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Summary of the necklace
Theme of greed in the necklace
Theme of greed in the necklace
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People know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. In “The Necklace,” Guy De Maupassant tells the story of a middle-class woman who is materialistic and ambitious; she desires to be in the upper-class society. She goes great lengths to be a different person; she purchased a fancy dress and borrowed a diamond necklace from a friend. This necklace will change her destiny. Maupassant uses the setting to reflect the character and development of the main character, Mathilde Loisel. As a result, his setting is not based on vivid details. He does not even give a full description of the necklace, the main object in the story, but only states it’s a “ superb diamond” (202). The author seems to give vivid details of the setting, such as …show more content…
The Champs-Elysèes is in the upper class neighborhood, and her walk is too similar to her earlier day-dreams of upper-class wealth. But it’s on this street where she meets Mrs. Forrestier; this is the first time seeing her in ten years. Mrs. Forestier does not recognize her. She introduces herself and the other expresses surprise. She begins to explain why she has not been able to show up for such a length of time. She could not help but to be completely honest with Mrs. Forrestier about the necklace. In reply Mrs. Foresiter surprises her by telling Mathilde it was a false diamond necklace. The “smile” of “ innocent and proud happiness” filled Mathilde’s face (205). While the walk serves as the conclusion surprise and irony, Mathilde’s being on Champs-Elysèes is a complete character, in keeping with her earlier thoughts pleasantly lost in a daydream about …show more content…
The loss of the necklace does not cause a moral downfall in the lives of the Loisels. They did not inform Mrs. Forestier of the incident, nor did they simply take responsibility and challenge to replace the article however much it is of value. The Loisel’s paid thirty-four thousand francs for a real diamond necklace to replace the one they lost. If they were just honest in the beginning with Mrs. Forestier, they could’ve only paid four hundred francs. Maupassant uses the setting to illuminate Mathilde’s qualities, her misfortune, her loss of beauty, and finally, her growth into a responsible
...only to find out years later that the necklace was not made of real diamonds but glass. This story shows the social pressure put on those of lower classes and how they wish to be a part of the better group. Maupassant uses Mathilde’s obsession to drive her into poverty and shame. For the time, this story analyzes how hard one had to work to even attain any bit of fortune.
Throughout those 10 years, Mathilde saw what it was like to really struggle in life. She realizes that her life before wasn’t all that bad. One day, old and worn down Mathilde sees Madame Forestier in the street. She says hello to her friend and tells her about all the hardships she went through because of the lost necklace. Madame Forestier responds that her necklace was only worth 500 francs at most.
First, there is a demonstration of dramatic irony, when Mathilde returns a necklace to Mme. Forestier. After Mathilde lost the borrowed necklace, she replaced it and returned back to Mme. Forestier. However, Mme. Forestier did not know that Mathilde had “[replaced] that piece of jewelry.” (9). This shows that Mathilde cares about her reputation more than her friendship. Mathilde did not want anyone to know that she lost a borrowed necklace. It would have tarnished her reputation, and caused her a lifetime of embarrassment. It also demonstrates how Mathilde is materialistic. She also considers an item more precious than her friendship. As a result, she deceives Mme. Forestier and gives her a necklace that looks exactly the same. Additionally, Mathilde uses Monsieur Loisel’s saved money, which had been “set aside...to buy a rifle...” to buy a dress (5). Monsieur Loisel does not tell Mathilde about his intention to use the saved money. Since Monsieur Loisel does not tell Mathilde, he knows that she most likely would have taken it anyway. This shows her ungratefulness toward Monsieur Loisel and the
Instead she married a simple middle class man and lived a middle class life. All the while she dreamed of living the life of the rich. With beautiful gowns and glittering jewelry. Oh how happy she thought she would be. Then one day it happened that she and her husband where invited to a dinner ball. Her husband, Mr. Loisel thought this would make his wife so very happy since this is what she spent all of her time day dreaming of. Here it was, the thing that consumed her finally at her door step, but she was not happy. In fact, Mathilde was even more distraught because it brought to her attention that she had nothing proper to wear. Mr. Loisel sympathized with his wife and knowing he had money set aside for a new shot gun, he gave her 400 francs. This was enough money for a pretty dress, not too fancy, but pretty because he knew this would be a rare occasion.
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.
At the beginning of the story, “The Necklace” Madame Loisel was young, beautiful, and had a loving husband, but was very concerned about her looks, reputation, and status. She wishes for an elegant upper class life and longs to have much more than she does. The story starts off by telling about the beauty and youthfulness of Loisel, “ She was one of
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:
A common literary device, symbolism is used in this story. Symbolism is when something has a greater meaning within itself. The example of this in the story is the necklace. When looking at necklaces at Madame Forestier she finds one that just jumps out at her. She believes it is everything she wants in life. This is symbolic because it was only a necklace it could not fulfill all of her dreams of a rich high-class life. “She wasn’t at all convinced “No… There’s nothing more humiliating than to look poor among a lot of rich woman”. This quote is said before borrowing the necklace, but it is the reason she borrows it from Madame. The necklace is not really going to change who she is in reality. The necklace ...
“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
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.
Around the world, values are expressed differently. Some people think that life is about the little things that make them happy. Others feel the opposite way and that expenses are the way to live. In Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”, he develops a character, Madame Loisel, who illustrates her different style of assessments. Madame Loisel, a beautiful woman, lives in a wonderful home with all the necessary supplies needed to live. However, she is very unhappy with her life. She feels she deserves a much more expensive and materialistic life than what she has. After pitying herself for not being the richest of her friends, she goes out and borrows a beautiful necklace from an ally. But as she misplaces the closest thing she has to the life she dreams of and not telling her friend about the mishap, she could have set herself aside from ten years of work. Through many literary devices, de Maupassant sends a message to value less substance articles so life can be spent wisely.
It is said that “everything that shines isn't gold.” A difficult situation can result a vast illusion that is not what one thought it would be, which leads to disappointment and despair. Just like Guy De Maupassant stories, “The Necklace” and “The Jewel.” In the first story, the protagonist, Mathilde Loisel’s need for materialistic fulfillment causes her hard labor which ends her natural beauty. In the second story, the husband Monsieur Latin ends up living a dreadful life due to the passing of his wife and her admiration for jewels. “The Necklace” and “The Jewel” both share many similarities such as the unconditional love each husband haves toward their wife, the necessity each wife haves towards materialistic greed, the beautiful allurement
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.
Hence the situational irony had taken place. First the original necklace was fake and all that pain of ten years could have been avoided. Secondly, Mathilde’s character had a turn around as in the beginning she was greedy but after the tragic events She is more self sufficient and does work to make money. And most importantly Mathilde did not divorce on Mousier and supported him and help herself pay up the debt. Ture characteristic of a person is not shown when he has everything but rather when he has
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