The Necklace And The Gift Of The Magi

In "The Gift of Magi," Della and Jim sacrifice their prized possessions for each other and for love. Irony is represented in this story when Della and Jim both get each other gifts that mean a lot to each other. However, what they did not realize is that when Della cut her hair to to buy Jim a chain for his watch, she was unaware that Jim was going to sell his watch to buy her combs for her hair. The irony of their gift exchange is monumental as their unconditional love for one another took over for their own personal possession. Jim exclaims, “I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first." The magi which are described as wise men also signifies irony because Della and Jim's presents were more than wise. They represented that a gift does not need to be expensive to have value. A gift can be more meaningful just by the thought.

The characters of the short story, “The Necklace” and “The Gift of the Magi” go through a personality change because of their thoughts on materialistic items. Even though others may believe that materialistic items bring you confidence and pride, pride is not found in materialistic items, but in company of others because pride can overtake your sense of reality and wealth is not found in items one can buy. Throughout the story, the authors of the two short stories illustrate how as humans, one prides him/herself with wealthy and expensive products. Author of “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant, illustrates the theme of wealth taking your pride through his characters and plot. “The Gift of the Magi,” written by O. Henry, uses characterization to illustrate the character’s pride in their precious items. Both authors speak through their characters to illustrate a common theme that affects one’s everyday life.

In the beginning of The Necklace Mathilde is described as someone who is beautiful but resentful of her economic and social background-having been born to a middleclass family and married to a clerk and into the same class. With her beauty she feels she deserves better. This shows that the couple love each other a lot and they are really poor. Then, the inciting incident is when her husband comes home with tickets to attend a very affluent party, and she is excited to go but scared that she might look bad. The rising action is that Mathilde is not wealthy enough as she dreams to be. Her husband gives her money to buy a dress. But she is not satisfied until she asks a wealthy friend for a necklace. At the ball, the necklace makes Mathilde look

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

In the story The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassant, the main character Mathilde makes a very bad choice when asking her friend to borrow a necklace, and then lying to her. This is because of two poor decisions. First, she lost it, and second, it wasn't even a real diamond necklace. Toward the end of the story, we find out that as she gets home she cannot find the necklace. A quote on page four proves this by saying, “I-I-I have not Mne.

Mathilde finds herself dissatisfied with her life. She craves for riches and glamour. Instead of appreciating what she has, Mathilde craves for jewels and high class commodities. One day, her husband receives an invitation to a formal party, which would give Mathilde a chance to experience the luxuries of high society. However, she seems upset because she does not own a formal dress to wear to the ball. Mathilde’s husband feels compassion for her and gives her his savings to buy a new and elegant dress. The night before the ball, we noticed Mathilde’s greed when she complains that she has no ornament to put on. She arrogantly tells her husband, “It's so mortifying to look poverty-stricken among women who are rich” (Maupassant). For this reason, he then advises her to borrow some jewelry from her friend, Madam Forestier. Blinded by greed, Mathilde follows her husband’s advice and borrows what looks like a diamond necklace. At the ball, she has a great time. However, when she and her husband get home, she realizes she has lost the diamond necklace. Worried by the consequences of losing a diamond necklace, Mathilde’s husband decides to buy a new necklace by using his inheritance, getting loans, and borrowing money from acquaintances. They return the necklace to Madam Forestier and focus on paying their debt. After 10 years of hard labor and misery, they eventually pay all their debts. At the end of the short story, Mathilde finds out that the diamond necklace she borrowed was fake. Ultimately, we see how greed drove Mathilde to misery and

The most enticing story we have read thus far in this English class has been “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. The main conflict in this story is the struggle the main character, Mathilde, faces after she has lost jewelry she had borrowed from her much richer friend. The conflicts Mathilde faces in “The Necklace” are both internal and external conflicts. The internal conflict that Mathilde faces is the struggle she has with herself concerning her social standing and financial status.

How do you feel you would deal with a common problem, such as poverty? Well in the stories “The Necklace” and “The Gift of the Magi” two women, named Mathilde and Della, deal with “poverty” in very different ways, but end up facing some of the same challenges. Madame Mathilde is a greedy housewife who wishes to be bathed in diamonds while Della just wishes for her husband to be happy and as grateful for her as she is for him. However both Della and Mathilde end up feeling foolish because of the end result of Mathilde working 10 years drowning in debt when they didn't need too and Della sold her prize possession to buy something for her husband's prize possession when did the same thing.

Evidence shows that women in the nineteenth century had to rely solely on men, preferable husbands for materialistic things. She depended on her husband for her social mobility, making her seem ungrateful for the dress that he had already purchased her because she requested more things soon after. Maupassant sees Mathilde and her husband as " victims of the society in which they live," meaning that they were born into this state of need and that they felt they had to be accepted by society, no matter the cost. The story mentions how, " Mathilde still felt cheap after she put on the dress," explaining how it seemed to be worthless ( The Necklace). Mathilde was shown to be greedy by placing her husband under pressure by searching for a way to obtain a necklace in order that she could be happy, rather than settling for what she had been given. Furthermore, Maupassant uses a device that allows him to, "lay bare his characters inner life," meaning that what they feel inside is what tends to be the cause behind the character's choice of actions (Bell). This ultimately demonstrates that Mathilde might not have been able to control her wants or limit

Consistently the husband in The Necklace makes sacrifices, because he loves his wife, but he receives no sacrifice from her in return. While in The Gift of the Magi both individuals show equal investments in one another. Della knew she was the least bit wealthy, but she was not envious of the wealthy unlike the wife in The Necklace. She worked vigorously and sacrificed for her husband knowing that he would do so for her in return. Jim and Della in The Gift of the Magi each have one prized possession that encompasses who they are as individuals.

A character who has pride has a thought of a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired. The Gift Of The Magi By O. Henry and The Necklace By Guy de Maupassant(Short Story). Jim has sold his watch to buy Della Combs and Della sold her hair to buy Jim a watch chain. These were both there most valuable things they so they could buy each other a special gift to make them happy. The Necklace is about a lady lending Mathilde jewels she picks the diamond necklace.

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).

In reading The Necklace, the character Mathilde is presented as a very materialist character. She spends her days longing for riches and jewels; she's constantly comparing herself and her belongings to what everyone else has. On the contrast, her husband is a very content individual. He perceives to find value in what he has and strives to make his wife as happy as he is. Very quickly in the story the character foil between husband and wife emerges. When Mathilde is feeling down her husband gives her an invitation to a fanciful party which she emotionally declines. Surprised, the husband responds with “But, my dear, I thought you'd be thrilled to death. You never get a chance to go out, and this

O. henry and Guy de Maupassant are two authors who wrote stories with not only twist endings, but telling about the financial struggle of two young couples. The Necklace written my Maupassant and The Gift of The Magi written by O. Henry, elaborate on how two couples from two completely different worlds experience the same struggle but deal with it in their own unique way. In the short story The Gift of The Magi, the audience is told that both Della and Jim don’t have much of anything, but they do both have one prized possession each. As we read on, we learn that the couple is trying to buy Christmas presents for one another.

In this essay, i will discuss how our needs relate to our wants, and how we decide what we want versus what we need. A lot of thee time, you see people get their wants mixed up with their needs, which is not always good. Some think wants are more important than needs. We need to get this straight, needs are always more important than wants needs are essential. This is always true, no matter the situation. Some families cannot afford wants, and can barely afford needs. Every need is important and cherished. I will use three short stories to prove my rightness, and explain my statement.