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The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

592 Words3 Pages

Throughout the short story, “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant there is an evident unequal relationship between men and women. Mathilde, the main character, is a woman of beauty and charm who constantly has the desire to become someone else. The feminist theory preaches woman to be independent and capable of making decisions on their own. It is also common for literature to portray men as the worker in the family and women to be manager of the household. In the Necklace, Mathilde faces three important decisions, what to wear to the ball, how to deal with losing her friends necklace, and how to repay her friend for losing the necklace. In all three of these scenarios, Mathilde’s husband makes the decisions. Mathilde does not have her own opinion nor does she question his ideas. This demonstrates that she does not have any say or attempts to have any say in the decisions involving herself. This …show more content…

Mathilde dreams of being envied, charming, or sought after. When she receives an invite to the ball, instead of getting excited about the opportunity, she gets teary eyed and upset she does not have a gown. Then, once her husband decides to give her four hundred francs to get a pretty gown, she gets annoyed that she does not have a single piece of jewelry to put on. She then claims that she will “look poverty-stricken” and would rather not go at all. Mathilde’s friend is nice enough to let her borrow a diamond necklace, and once she attends the ball she feels “a sense of triumph which is so sweet to a woman’s heart.” Mathilde’s dreams are clearly fulfilled and she feels beautiful all because of the materials on her body, when in reality she is beautiful regardless. This continues to portray women and Mathilde to be the stereotype that all women are materialistic. By these examples and aspects of the books, “The Necklace” is not literature that progressively characterizes men and women in equal roles in

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482 Words | 2 Pages

However, she is poor so she borrows a necklace from a friend. She did this instead of wearing flowers for a cheap 15 francs. Mathilde lost the necklace and had to pay it off over the next 10 years. She did this because she wanted to fit in and no one else would be wearing cheap flowers. The theme is also shown in this story by the fact the Mathilde wanted to wear jewelry.

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286 Words | 2 Pages

Mathilde is a low-class lady so we understand that this was very hard for her. When she finishes paying off the diamond she decides to tell Madame Forestier that she lost the necklace. Her response was that the necklace was fake and and was only worth fifty hundred francs. One way this story does a good job establishing irony is by using foreshadowing. When Mathilde

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190 Words | 1 Pages

In conclusion, both short stories consist of sexism in a feminist lens. However, “Soldier’s Home” is more sexist than “The Necklace” because of a female’s greater dependence on a male to construct her self-identity in “Soldier’s Home”. In addition, there is an unspoken hierarchy between male and female characters in “Soldier’s Home” unlike “The Necklace”. Moreover, a female is socially restricted in a confined space to limit the spectrum of movements and activities in the outside world. Female characters in both texts are portrayed by male writers, which exhibit the readers about how men consider about women and gender roles.

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478 Words | 2 Pages

Mathilde combs through the box and stumbles upon a diamond necklace. The author de Maupassant writes, “All at once, in a box lined with black satin, she came upon a superb diamond necklace, and her heart started beating with overwhelming desire” (Maupassant 7). Looking like someone who she is not only shows how greed has taken over Mathilde’s

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87 Words | 1 Pages

In The Most Dangerous Game Richard Connell foreshadows by creating dilemmas which makes the problems he gives to the main fictional character, Rainsford, very complex. General Zaroff is the leader of the island and Richard Connell makes you think if Rainsford will ever escape Ship-Trap Island. General Zaroff says to Rainsford “I’ll see what you can do against my whole pack.” Despite that he already has enough issues trying to win the game. Which foreshadows whether Rainsford will get out alive to win the game or

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252 Words | 2 Pages

In the story, The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant we take a look at a Mathilde Loisel and how she is not satisfied with her life. Throughout the story the central theme that I got was insecurity and greed. Mathilde had the looks but felt as if she needed diamonds and expensive clothes to be loved or wanted by a man. All she wanted in was to be married to a rich guy that could provide for her since her family was not wealthy. “She was simple since she could not be adorned; but she was unhappy as though kept out of her own class” showing that even though Mathilde has the looks she feels as low someone that doesn’t.

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785 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator illustrates Mathilde’s quality of selfishness after her husband asks her how much money she would like for a dress by remarking, “She thought over it… going over her allowance... thinking also of the amount she could ask for without bringing immediate refusal” (222). This portrays Mathilde's greed because she knows she is asking for more money than she needs for a suitable dress. Later, readers discover Mathilde is careless. When she first finds out the necklace is missing, she and her husband have a conversation. Monsieur Loisel asks, “Are you sure you had it when leaving the dance…if you had lost it on the street, we'd have heard it drop.

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874 Words | 4 Pages

Mathilde think she born to be a bourgeoisie. Mathilde basically think only of her pain and the life that she’s living she never thought about her husband whatsoever. Similarly “The Necklace” we can see that Ms. Mathilde was only caring for herself doing the party. As you can see the similarities with the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” because the grandmother believed she was the world, I believe she might be from a wealthy

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754 Words | 4 Pages

In the second paragraph of the story the author states that she is suffering because she doesn't have the things she wants by saying, “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.” (Guy de Maupassant 2) “She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the only things she loved;” (Guy de Maupassant 2) The author included this to let the readers know what kind of “Poverty” Matilde was living in. Mathilde doesn't seem to love her husband as much.

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579 Words | 3 Pages

That’s when the irony comes in and plays. After the ball, Mathilde found out that she misplaced the diamond necklace somehow because it was not on her neck. Situational irony is the resemblance in this scenario since she was having fun at the ball and now the necklace she had borrow was gone. Her dissatisfaction caused her to borrow the necklace making her life even more complicated. This lead to even a more horrible irony causing her to distance herself of her lifelong goal of having luxurious

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143 Words | 1 Pages

She proves herself to be unsatisfied when she is allowed to pick out some jewelry from her wealthy friend, but she declines the jewelry and asks “‘ haven’t you something else?’”(Maupassant 225). Mathilde turned down gold and jewels and

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1000 Words | 4 Pages

It is this feeling that drives Mathilde to borrow the necklace and buy a new luxurious dress in order to attend a ball. Beside driven by her excessive pride, Mathilde is also oppressed by the society’s idea at that time that in order to attend a ball, one must dressed gorgeously. Soon the bourgeoisie’s ideals ruin Mathilde’s life. The tragedy happens when Mathilde lost the necklace. She has to work hard for 10 years and undergoes the severe oppression both physically and mentally, only to replace “a fake diamond necklace” which she thought to be a real one.

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1272 Words | 6 Pages

Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace” is about the dangers of materialism. In his story, Mme. Loisel has desire for wealth. She constantly dreams about having luxuries and delicacies that she can never afford to have. Because of her materialistic nature, she causes many different hardships for herself and her husband.

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1107 Words | 5 Pages

The protagonist of ‘The Necklace’, Madame Loisel, live a rather steady, ordinary middle-class life in the beginning of the story. However, she views that she is intended for a luxurious life, and, therefore, does not cherish what she has. She takes a step forward to her desires, as she was invited to a ball where all the upper-class woman would be, yet she was unhappy with the fact that she does not even have a stone to put on.

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771 Words | 4 Pages

The protagonist of ‘The Necklace’, Madame Loisel, live a rather steady, ordinary middle-class life in the beginning of the story. However, she views that she is intended for a luxurious life, and, therefore, does not cherish what she has. She takes a step forward to her desires, as she was invited to a ball where all the upper-class women would be, yet she was

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