted to be introduced to her… [t]he triumph of her beauty and the glory of her success enveloped her in a sort of cloud of happiness made up of all the compliments” (175). The reality is beneath her appearance because she is not wealthy, nor is she actually happy with the life she lives on a daily basis. She easily deceives everyone with her appearance to make it seem as if she does have money. Uncontrolled self-absorption can distort lives to those who worry about their appearance too much. Another example of how appearances can be misleading is the necklace that Madame Loisel borrowed. It appears as if it is made of real diamonds but instead it is fake jewelry. The fact
She lives in an imaginary world in her head where her actual life does not match the ideal life she is living. She believes her beauty and charm make her worthy of greater things. She wears knock-off jewelry, clothes, and goes to high end parties, but dresses and acts like she is wealthy. The bliss of her evening at these parties were not achieved by angst, and the reality of her appearance is much different than it seems. The party is a conquest because for the first time, her appearance matches the reality of her life. Her wealth and class are simply illusions, and other people are easily deceived. I liked this short story because it relates to people today being concerned with their appearance and social class instead of their character and being blessed with what they have. I live by a certain quote every day by John Wooden he once said, “ Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while you reputation is merely what others think you
Madame Lantin was a woman of high admiration from everyone she knew. This is reflected in the story not only by M. Lantin, but from the townspeople as well. The townspeople first relate to Madame Lantin as the type of person where everybody sung her praises; all who knew her kept saying, “The man who gets her will be lucky. No one could find a girl nicer than that” (Maupassant 90). M. Lantin, her husband, who was the chief clerk in the Office of the Minister of the Interior, was indescribably happy with her. They had a marriage that not only filled their home with extravagance, but made M. Lantin extremely happy and felt abundantly in love. M. Lantin said, “It would be impossible to conceive of any attentions, tenderness, playful caresses, which she did not lavish upon her husband and that he loved her even more than he did the first day he married her” (Maupassant 90). Guy De Maupassant is trying to give us a mental image throughout the story of Madame Lantin’s character so the readers can fall in love with her character traits just as easily as M. Lantin did in the story along with the townspeople. Even though Madame Lantin dies in the very beginning of this story, she is still the dynamic character in the story.
Mathilde marries Mr. Loisel, a minor clerk in the Ministry of Education. She becomes unhappy with the way she has to live. "She suffered because of her grim apartment with its drab walls, threadbare furniture, ugly curtains." (paragraph 3). She owns cheap belongings and still dreams of being rich and having gourmet food while her husband likes plain things and seems rather happy for where he is in life. She dreams these wonderful and expensive things and it frustrates her. A dream come true happens but instead of being happy she is upset and even more frustrated.
“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...
Mme. Loisel's adversity provides her with an opportunity to better herself. Had she not lost the necklace, Mme. Loisel may have never relinquished the lofty (but unrealistic and shallow) expectations she had of herself and her husband. Most likely, she would have spent the rest of her life as an unhappy, discontented woman. Instead, Mme. Loisel receives a chance to begin again with a clean slate and a more positive attitude. Finally, Mme. Loisel realizes that her adversity has helped her by forcing her to grow up-to appreciate what she has rather than what she does not and to realize that little in this life comes without hard work.
But the misery taught Madame Loisel to accept her situation. She was dressing like commoners; she was doing all the household chores without complaining. She was living a poor woman’s life and she accepted it. Because she knew that she has to pay the debt for the necklace. So this misery lasted for ten years when they finally cleared all the debts. It was a huge relief for them. That little incident has shaken her life; she realizes that it losing it was the reason of her misery. This is where she is wrong, instead of thinking that she should be thinking why she borrowed it at the first
De Maupassant describes Mathidle as follows: Mathidle “…danced with intoxication, with passion, made drunk by pleasure, forgetting all, in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in sort of a cloud of happiness composed of all this homage, of all this admiration, of all these awakened desires, and of that sense of complete victory which is so sweet to a women’s heart” (pg 70). Once more De Maupassant reveals more of Mathidle’s character by announcing, “He threw over her shoulders the wraps which he had brought, modest wrap of common life, whose poverty contrasted with the elegance of the ball dress” (70). This description of Mathidle shows her passion for wealth and living this type of lifestyle. As she dances the night away, the night began to end. Maupassant states, “she removed the wraps which covered her shoulders…so as once more to see herself in all her glory” (pg 71). Once again, this shows how confident she feels in this “new” body. Once they leave the dance, she and her husband take a cab home. Arriving at the house, Mathidle realizes that she has lost the diamond necklace, and Mathidle becomes frantic. The husband agrees to stay out and retrace every step they made tonight with hopes of finding the necklace intact. With no luck, he returns home. De Maupassant declares, “The next day they went took the box which had contained it, and they went to the jeweler whose name was found within”
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
In actuality, she was defiant, and ate macaroons secretly when her husband had forbidden her to do so. She was quite wise and resourceful. While her husband was gravely ill she forged her father’s signature and borrowed money without her father or husband’s permission to do so and then boastfully related the story of doing so to her friend, Mrs. Linde. She was proud of the sacrifices she made for her husband, but her perceptions of what her husband truly thought of her would become clear. She had realized that the childlike and submissive role she was playing for her husband was no longer a role she wanted to play. She defied the normal roles of the nineteenth century and chose to find her true self, leaving her husband and children
In The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant the husband "Monsieur Loisel is content with the small pleasures of his life, but does his best to appease Mathilde's demands and assuage her complaints"(Spark Notes). By any means, Monsieur will do anything or try to do anything to make his wife happy. Mathilde the protagonist who's a stunning lady with beautiful looks who feel the need to be rich, so she stays dreaming of what her life would be like as a rich lady. Although she was not rich, but mid class she did have a rich friend that she stays away from because of the simple fact that she was not as fortun...
Mathilde Loisel grew up in the working class and had no expectations in life. Mathilde settled for a lifestyle she was unhappy with. When she got married, she and her husband would sit around the dinner table and imagine they were eating a luxurious meal. Together, they had nothing. Mathilde had no clothes, no jewels, and only one friend (who was rich). Mathilde dreamt of wealth, fine clothes, and a beautiful house. She knew that those dreams were unrealistic and unattainable.