Analysis Of The Poem ' The Necklace '

She blinked

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.

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

“Her expression changed then, becoming fearful rather than merely pained. It was the look you get when facing a sudden and

“Sure it does,” Geoffrey said. “Sure it does. And you take care of that treasure of yours.”

I looked up and I froze. My tongue was twisted up and the thoughts in my brain froze. My heart was beating out my chest as I saw the monster lips played the cruelest smirk ever.

Rose peered down at her liege, and her grin slowly faded into an expression of subtle confusion. “Your eyes,”

She knew his words were false, but she basked in the warmth they had provided someone like her. They were the kindest words she had ever heard from any not tied to Mistress Joan’s brothel. Secretly she placed some hoped that Will’s words were told true, but very little. She looked closely at his battered face and began to imagine how he must have looked before this terrible chastisement took place.

“Madam Delphine, Now even you know that once a spell has been made it can't be broken, you'll never hurt my children” Marie replied with

All of the sudden, her eyes began to water, and her mouth begins to quiver. She looks as she is going to cry. “Oh Rachel, I am so sorry for the way I treated you!” she says in the most sympathetic voice I had ever heard her use.

"God, but your silly! Go to your friend Mrs. Forrestier and ask her to lend you some jewelry. You know her well enough to do that." (The Necklace, Pg 7) When Matilde's husband suggests that she borrow some jewelry from one of her wealthy friends, he really had no idea what a terrible mistake he was making at the time.

“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.

The Necklace is an engaging short story, making hearty use of irony to convey essential ideas. Guy de Maupassant’s famous short story “The Necklace” makes use of various forms of diction to display Madam Loisel’s vain and longing personality to the reader. With uses of dialogue, thought, action, and the pursuit of more than what she has, Loisel’s conceited disposition, regards to the grandeur of vanity, and suffering wishes for a life full of easiness and luxury are conveyed.

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.

“She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born, as if by an accident into a family of clerks” this is what Guy de Maupassant started “The Necklace” off by saying (Maupassant 221). Also, this helps describe the main character and to give the readers a visual of Mathilde Loisel. “The Necklace” is a short story that Mathilde Loisel, the main female character, wants to be a higher class than she really is. Mathilde’s life drastically changes one night after she loses the necklace. Guy de Maupassant incorporates his use of the social class into the short story.