Life is a treasure box full of surprises that makes up the outgoing events of love, envy, joy, sorrow, and irony. In the short story, The Necklace, Madame Losiel is the wife of a poor clerk of the Minister of Education who thought about luxury (The Necklace). Since she caught the readers’ attention with her dowdy characteristics, she was also in the eye of the beholder (The Necklace). The narrator pictured her physical features by using imaginative adjectives such as “pretty” and “charming” (The Necklace). Madame Losiel was considered as a gorgeous young woman, but she did not understand the importance of life (The Necklace). She spent time thinking about how fortunate she wants to be, but did not spend time thinking about how important it is to be thankful for her natural blessings. Madame Losiel constantly changed from sorrow to happiness and was unsatisfied with herself internally and externally.
Madame Losiel had the mind frame of a helpless teenager. At the beginning of the story, she was unhappy with herself (The Necklace). She felt like she was meant to live in a grimy apartment, have about one or two outfits, and marry a husband who has low-income (The Necklace). There are not many people in the world that does not have the things that she has.
Marriage united Madame and Mister Losiel, and even though they were not wealthy, Madame Losiel’s unhappiness gradually affected it. She was lucky enough to even own a home and a husband who supports her (The Necklace). It is obvious that she does not accept her husband because she constantly fantasize about rich men wanting to please her at a formal party in her “imaginary” house (The Necklace). Mister Monsieur Loisel, tried very hard to please his beloved wife (The Necklace...
... middle of paper ...
...ected her husband, herself, and her friend, Madame Forestier. She should understand that wonderful things would not last forever, but how would her life be if she was not materialistic? Maybe, when her husband comes home from work she would welcome him with open arms. She would enjoy living in her home that she already has, and most importantly, she would accept herself for who she is as a wife, as a friend, and as herself; a woman with a big heart who is very lovable. She would not have to work for the necklace and if she was not comfortable with her home that she lived in, she would seek domestic employment in another family home. When it comes to her husband, she would offer him more gifts to make him happy. The only thing that is valuable in the world is life itself.
Work Cited
Maupassant, Guy, de. “The Necklace”.www.eastoftheweb.com. short story.16 Feb.2010.
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.”
She is getting by in life, isn’t to poor nor overly rich. When her husband gives her an invintation to a very formal ball, she is astonished at the fact that he thinks she can attend in the things she owns. So Madame Loisel goes out and buys a nice dress and borrows jewlrey from her friend. She attends the ball and has a wonderful time. When she arrives how she is horrfied to see that she has lost the diamond necklace that her friend Madame Forestier lent her. After searching for the necklace for hours on end, she buys an expensive replacement and hopes that Madame Forestier won’t notice. After 10 years of hard work, Mathilde and her husband finish paying off the debt of the necklace. 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 to because of the lost necklace. Madame Forestier responds that her necklace was only worth 500 francs at most… way less than what Mathilde had payed for the replacement, and wasn’t even real diamond. This is ironic because Mathilde spent all those years paying of a replacement that was way more money than the original.
5. (CP) Madame Loisel borrows seemingly expensive necklace to satisfy her arrogance and attend a party that was way above her social class, only to lose it. She has been blessed with physical beauty, but not with the lifestyle she desires. She may not be the ideal protagonist, but she went through a tough time after she lost the necklace and had to make money to replace it.
In the short story “The Necklace,” the author Guy de Maupassant describes the life of a woman named Madame Loisel. Loisel spends endless hours imagining a more extravagant existence and dreads her poverty intensely. One night, her husband returns with an invitation to a formal ball and hopes that Madame Loisel would be excited as she doesn't get to go out much. Instead, she is upset because she feels like she has nothing nice to wear and no jewelry at all. Her greed comes back at her in the end when the necklace she loses is worth next to nothing, compared to the hardships they went through. There are many key literary elements that the author uses to help the reader understand the story well. Maupassant uses imagery, characterization, and irony to make the story much more interesting and vibrant for the reader.
The theme that I perceive in “The Necklace”, by Guy De Maupassant, is self-indulgence and egotism. Marry to a clerk who was unable to give her a decent (luxury) life due to scarcity; Mathilde can only imagine those beautiful and expensive things start to develop a life of self-indulgence and pride. While exercising the concept of self-indulgence, she envy her rich friend
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.
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
Madame Loisel was a proud woman who was extremely poorly along with her husband, who earned a low amount of money, but she dreamed of being someone who owned extravagant clothing and jewelry that was worth plenty of money. Someone who has money would be seen as a highly respectable person who was elegant and looked up to. This could be seen in paragraph 3 where it says, “The modest clothes of an ordinary life, whose poverty contrasted sharply with the elegance of the ball dress.” Madame Loisel for example, wanted to pretend to be a high class individual while in reality she was only an average poor person. She had not realized what it actually took to acquire the money needed to a fine women so all she could do was dream. She did not value the life she had where she did not have to work and all she had to do was stay home and clean. Also in paragraph Add Paragraph “She had become strong, hard and rough like all women of impoverished households.” This helps develop the idea that valuable items have an emotional attachment because the necklace was so valuable money wise but it also helped her develop a different personality that was more accepting to what she had already. The necklace represented something to her that she could never own on her own but in the process of being selfish and greedy she learned many values of life. Treasurable
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.
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.
As I did research on how others interpreted the story, the same conclusion would pop up. The necklace was used as a symbol of higher class of wealth. We use symbolic items to try and fit into societies belief of “fancy”. The deeper meaning is within the true value of the necklace. It is a fake just as she is! She is trying to be something she is not and ends up losing the necklace which holds a false value as well. This is why a person should not take everything as it
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
At many places in the story he shows the irony of Madame Loisel’s situation. From the time of her marriage, through her growing years, Madame Loisel desires what she does not have and dreams that her life should be other than it is. It is only after ten years of hard labor and abject poverty that she realizes the mistake pride led her to make. At that point, the years cannot be recovered. In my opinion, the moral lesson of the necklace story is that we should not judge people on appearances because they may appear to be rich and successful and they may not be. It also explains us we should not pine after material possessions, but realize we are happy with what we have and we must be satisfied with what we have and what we are. We must be honest enough to confess his mistake instead of running from situations and turning back. There’s nothing wrong in have wishing though and dreams, but you must know your limits and your condition as