Most people know of the short story written by Guy de Maupassant, “The Necklace”, but under this short story, the author is also trying to convey to us something ironic that happened during his period. In the story, the author describes the vanity of a zilch through its protagonist. A not rich, but also needy lady, Mme. Loisel. To talk about the character of Mathilde Loisel, one needs to acknowledge a few quotes to understand her personality.…
The “Necklace” story is about greed, passion for more that what one can have. In this short story, French Writer Guy de Maupassant writes about Mathilde Loisel who is consumed with the desire to have everything that she cannot have. Despite the fact that she has a nice home and a great spouse, she is unsatisfied with everything in life. All she is a think about is riches and privileges that other people have. Her craving for riches is a steady torment and turmoil. Whenever she visits her rich friends she cannot help but overcome with desire to possess of these costly garments. Sometimes the desire even put her to tears. I think craving for these things is a way to complement for things she could not afford. She so obsessed of looking better…
It is nothing but human to want more. This essential quality is what makes people human. By striving to be better, this species has done countless extraordinary things by wanting to elevate ourselves higher than others. However, Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” shows the story of young, beautiful, 19th century housewife Mathilde Loisel aspiring to be a luxurious white collar. Even though it is human nature to want more, Mathilde ravening desire to appear as higher class blinds her of what she has and becomes her own downfall.…
The deceptiveness of appearances is highlighted by Madame Forestier’s necklace, which appears to be made of diamonds but is actually nothing more than costume jewelry. The fact that it comes from Madame Forestier’s jewelry box gives it the illusion of richness and value; had Monsieur Loisel suggested that Mathilde wear fake jewels, she surely would have scoffed at the idea, just as she scoffed at his suggestion to wear flowers. Furthermore, the fact that Madame Forestier—in Mathilde’s view, the epitome of class and wealth—has a necklace made of fake jewels suggests that even the wealthiest members of society pretend to have more wealth than they actually have. Both women are ultimately deceived by appearances: Madame Forestier does not tell Mathilde that the diamonds are fake, and Mathilde does not tell Madame Forestier that she has replaced the necklace. The fact that the necklace changes—unnoticed—from worthless to precious suggests that true value is ultimately dependent on perception and that appearances can easily deceive.…
In the story The Necklace, Mathilde is a middle-class woman who only cares for luxury, materials things and an unhappy woman…
The irony that is implied in the story is that in the fact borrowing the necklace was what the main character, Mathilde hoped would help her into the life she coveted, yet it was also what put her into a life of poverty. In the story, it stated that “ She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her.” This shows how Mathilde has a poor family background while compared to the rich classes for the women in that time period.…
The Necklace Alternative Ending The next morning, Mathilde awoke to see the Necklace lying on her bedside table. Immediately, all the wonderful memories of the previous evening came flooding back to her. What a marvelous experience it was, she thought, smiling with excitement. “Now the whole city of Paris will know who I am and love me,” she grinned.…
In these plays, they both found happiness in money. In the Necklace, Mathilde “had no dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but appearance of its possession, led Mathilde to borrow an expensive necklace from a wealthy friend to show it off at the ball she was invited to by the Minister of Public Instruction. She ended up losing the necklace and worked half of her life to get it back. Not knowing that the necklace was fake. She didn’t want anyone to know that she had lost it, and would do anything to earn money.…
Guy de Maupassant, born into nobility, wrote “The Necklace,” along with many other literary works, some inspired by his nobility. “The Necklace” is rittled with themes of wealth, and status, all issues Maupassant would have dealt with. The main character, Mathilde deals with these issues as well. When Mathilde deals with these themes her character is revealed, some good, but mostly bad. In “The Necklace” Maupassant represents Mathilde’s character by revealing her greediness, her lies, and her love.…
People all over the world always dream about a material life where they can live and use beautiful and luxurious things. However, do material things can bring real value to us? Mathilde believes that objects have the power to change her life. At the beginning of “ The Necklace” Mathilde only dreams about the beautiful objects in the other women’s home which makes she jealous. She does not care about the things she has had: a comfortable home, hot soup, a loving husband. When she finally acquires the dress and necklace to come to party, those objects seem to make her becoming the most happy women in the world. She has gotten what she wanted, and her life has changed quickly in the few short hours of the party . However, when she loses the necklace, the dream dissolves instantly, and her life becomes even worse than before. She has to work all day and night to pay for the fake necklace which she borrowed from her friend. After ten years work hard, she becomes an older and ugly woman and she is left with nothing. In reality, the power does not lie with the objects and material things can not bring real value to us.…
Mathilde, the main character in Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace”, begins as an ungrateful, greedy young woman, then she becomes a diligent working class woman, and finally transforms into an older, more mature woman, who doesn’t like to take responsibility for some of actions, due to a change in setting. In the beginning, Mathilde demonstrates being ungrateful by complaining about her house being shabby, even though she has a maid and does nothing all day. She lets her husband do all the work and earn the money, but complains that, “She had no proper wardrobe, no jewels, nothing. And those were the only things that she loved-she felt she was made for them,” (de Maupassant 2). Mathilde does not work, yet as shown in this quote,…
The consequences of greed are portrayed vividly in the story “The Necklace,” When Mathilde, a beautiful lower-class woman got an…
“She 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 38). Maupassant makes clear in the very first sentence of his story “The Necklace” that his main character, Madame Liosel, most likely feels as if though the path of her life was a mistake by destiny. He points out that she was raised in a family of clerks, and then later says that she also married a clerk. She always dreamed about wearing jewels, beautiful gowns, being surrounded by silver tapestries and rich company. Maupassant tells us she has a house servant, “The sight of the little Breton peasant who did her humble housework aroused in her regrets…” (38) which shows that she isn’t entirely poor and is most likely middle class. The poor people of the time could never afford a house servant. He also describes her husband, who is entirely the opposite of Madame Liosel. He is very content with the life they live, and wants to make his wife happy. So in order to do so, he manages to get an invitation addressed to him and his wife to an exclusive, high end ball…
Now take a look at what greed and materialism is as represented and told by the story “The Necklace”. Know that the moral of the actual story of “The Necklace” is not getting obsessed with greed and materialism, because it has consequences that are not worth it. In the story, Mathilde is invited to a party, but is upset because she will not look very “high class” because she and her husband are not rich. She then goes to her rich friend, Madame Forestier, and requests some “bling bling” from her. She gives Mathilde a necklace, and when Mathilde goes to the party, she is the most beautiful woman there. When she then looks in the mirror, she is shocked because the necklace is gone. Afraid because she will need to return the necklace to her friend, she and her husband work long and hard to buy another one. when she finally gets the money to pay Madame Forestier back with the necklace, she is shocked because…
After the party, Madame Loisel loses the necklace, resulting in tireless work, loans, and night jobs for her and her husband in order to pay back the equivalent of the price. The couple finally succeeds when all the money is paid ten years later, only for Mathilde to discover that the necklace was ironically a fake, and worth a very small percentage of what the couple paid. The theme of this story is that an overemphasis on material wealth can shrink the spirit and leave one open to the changeability of fortune. The situational irony highlights this moral because the Loisels would never have had to exhaust themselves if Madame Loisel wasn’t so obsessed with riches and wealth. From the very beginning of the story, she wastes her time dreaming of luxuries such as fine silks, beautiful furniture, and gourmet feasts. Even when she is at Madam Forestier’s house to try on necklaces to borrow, she is never satisfied until she has seen the very best. Madame Loisel’s preoccupation with appearance clouds her judgment as well. As soon as she realizes that she has lost the necklace, she should simply come clean to Madam Forestier. Instead, she is too concerned with how her reputation will be affected, so she keeps quiet. She later pays the price for this when she discovers that the necklace is “false [and]…worth five hundred francs at most.” The life that she gets instead as punishment during the ten years in debt is even more difficult and meager than her life to begin with, which stresses how fame and fortune is so fleeting and unimportant in the scheme of…