In “The Necklace” Mr. Maupassant tells a story of a woman, Mrs. Loisel, who goes through many emotions over the loss of a necklace that ends up being a fake. As she goes through these situations Mr. Maupassant gives examples of literally elements that prove what kind of person she turns out to be. Throughout the story Mrs. Loisel is conflicted with many problems just to realize who she became and how she took advantage of what she already had in her life. When it turns out to be too late she then blames her friend for letting her borrow the necklace instead of taking the responsibility of her selfish life.
During the eighteenth century all aspects of western culture was influenced to take over the role of women in society at the time. Women were lead to believe that men were supposed to be the primary householders whom can do anything leaving them dependent to men. Women at the time also had to deal with the struggles of living in social class lifestyles that dreamt of having nothing but luxuries and higher values. Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace” portrays this very situation through the character of Mrs. Loisel with the different use of literary devices. She is stuck between wanting to live the lifestyle and learning to live her own without certain delicacies.
A point to consider is the use of foreshadowing in Maupassant’s “The Necklace” and how it gives away further events in the story. With foreshadowing, the reader is given clues at the beginning of the story as to
In The Necklace, Madame Loisel was embarrassed by her poverty which made her state of being even worse with her self-centered actions. Characteristics to describe her actions would be materialistic, ungrateful, and unappreciative. Evidences from the story, about these characteristics, are given to support them. Madame Loisel have plenty of traits that describes her, but the three that stood out the most was materialistic, ungrateful, and unappreciative. With a simple, loving, and caring husband didn’t stop her self-centered actions.
Have you ever felt like your life is not as it should be? In “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant, Madame Loisel feels exactly like that. However, her disappointment may lead to some future trouble. Throughout the story, the author builds her character based on her actions, feelings and thoughts. Consequently, Madame Loisel is portrayed as an ungrateful, selfish and pessimistic woman.
In “The Necklace”, Mathilde Loisel is a woman who cannot tolerate her lower-class status, believing “herself born for every delicacy and luxury”(82). Mathilde’s vain materialistic goals, make her bitter and unhappy. The main point of irony in the story is the fact that Mathilde borrows the necklace and looses it. The necklace was very expensive, or so she thought, so she ended up in poverty
“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
In Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" is the story of Mathilde Loisel, who resents her "station" in life. Mathilde Loisel is shown to be a vain and ungrateful person who believes that she was born to have a better life. She feels that she has married beneath her, in spite of the fact that her husband is a hard working and dependable man. Mathilde is unable to recognize and appreciate the
The necklace serves as a symbol for greed. When Mathilda Loisel loses the necklace that she believed was worth forty thousand francs, she desperately retraces her steps and gets her husband to help her find it as well. It ends up taking ten years to pay off the debt. The ten years were hard on Mathilda Loisel and her husband, and Maupassant told the reader that she “looked old now… with hair half combed, with skirts award, and reddened hands” (6). However, even after the long ten years of manual labor all because she lost the necklace, she “sat down near the window and though of that evening at the ball so long ago, when she has been so beautiful and so admired” (6). The necklace symbolizes that when greed controls emotions and decisions, it never leads to good results.
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.
‘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
Have you ever want too many things even though your life was already fulfilled and lost yourself? Have you ever ask too much and regret for what you did? Every desire, ambition, selfishness and a bit of extravagant of a human being was carefully portrayed in this story, “The Necklace”. The story is about a young woman named Mathilde Loisel. Born in a family of artisans, she wasn’t rich, but beautiful and glamor. But she never feel satisfied of what she had and never stop dreaming to have more, to live a luxury life with expensive homes and glittering dresses, and eventually paid hard for her nonsense dreams. In “The Necklace”, Guy de Maupassant uses third person limited narration to show how Mathilde Loisel changes in how she
Both Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry, the authors of “The Necklace” and “The Gift of the Magi”, are considered two of the best short story writers to have ever lived, and they both use irony to develop a complex theme in their stories. They both deal with young, poor couples who face certain trials, and are surprised by an unexpected, ironic event – although in different ways. In both of these stories, the authors create suspense and humor to create an enjoyable story. In both stories; there are several main themes including wealth, sacrifice, pride, and love; that can be seen in both “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Necklace.” One of the most noticeable pieces in both stories is the amount of wealth, or lack of wealth, that the couples have. The authors set the characters in an uncomfortable, drab environment. This can be seen in “The Gift of the Magi,” in lines 11-13 as, “a furnished flat at $8 per week (…) did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad” (Henry, 11-13), and in “The Necklace” in lines 13-15 as, “shabbiness of her apartment, the dinginess of the walls, the worn out appearance of the chairs, and the ugliness of the draperies” (Maupassant, 13-15). The Youngs are a low working class couple, while the Loisels are part of the middle class before the they lose the necklace. Altogether, it is clear that in
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;
During this time period, women’s role in society was that of a submissive, powerless position. They often relied solely on their husband for direction, allowing the husband to make decisions and take lead no matter what. In the story of The Necklace, Maupassant illustrates these
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
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
‘The Necklace’ was a short story written by French writer Guy de Maupassant in the late nineteenth century, which was a period of time where the literary movements naturalism and realism were frequently used in French literature. The short story shows how greed and wealth can change a personality and affect their lifestyles. Throughout ‘The Necklace’, Maupassant aims to show the conflicts between the lower and upper classes, and how their desires may vary. This essay will discuss how Maupassant uses social context, symbolism, literary devices and his characters demonstrate his misogynistic viewpoints.