The Necklace: Figurative Masks

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.

That is to say that in “The Necklace,” Mathilde’s perception of herself as a woman of higher social standing lead to her losing the one thing she had going in life, her true beauty. “It is Madame Loisel 's desire to be part of the upper class which sets the story 's events in motion” (Hatboro and Horsham). Mathilde is described as a beautiful woman who finds her life to be not up to her standards because she is not a part of the higher class. “She had no

She took her husband and the all the things he provided for her for granted. Mathidle was not satisfied with just a new dress, she had to have jewels to go with it. “’It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress. I should almost rather not go at all.’” She also did not care how much money the dress and the jewelry would cost. To her, all that mattered was if she looked good enough to fit in with the wealthy. She was fortunate enough to be able to borrow the perfect necklace from her wealthy friend. “All of a sudden she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb necklace of diamonds; and her heart began to beat with an immoderate desire. Her hands trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, outside her high-necked dress, and remained lost in ecstasy at the sight of

This mask holds back all the sorrow, protects you from being further destroyed by others words or actions, and covers up the real extreme problems people are facing such as suicide and drug overdose. Both texts use these “masks” metaphorically to show how the people protect themselves.

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.

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.

She thinks that because her friend is rich and beautiful, that her material items would extend with that wealth. Instead, it shows Madame that even the richest of people do not always have to have genuine items. Madame realizes that she does have fun at the party even if she is not wearing all authentic things, the opposite of what she thinks she is wearing. A third ironic happening, is when she has been working to pay off the money for the necklace for a decade. Madame clearly admits to her friend on page 196 how she loses the necklace, and has been paying it back for ten years. As someone is reading the story, they will find it silly how Mme. is working for something when she is usually having people, mostly her husband, do things for her. Instead, she is working to pay off the money that she has spent on a replacement necklace. The turnout of the story changes Madame’s views on how silly, textile items, are not always needed for someone to be happy.

In reality the veil represents the secrets everyone is hiding within themselves. The unifying theme is the conflict between the dark, hidden side of man and the standards imposed by his puritanical heritage. Hawthorne brings evil and unauthorized desire into the way of puritan life, and in so doing suggests a insightful truth that is disturbing in its implication, that is to say that we can never hope to know each other's true selves. The themes in the story are suggested by the veil-symbol, the tension between the minister and the community. Every person has something to hide from the world. The veil is symbolic for the cover up of peoples secrets. Although most people would not wear a veil, the minister is proving a point. By wearing a simple black veil Mr. Hooper is making all the villagers evaluate their everyday actions in life. The symbolic value of the black veil lies in the physical and mental dilemma that it creates between the minister and his environment, and the guilt it conveys. Many people believe that the face provides information about a person's primary characteristics, therefore, predicting a persons possible behavior. As a result, by

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

Overall, it is concluded that the theme of the The Necklace is to be grateful for what you have and to accept responsibility for your actions. If one person was to try to pretend to be someone that they are not, they are leading themselves to

In "The Necklace" the authors choice of words, or diction, is very well articulated. I enjoyed this story because the narrator, Guy de Maupassant sets us so much suspense with the tone of the story. Madame Louisel essentailly loses a valuable item, or so she thought, and goes to major extents and even life-deminishing problems to just make it seem like she was not responsible enough to take care of a necklace for a night.

Within the necklace there is multiple ironic things that happen. The three main ironic things are when she had bought a real necklace, the other necklace was fake and she had never know that it was fake, also when they search her dress to look for the necklace to look for it, and she knows that she was not the one who had sold the necklace.

Mathilde's daydreaming and longing for a wealthy lifestyle starts to not only affect her, but her friendships and her relationships around her as well. Mathilde's husband is considered a middle class clerk in the Ministry of Education and seems to be perfectly happy with his average lifestyle. Even when things were considered out of his financial reach, Mathilde's husband was always trying everything in his power to please her.

Guy uses diction when he says, “Natural delicacy, distinctive elegance and a quick wit determine their place in society, and make the daughters of commoners the equals of the very finest ladies.” At the beginning of the sentence he uses such words as “delicacy” and “elegance” to describe the kind of woman they shall be. These words also give the reader an idea that women should be looked at as delicate and elegant. He makes a point that she is miserable and not happy with her surroundings by saying, “All these things that other women of her class would not even have noticed, tormented her and made her resentful.” Not just in that quote; but throughout the story, she wishes she was of a higher state and had the luxuries that wealthy people had. The author shows that the rest of the husband’s life would be full of work and depression when he states, “by the black misory that was about to fall upon him.” This all is because of the necklace being lossed, which lead to them having to sacrifice many things and made them work longer and harder.

“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.