Analysis of "The Necklace"

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"The Necklace" is a short story written in 1884 by Guy De Maupassant. The main characters in the story are Mathilde Loisel, her husband Mr. Loisel, and Mrs. Forrestier. They go through an agonizing time with much suffering over a problem that they later learn never should have existed in the first place. Mathilde Loisel is described as being beautiful and charming, yet simple. She and her husband lead a very plain life, and she always dreams of having the luxurious life: a beautiful house, elegant dresses, expensive jewels, gourmet food, and more. Her husband has accepted their status, and works hard to please Mathilde. Mrs. Forrestier, a rich friend of Mathilde's, lends her a diamond necklace for a formal dinner party. When Mathilde loses the necklace on her night out the events turn sour and the couple begins to face a lifetime of suffering. When Mr. Loisel brings Mathilde an invitation to a dinner party, instead of being excited about the elegant evening, Mathilde is upset because she has no elegant dresses. Mr. Loisel pleases Mathilde by giving her money for a new dress. She is happy at first until she realizes she has no jewels to wear. Mr. Loisel suggests that she borrow some from Mrs. Forrestier. Mathilde borrows a diamond necklace, and goes to the party where she was able to live out the luxurious life. She looked exquisite, graceful, and joyful. When she returns home and finds that she lost Mrs. Forrestier's necklace, her joyous night comes to a halt. They look everywhere for it, but neither can find it. In agony, Mathilde and her husband go to the jewelers looking for a replacement. They find one, priced at 3600 francs, and pay eighteen thousand francs and borrow the other 1880 from friends. Mathilde returns the necklace to her friend, and returns home to a life of suffering in order to repay their debts. She and her husband work hard for ten years to make payments. After all payments are done, Mathilde runs into Mrs. Forrestier, who doesn't recognize her at first. Mathilde tells her of the agony she has been through because of the necklace she bought as a replacement. Mrs. Forrestier, surprised, tells her that the original diamond necklace was only a costume necklace, worth only 500 francs!

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    She thought that she had a horrible life when really she was a strong woman with a lucky life and a loving husband. Towards the end of the story it says, “Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become the sort of strong woman, hard, and coarse, that one finds in poor families”(Maupassant 300). Loisel was, again very poor from the ten years of trying to pay off her necklace debts, but not only is ten years older, she looks much older than that from the constant working. At the end of the story, she runs into the woman whom she borrowed the necklace from, and the woman says this, “Oh, my poor, poor Mathilde! Mine was false, it was only worth five hundred Francs at the most”(Maupassant 301)! Loisel, after all the hard working her and her husband did finds out the the necklace was false and worth thousands less than what she had payed off. At the end of “The Necklace” Madame Loisel is much older from the ten years of aging work, and realized that the hard life she thought she had before. She did not actually have until now, but all the hardships made her a stronger and tougher woman than

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  • Use of Setting to Reflect Main Character in "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant

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    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.

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    To begin with, Maupassant displayed the necklace as everything that Mathilde had ever desired. The necklace was “…superb…and [Mathilde’s] heart throbbed with desire for it” (Maupassant 6). Mathilde had her choice of “…bracelets,…a pearl necklace,…a Venetian cross of finely worked gold and gems” (Maupassant 6), but instead she chose to take the most expensive and finest looking bauble in her friend’s jewel box. The diamond necklace revealed to the reader that Mathilde no only wanted the finest things, but she also wanted the most luxurious and expensive ones to be...

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    As the day drew near Mathilde’s envy overtook her once more and she became distraught. She decided that she could not go. When Mr. Loisel asked why, she replied that she had no jewelry to wear and that she would look l...

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    Furthermore, the lifestyle both women want ends up in disaster however, one ends in death while the other in hard labor. In "The Necklace", the wife ends up losing her friend’s expensive necklace which causes her to work hard to earn enough money to pay of a new one. Due to all the work she loses her beauty. In contrast, whereas in "The Jewels" the constant attendance of the opera house during the winter causes her to die of inflammation which resulted a deep sorrow towards the husband. Both wife’s lived life differently. Both tries to find the best way to fulfill their desire for the good

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  • Relating the Setting to the Characters in The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

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    The author of "The Necklace", Guy de Maupassant, relates the setting to Mathilde throughout the story. The central character in "The Necklace" is Mathilde. She dreams many dreams of rich living and high society. Her dwellings throughout "The Necklace" show her mood towards the way she is forced to live.

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  • Literary Analysis Of The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

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    Immediately, Mathilde realises necklace is not on her neck anymore it is lost. They checked the cab, but could not find it. Monsieur follows there step back, but unfortunately he could not find it. They decide to go to the jewelry store and look for similar diamond necklace Mathilde Loisel was wearing. De Maupassant let 's reader know the price of Necklace, “ The price was forty thousand francs. The store will let them have it for thirty-six thousand” ( Maupassant 177 ). Monsieur made some arrangement for the money. He had Eighteen thousand franc which his father gave to him and the rest he had to borrow from other people and promised to pay them as early as possible and with a healthy interest rate. They successfully replace the new necklace and went to Mathilde friend 's house to return it. give to her friend. And start paying up people they loaned money

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    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

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  • The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

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    Loisel repaid the necklace together with their sweat and tears. Mathilde didn’t have a choice; she had to change from a vain, ungrateful, material, bored wife, into a hardworking proud and loving wife. She even says, right before she runs into Mme. Forestier, “What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How life is strange and changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!”(39) In that quote I saw 2 things, when she asked herself what would have happened if she didn’t lose the necklace, she doesn’t go into some fairytale about what life she could be living, she just accepts what she is now, even if it’s not the easiest life in the world. At the very end of that quote “How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!”(39) The fact that she added “or to be saved!” to her thought, tells me that she realizes that she was vain and unappreciated and that she lacked character, but now she is grateful, even though it was such a terrible thing, she was grateful that she was able to say that she was a better person now, even after everything that happened to her than she ever “dreamed” of being before. Guy de Maupassant certainly described a very difficult hardship for Mathilde in “The Necklace” but in the end, everything that happened to her, made her a much better and stronger woman inside and out. This story teaches a very important lesson, you have no idea what you can do and who you can become, until your chips are down and you’re put between a rock and a hard

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