Guy de Maupassant’s story “The Necklace” is about a woman whose life falls apart after one mistake. It shows us how everything someone knows and has can be gone in a blink of an eye with just one mistake. The mistake is the fault of a woman who would rather be greedy than appreciate all that she has in her life. “The Necklace” is a story letting it be known that people should reflect on their character and better themselves rather than chase after a fantasy and risk losing it all.
People’s lives in 19th century France were dictated by their social class. The social class a person was born in was the class they forever stayed in. Social class was important as it showed someone’s worth and of the lives, they lived on a day to day basis. The lower
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Loisel just simply asks Forestier if she could borrow the necklace and Forestier hands it over without worry. It’s hard to believe that someone could just lend their friend a diamond necklace especially if that necklace is worth thousands with no apprehension. This is a substantial sign of the true worth of the necklace. Brackett says, “Although the conclusion of “The Necklace” is meant to surprise, de Maupassant inserts foreshadowing that might be noted by an astute reader, such as the facts that Madame Forestier freely loans the necklace and then does not care even to examine the piece that Mathilde returns to her, suggesting its low value” (no page). Madame Loisel herself should’ve questioned why her friend would so carelessly let her borrow a priceless necklace. This clue plants an idea of the necklace not being worth much and how the story might end in the reader’s …show more content…
It looks pretty and deceives the eye from its cheap material just like the main character, Madame Loisel. She looks to be a beautiful perfect housewife, but the inside is completely different. Madame Loisel wants more than she can have and that makes her just like the necklace, a fake. She is not satisfied with her middle-class life and is greedy for more wealth. Another way she is like the necklace her actual real value in society wasn’t much. In those times she didn’t have much worth like the necklace. She was just a simple housewife who would essentially be nothing without her husband. Research says, “Encouraged by social pressure to assume the air and guise of a lady, she pretends to be what she is not. The diamond necklace she wears, a fake, is also not what it appears to be” (Moss and Wilson no page). She shouldn’t have been so concerned with wanting more as to not be blinded by something that she assumed to be worth more than it was because of its
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 quality of one’s emotional life changes over the years. But the basic instincts and desires, greed and hope, seem to remain constant. In short story “The Necklace” written by Guy de Maupassant is about a woman by the name of Mathilde. She’s described to be average in the physical sense and was married to a clerk by the name of Loisel. The couple get invited to a ball and shortly after, Mathlide complains that her wardrobe was too embarrassing to wear to the ball. Loisel buys his wife a gown and suggests she borrows a necklace from her friend to complete the outfit. Mathlide falls in love with a necklace from the collection. “She threw her arms round her friend's neck, kissed her passionately, then fled with her treasure” (Maupassant 44). The night of the ball Mathlide realized she had lost the necklace. The couple decide to replace the necklace ad work ten years to pay off the debt, finally finds out the original necklace was a fake. This short story created a perspective for who to blame for the outcome of the situation, which in this case is Mathlide.
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.
Her husband tries and tries until he comes up with a great idea to give her an invitation to a ball. She cheers up a little until she realizes she can’t afford a dress. Her husband asks how much and had given her the money to purchase herself a nice dress. She has the dress but still doesn’t feel pretty nor happy after she put the dress on. She wanted more than just the dress which was jewels but didn’t have any. Someone suggested that she should use flowers, but didn’t find happiness in the flowers. Madame Forestier offer Mathilde to borrow her diamond necklace, which gave her the emptiness that she needed to feel happy. She had a great night and was on her way home when she went to feel for the necklace but found that it was gone. She started to panic and retraced her steps but couldn’t find it anywhere. She and her husband went from jeweler to jeweler to find the exact necklace and to replace it. They worked and worked until they had paid it off and returned it to Madame Forestier. She was a little annoyed since she had got it a few weeks after the ball. Eventually she admitted to what she had done and was surprised with what she was told. She was informed that the necklace was a fake. That it was costume jewelry. In this story the Madame was an outsider towards Mathilde. Mathilde didn’t know who she was and had taken the necklace to wear for the
In The Necklace, the setting of Paris in the late 19th century is a world of elegance and wealth. If not born into a wealthy family, one would have two options: marry into a wealthy family, or stay in their social class. That is just the case for Mathilde Loisel, who is endowed with beauty but born into a family of clerks. She was born free and could have had a plentiful life because of her beauty. However, she was held back by the chains of her social status and forced to marry her wealthy husband Monsieur Loisel. Together they have an awkward relationship consisting only of their need for marriage.
‘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
The story intially takes place at a ball that Madame Louisel has been invited to by her husband. In the beginning of the story Madame is very indecisive about making an appearance at the ball. She complained she did not have a dress, any jewels, and she was scared she would look like a "pauper"(174). She did not want to look poor around a bunch of rich woman, so she had asked a friend for a piece of jewelry to wear for the night. Excited, she picks out the diamond necklace that seemed to stand out to her. She adored it. The narrator describes it as "lovliest of all, elegant, smiling, and radiating with joy"(175). Having a blast at the party, dancing, drinking, and not thinking about anything else, Madame left the ball around four in the morning. Calling a cab, Madame and her husband were on their way home, delighted with the fun night that they had. Finally arriving at home, they begin to get into comfortable clothes when suddenly Madame notices that the diamond necklace she had borrowed from a friend for the night had gone missing. Searching everyhwere
First of all it’s extremely ironic that she never knew that it was a fake necklace until she had bought the real one. In paragraph 89 it states “ Madame Loisel cam to the know the ghastly life of abject poverty. From the very first she played her part heroically. This fearful debt must be paid off. She would pay it. The servant was dismissed.They changed their flat , they took a garret under the roof.
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.
Loisel’s constant buying for his wife leads into a financial struggle that will make him work for what all he has done to keep her happy. Five years have passed and the couple decides to compose a plan to replace the necklace. They go from jeweler to jeweler, trying to find a necklace that matches the one that was misplaced. After finding the right necklace, Mr. Loisel accepts the price of thirty-four thousand francs and begins working hard to help his dearest Matilda replace the necklace. Maupassant states: “He gave notes, took up ruinous obligations, dealt with usurers and all the race of lenders...compromised all the rest of his life… frightened by the pains yet to come...”.(72)
Loisel’s pride, greed, and selfishness through her demand for a necklace. Despite getting a large sum of money that was being carefully saved by her husband, she was not satisfied with the dress. Mme. Loisel demanded a piece of jewelry to go along with her new dress and was not satisfied until she received it. If Mme. Loisel had not been prideful in regard for her demand of a better dress and a necklace, the conflict regarding this story would not have happened. The necklace represents Mme. Loisel’s egotistical attitude. Once she started to desire it, her desire only grew. When looking through the jewelry from Mme. Forestier, Mme. Loisel was very demanding in her selection and even asked if there was anything else to choose from. After searching more, “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” (Maupassant 401). After obtaining it, she was extremely proud of her status rank. However, upon losing the necklace, she lost her pride and ego as well. The only thing she was concerned with was returning it as she knew how losing it would damage her family’s life. The necklace symbolized Mathilde’s power and how sometimes things might not be what they appear to
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
Madame Loisel is provided with a necklace from Madame Foresteir for the event, since she does not own any jewelry. Wearing the necklace exemplifies that Madame Loisel is disguising her true wealth status, so that she appears to be an upper class person. Furthermore, tangible and extortionate items make her feel happy. When she takes hold of the “superb diamond necklace, her heart started beating with an overwhelming desire. Her hands trembled as she picked it up….She
In “The Necklace”, Guy de Maupassaut uses the irony with the necklace to criticize Madame Loisel’s need to make a false impression and her equally false desires. Madame Loisel shows her desire for everything throughout this short story. Guy de Maupassant uses an angry tone showing the reader he disapproves of Madame Loisel actions and need for attention. In the beginning of this short story, Guy describes Madame Loisel as “one of those pretty and charming girls born” (CITATION). Guy de Maupassant immediately lets the reader know Madame Loisel is incredibly beautiful. Her husband even says “Why the dress you go to theatre in. It looks very nice to me” (CITATION), yet Madame Loisel does not care. Madame Loisel needs to make a false impression
“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.