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The portrayal of women in literature
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Think of how the world would react if you couldn’t make choices and people only had luck. The outcome of your level of success is not depicted by chance, it is shown by the choices you make in certain situations. For example, in the story “The Rights to the Street of Memphis” Richard made the choice to fight for himself. He was in a situation that he had to either choose to prove to his mother that he would survive in the real world or be useless to his family like his father was. Even though some may think that the characters have bad luck that put them in situations, the characters developed by their choices because, Richard wanted to stay under his mother’s wing instead of being defeated, Ulrich and George decided to wait until the last second to …show more content…
Madame made the choice to be careless at the party and to not be aware of the necklace that did not belong to her. “The slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land” (Guy de Maupassant 1) Madame Loisel made decisions that lead up to her future as a hard worker. As the story began Madame Loisel had chose to have a continuous bad attitude. Her attitude lead up to her husband having to Ulrich and George decided to wait until the last second to apologize to each other and be friends. Ulrich and Georg refused to get along and continued to fight until a few minutes before they were crushed. They both made a decision not to get along and not to cooperate. Ulrich and Georg. Richard wanted to stay under his mother's wing instead of fighting. Richard had to choose either to fight and prove to his mother that he could survive in the real world and he would not put up with being beat, or to go home a failure and and not have money to eat. Richard’s mother made decisions also. She had to decide if she wanted to send her oldest son out in the world to fight. She had to decide if Richard was strong enough and if he was ready to help support their
decided to work together to live. In the start of the story, Ulrich and Georg really hated
“The Necklace” gives a strong representation of what the story is about. When Madame Loisel was looking for jewelry with Madame Forestier, “She came
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.
Guy de Maupassant expresses his theme through the use of situational irony. Guy de Maupassant says, “She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her.”(De Maupassant). She is poor and thinks of herself too much and then he says "but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class.”(De Maupassant). She wants more than she can get which will ruin her later in the story. When she lost the necklace by the end of the week they had lost all hope to find it. Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:
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
focus of both main characters is to harm the other. Ulrich believes that Georg is trespassing on his
...ame Loisel comprehends the meaning of humility. Prior to the necklace Mathilde lived the life of princess in a working class home fantasizing of "thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware". After the necklace, Mathilde has metamorphosed into a determined woman who fights hard for her bread. Every so often she experiences her past daydreams but these have matured into objective and rational queries. Rather than crying and complaining she ponders upon a rational thought of her past life, this example of free indirect discourse gives us an insight into her more mature thoughts,"What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? who knows? How strange and changeful is life!". Madame Loisel develops a positive mindset and embraces failure as a lesson of life. Humbled by the events, she is truly a transformed lady.
One male authority figure in Richard’s life that was significant, is his father Nathaniel Wright. Growing up, Richard had hardly any ties to his father in terms of love, time, and affection. He only saw his father as a cold frightening shadow that came and left every once awhile. Because his father left with only bad memories, Richard was able to develop a sense of maturity and realization as a child. Without a figure to look up to, Richard would quickly learn to do what it took to survive with his mom and brother. When Nathaniel left, Richard was given many hardships such as starvation, fear, and a lack of a permanent home. Richard would go starving for days, which resulted in eating leftover food from customers at his mother’s job. And because
At the age of six, Richard began going to a saloon where the older men gave him drinks as a form of entertainment for them.” She beat me; then she prayed and wept over me, imploring me to be good,telling me that she had to work…” (Wright 22).Richard is completely ignoring his mother and doesn’t understand his reasoning but soon realizes that she was only watching out for him.As Richard constantly hears negative comments from his family members when they comment on his actions, he gets to hear at least one good thing from his mother. When Richard writes his first story,and publicizes it, he is constantly hearing pure criticism. Though Ella is not complementing or encouraging him at all, she does not put him down for his work. Instead she simply says,” Son you ought to be more serious, you’re growing up now and you won’t be able to get jobs if you let people think that you’re weak minded” (Wright 168).Having one person who is not giving him trouble is relieving for Richard because it is making him feel a little understood in a place where he feels as if no one understands him.Having his mother be the only person who truly cares for him, Richard starts to understand that and appreciate it. “Night and day I
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
Throughout “The Necklace” it is clearly obvious that Madame Loisel is not satisfied with the
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
“The Necklace” is a story about a woman named Madame Loisel and her husband. They were invited to a dinner party but Madame Loisel had nothing to wear. She begged her husband for money so she could buy a new dress so she did not look poor. After buying a new dress, she real...
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.
Undoubtedly, Madame Loisel had discussed with her husband about where they needed to go. Madame was guilty about losing the necklace, and was trying to visualize locations where the necklace could be.