Ladies, stop giving the 78 cents back. Women fought for their individuality with the intention for equality. Women are used for the consumption of all sorts, either for property or to sell beauty. Society inflicts detrimental ideals upon women, resulting in mental and physical trauma. In "The Necklace", Madame Loisel is described as a beauteous woman who was cheated out of the potential life she should have had, because of the fact that she was beautiful yet not part of the higher class. She is unable to be satisfied with the life she has and is constantly coveting for luxurious items. Although Madame Loisel is materialistic or ungrateful, her obsession over her appearance is re-enforced by society, making her a victim of a culture that glorifies …show more content…
Class is defined by income, education, and occupation according to psychologist (Lui & Ali, 159). Madame Loisel spends most of her life wallowing in self pity because she is not rich. Although she is beautiful, Madame Loisel 's importance is minimized due to her lack of wealth. In the beginning of the story, her situation of being born into a family of clerks, or the working class, is even referred to as a "mistake of destiny" (Maupassant, 1). Women in European class systems where a mans accessory and were dependent on men to take care of them. Women weren 't allowed to go to school and could never make a name for themselves (Hughes). A woman 's aspiration, and all she was good for, was to get married to a rich or notable man. Madame Loisel however had to settle for an average, middle class man due to her social worth. She lived being constantly irritated by her modest environment, yearning for fancy dishes, and wishing she could be in a position to be envied. The husband is spineless and Madame Loisel may not be appreciated by all readers due to her character …show more content…
Upon attending the ball, she would have to come as either an upper class guest or a middle class guest. And after all, she wanted nothing more than "to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after" (Maupassant, 1). To arrive simply as a person of the working class and to receive no attention would have been deeply agonizing for Madame Loisel. In order to be presentable for the ball she pushes herself and her husband into an uncomfortable financial state, for the sake of appearing like she fits in with the higher class. The couple spent their saving of four hundred francs, which was initially saved with the intention of buying the husband 's gun so he could shoot with his friends, for Madame Loisel 's new dress (Maupassant, 2). Once the dress is obtained, she was in need of jewels or accessories. She expresses once again how devastating it would be for her to look poor amongst rich women. Madame Loisel and her husband reach a compromise and she agrees to borrow a something from her rich friend. Her friend, Mine. Forestier is willing to help Madame Loisel with her distress and offers her an assortment of jewelry to choose from (Maupassant, 2). After going through all the choices, she decides on the diamond necklace, seeming to be the most expensive. She does "unnecessary" things in an attempt to prove her
The story begins with a middle class girl who dreams of being rich, and cannot achieve this so she lives in a utopian world she creates. Then in an attempt to please his wife, M. Loisel comes home with an invitation to a party, which Mathilde does not want to attend, only because she does not have a dress. When she is given money to buy a dress, she then lusts for fancy jewelry. She also does not have a necklace to show off to the guests at the party. Her husband suggest her theater dress and she does not want to wear that one, her husband also suggest a few roses but again she insists on a necklace. It is her greed that fuels the entire story plot, and it is her greed that causes the decline in social status in the
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.
In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant the character Madame Loisel was always longing for expensive possessions, larger
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.
Guy de Maupassant’s The Necklace expresses the theme of being spoiled and ungrateful will only make things worse in many ways. Mathilde Loisel is a beautiful woman who is born into a family of poor clerks and feels she has nothing even though she wishes to have the best of everything. At times she can be charming and elegant, but she also possesses the unpleasant traits of being spoiled and ungrateful as shown in the story multiple times.
Although Madame Loisel isn’t wealthy or part of the social class that is considered high, she tried to do everything to make herself appear as if she is. She believes that her beauty can bring her as far as becoming wealthy or being able to socialize with the wealthy. The ball is important to her because for once her appearance is equivalent with the fantasy of rising above middle class she has dreamt up in her head and “[she] was a success. She was the loveliest of all; elegant, graceful, smiling, and radiant with joy. All the other men looked at her, asked who she was, and wanted to be introduced to her… [t]he triumph of her beauty and the glory of her success enveloped her in a sort of cloud of happiness made up of all the compliments” (175). The reality is beneath her appearance because she is not wealthy, nor is she actually happy with the life she lives on a daily basis. She easily deceives everyone with her appearance to make it seem as if she does have money. Uncontrolled self-absorption can distort lives to those who worry about their appearance too much. Another example of how appearances can be misleading is the necklace that Madame Loisel borrowed. It appears as if it is made of real diamonds but instead it is fake jewelry. The fact
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
The men treated their women as if they were an object. After marriage the husbands had full control over any finances or property that the women had once owned. Women didn’t have to many rights if any and were expected to stay at home and be the stereotypical house wife doing the daily house duties, looking after the children and making the meal. Even if women didn’t like it it was almost as if they were forced to be the stay at home mother. Mathilde Loisel suffering from this middle class life style just wanted to live a glamorous and luxuries life. “She would so much have liked to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be seductive and sought after."(Maupassant 1). Loisel felt trapped in this life of almost poverty and just wants to escape. She wants to live this glamorous life of having things done for her and being able to have the luxuries that the upper class have and is clearly jealous of her wealthy friend Mme. Frostier and would like to be in her shoes. But at the end of the day she is confined in this middle class lifestyle and can only wish for a better
Social class was the foundation of everyday life during the Middle Ages. Social class played a significant role in the lives of medieval people. The aristocracy class and the immoral lower class were often viewed by society as practically different races. In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer shows the wide variance among the classes in every aspect of their daily lives. The zeitgeist of the Middle Ages can be seen through his illustration of differences between classes in moral behavior, economic power, the autonomy and education of women during the Middle Ages.
To some people, class distinction is very important. Usually we think of class distinction as being of most importance to the higher classes, those who can afford to look down on the rest of the world, but sometimes this concept is of most importance to those who occupy the lower steps of society. These are the people who are stuck where they are, but feel that their true places are at the top of the social ladder. The character of Mme. Loisel in Guy de Moupassant's story "The Necklace" is one such person. She is of the lower classes, but she holds a romantic idea of what life at the top consists of, and it is one of these ideas that eventually gets her into trouble.
“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...
Social class is an underlying factor to which all characters run their lives. It is always a priority and influenced most, if not every part of their lives. Most of the characters in the novel respect the rules of class and are always trying to climb the social ladder. Or if they are atop this ladder, they make it a mission that they remain there. Mrs. Bennet tried very hard to have her daughters marry the most socially advanced men and in the end the daughters chose socially respectable men. Elizabeth at first preached against marriage for money, but strangely mocked herself by marrying the richest of them all.
Knowing how she feels he surprises her with a ticket to the ball. He gives her his savings in order for her to buy a new gown. Though he was unable to get her any jewels he suggests her to tell her rich friend to let her borrow a necklaces in order to see his wife happy. On the contrary, the husband from "The Jewel" does not fully satisfy his wife in the way that she wanted. He dreads going out to the opera while his wife loves it. He was also unable to buy her luxurious jewels so she pleases herself with false jewels and ornaments. Though both men adore and love their wife, one tries harder than the other, even though neither one can afford paying the objects the ladies truly desire.
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
Often in a piece of literature, a story will appear to be about one issue when, in actuality, the author intended it to be about another. In the short stories "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant and "Recitatif" by Toni Morrison, the issues of class separation and struggle, though they may appear at first glance to be unimportant, are in fact the central points around which these two stories revolve.