(Prompt 2 for “The Necklace” and “Two Friends”) The Necklace, by Guy De Maupassant, is a great example of literary irony. Mathilde wanted nothing more but to be of royalty and at the same time only valued her beauty. We first see inconsequential irony when Mathilde loses the necklace. She finally has a night where she lives her dream. While it was shortly lived, the memory of that evening was sure to keep her warm when those cold thoughts of her financial situation crept over her. Then she loses the necklace and that illusion comes crumbling down upon her. Her and her husband then work themselves ragged trying to replace the necklace. From the time she lost that precious jewelry she not only ruined her one night away from her mundane life but, she also lost her youth and beauty working off the replacement necklace. She tried to live her dream for one night and ended up losing what little she had permanently. …show more content…
Matilde tells her of all the hardship she has gone through for the necklace she replaced all those years ago. Jeanne then tells her that the necklace was fake and not worth nearly as much as the one Mathilde and her husband bought. All that Mathilde had went through, lost, and suffered for was all for nothing.
While Two Friends does not have as much irony as The Necklace, we still see some Understatement irony in the end of the story. The two good friends Sauvage and Morrisot decided to go fishing one last time and payed the ultimate price for what would seem like something so trivial. These two friends were beyond enemy territory but were doing nothing but fishing. They were then shot and killed by Prussian officers when they would not give them the password. The two were not opposing or harming anyone yet they ended up at the bottom of the river that kindled their