Alex Kurian
ENGL 1302
21 November 2017
Literary Analysis of The Necklace
Born in Normandy, in the year 1850, Guy de Maupassant, the author of The Necklace and other stories such as: A Day in the Country, Mademoiselle Fifi, and The Horla, is considered one of the finest practitioners of the genre (Fallaize, p.350). According to Fallaize on page 350, “The meanness of Normandy peasant, the horror of the Franco-Prussian War, in which he took part, and the hypocrisy of bourgeois society were constant themes in a body of work marked by a deep pessimism. He died insane in an asylum, aged 42.” According to ‘Guy de Maupassant’, “He worked in a government office at Paris and became known c.1880 as the most brilliant of the circle of Zola. He poured out a prodigious number of short stories, novels, plays, and travel sketches until 1891, when he went mad.” The main theme of the story is that one must appreciate and be grateful with the things we have.
The story is about a woman, Mathilde Loisel, who borrows a diamond necklace from her friend, Jeanne Forestier, and after losing it, she realizes that it was a fake necklace. The story is understandable. However, Guy de Maupassant uses complex words, such as “antechambers”, “gallantries”, and so on. As a person who does not manage the English language perfectly, these kind of words were hard to comprehend. But, at the same, time their meaning was easy to infer by the context of the story. The conflict that exist in this tale is how would the characters replace the lost necklace. The pace of the story is appropriate because it let us know the characteristics of Mathilde and her husband, so we can comprehend their following actions.
There are three major characters in this story: Madame Loisel/Mathilde Loisel – the woman who loses the necklace, Mister Loisel – Mathilde Loisel’s husband, and Jeanne Forestier – Mathilde Loisel’s friend and the owner of the fake diamond necklace that Mathilde lost. Mathilde, also mentioned as Madame Loisel, is a beautiful and young lady from the middle class that wishes exaggeratedly to belong to the upper class. She cares too much about what people think, clothes, jewelry, beauty, and money. Also, Mathilde is not grateful with what her husband has given to her and despises the objects that remind of her economic status. Moreover, she is a selfish and arrogant person not willing to do sacrifice for her husband. She also is envious and greedy. At the end of the story, Mathilde acquires a haggard appearance for 10 years she spends on misery. Mathilde is married to Mister Loisel, a naïve, loyal, generous, and loving husband. He is willing to help her wife with any problem or situation that she has. Also, he is a self-less man who is capable to do sacrifice for the sake of his family. In addition, he is thankful and happy with the lifestyle he has with Mathilde. Jeanne Forestier, also mentioned as Madame Forestier, is a beautiful, young, and charming woman that lent the necklace to Mathilde. Jeanne belongs to the upper class. Also, she seems friendly, generous, charismatic, and with a sense of humor. Moreover, she is willing to help her friend and to lend jewelry to Mathilde, which makes her selfless and (regardless of her class) with no attachment to material objects.
One stereotype in the story is Mathilde Loisel’s personality. They way her personality and characteristics are described, lead to the easy prediction of her reactions to the situations that come up in the story. On example is how she left her husband look for solutions by himself after she lost the necklace. Another expected action of Mathilde, is when she blamed Jeanne Forestier for her 10 years of misery. The second stereotype is Mister Loisel, with his loyalty and his naïve personality, it was predictable that he would do most of the hard work to solve the solution his
wife’s mistake caused.
The setting for the story takes place in Paris, France in the year 1884. Mathilde Loisel and her husband lived in a middle-class house, before their poverty, with ornaments that reminded her of the economic conditions they lived with. On Monday evening, January 18, they went to the ball, where she coexisted with people of the upper class and felt like she belonged with them. At same time, that was the evening when she lost the diamond necklace she borrowed from Jeanne Forestier. The story develops in a lapse of ten years. Champ Elysees is another important location because is where the conclusion of the story takes place, when Jeanne reveals that the necklace was fake after Mathilde confessed to her that she lost it several years ago. The most important characteristic of the cultural setting is the economic class structure. Classes are well defined and are divided as: the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class. The divisions are what affect the personality of the characters, and the story is based on them.
The Necklace had an external narrator since none of the characters present in the story narrated the story. The narrator was adequate to the story because it gives an objective description of the major characters. Thus, it allows the reader to develop his or her own opinion about the personalities of the characters, based on his or her perception of the given description. With an internal narrator, the reader tends to be biased toward the character that narrates the story and only receives the narrator’s perception on the other characters.
The Necklace has symbols and images throughout the entire story. The diamond necklace, on which the titled is inspired, is a symbol, and it represents beauty, wealth, and the social and economic status that Mathilde always wanted. What this symbol represents is demonstrated when Mathilde found the necklace among the other jewels of her friend, becoming
extremely nervous and happy when Jeanne lent it to her. Another symbol in this story is Mister
Loisel, who represents gratitude, humility, and generosity. He is the contrary to Mathilde. What Mister Loisel represents is demonstrated throughout the story in different actions. One of these actions is when he went by foot looking for the necklace after the ball.
The theme of the story is appreciation for our lives and the things we have. Mathilde was never grateful for the things she had, nor her husband and everything he was willing to do to please her. Even when the Loisels lost their economic and social position, Mathilde was not able to realize that her struggles were superficial aspects of life. Money, beauty, and some relationships are ephemeral. Thus, one must appreciate and enjoy our belongings, goods, savings, and so on because there is no certainty that we will have those privileges our entire lives. According to “The Power of 'Thank You'”, ‘"In our research, we found that people who are grateful…tend to be happier, healthier, more satisfied with their lives, and more likely to attain the goals they set for themselves,” …expressing gratitude has a very reliable…warming effect.’ Therefore, appreciation and being thankful are qualities that affect positively a person’s life.
Works Cited
De Maupassant, Guy. “The Necklace.” American Literature, American Literature, 2016, https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-maupassant/short-story/the-necklace. Accessed 12 November 2017.
Fallaize, Elizabeth. Editor. The Oxford Book of French Stories. Oxford University Press, 2010.
"Guy De Maupassant." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition, Mar. 2017, p. 1. EBSCOhost, dcccd.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=39020914&site=ehost-live. Accessed 15 November 2017.
Scher, Hagar. "The Power of 'Thank You'." Good Housekeeping, vol. 235, no. 5, Nov. 2002, p. 128. EBSCOhost, dcccd.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9095663&site=ehost-live. Accessed 15 November 2017.
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