Preview

The Necklace 'And The Gift Of The Magi'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
989 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Necklace 'And The Gift Of The Magi'
Can love force you to take unnecessary steps? Many people have stated that love can make them do crazy things when not intended. Although this message is presented in different ways throughout all forms of literature. In Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace,” Madame Loisel loses the necklace that she had previously borrowed from a friend and her husband Monsieur loisel meticulously searches the streets to find the necklace which doesn’t turn up and have to work hard to pay it off not knowing that the necklace is of little value. Contrariwise, in O. Henry’s short fiction “The gift of the Magi,” the characters Jim and Della selflessly use the little wealth they have to buy each other a gift for christmas and then soon come to find out that their gifts were useless. At the end they see that their actions weren’t worth it and could’ve been avoided. The theme that these stories share is that love will force you to do things that you do not intend to do.
One reason this is the theme of “The Necklace” is because Madame Loisel is angered at not having any jewelry to wear to the party. While in this state of mind she states, “I hate not having a single jewel, not one stone, to wear … I’d almost rather not go to
…show more content…
These stories present the same theme but in different and similar ways. These stories are similar in a way that both stories characters are surprised to find that they didn’t have to do what they’ve done. These situations were also misinterpreted by the characters, which caused them to take these steps. Although, in “The Necklace” Madame Loisel doesn’t show love for Monsieur Loisel and seems to care about the necklace more than him. These facts and insinuations make the theme love makes you do unnecessary things connect to both of these stories with similarities and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 231 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Necklace,” a female character, Mathilde, is living in Paris during the 19th century. She is poor, yet undyingly wishes she was wealthy. One day the woman is invited to a prestigious ball within her city. She immediately she contacts a rich friend and borrows a fabulous necklace. Once the night is all said and done and she returns from the ball, she realizes that the borrowed necklace is lost. She reacts by lying about the necklace and buying her friend a new one. With her financial situation the way it is she goes spiraling into debt and never recovers. Later, once Mathilde admits to her friend that she lost and replaced the necklace, it is revealed that the borrowed necklace was a fake worth very little.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    You can read “The Necklace” as a story about greed, but this is also about pride. Mathilde Loisel is a very proud woman. She feels far above the humble circumstances and she is forced to live with her husband by her common birth. Her current situation disgusts her. She is also vain too, completely caught up in her own beauty. It is pride that prevents Mathilde from admitting they've lost an expensive necklace. After the loss of the necklace makes Mathilde poor, and her beauty fades, she may learn a pride of a different sort: pride in her own work and…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In (‘ The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’), you are given some insight to his imagination of events throughout his day of errands that his wife is having him do while she is getting her hair done at the salon. In The Necklace’, you are given some insight into Madame Loise’s unhappy and depressing life that she lives and when she is given the opportunity to go to this high end event we get to see her at the ball in her dream, In the dream she is admired as much as the necklace she borrowed from a close friend for the ball. Her desire to be part of a high society in which she does not belong. The dream is captivity but destructive.…

    • 2553 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Archetypes In The Necklace

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages

    She ends up borrowing a necklace from her friend and loses it. Madame Loisel and her husband then spent most of their lives on a journey to pay the necklace off. Madame Loisel constantly complained about everything and was never satisfied. “The Necklace” is one story that follows the steps of the Hero’s Journey. The archetypes of the Hero’s…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    “The Necklace” Maupassant focuses on femininity. He develops a character as a woman who possesses all the attributes needed to be desirable by other men. “She had no dresses, no jewelry, nothing. And she loved nothing else; she felt herself made for that only. She would so much have liked to please, to be envied, to be seductive and sought after (as cited in Clugston, 2011, para.6).” She’s in a marriage where she does not care for her husband and hates the house in which she resides. Because she is a…

    • 2174 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Gift of The Magi” by O. Henry there’s a lower class married couple who would do anything for each other. Then in “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant is a middle class married couple, they learn what it truly means to be poor lower classmen. In both of these stories there are both similarities and differences in their plots and between the characters. They both also have ironic endings.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wacky Weaknesses Every person has different characteristics and their flaws can overall affect how they develop as a person. Strengths and weaknesses can help shape how they react to a situation. Their reactions can determine how major events will play out in their future. In “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Necklace”, Della and Madame Loisel’s weaknesses are very different, but they shaped how the character developed.…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The two stories, “The gift of the Magi” by O Henry and “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant shared similar themes and ironies. In the story “The gift of the Magi” both of the characters, Della and James, sacrifice the most important things they had (Della’s hair and James’s watch) to give the other happiness to find out the gifts were useless in the end while in “The Necklace”, Madame Loisel sacrifices both her own and her husband’s youth to pay for her friend’s necklace that she lost just to find out that the necklace was faux, to represent the theme of sacrifice. In both of these stories, the authors used irony effectively to highlight the theme of sacrifice. The first story, “The gift of the magi” is set at Christmas time in a flat with…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the actions demonstrated by fictional characters, short stories provide readers with vital lessons. It is demonstrated in The Stolen Party, The Necklace and The Gift of Magi, and it examines the significance of obedience, appreciation and the affection of selfless actions. First in foremost, from Rosaura’s consequence of disobedience, it presents the message of obeying your parents. For instance, it is revealed as Hermina refused her daughter, Rosaura, to attend a rich party in order to prevent her daughter to experience economic discrimination. Evidently, Hermina states, “I don’t like you going ... it’s a rich, people’s party” (Heker, 1). Moreover, Mathilde reveals the importance…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In “The Necklace,” GUY DE MAUPASSANT character loisel Mathilde who is a very greedy and selfish woman, believes that she was born for every delicacy and luxury there is and feels that she was made for all beautiful jewels and clothes, which cause her emotional…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Necklace

    • 14481 Words
    • 58 Pages

    At the beginning of the story, we meet Mathilde Loisel, a middle-class girl who desperately wishes she were wealthy. She's got looks and charm, but had the bad luck to be born into a family of clerks, who marry her to another clerk (M. Loisel) in the Department of Education. Mathilde is so convinced she's meant to be rich that she detests her real life and spends all day dreaming and despairing about the fabulous life she's not having. She envisions footmen, feasts, fancy furniture, and strings of rich young men to seduce.…

    • 14481 Words
    • 58 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    the necklace

    • 1694 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The stories that caught my attention that I chose to use for my research paper were “The…

    • 1694 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sequel: The Necklace

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages

    And she smiled with proud and simple joy. Madame Forestier, quite overcome, clasped her by the hand. “Oh, my poor Mathilde. But mine was only paste. Why, at most it was worth only five hundred francs!” “Only five hundred francs!” Madame Loisel gasped. Lost in thought, she began to feel sick. Thinking that she has just wasted ten years; doing heavy housework, hateful duties of cooking, bargaining with the butcher and many others, along with living the life of a pauper. “Oh darling, are you all right?” Madame Forestier questioned. “You look terribly ill” “I….I’ve got to do!” Madame Loisel mumbled as she ran towards the court yard. By the time she got home, she was out of breath. Madame Loisel yelled for her husband, but he didn’t respond, guessing that he still hasn’t gotten home yet. Thinking whiled she waited for her husband to return from work, about how he is going to react. When Monsieur Loisel came home, Madame Loisel greeted him pleasantly and began to tell him what has just happened. As she explained the situation, she could see her husband slowly become furious. Madame Loisel finished what she needed to say. Monsieur Loisel calmly stood up and told Madame Loisel to get back the necklace. Madame Loisel was confused with her husband’s reaction but went to go see Madame Forestier. Madame Loisel got to Madame Forestier house and asked “May I please have the necklace back. I will buy you the exact one that I’ve misplaced.” “Of course not, you’ve given it to me so now it’s mine!” Madame Forestier fought back. They continued to fight until Madame Forestier became violent. She revealed a dagger that was hidden under a cloth and persisted on stabbing Madame Loisel. Madame Loisel was stocked and blankly stared at the dagger coming towards her. As she stared, every second became slower and quieter. When the dragger touches her flesh, she awakes and notices it was all a dream……

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Gift and the Magi

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages

    RESEARCH PAPER Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Getting Bachelor Degree of Education in English Department by: MULYATI A 320 040 336…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics