Literary Analysis Essay of ‘The Necklace’ by Guy de Maupassant ‘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 …show more content…
But later in the story her discontentment caused her to terrible problem and sealed her fate. The necklace of Madame Forestier has been lost. It is her discontent that caused her to borrow the necklace which she lost. But it is an irony of fate that Mathilde and her husband faced 10 years of hardship for nothing but a fake necklace which cost “at most only five hundred francs.” (6) For this necklace they repaid a debt of “thirty-six thousand francs.” (5) If Mathilde and her husband had admitted to Madame Forestier about the truth of losing the necklace then the consequences would have been different and they would have avoided the hardship. This relates with another morality of the story which is to tell the truth. Thereafter, by learning a lesson from her doings there was a great transformation in Mathilde’s character from beginning to end of the story. After giving the diamond necklace to Forrestier she knew they have to live a “horrible” (5) life “of the needy.” (5) . Thus “with sudden heroism” (5) she decided to repay the debt taken for that necklace and “dismissed their servant, changed their lodgings and rented a garret under the roof.” (5) The woman who valued her youth and beauty the most lost it and became the woman of “impoverished household-strong and hard and rough.” (5) But sometimes she
In the second story, The Necklace, writers reveals the how the reality of a woman situation is that she is neither wealthy nor part of the social class of which she feels she is a deserving member, but Mathilde does everything in her power to make her life appear different from how it is. She lives in an illusory world where her actual life does not match the ideal life she has in her head—she believes that her beauty and charm make her worthy of greater things. The party is a triumph because for the first time, her appearance matches the reality of her life. She is prettier than the other women, sought
Over the course of 10 years living with only the bare necessities of life, each month trying to pay back a loan asking for a bit more time. Mathilde, now was living a life that was almost unbearable, although nothing other than her envy and greed brought a harder life for Mr. Loisel and her. Finally, they were able to clear all of their debts after 10 years they were free now to start over again. One day when Mathilde was walking, she saw Mrs. Forrester and blamed her for what had come upon her family for the last ten years. Mrs. Forrester was very confused at this statement, not understanding what Mathilde was trying to imply. Mathilde then said that they had lost her necklace at the party, and have lived for 10 years like paupers because they had to replace her 48 000 francs necklace. Mrs. Forrester then told Mathilde in a gentle voice that the necklace was a knock off and was no more than 500 francs. This dénouement that Guy de Maupassant wrote, showed the true destructive forces of envy and greed.
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
As Mathilde worked hard to recover the money she owed to the Madame, she finally sees and reflects on the mistakes she made in her previous life. In the process, she internally becomes wiser and truly understands what went on during her former life. After her self-centered and thoughtless behavior vanished over time, she became the woman she always had dreamed of
The quality of one’s emotional life changes over the years. But the basic instincts and desires, greed and hope, seem to remain constant. In short story “The Necklace” written by Guy de Maupassant is about a woman by the name of Mathilde. She’s described to be average in the physical sense and was married to a clerk by the name of Loisel. The couple get invited to a ball and shortly after, Mathlide complains that her wardrobe was too embarrassing to wear to the ball. Loisel buys his wife a gown and suggests she borrows a necklace from her friend to complete the outfit. Mathlide falls in love with a necklace from the collection. “She threw her arms round her friend's neck, kissed her passionately, then fled with her treasure” (Maupassant 44). The night of the ball Mathlide realized she had lost the necklace. The couple decide to replace the necklace ad work ten years to pay off the debt, finally finds out the original necklace was a fake. This short story created a perspective for who to blame for the outcome of the situation, which in this case is Mathlide.
If she would've been proud of her inner beauty and not so focused on wealth and status, then her life would have been so much more rewarding. She learned the incredibly tough consequence of not Madame Forester about losing the necklace. Her decision cost herself time and money but more importantly, cost Mathilde her pride.
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
First, marriage symbolizes way to rise in social status. In the exposition, the narrator describes Mathilde by saying, “She had no means of getting known, understood, loved and wedded by a man of distinction.” Through connecting her desire to marry to a man of distinction, Mathilde, once again, exposes her external motivations and her pessimistic view because she only desires to rise social status, but she does not think she can ever marry a man of distinction. Furthermore, the invitation that she receives in the rising action should excite her and fill her with joy; however, Mathilde is flustered and upset because she does not think that she has a nice enough dress and jewelry for the ball. Mathilde’s disappointment is filled with insecurity that completely sabotages her husband’s thoughtful gift. In addition, Mathilde loses a necklace in the resolution and does not tell Mrs. Forestier, the owner of the necklace, about the lost necklace; consequently, Mathilde ends up paying 18000 francs to secretly replace the necklace that only cost 500 francs. Mathilde ends up looking like a fool because she feels so entitled that she feels impeccable. The author uses these symbols to intently design the character of the
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
“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.
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.
Guy De Maupassant's short story "The Necklace" remarkably demonstrates how misfortune can lead to self improvement through the character Mathilde Loisel. Madame Mathilde was one of those beautiful and delightful young ladies with not very many high expectations, achievements, and no way to be accepted into the elaborate society and lifestyle in which she finds herself daydreaming about day and night.
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
The nineteenth century French writer, Guy De Maupassant, tells an intriguing story in "The Necklace." He depicts the painful life of a beautiful woman, unhappily born into an average family of clerks. She felt that she was destined to marry into wealth but sadly found herself settling as she married an average copyist. Unlike the women of today, women in the nineteenth century were not fortunate enough to have a career of their own; they were either born into a wealthy family or married a man with money. In "The Necklace", Guy De Maupassant creatively reveals Mathilde Loisel's dreams of a decadent lifestyle. As her struggles start to unravel, it becomes obvious that her heartache is solely
When her husband gave her the invitation to the ball, which was a perfect place to meet the rich people, Mathilde got mad and cried. It was a shame since she has nothing to wear. Mr Loisel gave his money to Mathilde and she got an elegance dress. But she didn’t stop and wanted to have jewels. Mathilde met her friend, Madame Forestier and chose an gorgeous diamond necklace. Of course, she became the prettiest woman in the ball, with everyone stared at her, as if she was the most attractive woman ever. She felt fascinated, just like her dream came true. But then a tragic came to her. She lost the necklace! Mathilde and her husband tried to find the necklace, but they found nothing. Mathilde lost her hope and had aged five years. The Loisels finally decided to replace the diamonds for 36 000 Francs, spent all of their money and accepted to pay the debts. It was such an unfortunate situation. After Mathilde lost the necklace, she was described as “ And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money”. (Maupassant 8). The family was suffering from poverty and have to pay the debts continuously. Mathilde changed immediately and did everything. They have worked so hard to earn every single penny for their life, to survive and pay all those debts. The third person limited