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The most dangerous game interpretation
Themes in the scarlet ibis
Themes in the scarlet ibis
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Titles are crucial parts of the stories they represent. “The Necklace” title serves as a symbol for the gift that Madame Loisel receives and loses, teaching her a valuable life lesson. The story that is presented by the title “The Most Dangerous Game” has two different meanings of “game”, both important to the meaning of the story. “The Scarlet Ibis” also has different purposes in the story; therefore it is a meaningful title for the story. The titles of “The Necklace”, “The Most Dangerous Game”, and “The Scarlet Ibis” give vital hints to symbols and lessons in the stories that they speak for.
“The Necklace” gives a strong representation of what the story is about. When Madame Loisel was looking for jewelry with Madame Forestier, “She came
upon a superb diamond necklace, and her heart started beating with overwhelming desire” (Maupassant 336). Madame Loisel’s desire for the necklace symbolizes the desire that all humans have to be beautiful. This desire of Madame Loisel ends with her losing what she had and living a life in debt and poverty. The necklace itself represents what humans want and need in life. The lost necklace shows that if people are careless and selfish, they could lose what they value most in an instant. When Madame Loisel loses the necklace, she understands, “How strange and fickle life is! How little it takes to make or break you!” (Maupassant 341) The symbolism that the necklace offers in the story is very evident. It symbolizes the longing that people have for elegance and grace, which is shown through Madame Loisel’s longing for it. It also can symbolize the lesson that Madame Loisel learned – that outer beauty is not as important in life as inner beauty, generosity, and kindness. “The Necklace” is a fitting title for the story it expresses. In the story of Rainsford and Zaroff, the title “The Most Dangerous Game” has a dual meaning. One of the “dangerous games” in the story is humans. Zaroff talks about humans when he says, “‘No. You are wrong, sir. The Cape buffalo is not the most dangerous big game’… ‘I hunt more dangerous game’” (Connell 222) He means that humans are the only animals that he hunts that have a chance to fight back. The other “dangerous game” in the story is the game of hunting that Zaroff forces Rainsford into. Zaroff tries to talk Rainsford into an ostensibly harmless game, telling Rainsford, “‘You’ll find this game worth playing’… ‘Your brain against mine. Your woodcraft against mine. Your strength and stamina against mine. Outdoor chess! And the stake is not without value, eh?’” (Connell 229) This game between Rainsford and Zaroff is the main conflict of the story. The two connotations of “the most dangerous game” tie together in this story to create the main conflict. Zaroff hunts humans – including Rainsford – which are the most dangerous game on the island, in a highly dangerous fight for life. The two “games” are represented by one title with two meanings. The conflict and the two games can be put together and partially explained through the title “The Most Dangerous Game”. Not only is it an exotic, unexpected bird, “The Scarlet Ibis” symbolizes much more than that in its story.
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.
“I hunt more dangerous game….” Similarities and differences can appear anywhere, especially in the short story and the movie called The Most Dangerous Game. They have similar, yet different expositions, characters, and plots with conflicts. Many people say that books or short stories are better than movies because of the similarities and differences that are found. Books or short stories are usually more descriptive, informative, and do not stray too far from the central idea or main theme, while movies only fall into one or two of these categories. Movies hardly ever fall into all three categories, however if they do the movies become better. This is not the case with The Most Dangerous Game. One place where movies and short stories have major similarities and differences is at the beginning of the story or the exposition.
The conflict of good and evil presents itself in “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Child by Tiger” in two completely different ways. One story being commercial fiction and the other being literary fiction, there are many ways of viewing variables such as good versus evil, realistic versus unrealistic stories and moral significance. The stories have different voices and are meant for different audiences, but in viewing the overall moral importance of both fictional works, the story with a greater moral significance is “The Child by Tiger”.
Mathilde Loisel is a woman who wants more than what she has, and is often dishonest. The short story The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassant, is about honesty and reveals that if you are honest, things turn out to be a lot better for you. Mathilde Loisel is unhappy with her current life, and her husband gets them an invitation to a party. She buys dresses with his money, and borrows a necklace from her friend, Madame Forestier. However, she loses the necklace and is dishonest, returning a substitute necklace to her friend and working for ten years with her husband to pay off the loans used to pay for it. She later learns if she had been honest, she would have not gone through that trouble. Madame Forestier, her friend of whom she had borrowed the necklace from, had owned an imitation of a necklace, not a real necklace.
Other details in the story also have a similar bearing on Mathilde’s character. For example, the story presents little detail about the party scene beyond the statement that Mathilde is a great “success” (7)—a judgment that shows her ability to shine if given the chance. After she and Loisel accept the fact that the necklace cannot be found, Maupassant includes details about the Parisian streets, about the visits to loan sharks, and about the jewelry shop in order to bring out Mathilde’s sense of honesty and pride as she “heroically” prepares to live her new life of poverty. Thus, in “The Necklace,” Maupassant uses setting to highlight Mathilde’s maladjustment, her needless misfortune, her loss of youth and beauty, and finally her growth as a responsible human being.
Some people may say that human nature is to be greedy, whereas others say greed is developed over time. Whichever way it is, needless to say both Mrs. Loisel and General Zaroff in The Necklace and Most Dangerous Game, natures were to be greedy. Bored of simple things Mrs. Loisel longed for a life of a queen. One day she got to live out her dream, she got a fancy dress, but it didn’t end there, she wanted more, she wanted jewels, which she then lost. Bored of hunting General Zaroff invented his own kind of hunting where he hunted humans, which led to his battle of life or death with Rainsford. Even though in both the Most Dangerous Game and The Necklace, the antagonists, Mrs. Loisel and General Zaroff, experienced greed, and boredom of their
“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...
It conveys the look and appeal of glam but turns out to be false just like wealth. The necklace is the object of Madame Loisel’s desire, just like wealth. Having wealth is not worth the trouble, just like the fake necklace was not worth the ten years of debt. The couple had went through a long period of hardships to get back on their feet. Even deeper than wealth, the necklace could represent appearance.
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”, 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.
The theme of the story, is to show honesty and be yourself and not someone that others expect you to be. Maupassant gives a very clear picture of this in his tale. In “The Necklace”, a poor couple are given a chance of a life time when a message arrives from Ministry of Education. This message asked the Losiel’s to “…. do them the honor of attending an evening reception at the Ministerial Mansion….” (170) Even with this rare occasion invite, Mme Loisel was very ungrateful as she had nothing to wear and throws the invitation to the ground. At this time, her husband decided to allow her to purchase a beautiful gown for this event. This still is not good enough for Mme. Loisel's she has no jewels to wear, and she make a selfish decision to borrow something that she feels is nearly impossible to replace. The author continues to show how material items can take over a person’s self esteem and confidence (which many can relate to)
As I did research on how others interpreted the story, the same conclusion would pop up. The necklace was used as a symbol of higher class of wealth. We use symbolic items to try and fit into societies belief of “fancy”. The deeper meaning is within the true value of the necklace. It is a fake just as she is! She is trying to be something she is not and ends up losing the necklace which holds a false value as well. This is why a person should not take everything as it
The use of irony in “The Necklace” adds a little humour and helps in emphasizing the theme of the story. While describing Madame Loisel’s character,
““Oh no,” Madame Loisel said as she realized Madame Forester’s diamond necklace was no longer around her neck.” This is the beginning of the conflict in the short story The Necklace. This is also the cause of a lot of the hardships throughout the story. This essay is about the cause of Madame Loisel's behavior and the effect of it.