Oppression Of Women In The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

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 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.

In Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" is the story of Mathilde Loisel, who resents her "station" in life. Mathilde Loisel is shown to be a vain and ungrateful person who believes that she was born to have a better life. She feels that she has married beneath her, in spite of the fact that her husband is a hard working and dependable man. Mathilde is unable to recognize and appreciate 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

‘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

Gender roles and marriages can play an important role in literature. It can be one of the most influential ways that gender roles are constructed. Works of literature construct images of boys and girls and men and women. These works usually depict the girls and women doing housework, playing with dolls, and cooking. The men are usually depicted as sports players and lovers, providers, and figures that are overall stronger than woman. Guy de Maupassant’s, “The Necklace” and James Thurber’s, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” are two works of literature that focus on the themes gender roles and marriage, with some similarities, but with even more differences.

After Monsieur Loisel notifies Madame Loisel with the ball invitation, instead of celebrating the opportunity to attend a ball with all the upper-class people Madame Loisel replied “What earthly use is that to me?” The interrogative sentence illustrates Madame Loisel’s lack of respect towards Monsieur Loisel. In this quotation Monsieur Loisel can be seen as a foil. While he treats his wife kindly with love and care, what he has in return are harsh, disrespectful treatments. This once again highlights Madame Loisel’s self-centered nature. Despite of having a caring and thoughtful spouse, she continues to complain with her ordinary lifestyle, and believes that she is intended for a life of luxury and refinement. Madame Loisel fails to treasure what she already has, Madame Loisel’s impolite attitudes towards Monsieur Loisel continues to be prominent through her declination in her husband’s opinions. This is demonstrated when Monsieur Loisel suggested Madame Loisel to wear a posy to the ball, she replies “There’s nothing so humiliating as to look poor when you’re with women who are rich.” The direct speech demonstrates Madame Loisel’s excessive pride in her identity, she is too proud to look poor around rich women. Her declination towards her husband’s opinions furthermore suggests the fact that she puts pride and wealth over her relationship with

She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her.” Within this, a suggestion that Loisel is indignant, feeling herself to be higher than her birth, it is insinuated that she is vain and does not believe that she should have to suffer under the yoke as other women of her class do. Whereas most of her social class would bear it humbly and not complain, she continues to pursue the life she craves. She is elegant and charming and pretty, but she is also, on a deeper aspect, vain and jealous and indignant. When the chance comes for her to attend the ball, she takes her husband’s savings of four hundred francs without a second thought, using it to buy her own

During this time period, women’s role in society was that of a submissive, powerless position. They often relied solely on their husband for direction, allowing the husband to make decisions and take lead no matter what. In the story of The Necklace, Maupassant illustrates these

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

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.

“ The Necklace,” by the Guy de Maupassant, is about an unsatisfied young woman who wants a high class life style that she has. Madame Loisel born in a middle class family and married a little clerk. However, her dreams is more than that life style. She wants to lead her life just like a high class people which is never come true in her whole life. Madame Loisel’s husband tries to give her better life and make her happy but he is not satisfied her. One day Monsieur Loisel manages an invitation card for a ball dance at a minister residence. Madame Loisel refuses to go there because she does not have a nice dress. Her husband sacrifices his dream to buy a gun for the summer and gives his all savings to buy Madame Loise’s dress. Again, she refuses

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.

“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.

A famous person that goes by the name of Erich Fromm once said that greed is a “bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” (www.brainyquote.com). But then again what actually is “greed”? Well according to Oxfords Dictionary “greed” is an Intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food: (Oxford). In multiple short stories the protagonist continues to try to reach satisfaction because of their greed. Many authors create the sense of greed in the protagonist so that they try to achieve satisfaction. The short story, “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, introduces a theme that develops in story is about greed and ultimately how one’s life appeal wants to change their class status comparatively to the time period in which the story is written in. The way that the theme of greed is shown in the short story is by the Marxist approach in which how people have relationships with materialistic objects which impact their personal life. Also seen in psychological approach in which how people desires and social norms effect the different types of choices they make. In a result people wanting to change their class status because of there greed.