"The Necklace": The Development of Irony
by Kimberly Ednie
Mrs. Connolly
ENC 1102 M-W-F 9:00AM
Short Story Essay
January 29, 1997
Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" is situational irony written in 1884.
The story was written in a time when there were very distinct social classes primarily determined by one's birth. It is about a woman who can not come to terms with her position in the middle class. Although she knows she can not escape her class, she refuses to accept it gracefully. It is through Matilde that Maupassant develops the story's irony. This is reflected through
Matilde's daydreaming, which only serves to torment her, the loss of the necklace borrowed for show, which only worsens their economic position, and
…show more content…
When the necklace can not be found,
Matilde and her husband have no choice but to replace it. As a result,
Matilde's desire to appear part of the upper class has only succeeded in making them part of a lower one.
Without a doubt, the most ironic part of the story is the Loisel's unnecessary sacrifice. The Loisel's decide to replace the necklace without telling the owner of its loss. "In a shop in the Palias-Royal, they found a necklace that seemed to them exactly like the one they were looking for" (8).
They secure the thirty-six thousand for the necklace from Mr. Loisel's inheritance and in the form of loans. They struggle and live in poverty for ten years to pay off the necklace. By now, Matilde looks old. "She had become the strong, hard, and rude woman of poor households" (9). Matilde is walking along the Champs-Elysees when she encounters the friend who loaned her the necklace.
Her friend is shocked when Matilde finally tells her about the necklace. It is then that Matilde learns that the necklace her and her husband toiled to replace was only costume jewelry. Even among the rich there are apprearances to keep up.
Maupassant, through irony, shows us that in pursuit of wealth or status it is easy to forget what one already has to appreciate. Also, appearances are just that, no matter what class you belong to. Because Matilde did not understand this, desire to rise above the middle class was replaced with a desire to merely rise above
the feeling I get when I read this short story is one of mystery. The author sets the stage for this right from the very beginning when she describes the locket as some sort of good luck charm. When one of the men says "That's a charm; some kind of hoodoo business that one o' them priests gave him to keep him out o' trouble."
They tend to rely on their families for support since the majority of them are not eligible for government health care funds and social security benefits.
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.
People who are driven by greed end up focusing on what they do not have instead of being grateful for what they do have. This is relevant in the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant because Mathilde Loisel ends up losing everything she owns just because she lets greed drive her decisions and get the best of her. When receiving an invitation to an extravagant ball, she declines because she says she does not have anything nice to wear. In the beginning of the short story she says, “There is nothing more humiliating than looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women.(Maupassant).” The reader sees how she puts value in possessions and what others think of her. After finding a dress and then borrowing a necklace that she thought
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
William Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men is novel that explores the political society and its influences. Like several politicians in modern society, several characters have qualities that seem unsuitable to the impression that have made. These ironies in All the King’s Men reveal how the characters have flaws, which can result in critical consequences. Jack Burden, Adam Stanton, Judge Irwin and Willie Stark are characters that with ironic traits.
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.
Yusef Komunyakaa and Eavan Boland illustrate their personal experiences in order to emphasize how mistakes or tragic events will follow you for the rest of your life. The events that occur personally will haunt you every second of your life until you come to terms with them. The poems “Facing It” and “The Necessity of Irony” both reflect on past memories by using similar language and tone in order to realize what is truly important in life for a better future.
In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, metafiction is used to further the story. O'Brien used the metafictional devices of irony, and nonlinear sequencing of events in order to push his story and properly represent the experience of war. Each metafictional device is used in order to advance the meaning of the story and let the reader truly understand the emotions and experience of being at war. Whether or not the story is perfectly true is not important, for O'Brien is telling the story of the hardships and brotherhood of war rather than the exact facts.
In the stories “Story of an Hour”, “Everyday Use”, “The Necklace”, and “The Lottery” it is evident that irony was quite a large part of the short story. There is situational irony, which is when the situation turns out differently than expected. Also, dramatic irony is present, which is when you as a reader knows more than the character. The authors seem to base their whole story around irony to surprise their readers.
'The Necklace’, gives a rather more immediate look into the emotions felt by the protagonist, and shows us the shock and panic of Mrs Loisel at the moment she faces the cataclysm of losing the necklace. Previously to losing the necklace, Mrs Loisel attends a reception, for which she borrowed the necklace, and spends the most enthusiastic time of her life, finally feeling triumphant. The aftermath is rather much more settled down and sober. The dullness then leaps into shock, displayed by the use of ellipsis, making pauses, but also referring to the reaction process it takes a person to manage a situation. This happens, as the necklace is no longer in her possession and nowhere to be found.
At first glance, Chopin’s Story of an Hour (1894) and de Maupassant’s The Necklace (1884), appear to have very little in common. Chopin’s story, as displayed in its title is quite short; while in comparison, de Maupassant tells a much more detailed account of the beleaguered Loisel’s, who must learn from the self-centred Madam Loisel. With de Maupassant’s depiction of his female protagonist as selfish and ungrateful; it is difficult to fathom Chopin, known for her active role in describing woman's oppression in the nineteenth century. Interestingly, Chopin, a realist, did consider de Maupassant to
What if something seems so worthwhile, you would risk everything to try to get it? The Pearl by John Steinbeck focuses on a man named Kino. Kino found a pearl whose value was so great that it could potentially give his family everything they wanted. But Kino quickly lost sight of what really mattered and let suspicion, anger, and fear overtake him. Throughout the book, Kino’s family is subjected to multiple tragedies. A tragedy is an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, like a serious accident. Kino caused the tragedies his family experienced because he only cared about the pearl, had no control over himself, and didn't listen to others.
Both Maupassant and Tolstoy use situational irony that surprises the reader and makes him feel sorry for the characters. Tolstoy and Maupassant evoke the emotions of the reader by certain words, objects, and phrases thought the story. Firstly, in “The Necklace” Tolstoy makes the reader feel compassion through the modest cloak. Dressed in her fine clothes and diamond necklace, Madame Loisel feels humiliated by the modest cloak because it shows her poorness. Secondly, the reader empathizes for the characters by what they say and do. “If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!” states a boastful Pahom. Maupassant cunningly turns this statement around at the end of the story. Pahom realizes that he has fallen into the Devil’s
Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular novels written by Jane Austen. This romantic novel, the story of which revolves around relationships and the difficulties of being in love, was not much of a success in Austen's own time. However, it has grown in its importance to literary critics and readerships over the last hundred years. There are many facets to the story that make reading it not only amusing but also highly interesting. The reader can learn much about the upper-class society of this age, and also gets an insight to the author's opinion about this society. Austen presents the high-society of her time from an observational point of view, ironically describing human behavior. She describes what she sees and adds her own