“No... there’s nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women” (83), declares Matilde Loisel in Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace.” At the center of the narratives is Madame Loisel’s self-centered actions. Madame Loisel believes she deserves more than a life of distress and modesty. Madame Loisel’s weakness of character, specifically her discontentment and selfish nature, causes her to waste ten years of the life she detested. The main reason Madame Loisel’s life ends in tragedy is her own unhappiness. Mathilde felt as if she deserved the finer things in life because she believed she was born for “every delicacy and luxury” (82). She constantly finds herself day dreaming about “silent antechambers”
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.
De Maupassant writes in his story, “When she sat down to dinner at a round table covered with a three-day-old cloth... she dreamed of fine dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestries which peopled the walls with figures from another time and strange birds in fairy forests; she dreamed of delicious dishes served on wonderful plates, of whispered gallantries listened to with an inscrutable smile as one ate the pink flesh of a trout or the wings of a quail.” ( 6 ). In “The Necklace”, Mathilde Loisel tries to replace her current living situation with her fantasies. Even though she is distressed about her own poverty, she manages to stay hopeful about her strong desires.
‘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
Woman throughout the years have experienced many society established conflicts. These conflicts are appreciated in four stories “The Storm” and “The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin (1851-1904), “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), and “A&P” by John Updike (1932-2009). In these stories the feminine role portrayed by each author provides an insight of the image placed upon woman at their time in history. This imaged forced upon woman can be interpreted as the struggles in that moment of time. Thus struggles affect indirectly the way we see woman at present time.
Some people don’t realize what they have until it’s too late. The character, Mathilde in “The Necklace” took everything she had for granted. She was very ungrateful and selfish. However in the end of the story, Mathilde had made a tremendous personality change. She had became a great,unselfish wife to her husband and a better friend.
When Madame Loisel returns from the party and decides to see herself in all her beauty before the mirror for one last time, but suddenly she cries out in utmost distress ‘“I’ve no longer got Madame Forestier’s necklace”’ (83)! This does not surprise the reader; it only confirms the reader’s prediction that Madame Loisel is as careful as a wild bull in a Fine China shop. The reader “shakes her head” in disappointment because she realizes that the protagonist does not understand that if she borrows something from a person she needs to make sure nothing terrible happens to that borrowed object. Furthermore, when Madame Loisel lies to Madame Foresteir about the necklace and tries to buy a similar new one, the protagonist and her husband “come to know the ghastly life of abject poverty, and this life lasted ten years” (84). The reader begins to see the punishment inflicted upon Madame Loisel, she lost her youth and beauty in the ten years of hard labor.
Do you know a materialistic person, who only cares about money? Do you like this person? Usually, people like this are not so friendly, just like Mathilde was. But in this case, Mathilde was able to change, and we can see this by some facts in the text; she was arrogant and materialistic, then became a motivated and comprehensive, and also she was lazy, but in the final she became a very hard worker woman. Mathilde actions and attitudes changes are very complex, but with these two things as support, it is possible to make this change very clear to understand.
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
The short story“The Necklace” by Gui de Maupassant follows Madame Loisel and her husband who are living in the middle-class during the rise of the middle class in Paris, France.There are many different examples of irony throughout the short story, demonstrating Maupassant's talent at commenting on the society in which he was immersed in. The theme of “The Necklace” is revealed through the character Madame Loisel, irony, and symbolism.
According to the narrator in “The Necklace,” Madame Loisel has a low middle-class economic status which causes her agony. Madame Loisel focuses on her inability to maintain a luxurious lifestyle. She feels, “that all the attributes of a gracious life, every luxury, should rightfully have been hers” (de Maupassant 333). She cares more about her wants rather than her needs while thinking she deserves a wealthy lifestyle. Madame Loisel’s selfish personality cannot compare to Della’s humble disposition.
Being a dead-drop gorgeous French girl from a family of clerks with “no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded, by any rich and distinguished man,”(Maupassant, 1), Madame Loisel’s life was definitely unfortunate. Madam Loisel did not own any dresses or jewelry and had to dress unadorned. For ten onerous years, she to pay off her debt for accidentally losing Mme. Forestier’s necklace. Madame Loisel even “let herself be married to a little clerk…”(Maupassant, 1). Nonetheless, quite a few of Madame Loisel’s characteristics – selfishness, self-absorption, and deceit are what determined her fate.
First of all, Mathilde was living an average middle class life, but she absolutely dreaded the life she had. Always thinking that everything she owned was not good enough, acting as if living in poverty. Mathilde hated her shabby furniture and ugly curtains. (Maupassant 1) She was so unnecessarily miserable all the time, the character that Mathilde portrays is a bad influence for women. She makes readers think that rich people live a better quality of life. The sight of the little Breton peasant girl who did her housework made Mathilde feel
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
Mr. Loisel was obviously excited the day that The Chancellor of Education had invited them to an exquisite dinner. Surely he thought that this was finally a way that he could provide an outlet for Mathilde's deepest desires. Unfortunately, instead of being thrilled as he had predicted, Mathilde acted like a spoiled child, throwing the invitation on the table. "She had no decent dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but these; she believed herself born only for these" (5). She couldn't have been more manipulative than when she began to cry about not having anything to wear. Of course Mr. Loisel suddenly fell into her trap and suddenly decided to give her all of the money in his savings account to buy her a new dress. Most would assume that she'd be satisfied at this point; her husband has just made a huge financial sacrifice for her. However, as time drew near to the night of the party, she became insecure and restless because she thought she would look poor if she didn't have any fancy jewels to wear; she thought she'd look like a beggar. `I'd almost rather not go to the party (30)", she said.
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