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
She was wishing for a more luxury lifetime, rather than being appreciative. At the beginning of the story, Madame Loisel emanated a materialistic perspective. The narrator stated, “She suffered constantly, feeling
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 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.
Outcomes in life are diverse for Madame, like her ideas of materialistic pieces in comparison to her husband’s outlooks on important items. Guy emphasizes how Mme Loisel is not appreciating what she has in the right way as he uses juxtaposition to compare her to her husband, Mr. Loisel. A beginning example is the food that is set before them for dinner. Mr. Loisel seems to be very happy with his meal as he sits down and claims, ‘Ah! A good stew! There’s nothing I like better…’ (pg 190). But
‘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
As a team, the goal of this presentation is to reveal to the class, how the Necklace can relate to modern day society. In order to understand and apply the reading to modern day society, we set the event to take place in court as an exaggeration to a situation that can be solved behind closed doors. By questioning the characters in the story, each will slowly reveal how the reading is applied to our everyday lives (such as modern day mentality, christian beliefs, and moral standards between friends).
Pride can be describe as a very common thing that one individual has encountered once in their lifetime. Pride can be both positive and negative in one’s perspective. In the stories,“The Odyssey” by Homer and translated by Robert Fitzgerald, “The Necklace,” by Guy De Maupassant, and “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allan Poe, the protagonist and several characters exhibit pride. Pride can convey negative effects in one’s life if one individual exaggerates or abuses pride.
Over the course of 10 years living with only the bare necessities of life, each month trying to pay back a loan asking for a bit more time. Mathilde, now was living a life that was almost unbearable, although nothing other than her envy and greed brought a harder life for Mr. Loisel and her. Finally, they were able to clear all of their debts after 10 years they were free now to start over again. One day when Mathilde was walking, she saw Mrs. Forrester and blamed her for what had come upon her family for the last ten years. Mrs. Forrester was very confused at this statement, not understanding what Mathilde was trying to imply. Mathilde then said that they had lost her necklace at the party, and have lived for 10 years like paupers because they had to replace her 48 000 francs necklace. Mrs. Forrester then told Mathilde in a gentle voice that the necklace was a knock off and was no more than 500 francs. This dénouement that Guy de Maupassant wrote, showed the true destructive forces of envy and greed.
When her husband gave her the invitation to the ball, which was a perfect place to meet the rich people, Mathilde got mad and cried. It was a shame since she has nothing to wear. Mr Loisel gave his money to Mathilde and she got an elegance dress. But she didn’t stop and wanted to have jewels. Mathilde met her friend, Madame Forestier and chose an gorgeous diamond necklace. Of course, she became the prettiest woman in the ball, with everyone stared at her, as if she was the most attractive woman ever. She felt fascinated, just like her dream came true. But then a tragic came to her. She lost the necklace! Mathilde and her husband tried to find the necklace, but they found nothing. Mathilde lost her hope and had aged five years. The Loisels finally decided to replace the diamonds for 36 000 Francs, spent all of their money and accepted to pay the debts. It was such an unfortunate situation. After Mathilde lost the necklace, she was described as “ And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money”. (Maupassant 8). The family was suffering from poverty and have to pay the debts continuously. Mathilde changed immediately and did everything. They have worked so hard to earn every single penny for their life, to survive and pay all those debts. The third person limited
The Necklace, a short story written by Guy de Maupassant, is about a greedy woman in poverty, who learns that being selfish can hurt her and others around her. Her greedy behavior indicates that she has been struggling during her years in poverty. When she scrambled to find out her purpose in life, she portrayed anger and malevolence towards others.
In Guy De Mauspassant's `The Necklace," the author examines the theme of how learning a difficult lesson about honesty can impact someone for the rest of their life. The author also examines the theme through the use of his title, the characters who act out the events, and the plot.
Correspondingly, through the use of direct characterization, telling the audience what the personality of the character is, Maupassant implies that the main character doesn’t appreciate what she possesses. In the beginning of the story, the main character—Madame Loisel—ponders why her life is so terrible, to the point that “she grieved incessantly, feeling that she had been born for all the niceties and luxuries of living” (de Maupassant 66). Madame Loisel is characterized as someone who is constantly upset over the fact that she had been born into a family of clerks rather than one with a higher social status or with more wealth. She feels that her current lifestyle is unfair and she deserves better if not the best just because she does. By “grieving incessantly,” it means that she continuously feels great distress over her predicament. She mourned “that she had been born for all the niceties and luxuries of living,” probably because she felt her way of life wasn't good enough for someone of her caliber. To constantly whine about it, gives her the feel of having
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
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18) - It would be difficult to find an aphorism that better describes the fate of the main character in Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”. Set in Paris in the late 1800s, Maupassant’s story shows the costs of pride. The main character, Madame Loisel, borrows a diamond necklace from her rich friend, Madame Forestier, to wear at a ball hosted by the Minister of Public Instruction at the Palace of the Ministry. To her dismay, Madame Loisel loses the necklace, and she and her husband spend the next ten years paying back the loans they had to take out to replace the necklace, only to discover that the necklace was fake. Her pride plunges both her and
Her persistent mindset of wanting and needing more, is how her internal conflict developed. All of Madame Loisel’s issues relate back to her internal fascination with becoming incredibly rich and valued by her peers. The text states, “She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.” (1) Madame Loisel’s mindset was simply set on materialistic things and being respected amongst her peers. Even throughout the years, her idea of ‘perfection’ never changed a bit. The story reads, “But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.” (5) Ten hard and stressful years later, Madame Loisel is still under the impression that everything she has must be beautiful and valued. This situation expresses irony because although she is beautiful, she still feels a desire to receive expensive things. The text states, “She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans… She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury.” (1) Although she is beautiful