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Character of Madame Loisel as depicted in the necklace
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Emily Wright
Mrs. Jacovino
English I H
12 October 2017
Madame Loisel’s Downfall It is said, “She was one of those pretty, charming young women who are born, as if by an error of Fate, into a petty official’s family”(de Maupassant 333). Because of this error of Fate, the comely Madame Loisel goes through a dynamic change throughout the story, “The Necklace,” which takes place in Paris, France, in the late 1800’s. The story, by Guy de Maupassant, centers on Madame Loisel, a young French woman, who is poor in her station in life, but rich in pride. Pride is an inward-directed emotion that brings pleasure to a person in regards to a personal trait or possession. Pride can be a positive trait, but it can also be negative. Throughout the story, pride plays different roles in Madame Loisel’s life. Pride ultimately causes her to be dissatisfied with her life, deceptive in her actions, and disgruntled about her situation.
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She is married to a minor civil servant at the Ministry of Education. She looks upon this union as a marriage of convenience. Because of her marriage to this hardworking but poor man, she is unable to afford jewelry, rich luxuries, and the finer things in life. This makes her dissatisfied with her life. When she says, “No… there’s nothing more humiliating than to look poverty-stricken among a lot of rich women” (de Maupassant 336), she is showing her dissatisfaction, which is a symptom of her pride. She feels that she deserves more in life and that she is suffering
This essay will include “The Necklace”, “Civil Peace”, and “The Thrill of the Chase”. The necklace is a great example of how our desires can create tragedy rather than happiness. Madame Forestier would have rather been idolized for her wealth instead of buying items that grant her survival. She says,”It’s just that I have no evening dress and so I can’t go to the party.”
In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant the character Madame Loisel was always longing for expensive possessions, larger
In the story “The Necklace” the author’s theme is to show us that greed and envy can lead to destruction. In this story Mathilde is a very envious woman whom always dreamed of a life that she could not have. She was very charming and beautiful woman who thought that she must have been born into the wrong life, since she had no way of getting known and married by a rich man.
Pride. Something that all of humanity struggles with and those who think they do not struggle with it, struggle the most. Both, C.S. Lewis and Flannery O’Connor describe their views of pride through their writings, Mere Christianity and Everything That Rises Must Converge. Both authors view pride as a negative quality, but they reveal this in different ways. I agree with both authors in their explanations and views of pride. Pride is a great sin, but I also believe that our acknowledgement of pride can produce the great virtue of humility.
female Parisian readers at the time of the Third Republic towards the end of the 19th century could easily identify"(smith). Guy de Maupassant studied with the french writer Gustave Flaubert after his time in the Franco-Prussian War. De Maupassant belived that his work as a writer was to take common occurances and then make it them in too intesting stories about it.His own experience as a minor clerk inspired him to write "The Necklace".This short story tells the story of a women called Mathilde that is maried to a minor clerk that does not make a lot of money.They get invited to a reception were all the rich people in town are going to be, so Mathilde borrows a dimond necklace from an old friend from school and ends up loosing it and having to work very hard to repay her friend only to find out that the necklace is fake. De Maupassant develops his theme of desire in this short story through the use of symbolism,irony and characterization.
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.
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” 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...
“The Necklace” is about a woman of lower class who wants to become different than her true self. At this ball, she acts to be someone who is wealthy for the night to impress those around her because everything for her seems to be about money and fame. The song, “Just a Girl” relates to the story because it shows how she let the money get to her, what she is like when she sees her old friend after many harsh years, what her husband thinks of her, and lastly how she confused where she stood in the class systems.
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.
In “The Necklace” Guy de Maupassant tells the story of Mme. Loisel who is materialistic and cares how she is perceived by others people in specification to money and looks: “She had no dresses, no jewelry, nothing. And she loved nothing else; she felt herself made only for that” (para.5). This is something that is still common today, and most likely will be important to society for another hundred years.
No matter where someone is or their situation in life they must be content. Not being content may lead you down a very destructive unhappy and self centered road. The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant afers a great example of what happens when people are not content. The Necklace tell a story of a woman named Mathilde who “was unhappy [because she felt] she was keep out of her own social class” (The Necklace). Mathilde was not content with the social class she was in and it was affecting the people around her.
The Necklace Life is a huge mystery you never know what will pop out at you. Madame Loisel went from middle class to lower class and she also went from self centered to hardworking within a blink of an eye. In this story we learn how you can go from being stuck up to being the most kind hearted person ever. Madame Loisel used to want to be something she wasn't the irony of the story is that she gets lower than what she wanted and was actually content with it.