In "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant and "Cinderella" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, social class is crucial in both stories. In "The Necklace," Mme. Loisel is married to a Ministry clerk and is part of the middle class. Despite this, she hates her middle class life and concludes she should be in the upper class because she is beautiful. In "Cinderella," Cinderella is born into the upper class but is forced to become a lowly servant when her two malicious stepsisters move in. She ends up marrying the prince, which allows her to escape her life of servitude. Although clothes represent social class in both "The Necklace" and "Cinderella," the contrasting attitudes of Mme. Loisel and Cinderella ultimately determines their social classes at the denouement of the story.
To begin, clothes illustrate social class in both stories. In "The Necklace," Mme. Loisel is born into a family of clerks, which places her in the middle class. Given the society she lives in is patriarchal, the social class of her father and husband control Mme. Loisel's social class. However, Mme. Loisel clothes mask her true social class. While Mme. Loisel tries on jewelry at Mme. Forestier's home, she puts on a diamond necklace, "Clasping it [the necklace] around her throat … she stood in ecstasy looking at her reflection" (de Maupassant 212). She dons the necklace to a party meant for the upper the class because she suspects it will mask her true social class of middle class. Her decision to wear the necklace
“Going up in the World: Class in ‘Cinderella’” is a scholarly article written by Elisabeth Panttaja that analyzes the roles of the mothers and the importance of class within these times. Panttaja focuses her article on the Grimm version, which is most famously critiqued and discussed. The article analyzes the importance of the mothers, which leads to the overall concept that the natural mother’s role seems irrelevant, yet Cinderella’s entire destiny is based upon her. The mother’s also show similar goals: get their daughter(s) married into power. Cinderella wins this battle, however, for she is the “true bride.”
I argue that the movie, A Cinderella Story shows one of the kinds of stereotypes that many black women face in using the mammy figure that Melissa Harris-Perry discussed broadly in her book. A Cinderella story does this by having a black woman character named Rhonda who acts as the caretaker and worker under the main character, who is a wealthy white woman. Ultimately, A Cinderella Story creates this mammy figure by having Rhonda work underneath a rich white woman and her three daughters. Melissa Harris-Perry says, “Unlike the bad black woman who was aggressively sexual, Mammy had no personal needs or desires. She was a trusted adviser and confidante whose skills were used exclusively in the service of the white families to which she was
Hi Nhung, I like that before you started analyzing which character archetypes are in the film, you gave a summary of the movie. This makes it so that whoever reads your response, have an understanding of the film. I agree with your point that, “Cinderella is the innocent archetype because she always get bullied by her stepmother and stepsisters.” This is true that she is innocent because most people would defend themselves when they get hurt, but Cinderella does nothing about it and continues to take the harassment. Also, it is interesting that she fits into the innocent character archetype because about every Disney Princess fits into the same category.
Many people wonder where all the Cinderella stories originated from? They originated from the most popular version written in French by Charles Perrault written in 1607. The Little Golden book, the Grimm brothers version and the 2015 Disney Film version of Cinderella are all taken from the original story. All Cinderella stories have the same storyline, but there are differences and similarities between the archetypes and the characters and in the theme in the three versions.
In The Necklace, the setting of Paris in the late 19th century is a world of elegance and wealth. If not born into a wealthy family, one would have two options: marry into a wealthy family, or stay in their social class. That is just the case for Mathilde Loisel, who is endowed with beauty but born into a family of clerks. She was born free and could have had a plentiful life because of her beauty. However, she was held back by the chains of her social status and forced to marry her wealthy husband Monsieur Loisel. Together they have an awkward relationship consisting only of their need for marriage.
That is to say that in “The Necklace,” Mathilde’s perception of herself as a woman of higher social standing lead to her losing the one thing she had going in life, her true beauty. “It is Madame Loisel 's desire to be part of the upper class which sets the story 's events in motion” (Hatboro and Horsham). Mathilde is described as a beautiful woman who finds her life to be not up to her standards because she is not a part of the higher class. “She had no
Cinderella is a fairytale for children that displayed love, loss and miracles; however, when it is further analyzed, it has a deeper meaning. Cinderella is a story about a young girl who became a servant in her own home after her father remarried a malicious woman with two spoiled daughters. She was humiliated and abused yet she remained gentle and kind. She received help from her fairy godmother to go to the prince’s ball after her stepmother rejected her proposal. Cinderella and the Prince fell madly in love but she had to leave at twelve o’clock and forgot to tell him her name but she left her glass slipper behind. He sent his servants to find her and Cinderella was the only maiden in the kingdom to fit into the shoes. She
The use of rhetoric emphasizes the tragic yet ironic theme in the story of The Necklace. Madame Loisel lived in the middle class society but longed to be a member of the higher class. She wanted to live above her means and would do whatever it took to get there, however when her dream of having something of value came true, it ended up hurting her overall;
In The Necklace, the main character, Mme. Loisel, has a very materialistic view on happiness. She owns all of these nice things, but is not content in her life. When she sees more elegant items that she wants, she becomes more dissatisfied with her life until she can get it. By the end of the story, she becomes poor from having to repay a large amount of debt. In the end, she learns that money does not equal happiness, and that she should have been grateful for the smaller things in her life that made it
The story that most of us know as “Cinderella” actually has a lot of different versions. These different versions contain several elements that are similar, but yet even more elements that differ from one another. The three main difference between all the different versions of this story are the characters, how others treat the main character, and the setting in which these stories take place.
The central objective of the present study was to investigate how the influence of individual’s favorite Disney princess, Cinderella or Mulan, can impact participant’s beliefs on gender role and romance. In this study, participants that favored Cinderella held a more traditional belief on gender roles compared to those who favored the Disney princess Mulan. This finding supported our first hypothesis. This could be because of the traditional female role that Cinderella held throughout the movie in comparison to Mulan. Unlike Cinderella, Mulan was portrayed like a soldier, who had a strong-minded character. Mulan did not fit into the stereotypical model of what its meant to be a female, instead, she transcended the gender binaries. In contrast, Cinderella was portrayed as your stereotypical female character. She was depicted as a loving and nurturing caregiver who was also very submissive and weak. All in all, Cinderella was basically a damsel in distress with her evil witch being her stepmothers and stepsisters. This sharp contrast in characters and their message may influence children in different ways. We as people are more prone to gravitate towards things we resonate with on the terms of our experiences, values, beliefs and even our philosophy on life. Therefore, it was assumed that people who favor Cinderella would have a more traditional view of gender roles.
According to the narrator in “The Necklace,” Madame Loisel has a low middle-class economic status which causes her agony. Madame Loisel focuses on her inability to maintain a luxurious lifestyle. She feels, “that all the attributes of a gracious life, every luxury, should rightfully have been hers” (de Maupassant 333). She cares more about her wants rather than her needs while thinking she deserves a wealthy lifestyle. Madame Loisel’s selfish personality cannot compare to Della’s humble disposition.
Now consider the role of Mathilde Loisel in “The Necklace”. She constantly grieves about her simple life and fantasizes about extravagant life style with rich people and food surrounding her. Her husband is a simple man and is satisfied with his life. He appreciates her for the food which is cooked and never complains. Being in the Ministry of Education their lifestyle is modest. Mathilde is not satisfied on the other hand even when her husband proudly announces that they have been invited at a formal party held by the Ministry of Education. The irony in the story is more or less the same with regard to the female characters. Mathilde cries and gets her prize in the form of a dress but she is never satisfied. She wants jewelry as well. The necklace that she borrows from Madame Forestier teaches her a lesson of life. Since she is not familiar with the real jewelry she picks the cheapest one from her collection and wears it to the party why she loses it. Upon not finding the jewelry her husband takes the pain of selling everything out just to purchase an identical necklace worth 40,000 francs which leaves them poverty stricken for the next ten years during which her husband does three jobs and
A fairytale that almost everyone knows is Cinderella. Cinderella is about a young girl whose father decides to remarry after her mother dies. The women who he remarries is evil with two evil daughters. As Cinderella's father is out of town for various things the evil step-mom makes Cinderella do all the chores. They treat her like a servant rather than someone apart of the family. Since Cinderella has no friends she becomes friends with animals who help her complete her daily chores. One day they receive an invitation to a ball. Cinderella is allowed to go if she completes a set of chores but Cinderella ends up staying home while her stepmother and stepsisters go to the ball. Cinderella's fairy godmother shows up and makes her beautiful (changes her dress, etc) but says she has to be home at midnight because her beautiful dress will disappear and she'll go back to her old self. She goes to the ball and the prince falls in love with her but she has to leave at the strike of midnight. As she is running out of the ball she loses one of her glass slippers. The prince searches town for Cinderella. He then finally finds her and they live happily ever after.
In “The Necklace”, Guy de Maupassaut uses the irony with the necklace to criticize Madame Loisel’s need to make a false impression and her equally false desires. Madame Loisel shows her desire for everything throughout this short story. Guy de Maupassant uses an angry tone showing the reader he disapproves of Madame Loisel actions and need for attention. In the beginning of this short story, Guy describes Madame Loisel as “one of those pretty and charming girls born” (CITATION). Guy de Maupassant immediately lets the reader know Madame Loisel is incredibly beautiful. Her husband even says “Why the dress you go to theatre in. It looks very nice to me” (CITATION), yet Madame Loisel does not care. Madame Loisel needs to make a false impression