Irony In The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

Selfishness in The Necklace by Maupassant In Guy de Maupassant's, "The Necklace" all the characters in the story exhibit similar behavior by showing that they think of themselves rather than of others. A close look at the behavior of the characters in "The Necklace" reveals more than a story about a spoiled selfish woman, but what we see is a story about a whole society of selfish people. In "The Necklace" a woman named Mathilde lives a depressed life because she does not live the life style that she desires.

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

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.

Mathilde wanted to be rich and live a luxurious life. She did not just want to be rich but she thought that she deserved to be rich. Before she got married she was living a decent lifestyle,she even had a maid for the house “She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born every delicacy and luxury.” (1). One night Mathilde and her husband got invited to go to a fancy ball. But she did not have any jewelry to wear so she borrowed a necklace from her friend. After the party she realized that the necklace was gone. She and her husband had to go out and buy the same necklace but for thirty six thousand francs. They had to be in debt for more than ten years. One day she decided to tell the woman that she borrowed the necklace from that she lost her original one and this is another one. ‘“Oh my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at very most five hundred francs!...”’(8). Mathilde and her husband were in debt for most of their lives and lived in poverty. The irony in the story is Mathilde wanted to be very rich but ended up the poorest of the poor and the necklace she lost was imitation and she ended up paying so much more money to replace it than she actually

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

Why at most it was worth only five hundred francs. " This is a quote from the story that her friend Mme. Loisel ,says that the necklace was just 500 francs and it was fake. So Mathilde went through all that trouble and lost everything for nothing. That shows more situational

The necklace was only worth 500 francs. When Mathilde sees Madame Forestier, she walks up to her and starts to tell her about the necklace. Mathilde explains “‘ And for the last ten years we have been paying for it”’(8) The it Mathilde was talking about was the necklace. Then Madame Forestier replies “‘ It was worth at very most five hundred francs”’ This must be devastating because Mathilde worked for something that was 36,000 francs, to only know she had to pay 500 francs. Therefore situational irony is used to serve justice in Guy de Maupassant’s “The

In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant the author uses symbols to convey a deeper meaning to the readers, so that they can understand the story better. The predominant symbol in “The Necklace” is the necklace Mathilde borrows from Madame

"The Necklace" shows a better job of strong situational irony. Why I choose "The Necklace" because Mathilde was being very selfish towards what she wanted. Mathilde didn't even want to go to the ball until her husband said otherwise. Also "The Necklace" puts Mathilde and her husband in a tough situation. It teaches Mathilde not to be selfish and not wanting everything she see to herself.

There is plenty of irony in “The Necklace”. The situational irony in this story happens at the end of the story when Mathilde, who really does not like hard labor or anything lower class finds out that she has had to give up the greatest years of her life to save up and replace a necklace that she discovers is a fake.  For a person who prided herself in that kind of taste and appearance on the upper class could not even tell the difference between the fake and valuable. The dramatic

Situational Irony is shown towards the ending when Mathilde borrows her friends necklace. She ends up losing her friends necklace at the party and tries to replace it. “Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was an imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundreds francs!.”

The Necklace In the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant it is ironic how in the end Madame Loisel worked for ten years for to pay off the necklace which only costed five hundred francs. Mathilde was a beauty, who did not feel fulfilled in the life she was living. She constantly complained about the life she lived. She wanted a life of luxuries, but Monsieur Loisel Could not afford the way way she wanted to live.

One, noticeable part that plays a huge part in the theme is irony and/or suspense. In “The Necklace” the readers are suspenseful of if Mathilde will come out and tell the truth or try to cover up her steps. Mathilde hurries to find the diamond necklace that she has lost, and to find someone willing to work with her payment plan. Throughout this short story Mathilde faces hard tasks of work to receive the money until she can pay it off. Also, It was very suspenseful when overtime we watched Mathilde try to conquer her external conflict. Suspenseful was a feeling that took over most readers because most of them were worried that Mathilde’s friend was going to find out about to lost of the necklace. Also, Ironically the necklace was fake causing all of Mathilde’s hard work to be useless. Overall, this taught Mathilde a lesson.