Research Paper On Guy De Maupassant

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The Restless Woman
The famous D.H. Lawrence once quoted “A woman unsatisfied must have luxuries. But a woman who loves a man will sleep on a board.” The first part of this quote fits the description perfectly for Guy de Maupassant’s restless woman in “The Necklace”. Guy de Maupassant was a famous French author known for his popular short stories. His stories gave readers an image of how the French culture was in the 19th century. He was abundant in his literature, producing and publishing over 300 short stories and six novels, but he died at a young age due to continuing battles with physical and mental health. What continues to shake global literature to this day is one of his famous short stories “The Necklace”. The short, but humorous, …show more content…

His descriptive to detail gives you an image of the emotional conflict that Mister and Madame Loisel experiences. The reader gets an emotional attachment to what Mathilde suffers dramatically after losing the invaluable diamond necklace. We see her transition from a woman of craving the finest sterling, but living the “bourgeois” lifestyle as the French would say. Then she spends the next decade going through intense labor, during this time she often thinks back of her mistakes of borrowing the necklace. “She sat down near the window and she thought of that gay evening of long ago, of that ball where she had been so beautiful and so admired. What would have happened if she had not lost the necklace? Who knows? Who knows...?” (184). Ten years of what seemed like a lifetime, and now she realizes how much this fascination life she dreamed of had cost her. It was a little too late to think back on a decision she could have avoided by simply be grateful for what she had. She spent years cleaning, washing, ironing, and spending time with other middle class women over a necklace. Maupassant does not reveal her exact emotions during this time, but there were probably many days where she cried. We can assume there were many days when she was experiencing excruciating pain from the labor, but throughout the years it made her strong, hard and rough. At the end the author discloses a scene where Mathilde Loisel has an encounter with Madame Forestier after a decade. She lets Mathilde know that this jewelry she was head over heels for was costume jewelry. We can only imagine the thousands of feelings that is emerging from her brutal heart. She spent ten years of her life working crucially hard for a faux ornament. Maupassant is brilliant for creating a moral lesson that people may pay a terrible price for

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