Irony In The Necklace And The Gift Of The Magi

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.

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.

Guy De Maupassant’s short story, “The Jewelry”, is about a man, named M. Lantin, who marries a woman who is infatuated by fake jewelry. She compiles all sorts of jewelry and in time her husband discovers that all of it is actually real. The author uses a myriad of literary elements to make it the absorbing short story he meant for it to be.

In his short story, “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant captures the interest of readers from the 1800’s through the 2000’s. The storyline details a time when the desire to move up in social status was almost unthinkable, and one could even be punished for considering the change. However, readers through the ages can relate to this type of deception of appearances still exhibited by mankind. Maupassant uses the literary elements of point of view, symbolism, and irony to skillfully progress this theme throughout the story.

‘The Necklace’ is a short story by French writer Guy De Maupassant and is set during the 19th century in Paris. Throughout the story, Maupassant addresses many numerous themes such as greed, pride, honesty and femininity. This allows the reader to have an insight of how women were treated during the 19th century of Paris and how they affected the society. In the story, Madame Loisel is the daughter of a very minor civil servant, she went along a proposal made by a junior clerk in the Ministry of Education. Then, leads to Madame Loisel’s downfall as she switches from the middle class towards the working class in the society.

In the short story, “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant tells the story of a woman who was born in a family of clerks, Mathilde Loisel. She was a charming, pretty, married lady, whom I don’t feel sorry for. Mme. Loisel was living an adequate life with her husband, M. Loisel. She has a roof over her head, clothes to cover her body, and a peasant to do her “humble housework.”

Many people in today's society often live a life of arrogance and selfishness showing little to no concern for those around them . Guy De Maupassant’s “ The Necklace ” and O. Henry’s “ The Gift of the Magi ” are two prime examples of why one should not value a life of luxury and arrogance over a life of modesty and selflessness. For this reason this essay will focus on two young women known as Mathilde Loisel and Della Dillingham Young, And the similarities and differences both women share. In order to conclude which of the two represents the majority of modern days society.

Another theme that can be found in these two short stories are wealth. In The Necklace, wealth is a theme that the author uses when he describes Mathilde’s history, fantasies, and jealousy against wealthy people. The author talks about Mathilde’s history and how she lacked wealth. The narrator, writes “She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born by a blunder of destiny in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, married by a man rich and distinguished” (Maupassant 1884).

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. said it perfectly, “Love is when the other person’s happiness is more important than your own.” Brown meant that sacrificing is little in the way of a person’s love for another, and that love is being happy when the other person is happy. In O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”, Della and Jim Dillingham Young have trouble deciding how to get each other Christmas presents. By writing the short story “The Gift of the Magi”, Henry portrays the theme that love is shown through selfless gifts. Henry reveals the theme of the story through characterization and irony.

During the nineteenth century countries around the globe were primarily governed by royalties. There were many important figures like kings and queens all throughout Europe. Every person’s dream during this era was becoming part of the high-class and the elite. This epoch was full of controversial changes between the social statuses of citizens. An important bourgeois role model during this time period was Guy de Maupassant, who wrote one of the most influential short stories of this century. “The Necklace”, written by Guy de Maupassant, illustrates elements of fiction such as the symbolism of the necklace because of Mme. Loisel’s desire to be rich, irony due to the twist ending, and a powerful theme.

In the beginning of the short stories “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Necklace” the two female characters were polar opposites but, after the conflicts of the stories they turned out to be quite similar.

Originating in France, ‘The Necklace’ is a short story written by French writer Guy de Maupassant in the late nineteenth century; the period where literary movements realism and naturalism dominated French fiction. Maupassant played an important role in both the realist movement and the naturalist movement through his depiction of the setting as well as the character’s decision. The short story reflects upon the rigid patriarchal society during the late nineteenth century, demonstrating how the wealth of a person can lead to their generosity and greed; thus affecting their lifestyles. Through ‘The Necklace’, Maupassant aims to depict the conflicts between the upper-class and the lower class and how their inner desires vary. This essay will

Guy de Maupassant, a French writer, was born in August 1850 and died in July 1893, during which the Franco-Prussian war took place. Subsequently, many of his narrations were set during this war to describe its meaningless and disastrous aftermath to countless innocent people whose experiences were changed forever. He was known as a master of short stories and belonged to naturalist school of writers, in which he described human lives, along with society, in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms. A signature in his style is begining with ironic and ending with twist, which is also the basis for “The Necklace”, wrote in 1884. In this short story, Maupassant uses third-person objective point of view with cleverly contrast and ironic setting but also figurative background accross the plot to paint a picture of a typical low-paid clerk’s family in 1880s French society. The protagonist, Madame Matilda Loisel, throughout the story has demonstrated a theme of disparage societal position based on money, fame and glamour.

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities,” Stephen Covey. Through literature, readers can learn more about the characters through their similarities and their differences. In the short stories “The Necklace,” written by Guy de Maupassant, and “The Gift of the Magi,” written by O’Henry, readers can find many differences and similarities between their main characters. Della is the protagonist of the short story, “The Gift of the Magi.” Madame Loisel, also known as Mathilde, is the protagonist of the short story “The Necklace.” Both of these stories take place in past times and occur to poverty-stricken families. Although both Della and Mathilde are beautiful, they have their differences; throughout the story, Della is seen as

Another similarity between the stories is that each protagonist gets unforeseen occasions to actualize their dreams. Mathilde and Pahom get opportunities to accomplish what they had long desired. Although Mathilde’s story was short lived, the only time she was shown to be happy was when she was given a chance to witness a first-hand experience among the elite class of society. With her brand new dress and borrowed jewelry, fully at comfort with the rich around, she believed that she belonged to the wealthy – had it not been destiny’s mistake. She momentarily forgoes her old life (with her husband dozing off in an empty room) and plunges on to the illusion of the new, unrealistic one. Little does she realize that her fleeting moment of happiness is only meant to end in a disaster. Similarly, on Pahom’s last trip to acquire land, he