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Theme Of Pride In The Necklace

Decent Essays

Pride has the capability to turn around one's view of thinking. It can be harmful when someone needs a sense of achievement to complete theirselves. Pride is a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction that can sometimes represent arrogance. Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace,” Documents a woman who is never satisfied with what she has until she loses her friends necklace. In his short story, “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant effectively employs the point of view, setting and plot to communicate the idea that pride is a very powerful influence that reflects taking over one’s self.

First, Maupassant enlists point of view to convey the idea that pride has a compelling guidance that reflects taking over inner self. This story is told from the third person limited point of view, where the narrator knows something that no one else knows, the dreams, thoughts, emotions of the main character, Mathilde Loisel, but the narrator does not speak from her point of view. Rather, he talks about Madame Loisel as if he were from the exterior looking in. When he brings her up, in the beginning, she’s was ''one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes. As if by a mistake of destiny, born in a family of clerks'' (Maupassant 1). This quote suggests that he has seen more than just one. This text also indicates that she is not going to be happy with her life and that she wants to be rich. In terms of point of view, the reader detects that discontent can be very hard to please people due to the characterization and shock of the main character.

In addition to point of view, setting is also used to convey the idea that Pride is a good thing to have but don't overuse it. The story is set in Paris, France, where the bell Époque was a good time for the upper class but wasn't a very pleasant time for the lower class. The setting in “The Necklace” is mostly about the Ministry of Education party where Mathilde wanted to go. The narrator creates the contrast of displeasure and satisfaction, the satisfaction was used when Mathilde had a good evening at the ball, “He threw over her shoulders the wraps he had brought to go home in, modest garments of everyday life, the poverty of which was out of keeping with the elegance

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