In “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant uses setting to reflect the character and development of the main character, Mathilde Loisel. As a result, his setting is not particularly vivid or detailed. He does not even describe the ill-fated necklace—the central object in the story—but states only that it is “superb” (7 ). In fact, he includes descriptions of setting only if they illuminate qualities about Mathilde. Her changing character can be connected to the first apartment, the dream-life mansion rooms, the attic flat, and a fashionable public street. [This is a well-defined thesis statement.] Details about the modest apartment of the Loisels on the Street of Martyrs indicate Mathilde’s peevish lack of adjustment to life. Though everything is serviceable, she is unhappy with the “drab” walls, “threadbare” furniture, and “ugly” curtains (5). She has domestic help, but she wants more servants than the simple country girl who does the household chores in the apartment. Her embarrassment and dissatisfaction are shown by details of her irregularly cleaned tablecloth and the plain and inelegant beef stew that her husband adores. Even her best theater dress, which is appropriate for apartment life but which is inappropriate for more wealthy surroundings, makes her unhappy. All these details of the apartment establish that Mathilde’s major trait at the story’s beginning is maladjustment. She therefore seems unpleasant and unsympathetic. Like the real-life apartment, the impossibly wealthy setting of her daydreams about owning a mansion strengthens her unhappiness and her avoidance of reality. All the rooms of her fantasies are large and expensive, draped in silk and filled with nothing but the best furniture and bric-a-brac. M... ... middle of paper ... ...n the Champs-Elysées is totally in character, in keeping with her earlier reveries about luxury. 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 Necklace” gives a strong representation of what the story is about. When Madame Loisel was looking for jewelry with Madame Forestier, “She came
...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.
Values are spread all around the world, and many people’s values differ. These can lead to people being judged, or indirectly characterized by other people. In “The Necklace” Mme. Loisel is a beautiful woman with a decent life, and a husband that loves her, and only wants to make her happy. She is not rich but she makes it along, she insists of a better, wealthier life. When her husband gets her invited to a ball, she feels the need for a brand new fancy dress and tons of jewelry. When the couple realizes they cannot afford jewelry as well, they search out to borrow her friend, Mme. Forestiers’ necklace. She comes to notice she no longer has the necklace on when she leaves the ball. This later troubles her, as she has to work for a long time to collect enough money to buy a new necklace. This story describes the relationship between a couple, who have different dreams, and how desires can revamp your life. Guy de Maupassant, the author of “The Necklace” uses literary devices to prove people come before materialistic items.
In “The Necklace”, Maupassant utilizes verbal and dramatic irony to aid in the reader’s comprehension of Mathilde Loisel’s characteristics. From deceiving people to covering herself up, Mathilde Loisel continues to use many devious methods to make herself look perfect. Mathilde’s conniving methods help the reader understand her characteristics.
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.
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
Until the time of her mishap, Mme. Loisel expresses ardent dissatisfaction with many (if not most) areas of her life; discontent defines her character. Her lofty expectations cause her to believe that, because she is beautiful, she deserves the "best" that life has to offer, but the reality of her situation greatly troubles her. She should have a prestigious husband, yet "she let herself be married to a little clerk" (de Maupassant 46). Mme. Loisel thinks that she deserves to reside in an elegant home, but instead she "suffer[s] from the poverty of her dwelling"(46). She longs for "delicate furniture" and experiences "torture" from the look of her "worn-out chairs" (46, 47). Mme. Loisel is even dissatisfied with her cuisine; while her husband dutifully compliments her cooking, she dreams of "dainty dinners" and "delicious dishes served on marvelous plates" (47). Truly, this woman finds little in her life which brings joy or even contentment.
In Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” Mathidle is unhappy with the life she currently has. Furthermore, Mathidle is always striving to be like her “rich” friends. Even though Mathidle’s husband tries extremely hard to please Mathidle, Mathidle is always unsatisfied with her materialistic wealth in the beginning of her life. Likewise, Mathidle is an object-oriented idealist who momentarily escapes reality only to experience a tragic loss and eventually finds happiness through her journey.
Guy de Maupassant is a realist whose claim to fame is the style in which he conveys political and socioeconomic themes in his literary publications. He achieves his writing style by putting small unfortunate life events under a spotlight. His literary performance is described in his biography from Cambridge, the writer says “He exposes with piercing clarity the small tragedies and pathetic incidents of everyday life, taking a clear-sighted though pessimistic view of humanity” (Halsey, par. 1). Guy de Maupassant’s story The Necklace is a great representation of the style he uses. In The Necklace the main character Mathilde Loisel a beautiful but impoverished woman married to a clerk is in conflict with her lack of wealth and desire to acquire
Mathilde’s husband realizes that she will not be able to survive this perilous event without him, and he decides to expel his entire inheritance and take loans from anywhere he can find in order to pay for the necklace (72). They sell nearly everything to their name, and Mathilde comes to know both “the horrible existence of the needy” (72), and “what heavy housework meant” (72). What possession she once suffered an undesirable life to acquire, she would now suffer a far worse life paying for. After ten long years of strenuous work, Mathilde’s debts are paid off, but at the price of ten years of her life. Her youthfulness has escaped her through the diligent work; However, she still thinks of that night when she had “been so beautiful and feted” (72), only this time, the readers realize that she has an entirely different clarity about what that night really meant. Mathilde realizes that all of her acts of selfishness and envy, all of the greed and materialistic ideals were harbored into a relatively priceless item that she had given up ten years of her life for. Realizing this, Mathilde gathers the courage to tell Mme. Forestier, who did not even notice Mathilde after the toll that time and labor has taken on her body, about the necklace
Initially, “The Necklace” draws several parallels to the fairy tale “Cinderella.” To explain, Mathilde’s magnificent night at the ball, and all the events leading up to it, are on the verge of transforming into a fairy tale. Mathilde “was prettier than any other woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling and wild with joy” (4). In both stories, a poor woman with a lust for something better go to a ball for the higher class, and gains a beautiful gown and an item of importance. This item makes them feel powerful, as if they truly belong to the rich. However, they are forced to leave in the middle of the night, and on their way back home, they lose their significant accessory. Upon arriving, they return to being poor and upset with their living conditions. As can be seen in both tales, no matter how hard one tries, they cannot become someone who they aren’t. To add to this, in both stories, Cinderella and Mathilde live very similar lives prior to the ball. For instance, they both have strong, supportive male figures in their lives. In “Cinderella,” her deceased father is her inspiration, and in “The Necklace,” it’s Mathilde’s husband. These characters help guide the young women through the
Between misplacing priorities and self-absorption Mathilde Loisel is created in the story, “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. Mathilde has just about everything a woman could want: remarkable beauty, a loving husband, and a comfortable lifestyle. Material riches are the only category in which she believes she is inadequate to other women. This one factor sets up the conflict present in the story. Throughout the turmoil she must endure, due to her egotistical ways, one would think she would have a change in heart and mindset. Mathilde has a dissatisfied disposition that does not evolve even as her situation does; she is disgruntled being in the middle class, as well as attending a first class event, and ultimately being in the working class.
When Mathilde goes to her friend’s house to borrow the necklace she is taken with its exquisite beauty and “her heart throb[s] with an immoderate desire” (para. 45). Although Mathilde does not know the value of the necklace at the time, it appears very luxurious. It exhibits precisely the characteristics that she wishes for others to perceive her as having. Later, when Mathilde loses the necklace, she does not want to tell her friend. She fears that Madame Forestier will mistake “[her] for a thief” (para. 91). Although she is not guilty of stealing, her fear of being viewed in such a way is enough to lead her to a decision that will change the course of her life. After ten years of arduous labor, Mathilde and her husband finally pay off the debt taken out to replace the lost necklace. Mathilde happens to run into Madame Forestier again. During this encounter, she learns the true value of the necklace when her friend states that the “necklace was paste” (para. 121) and “it was worth at most only five hundred francs” (para. 121). What a devastating blow – to find out that the very thing that still stirs up such feelings of royalty within her is a fake! This serves as the final proof that things are only as wonderful or awful as you believe them to
She borrows a beautiful necklace from a friend.The necklace is lost after the party. Poor Monsieur Loisel goes out alone and searches all night and day for the jewels but has no luck. Loisel comes up with a plan to buy another necklace and return it to Mathilde's friend.This is quite a man. He takes his inheritance from his father; then, he borrows the rest of the money. They return the necklace. But that is just the beginning. For the next ten years, the Loisels work together to pay for the replacement necklace. Monsieur Loisel works a second job at night. They even give up their apartment. Both of them age tremendously over the years. Mathilde is no longer beautiful. She has hardened:She came to know the heavy work of the house, the hateful duties of the kitchen. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts and dish-cloths, and hung them out to dry on a string; every morning she carried up the water.The author never lets the reader know if Mathilde appreciated her husband for taking care of her. They did accomplish something together, and she did rise to the occasion and do the hard work of the home. In reality, the hero of the story is Monsieur Loisel who worked alongside his wife to pay back the money for
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.