Guy De Maupassant is recognized as one of the finest writers of the modern short story. Maupassant’s literary career began in 1880 in France. He was a marvelous writer of short stories which were based upon the aspects of the French Society, frequently touching sensitive subjects such as social and moral principles. The beauty of Maupassant’s stories is the unpredictability of them, quite identical to life, where things do not always turn up the way one may expect. The short story, Jewelry by Guy De Maupassant is an insightful piece, with a compelling theme of appearance versus reality and that the life is full of irony. The Jewelry tells the story of a middle class French couple, Lantin, and his wife. The story begins as Mr. Lantin meets …show more content…
In the first paragraph, Madame Lantin is characterized as quiet and gentle young girl, belonging to a poor and respectable family. The line “The young girl seemed to be the very ideal of that pure good woman to whom every young man dreams of entrusting his future” (Maupassant 67) establishes the personality and traits of Madame Lantin for the readers. Until the death of Madame Lantin in the story, her character is portrayed in a positive light, as the narrator describes her caring and naïve nature. Towards the end of the story, When Mr. Lantin finds out that the Jewelries are much more valuable than his expectations, the image of Madame Lantin takes a dramatic turn, and the reference of reality is made when the narrator says “A horrible suspicion swept across his mind . . . She? . . . But then all those other pieces of jewelry must have been presents also! . . . Then it seemed to him that the ground was heaving under his feet; that a tree, right in front of him, was falling toward him” (Maupassant 70). This shows that Mr. Lantin have conclusively realized the truth about Madame Lantin, whom he was deeply in love with, and admired for all this time. He realizes that just like Jewelry, He failed to apprehend the truth about her, hence realizing that Things are not always what they seem to be. Another theme presented in the story is Situational Irony, as the outcome that the readers expected was distinct from the outcome. As Mr. Lantin finds
In Guy de Maupassant’s story the necklace, Madame Loisel’s is a women in the middle class who’s unsatisfied with her lifestyle and envies the upper class lifestyle. Her personality takes her through a irony filled roller coaster throughout the story. The story shows three different types of irony in the story which are verbal, situational, and dramatic.
One can also only speculate that how Madame Lantin’s insatiable craving for jewels, that her husband cannot afford, is motivated by the socioeconomic condition of the world in which she moves. When Maupassant explains that Madame Lantin is extremely reluctant at first to go out in the evenings without her husband to escort her, he gives the reader one of the only clues about her possible feelings as she makes the transformation from a dutiful and virtuous wife into a woman who is extravagantly showered with expensive gems by other men. (Constantakis 1)
‘The Necklace’ is a morality tale written by Guy de Maupassant where he portrays the life of a beautiful but dissatisfied girl named Mathilde who desires to live a luxurious life despite being born into a clerk’s family and marrying a clerk too. Mathilde’s discontentment in life instigates her to pretend someone rich that she is not. Moreover, it leads her to severe trouble that caused ten years of hardship to Mathilde and her husband. So, this suffering is a punishment for Mathilde which taught her a lesson and changed her dramatically over the course of the story by making her a person of completely different personality for whom appearances
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
“The Necklace” develops the theme of irony through Madame Loisel’s constant need for money and jewels. The first example of irony is when she borrows the necklace to appear wealthy, then loses all her wealth. When Madame Loisel begins to worry about how she will appear to the other wealthy people, her husband tells her to go borrow jewelry from her friend, Madame Forestier (Maupassant 4). The very
Monsieur Lantin, of Guy De Maupassant’s, “The Jewelry” is a man married to a woman who he became infatuated with over the influence of others, resulting in their marriage, and her eventual untimely death; shortly after her death it is revealed that she lived a mysterious life with her not-so-fake jewels. Madam Lantin’s character is revealed from the perspective of her husband, by way of Maupassant using third person point of view, consequently making her a flat character. Monsieur relies upon his wife to conserve his ever so quaint lifestyle. Monsieur is that of a dynamic individual, in the sense that he has the ability to adapt to life by a swayed decision making method, usually resulting in their misplaced value in his happiness. Based on the context in this short story, it is safe to say that Monsieur takes life at face value, is critical of two of his wife’s habits, and eventually becomes overwhelmed with skepticism concerning his emotional and financial life.
“She so much longed to please, be envied, be fascinating and sought after” (de Maupassant 67). The main character desires to be at the center of attention, she wants to be coveted by others. In his fictional short story titled, “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant writes about how the lusting for more may cause people to be blinded and unable to see/value the treasures they already have. The story begins with an introduction of a lady who daydreams about the happiness that materialistic yearnings can bring her, forgetting her situation and social class. After taking her husband’s recommendation to borrow jewelry, specifically a diamond necklace, from her close friend Madame Forestier to wear alongside her dress at the evening reception, the main character later discovers that she had lost the necklace. Following their failure to find the necklace, Madame and Monsieur Loisel devise a plan to borrow money to replace the necklace with another and in doing so, fall into years of debt. Moreover, Maupassant uses direct characterization, imagery and situational irony to further depict why you should be grateful for what you already have before it’s too late.
Madame Loisel’s pride demands more: “It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress” (Maupassant 2). Ironically, it is Monsieur Loisel who suggests that his wife borrow jewelry from Madame Forestier, and subsequently has to spend the next ten years borrowing money to replace it. As May puts it, “Her husband exhausts his meager inheritance and then borrows the rest, mortgaging their life away to buy a replacement for the necklace” (May 7). Monsieur Loisel sacrifices everything to salvage his wife’s pride.
In Guy De Mauspassant's `The Necklace," the author examines the theme of how learning a difficult lesson about honesty can impact someone for the rest of their life. The author also examines the theme through the use of his title, the characters who act out the events, and the plot.
To begin with, this story launched with the exposition, where we learned about the two main characters, their lives, and the setting. M. Lantin, a chief clerk in the office of the Minister of the Interior, “became enveloped in love as in a net” (Maupassant 67) after meeting a young woman, Madam Lantin. She was beautiful and every man dreamed of having her. Then, the two married shortly later, and they lived joyously for six years. The only two things that M. Lantin did not absolutely adore about his wife was “her love for theater and her passion for false jewelry” (Maupassant 67). Additionally, the exposition explained how the wife was in charge of the money in the house and how “they really seemed to live in luxury” (Maupassant
What would you do if your significant other passed on and left you with over 12 million dollars? That's exactly what Guy De Maupassant tries to answer in the short story, “The Jewelry”. The author answers this question by expressing it through the five main parts of a complete story the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion. Not having a plot in the story it would be the equivalent of reading someones everyday journal. There are many events that happen but they are in a random, that may not make sense. The three of the most important elements of this story are the rising action, climax, and conclusion. This short story allows each of the elements to build on each other creating a greater outcome for the following
The internal conflicts established in “The Necklace” were a result of Madame Loisels perception of happiness. Because of her ungrateful and dejected views on life, she didn’t realize nor recognize true merriment. In the text, Guy De Maupassant shows how Madame “..was one of those pretty and charming girls born as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of
The nineteenth century French writer, Guy De Maupassant, tells an intriguing story in "The Necklace." He depicts the painful life of a beautiful woman, unhappily born into an average family of clerks. She felt that she was destined to marry into wealth but sadly found herself settling as she married an average copyist. Unlike the women of today, women in the nineteenth century were not fortunate enough to have a career of their own; they were either born into a wealthy family or married a man with money. In "The Necklace", Guy De Maupassant creatively reveals Mathilde Loisel's dreams of a decadent lifestyle. As her struggles start to unravel, it becomes obvious that her heartache is solely
When her husband gave her the invitation to the ball, which was a perfect place to meet the rich people, Mathilde got mad and cried. It was a shame since she has nothing to wear. Mr Loisel gave his money to Mathilde and she got an elegance dress. But she didn’t stop and wanted to have jewels. Mathilde met her friend, Madame Forestier and chose an gorgeous diamond necklace. Of course, she became the prettiest woman in the ball, with everyone stared at her, as if she was the most attractive woman ever. She felt fascinated, just like her dream came true. But then a tragic came to her. She lost the necklace! Mathilde and her husband tried to find the necklace, but they found nothing. Mathilde lost her hope and had aged five years. The Loisels finally decided to replace the diamonds for 36 000 Francs, spent all of their money and accepted to pay the debts. It was such an unfortunate situation. After Mathilde lost the necklace, she was described as “ And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money”. (Maupassant 8). The family was suffering from poverty and have to pay the debts continuously. Mathilde changed immediately and did everything. They have worked so hard to earn every single penny for their life, to survive and pay all those debts. The third person limited
Her persistent mindset of wanting and needing more, is how her internal conflict developed. All of Madame Loisel’s issues relate back to her internal fascination with becoming incredibly rich and valued by her peers. The text states, “She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.” (1) Madame Loisel’s mindset was simply set on materialistic things and being respected amongst her peers. Even throughout the years, her idea of ‘perfection’ never changed a bit. The story reads, “But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.” (5) Ten hard and stressful years later, Madame Loisel is still under the impression that everything she has must be beautiful and valued. This situation expresses irony because although she is beautiful, she still feels a desire to receive expensive things. The text states, “She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans… She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury.” (1) Although she is beautiful