The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant is a cautionary tale about the dangers of trying to live outside of who you are. France, at the time this short story was published, was highly divided by class and had rigid structures for defining those classes. The three main structures at this time were the aristocrats, the merchants, and the peasants. The main character Madam Mathilde Loisel yearns to be a member of the aristocracy; however, life has found her married to a poorly paid clerk. Her marriage is appropriate because she had no dowry or nobility, but she believes she was destined to be more than a clerk's wife. Her husband has spent their marriage trying to make his wife happy; however, Mathilde is solely focused on how much better the aristocracy live. At last her husband is able to acquire an invitation to a party being held by the Ministry of Education. He returns home expecting Mathilde to be excited about the prospect of going to a party with the aristocracy. To his surprise Mathilde tells him that she will not go, because she will feel ridiculous attending the party in the clothes that she has. Her husband, to please her, gives her the 400 francs he was saving to buy a new hunting rifle. Mathilde uses the money to …show more content…
When he asks her what is wrong, she tells him that she has no jewels to wear with the dress. Since there is no money left, her husband suggests that she use flowers to decorate the dress. This was very fashionable at the time and would have worked; however, Mathilde doesn't agree. Finally the husband suggests that she go to her friend Madam Jenne Forestier. Being a friend, Madam Forestier brings a jewelry box for Mathilde to select some jewelry. Mathilde is not happy with the contents of the box, so Madame Forestier continues to bring out jewelry boxes until Mathilde selects a diamond necklace that she finds to be the fanciest of the entire
To start off with, Mathilde had many conflicts she had to face during the story. First, she was poor and low in the social class. In the textbook it says, “she dressed plainly because she could not afford fine clothes.” She does not have money to buy new clothes because she is poor. Secondly, she got invited to the ball but had no evening clothes. “Only I don’t have an evening dress and therefore I can’t go to the affair.” Mathilde is poor and does not own an evening dress and can’t afford a dress she thinks she can’t go to the ball. Next, she has no jewelry to wear. . “It’s embarrassing not to have a jewel or gem-nothing to wear on my dress. I’ll look pauper.” She has no jewels or gems to go with her dress. Finally, she overcame many conflicts
Mme. Loisel’s lack of an outfit suitable for a ball creates a conflict which can be overcome only by collaboration. Mathilde’s realization of her lack of an appropriate dress leads her to ask her husband for money. Though she would like to have as much
Mathilde is not satisfied until she finds an expensive diamond looking piece. She is ecstatic when she goes to the ball and is swooned over for her beauty. In all of her pride she loses the necklace that was loaned to her. Instead of being honest, she asks her loving and willing husband to go out and search for the necklace. The two of them make an unwise decision to avoid the truth, and took out loans that they would not be able to pay back. Taking out the loans proves to be Mathilde’s demise as she is forced to live the poverty-stricken life that she imagined herself to always have. For ten years she must suffer and work harder than she ever has
After reading The Necklace, by Guy De Maupassant, I came to the conclusion that Madame Mathilde Loisel’s husband is very selfless due to the ways he tries to satisfy his wife. Despite the fact that Monsieur Loisel is very content with his normal lifestyle, he struggles to cope with his wife’s snotty behavior and strives to appease her. For example, Monsieur Loisel reads Mathilde the respectable invite from the Minster of Education— which she initially wanted to turn down— and soon has to attempt to conciliate his rather acrimonious spouse who did not want to attend without fine clothing and jewelry. As a result, he “gives... [her] four hundred francs... to buy a nice dress.” –Pg 162. Putting Madame Loisel’s desires before his own, he sacrifices
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.
I shall look like a fright-I would rather stay at home” (Maupassant 38-39/49-50). Mathilde rather than taking her husband suggestion, “Why not wear flowers? They are very fashionable at this time of year. You can get a handful of fine roses for ten francs” (Maupassant 50-51), instead, she borrowed an elegant looking diamond necklace from her friend. She had achieved all she wanted for the night, “She was prettier than them all, lovely, gracious, smiling, and wild with delight. All the men looked at her, inquired her name, tried to be introduced” (Maupassant 69-70), this was the life she believed she should have. Come the night comes to an end, she panics as she realizes the necklace is missing. She lies to her friend to buy time to find an identical necklace and finally she does. It took 10 years for her and her husband to pay off the debit lent to them to replace the borrowed necklace, only to find out after years of hard work and poverty, the necklace was no more than costume
Mathilde lives in an illusive world where her desires do not meet up to the reality of her life. She yearns for the status of being upper class, and she believes that her beauty and charm are worthy of much more. Mathilde spends her life doing everything in her power to create the dream life she has always imagined, to be beautiful, rich, and admired. Her husband provided her with a well-off lifestyle that she neglected and treated poorly due to her selfishness and greediness, and took advantage of his hard work at the first chance possible. When presented with the invitation to the party, she immediately rejects the request due to her fear of others judging her “middle class appearance”. But her loving husband offers her the hard earned money he had been saving up so she can treat herself to a brand new dress for the party. Her actions are centered around the happiness of herself, and have no good intentions towards her husband or
In the beginning of the story, the husband brings home an invitation to an event, and he begins explaining how hard it was to get the invitation. Mathilde’s reaction was definitely not what the husband expected. Mathilde said, “What do you want me to do with that? And what do you want me to put on my back? I have no dress and therefore I can’t go to this ball. Give your card to some colleague whose wide is better equipped than I.” Mathilde’s reaction shows how ungrateful she is. Even after her husband had gone through the trouble to get the invitation, she was still unsatisfied and left wanting more. She insists that what she has to wear to the ball is not beautiful enough and feels the need to go spend money on something
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
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.
and so I can’t go to the party. Give the invitation to one of your colleagues whose wife will be better dressed than I will be (296)” Although she could have worn the dress she wears to the theatre, she needed something better. After her husband gave up the money he was going to buy a gun with for a new dress
The obvious theme is greed as it affects many people’s happiness and is portrayed throughout this short story. Therefore, showing that the diamond necklace shows symbolism. Mathilde had borrowed a diamond necklace from Madame Forestier and has lost it during the ball which results to Mathilde’s husband
In conclusion, “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant is a less than satisfactory short story. The characters that are introduced are all flat and stereotypical. The themes can be misinterpreted or missed. Lastly, the ending is obnoxiously anticlimactic. While most classics that are found in English books are intriguing or satisfactory, “The Necklace” is neither of
One day her husband came home from work and handed her an invitation to attend a ball. She wanted to attend; yet she had no dress to wear. After digging in to money they had been trying to save, Mathilde purchased a dress for the ball. Mathilde decided she needed jewels to wear with the dress, so she went and visited her only friend to borrow some jewels for the evening of the ball. Mathilde picked out a stunning diamond necklace.