More handpicked essays just for you.
The necklace, essay
Essay about the necklace by guy de maupassant
Essay about the necklace by guy de maupassant
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” the precious diamond necklace holds a deep meaning. Despite being the titular object, this piece of jewelry appears to be no more than a plot-driving element at first glance. This mere accessory for the wealthy sits amid her burning ambitions, pulls her to these desires, and then drops her farther away from them than ever before. Firstly , expensive jewelry like the necklace is part of the grandiose, affluent existence she yearns for . For example, after elaborately describing her fantasies of living richly, as opposed to her modest status as the wife of a humble clerk, de Maupassant plainly states her trouble: “She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that…” (68). This …show more content…
After misplacing it at the party and quickly coming up with a massive thirty-six thousand francs to buy a replacement, the Loisels are faced with many debts. To pay them all off, Mathilde and her husband move to a humble home with less rent required to pay for it, and she begins to take on the arduous household tasks usually covered by their servant, while Monsieur Loisel takes on another job. They take this new life for a decade to overcome her poor mistake (72). In return for an evening away from the meek life of a clerk’s wife she has had, wearing her rich friend’s pristine diamond necklace and dancing among women with much more wealth than she, now she and her husband spend ten years in squalor . Had she not lost the necklace, or borrowed the necklace, or grieved over not having jewelry to wear for the party, or not ached to go to such an event when she is but the humble wife of a clerk, she would still be in a fairly decent life. However, none of these were the case, and her lust for the necklace, or interchangeably, a life of wealth, brings about her downfall. As the story closes, she is walking a bustling Parisian street on a Sunday, she encounters her old friend Madame Forestier, and confesses about the incident with the necklace. Madame Forestier explains the shocking and sad truth: “Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs” (73). This is meant to be a stunning metaphor about a wealthy life: While Madame Loisel held this dream so highly —as she did with the necklace, believing it costs tens of thousands of francs— it turns out to be much less valuable in reality: the necklace is merely paste, and the evening at the ball does not satisfy her past the evening (71). Mathilde learns that the past ten years of repaying usurers and loan sharks,
“Guy de Maupassant’s, “The Necklace”, is about a young couple who discovers the upper society appears to sparkles like a real diamond necklace, but in reality it is not always true. A decision that seems to protect their integrity turns out to tarnish it – like a fake necklace. However, through ironic insights we witness drama, character revelations and experience surprise” (Clugston, 2010) .The Necklace is told from a 3rd person point of view with limited omniscience. The title suggests that the plot will center on a necklace. So, naturally we, the audience or reader wants to know what the significance of the necklace is. After reading the story I believe that Maupassant used the necklace to symbolize the upper society or wealth. Another symbol that the necklace represents is appearance. In the story Mme. Loisel was a beautiful young woman that had admirers at the reception. She made all the attendees believe she was from...
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.
The main character in "The Necklace" is a lady named Mathilde who is extremely pretty. She is not a very wealthy person, and is married to a clerk. Mathilde is very unhappy with her life, and wishes she could have more luxuries. The author says :
Ten years of suffering is the cost of having pleasure for only one night! In “The Necklace,” by Guy de Maupassant presents Mathilde Loisel, an attractive, charming but vacuous and selfish middle class lady transforms to selfness, poor, satisfied and hard-working lady. Even though, Mathidle owns a comfortable home and married to a faithful and kind husband, Monsieur Loisel, who seeks her happiness and satisfaction; she was ungrateful to the things that she had been given, because her greed and desire of wealth had captured her thoughts and blurred the real meaning of happiness in her perspective. Mathidle spends most of her time surfing in her day dreams of being wealthy and suffering from accepting the reality, because her imagination was more than she could not afford. One day Mathidle’s husband brought his wife an invitation for a fancy party, but as a result of their low income, Mathidle’s was ashamed to wear flowers as decoration, so she decided to borrow an expensive looking necklace from a friend of her, Madame Forestier. After attending the fabulous party and spending a memorable great time looking stunningly beautiful, Mathidle discovers that she had lost the expensive necklace that she borrowed, so she decides to buy a similar copy of the necklace to her friend after loaning an enormous amount of money and narrowing the house outcome. The author surprises his readers with a perfectly detailed twist at the end of the story. Losing the necklace was a turning point in Mathidle’s life and the best thing that ever happened to her.
With a starving yearning for elegant belongings, Madame Loisel can’t help but to get into trouble. She dreams of a life where she has servants and fine tableware. Madame Loisel, in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, is blinded by greed, envy and is manipulative.
Mathilde Loisel lived the life of a painfully distressed woman, who always believed herself worthy of living in the upper class. Although Mathilde was born into the average middle class family, she spent her time daydreaming of her destiny for more in life... especially when it came to her financial status. Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”, tells a tale of a vain, narcissistic housewife who longed for the aristocratic lifestyle that she believed she was creditable for. In describing Mathilde’s self-serving, unappreciative, broken and fake human behaviors, de Maupassant incorporates the tragic irony that ultimately concludes in ruining her.
"The Necklace" plays a larger role than just the heading to a short story; the necklace is used as a symbol throughout the entire story. Young Mathilde has been invited to attend a fancy ball with her husband and realizes that she does not have any jewelry to show off at the big event.
Immediately, Mathilde realises necklace is not on her neck anymore it is lost. They checked the cab, but could not find it. Monsieur follows there step back, but unfortunately he could not find it. They decide to go to the jewelry store and look for similar diamond necklace Mathilde Loisel was wearing. De Maupassant let 's reader know the price of Necklace, “ The price was forty thousand francs. The store will let them have it for thirty-six thousand” ( Maupassant 177 ). Monsieur made some arrangement for the money. He had Eighteen thousand franc which his father gave to him and the rest he had to borrow from other people and promised to pay them as early as possible and with a healthy interest rate. They successfully replace the new necklace and went to Mathilde friend 's house to return it. give to her friend. And start paying up people they loaned money
Mathilde had a loving husband, who provided the necessities for her and a decent home. But that was never enough for her. In her head, she felt she was born to live a life of luxury. When her husband tells her he has an invite to a ball, she refuses to go because she has no clothes: “…have no dress, and, for that reason, cannot go to the ball. Give your invitation to some fellow-clerk whose wife is better provided than I am." (de Maupassant) Mathilde 's pride and shallowness will not allow her to be grateful and just go to the ball. She manages to manipulate her husband into buying her a dress, and also borrowing a fancy necklace from a friend. After losing the necklace, Mathilde decides to just lie to her friend, and go into debt by buying a new one. After ten years of working hard and downgrading things in her life. To repay the debt of the necklace. Mathilde and her husband are now poor and struggling to make ends meet. Her greed and pride got her to where she is at the end of the story. Even going through what she went through, she still fantasizes about her desire for wealth and
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
There comes a time in a woman’s life where she tends to become bitter and ungrateful. It is natural to feel that way in any time period for young women coming to age as they do not realize what they have to do stay beautiful. Some women can even get so caught up in their life, that no one, not even their husband really matter to them. In “The Necklace”, by Guy de Maupassant it reveals Mathilde’s selfish and conceited ways, as she is not thankful for an invitation Mr. Loisel gives to her to attend the ball. Although Mathilde may not be the most grateful wife, she learns the hard way of what struggle really is later on in the story. It is clear on a psychological note that Mathilde generates materialistic, unappreciative, and egotistical tendencies.
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.
A short story, written by Guy de Maupassant, called the “The Necklace”, highlights the greed of the world and the pressure of society’s expectations that weigh on people’s shoulders. After receiving an invitation to an extravagant party, all Mathilde could consider was how she could not attend the ball since she did not have any lavish clothes to wear. “‘What do you expect me to do with that?’... ‘I haven’t a thing to wear.
In “The Necklace,” Mathilde’s internal struggle is with herself. She mentally battled with the physical and financial limitations placed on her, but more with her own soul. She was unhappy with her place in life and could not accept the simplicity of her station, believing it to be truly beneath her. “All those things… tortured her and made her angry. “ Her husband’s blatant acceptance of their place only fueled her frustrations further.