Maupassant's The Necklace

In the begining of the short story, The Necklace written by Guy De Maupassant, He starts off by describing the character Mathilde, who is described as being ”one of those pretty and charming creatures who sometimes are born into a family of clerks. As I was reading I pictured a pretty lady who was pretty and charming and was happy with her life. As you continue reading, the story starts describing her life style and how she lives and then goes to what life style she would prefer. Mathilde, ”dressed plainly because she could not dress well”.

The short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant is about a young beautiful woman named, Mathilde who was born into a family of clerks but despite her station believed she deserved to live a life of wealth and luxury. She always dreamed of living a glamorous lifestyle; attending glamorous parties, engaging in charming conversations, and being admired by many. This story is set in France during the late 1900s. In this time women could not work for their status. A woman’s status was solely determined on who she married. To Mathilde’s disappointment, she married into the middle class. Every day she is tortured by the reality of her life. Her husband, Monsieur Loisel, is content with his status and belongings, unlike his wife, and works exceedingly hard to make Mathilde happy even if it means sacrificing his own. A necklace is a small item that turns out to be Madame and Monsieur’s ultimate status downfall. Guy de Maupassant uses imagery, symbolism, and irony to show how greed and materialism can drastically effect one’s life and character through the protagonist, Mathilde.

Guy de Maupassant’s The Necklace shows the importance of being content with one’s life through the characters Madam Loisel, Monsieur Loisel, Madam Forestier. Madam Loisel struggles to find happiness in her life due to her desire to always have more. When Monsieur Loisel excitedly gave Madam Loisel an invitation to a fancy party, she “flung the invitation across the table” (Maupassant 1); She questioned her husband what exactly she was supposed to do with it because she did not have a fancy enough dress. The day of the party, Madam Loisel is sad because she doesn’t have any jewelry to wear, “not a single stone” (2).

In Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” Mathilde Loisel, a young French woman, undergoes an enormous personality change when her desires turn out not to be everything she thought they would be. Mathilde is married to a clerk and cannot afford all of the luxuries that life has to offer. She longs for all the delicacies of life, but soon her longing sends her into a downward spiral. The events throughout de Maupassant’s story “The Necklace” cause Mathilde to change from selfish, envious, and materialistic to a humble and mature woman.

In the story “The Necklace” written by Guy de Maupassant, Madame Loisel’s attitude and perspective on life changes for the good. At the beginning of the story she is very needy and ungrateful, “She had no evening clothes, no jewels, nothing. But those were the things she wanted: she felt that was the kind of life for her” (Maupassant 226). Madame Loisel “burst out weeping” when she was informed they were attending an evening event without a nice dress to wear (227). She was handed 400 francs that her husband was saving for a rifle. She was to buy a nice dress for the event. Although she buys an evening dress, she still thought she looked to poor to attend the event. She had asked to borrow a necklace from a friend, but she lost it later that

Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” is a short story about a french woman’s longing for a luxurious and grand life. The story depicts a woman, named Madame Loisel, who is extremely unhappy because she felt as if she was made to live a rich life. She finally gets the opportunity to attend a high-class party, but loses a diamond necklace that she borrowed from her friend, Madame Forestier. She realizes what it feels like to be impoverished, as she has to do the housework for ten years in order to pay for a replica of the diamond necklace. The theme of the story is to be happy with what you have and to never be discontent with your life.

Happiness will not come to people who are never content with what they have. It is prevalent in society that there are perfect ideals that cannot be achieved, Mathilde is a prime example, for she desired what she didn’t have but would try anything to achieve this ideal. One fateful decision leads her down an unhappy path. In the short story “The Necklace” the protagonist is used as means to teach a lesson. De Maupassant’s story tells the story through the eyes of Mathilde Loisel through what she says and does, through her interactions with other characters, and through events in the plot.

Guy De Maupassant and his story clearly show women in a negative light through many different ways. It can seem quite subtle however; it is quite evident when you know what to look for. Mme. Loisel always seems to do things that will get a specific reaction from her husband. Also, she is overdramatic about the smallest, most insignificant things. Since Mme. Loisel is made to be so needy and overdramatic, she helps portray women in a negative light.

In the short story, “The Necklace,” a greedy and selfish woman brings financial ruin upon herself and her husband. They go from a comfortable lifestyle in a slightly shabby apartment to an impoverished existence in an attic apartment. Mathilde Loisel was born to a lower middle class French family, but she wished that she could have of noble birth. Her longing for a better life caused her great grief. When she could have been happy with her situation in life, instead she would dream of a grand home and wealthy, dignified friends. When she borrowed a diamond necklace from a friend and lost it at an elegant party, she brought downfall to her husband and herself. Not only does Guy de Maupassant use the

In The Necklace, Mathilde developed throughout the story, she has a changed in her attitude towards life. This change came into place when she learnt a life lesson the hard way. Mathilde and her husband was forced to be degraded from middle class to lower class because of Mathilde’s envy and greed towards the upper class. Mathilde changes from a woman who spends her days dreaming of being a part of the upper class, to realizing that she over looked and unappreciated what she actually had.

In Guy De Maupassant’s realistic fiction short story, “The Necklace”, the main character Mme. Loisel embodies the character trait of being miserable because of the life she has. Mme. Loisel “could not afford fine clothes” and wasn’t happy with the clothes that she did have. She could have made her clothes to wear if she couldn’t afford the nicer ones. I think that she could have just been different than everyone else and just be confident and grateful for what she had. Mme. Loisel would “dream of silent chambers” because she didn’t like what she had and dreamed of having better things. When she dreamed of all the things she wanted in life, it made her not appreciate all the things they had and worked hard for. I think that by her dreaming about

Mathilde Loisel, the main character, experiences internal and external conflict in “The Necklace” through embarrassment of poverty, the fact she has nothing to wear, and when she loses the necklace. In the beginning of the story, Mathilde Loisel has an internal conflict with her poverty. We find that she is ashamed of the live she lives and wishes to live one full of luxury and wealth. It proves this when it says, “she thought of delicious dishes served on marvelous plates, and of the whispered gallantries which you listen to with a sphinxlike smile, while you are eating the pink flesh of a trout or the wings of a quail.”

In Guy deMaupassant, “The Necklace”, there were some very descriptive characters. One in particular was Mathilde. She was the main character. Mathilde wanted to be in the upper class and have all of the things that people in the upper class had. That was the kind of lifestyle she dreamed about. In today’s terms, we would call Mathilde a wine taster on a beer budget. Mathilde always misunderstood what she had right in front of her. She was a very selfish woman, materialistic, and extremely vain when it came to the things she thought that she “needed”.

Mathilde was a young women living with an aspiration for more. She lived with her husband who worked to support her and would do anything for her. But she never felt that her life was good enough. Mathilde felt that she was too beautiful and worthy for the life she was born into. For that reason, she was not grateful for the small things that her husband tried to do to make her happy. But when he brings home a ticket for his wife to the ball in town, she is faced with a couple of problems. She believes that she would not look as good as the other women at the dance, because she did not have any beautiful gowns to wear. Some conflicts that occur to Mathilde throughout The Necklace, are not having a nice dress to wear to the ball, not

Throughout the whole story Mathilde was described as a beautiful and lovely woman who acted as though she was rich, when she really wasn't. Her beauty was a huge driving force for her to go and get the necklace from her friend. She was already beautiful naturally but she wanted more than she needed. While she was the most beautiful at the ball and every man there wanted to dance with her, the necklace caused her to lose that beauty that she had that night.