Similarities Between The Necklace And The Gift Of The Magi

The True Value of Prosperity
“Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul” (Democritus). The Necklace composed by Guy de Maupassant and O.Henry’s The Gift of the Magi both revolve around married couples and how they cope with their current financial status. The Necklace depicts the life of a poor Parisian couple, the Loisels, in which the woman, Mathilde, bases her happiness on materialistic wealth. Overall, the story displays the fact that sometimes the things that one desires is not what they actually need. On the other hand, The Gift of the Magi is centered on a young couple, the Youngs as they adjust to life in a small flat. In this story, O.Henry stresses the lengths that one is capable of going to in order to please their significant other. These stories consist of similarities and differences, which are

demonstrated through the structure of the plots, character development, and major themes.

The Gift of the Magi and The Necklace emphasize a variety of comparative features, but can also be contrasted in many ways. The settings of both short stories are very similar in the way that both are set during the transition of the fall to winter season. The Youngs are primarily of a lower class whereas the Loisels are part of a middle-class society before they encounter a twist of fate, which

impacts their daily lives drastically. Both stories focus on the fact that the two couples have an insufficient amount of materialistic wealth. Through the use of imagery, the authors emphasize the lives of the main characters as they shift to a lower economic class than comfortable, which initially leads them to greatly suffer from poverty. This is evident in The Gift of the Magi when O.Henry mentions, “Furnished rooms at a cost of $8 a week” (Henry, 1904). This quotation signifies that Della and Jim suffer from the hardships of scarceness as they live in a New York flat with very few material possessions. Della’s long beautiful hair and Jim’s gold watch are their two most prized possessions; it simply adds to their pride. Similarly, in The Necklace, Guy de Maupassant describes, “...She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains” (Maupassant, 1884). Even though Mathilde is a middle-class woman, she resents the fact that she married beneath her standards and continually complains about every aspect of her life. She does not value the fact that she has a servant girl who comes in to clean her house. Instead, she constantly fantasizes about having a better lifestyle with an endless supply of luxuries and ornate rooms hung with tapestries and silks. Unfortunately for her, she was not born into a family with money to make her dream possible. Despite being aware of her low social position, she feels as if she was born to something greater and engages in self-pity as she finds it difficult to afford the things of aspiration. Mathilde does not show the slightest bit
of appreciation for all the possessions that she already owns.
Situational irony plays a huge role in both short stories as it enhances the plot and showcases a turn of events. In The Gift of the Magi, both Jim and Della engage in the act of self-sacrifice to satisfy the needs of their loved one, which shows that they both share an intimate bond. Sacrificing their most precious possessions is a reward of its own because by depriving themselves, they enrich the life of the other person. Irony is seen because the gifts that they give to each other immediately become useless as Della is unable to wear her combs since she has short hair and Jim cannot make use of his watch chain without his watch. The gift that each of them buys is specifically designed for the possession that they both sold. Jim was the first to recognize the irony as Della’s haircut is very noticeable; “His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for” (O.Henry, 1904). Della and Jim value people over their possessions, which signifies the fact that they treasure each other’s love over materialistic wealth. Meanwhile, in The Necklace, Madame Forestier states as she meets Mathilde, “Oh my poor Mathilde! Why my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!” (Maupassant, 1884). Mathilde borrows a necklace from Madame Forestier because she wants to give an appearance of being wealthy at a formal party. As a result, she carelessly loses the necklace. Although this seemed to have been her mistake, it was Madame Forestier who ended up determining her fate. That necklace is the symbol of her excessive pride, and it gets worse right after she loses it. Mathilde is much too proud to tell her friend that she had lost the necklace, so she and her husband are forced to borrow outrageously in order to replace it. For the next ten years, the two of them work extremely hard in order to pay back what turned out to be unnecessary loans. In that decade of work and sacrifice, Mathilde learns how to be content with much less. Surprisingly, her appearance changes as she loses her beauty; her only valued asset. Mathilde finally shares the truth with Madame Forestier that the necklace she returned was a replacement, but she and her husband have finally paid off the debt.
Della Young from The Gift of the Magi and Mathilde Loisel from The Necklace have contradicting personalities to one another, but suffer from similar conditions as they are both remotely poor. In The Necklace, Mathilde Loisel starts off as an ungrateful middle- class woman who seeks riches and admiration to fulfill her needs. On the other hand, Della Young is very compassionate and goes to any extent to buy her husband a Christmas gift as she sells the one thing that she relishes very much; her hair. Mathilde’s actions cause her to appear as very greedy and arrogant, and when her friend, Madame Forestier is sympathetic enough to let her borrow her jewelry, Mathilde asks rudely, “Haven’t you anything else?” (Maupassant, 1884). In contrast, Della is very appreciative when she receives a hair pin, and is very unselfish when she sacrifices the beauty of her hair. At the beginning of The Necklace, Mathilde and her husband started off pretty well, although they were not classified as being too rich. On the other hand, Della suffers from her current economic status as she only had one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy Jim a Christmas gift. Della and Mathilde are very unlike as they treat their husbands in different ways. Della appreciates Jim and wants to buy him a valuable gift that demonstrates how honorable she feels to belong to someone like him. Alternatively, Mathilde values material wealth above the love of her husband and does not take into account the various sacrifices that he frequently makes for the sake of happiness. She states, “It annoys me that I don’t have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I should rather not go out at all” (Maupassant,1884). When Mathilde’s husband brings her an invitation to the ball, she refuses to attend and tells him to give it someone else who owns better clothing. Mathilde’s ingratitude leads to her husband sacrificing the money he had been saving up for a hunting rifle in order for her to purchase a dress for the party. In addition, when Mathilde loses the necklace, Monsieur Loisel is the one who goes all over the city searching for it and most importantly, he spends his life savings replacing it. As seen in The Gift of the Magi and The Necklace, Della and Mathilde’s attitudes towards their unfortunate lifestyles are quite the opposite as both have different ways of coping with their troubles.
In The Necklace, Guy de Maupassant focuses on the theme, the deception of appearances throughout the passage. The reality of Mathilde’s situation is that she is neither wealthy nor part of the social class of which she feels she is a deserving member, but Mathilde does everything in her power to make her life appear different from how it is. She lives in an illusory world where her actual life does not match the ideal life she has in her head, as she believes that her beauty and charm makes her worthy of greater things. The party is a triumph because for the first time, her appearance matches the reality of her life. She is prettier than the other women, sought after by the men, and feels admired and flattered by all. Although, the reality is that her appearance took a lot of scheming and work as the bliss of her evening was not achieved without anguish. Mathilde’s wealth and class are simply illusions, and other people are easily deceived. The deceptiveness of appearances is highlighted by Madame Forestier’s necklace, which appears to be made of diamonds, but is actually nothing more than costume jewelry. On the contrary, in The Gift of the Magi, the themes, love and generosity come into play. Della and Jim give each other the best of all possible gifts, which is love. It does not matter that Jim no longer has the gold watch to display on the elegant chain that Della gave him, nor does it matter that Della does not have long, luxurious hair to comb with the gift Jim had given her. The thing that matters the most is that they have each other. When they both exchange their gifts, Jim states, “They’re too nice to use now. I sold the watch to get the money to buy the combs” (Henry, 1904). Jim comments on the value of the gifts as they not only represent their unconditional love, but also symbolize sacrificial love.
In The Gift of the Magi, the Youngs live a happily married life, although they suffer from poverty, and cherish their loved one over material possessions. Their sacrifices strengthen their love and in the end, deepen their unbreakable bond. Contrastingly, in The Necklace, Mathilde is deeply in love with herself and the joy that materialistic wealth brings to her. Because of her greed and jealousy, both her and her husband suffer ten years of the terrible consequences that could have been prevented if she was honest with Madame Forestier. As Edwin Way Teale states, “Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.” When people preoccupy themselves with possessions, more than anything else, they prevent themselves from living a free and noble life.