"The necklace itself is representative of the theme of appearances versus reality.”(Gale) Guy de Maupassant was a popular French writer who wrote many short stories. One of his most popular works is “The Necklace”. The story is about a girl named Mathilde Loisel who has always dreamed of something she can never have, and just when she gets a chance, she loses her friend’s necklace that makes her life turn for the worse. Maupassant develops his theme of the deception of appearance throughout the story with the use of irony, characterization, and symbolism.
To start off, “The Necklace” goes through ironic situations expressed in the story. “Why, at most it was worth only five hundred francs!”(Maupassant) The necklace itself is a fake. The Loisels go through a rough life for an expensive necklace when in reality it is an imitation. “It is ironic that beauty only becomes a reality when it is ornamented with something else.”(Gale) Madame Loisel was a beautiful and charming lady but was ruled out because of her class. Which is ironic for a society that highly values appearance. “Oh nothing. Only I don’t have an evening dress and therefore I can’t go to that affair. Give the card to some friend at the office whose wife can dress better than I can.”(Maupassant) Irony is a literary element used throughout the story.
Additionally, Mathilde Loisel is characterized as a dreamer. She wants to be the glamour girl she always thought she was meant to be. “She suffered intensely, feeling herself born for every delicacy and every luxury.”(Maupassant) Mathilde Loisel desires to be sought after. She fantasizes to the extreme of being the center of attention with all the wealth and b...
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... Mathilde Loisel as desirable although she was excluded before because she could not afford to live like them. Mathilde Loisel herself perceived her life as unbearable, even though it did not have to be if she would make the most of what she had. Until then she learned through a decade of what real suffering and poverty is like.
Works Cited
Brackett, Virginia. “The Necklace.” Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Brackett, Virginia. “The Necklace.” Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Maupassant, Guy De. “The Necklace.” 1884. Holt McDougal Literature Grade 9 Common Core Edition. Common Core Edition ed. N.p.: Harcourt, Brace, 2012. 224-33. Print.
Steegmuller, Francis. “The Necklace.” EXPLORING Short Stories. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Power Search. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Riddy, Felicity. "Jewels in Pearl" in A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, pp. 142-55. Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson, editors. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1997.
Glendinning, Victoria. "Pearl of the Orient." Spectator. 03 Apr. 2010: n/a. eLibrary. Web. 05 Jan. 2012.
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.
She suffered all those ten years just for a necklace that she absolutely had to have. It’s ironic because she suffered and worked for a necklace that was not worth all of that at all. The author didn’t reveal this until the very end of the story. “Oh, my poor Mathilde? Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at moat five hundred francs” (Maupassant 558). This is situational irony in the short story The
Wilson, August. “Fences.” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Compact 7th ed. Eds. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Wadsworth CENGAGE, 2010. 1572-1625. Print.
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.]
In Guy de Maupassant’s story, The Necklace, he utilizes situational irony in order to highlight the theme. He displays this irony in order to reveal several themes that can be observed in the story. One of the major themes in this short story is how appearances can be misleading.
The use of Irony is seen in both short stories representing the constriction in marriage. In “The Necklace” Madame Losiel receives a spectacular invitation to a prestigious gala which her husband went to great ends to get. Loisel had this desire to live a lifestyle that was way beyond her means. After purchasing a beautiful gown worth 400 franks Mathilde Loisel came to the realization that she had no jewelry to go along with the dress. Her husband suggested “You will wear some natural flowers” and she replied “ No; there is nothing more humiliating than to look poor among a lot of rich women” (Maupassant 2). Mathilde Loisel than went to her wealthy friend Mme.Forester to borrow a diamond necklace that was not affordable to replace if anything
Riddy, Felicity. "Jewels in Pearl" in A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, pp. 142-55. Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson, editors. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1997.
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.
“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
Maupassant, Guy de. “The Necklace.” [First published 1884.] Rpt. The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Compact 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
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
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