essay questions for the necklace

The Necklace: Essay Topics and Samples

Writing an essay can be a challenge, even from the very beginning. Coming up with an eye-catching and exciting idea might be a bit of a process. Therefore, we have prepared a list of topics on The Necklace to choose from. Also, you can find essay samples and take a look at them!

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Essay Topics

• Explore the examples of personification in The Necklace . Define this figurative language technique and how the author uses it in the story. Why did the author use this one? Provide examples of the personification from the text. Write down full quotes where it reveals itself.
• What are the examples of irony and foreshadowing in The Necklace ? Define the foreshadowing and irony. Why does the author use both of these techniques? What kind of irony is used in the story? Provide examples and foreshadowing in full sentences, as used in the original text. Explain each example.
• Do you think Madame Loisel is responsible for her downfall? Why/why not? Write an opinion paper that will focus on whether Madame Loisel is responsible for the tragedy. State arguments and support them with quotes from the text.
• What are the examples of alliteration in The Necklace ? What is alliteration? What author is trying to demonstrate and emphasize in the story? Give examples of sentences in which alliteration is used. Explore each example.
• Essential themes in The Necklace . Write an essay about class conflict, appearance and reality, and generosity and greed. What are the examples of each theme ? Provide direct quotes from the text. Mention the examples of symbolism: the diamond necklace and the mirror .
• In your opinion, why was Madame Loisel not satisfied with her life? Write a reflection paper that will focus on why Mathilde was unhappy with her life at the beginning of the short story. Share your opinion on whether you think M. Loisel was more satisfied with their life later. Why/why not?
• What is the conclusion of The Necklace ? How did Madame Forestier react to Mathilde’s story about the changed necklace? Was the ending ironic? What is the general moral of the story? Explore The Necklace and give answers to these questions.
• What were efforts made to return the necklace to the owner? Describe in your own words what the Loisels took actions to return the necklace. The essay should include two things: the process of replacing the jewels and the period after. Include the information on how the life of Loisels changes when they return the brand new necklace to the owner.
• Do you think the story ended in the right way? What could have Loisels done differently to avoid the ten-year-long poverty? Write an opinion essay about whether or not the story ended in the right way . If yes, provide arguments to support that the story ended correctly. If not, suggest what would be the better ending for the story.

Essay Samples

In this section, you can find essay samples and short descriptions. Take a look at those, get inspired, and create your own!

• Character Portrayal: “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant Guy de Maupassant tells Mathilde’s story, who dreams of wealth and status but is trapped in poverty and a humble background. The paper provides Mathilde’s character’s roundness by describing her personality, motivations, and relationships. You’ll see essential conflicts and how the characters change. Mathilde is suggested to be a perfect person to convey a message about greed and vanity based on the described information.
• Metamorphosis and the Necklace Melancholy is a long-term negative feeling that can have some negative consequences. The present essay compares and contrasts The Necklace with Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Both literary works show the connection between melancholy and death. However, both pieces interpret death due to melancholy differently.
• Irony in The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant Guy de Maupassant builds The Necklace on irony. In particular, the author uses four types: dramatic, situational, verbal, and structural irony. Sounds interesting? Check the essay to learn more about humor in the story.
• The Role on Women as Portrayed in The Necklace The Necklace reflects real life in 19th-century France. Besides, it shows the place of a woman in a social hierarchy at that time. In this essay, you’ll see what female characters of The Necklace and their behavior tell us about the period.
• Modern Fairy Tale: How The Necklace Tricks the Reader The distinctive features of Guy De Maupassant’s writing style make his story The Necklace unique and full of unveiled tricks. Reading this essay can help you to discover them. Plus, learn about the symbolism and the hidden context of the story.
• Character Analysis of Madame Loisel Mathilde Loisel is the central character of The Necklace. She is the woman of inner contradictions and controversies. She desires to live an aristocratic lifestyle instead of accepting her real average life. Read this essay to discover her personality and understand her motifs.
• The Theme of Deception in The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant The Necklace is a demonstration of two deception manners: clever dishonesty and open hypocrisy. How do both of them affect public perception and turn into serious social problems? Check out this essay and discover the moral of the story.
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The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant is a short story, which focuses on the differences between appearance and reality. Here, we’ll talk more about the story, plot, the central conflict, characters, themes, and symbols. In The Necklace study guide, you will also learn about the genre and the author’s message....

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The Necklace is a sensational story with an unexpected twist in the end. In the article, we will discuss theme of The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant. The literary analysis will show their importance for a better understanding of the story. The Necklace themes include Appearance vs. Reality and Greed....

The Necklace is one of the most famous short stories that talks about a woman whose dreams of wealth got shattered. The author Guy De Maupassant uses several literary devices, such as metaphors or symbolism, to enhance the reader’s perception. So, what does the necklace symbolize in The Necklace? What...

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The Necklace

Guy de maupassant, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The Necklace

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Discussion Questions

Compare and contrast the characters of Loisel and Mathilde. How can such different personalities form a seemingly successful marriage?

How does the story’s setting relate to the theme of wealth and the French economic and social hierarchy?

How does Mathilde’s character change over the course of the story? Is this change permanent or temporary?

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Helpful Discussion Questions for 'The Necklace'

'The Necklace' discussion questions for book clubs or classrooms

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"​ The Necklace " is a favorite French short story by  Guy de Maupassant . A tragic piece about vanity, materiality, and pride, it's definitely a humbling story that will get rid of any little girl or boy's princess complex. Although short, Maupassant packs many themes, symbols, and even a surprise ending into " The Necklace ." Here are some discussion questions helpful for teachers or anyone looking to talk about the story. 

Let's start from the very beginning with the title. By titling his work, "The Necklace," Maupassant is immediately notifying readers to pay special attention to this object. What does the necklace symbolize? What theme does the necklace convey? What other themes exist in the story? 

Turning towards the setting, this story takes place in Paris. Why did Maupassant decide to set this story in Paris? What was the social context of life in Paris at the time, and does it relate to "The Necklace"?

Although Mathilde is at the center of the story, let's consider the other characters as well: Monsier Loisel and Madame Forestier. How do they advance Maupassant's ideas? What role do they play in this story?

Speaking of characters, do you find the characters likable, or detestable? Does your opinion of the characters change throughout the story?

Finally, let's talk about the end. Maupassant is known for springing twist-endings on his readers. Did you think the ending to "The Necklace" was unexpected? If so, why? 

Let's take this discussion beyond just analyzing the story; did you like "The Necklace"? Would you recommend it to your friends?

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Guy de Maupassant: “The Necklace” Essay

The necklace: introduction, deceptiveness of appearance, the necklace: conclusion, works cited.

Written by Guy de Maupassant in 1881, The Necklace is a captivating short story that ends in a surprise. It is the most eye-catching work of Maupassant with all words contributing to the events that the narrative unfolds. It has garnered him a lot of acknowledgment.

The tale is set in Paris, France specifically covering Loisel’s home and the neighborhoods, ministry of education inclusive. Employing the elements of literature, Maupassant has used characters like monsieur Loisel, a clerk in the ministry of education, Mathilde, Loisel’s wife, Madame Jeanne Forestier, Mathilde’s neighbor and friend, Housemaid, Mathilde’s house servant, among others.

The writer takes the reader through the life of these characters and in particular, the poor family of Loisel and the rich family of Forestier. It unfolds that the kind of life depicted by these two categories of people is far from the reality. This illustration builds up the prevailing theme of the narrative ‘the deceptiveness of appearance’, which the writer employs to show how people are deceived by the appearance of others.

Mathilde is a reasonably attractive girl regardless of her unfortunate family backgrounds. She regrets much owing to this poverty because she always compares herself with the other girls from well up homes. For instance, Forestier’s family is rich. She gets married to a mere government clerk. The ministry of education organizes a party for all its staff members, giving them a chance to invite their wives or husbands.

Ironically, thinking that this would thrill his wife, Loisel on delivering the invitation, realizes that it is more of a stress than joy to her. “Instead of being delighted, she threw the invitation on the table with disdain murmuring…” (Maupassant 39). The reason behind this is that she lacks elegant dresses and necklaces like other women, a case that makes her imagine how odd she can be if she attends the occasion.

They end up borrowing these from Forestier, but unfortunately the necklace gets lost after the event, an incidence that costs Loisel’s family virtually everything as they toil for ten years looking the money to purchase another one. They finally buy 36000 francs worthy necklace but on returning it to Forestier; she reveals its cost as just 500 francs. They are now in a severe financial crisis, though had they realized the truth, this would not be the case.

A major problem that the writer fails to clarify is whether Forestier resells the necklace to refund the extra money in order to reduce the debt incurred or not. This paves way to criticisms of his story, though he has managed to develop the dominant theme of the story. Mathilde stands out in the party as a rich and a high class wife owing to the diamond-appearing necklace that the people fail to realize that it was borrowed.

Still on this theme, Forestier’s family is depicted as financially stable. It can afford some of the expensive things that poor families imagine of. Forestier has, not only one but many of them, unlike her counterpart Mathilde.

She wears them when attending great occasions, a case that earns her a good deal of recognition from other people. This is what Mathilde is yearning for. She wants to appear like her friend. She wants people to view her as rich. The writer shows how she longs for a recognized family name as well as an expensive dowry. By this she feels that she will appear like other rich families.

She is pictured as one, who is ever working towards achieving this reality, though what she publicizes is not what is on the ground. For instance, in the party, she appears the most elegant, a situation that makes all people want to chat with her, owing to what they are seeing, an expensive looking dress and a diamond necklace, but little do they know about the truth of the matter.

Following the issue behind Forestier’s necklace, it stands out that it is not made of diamond as people perceive. Though what appears in their eyes is the diamond look on the necklace, the story ends when Forestier reveals that it is just a mere coating. To strengthen his theme, the writer wants to show how the rich end up deceiving other people through their possessions.

Most of them appear costly before the eyes of people but rarely are they in their real senses. The value attached to some items, owing to their appearance, turns out to be many times different from their real values. For instance, the necklace appears 72 times expensive. The writer succeeds in showing how people mistake the rich people.

They have been portrayed as just appearing as if they are rich, which is not the case. Worthy noting is that the writer does not clarify about the child who appears to walk with Forestier. It is not clear whether he is intending to elaborate his theme further by introducing images of people who are not real characters, or not. This again welcomes criticisms to his works.

Though dead and forgotten, Maupassant works speak volumes of his existence. The ideas behind his Necklace narrative stands out clear today. The issue of appearance is now everywhere with people struggling to hide their real selves in order to mislead others. Items have been manufactured bearing a false identity of others only to trick people. This is the kind of life that the writer was prophesying through the use of his major theme ‘the deceptiveness of appearance’ that he develops through the different characters.

Maupassant, Guy. “The Necklace” France: Word Press, 1881. P. 38-44.

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IvyPanda. (2023, October 29). Guy de Maupassant: "The Necklace" Essay. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-necklace/

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Guy de Maupassant: "The Necklace" Essay." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-necklace/.

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....... “The Necklace,” published in 1881, is a short story — among the finest surprise-ending stories in any language. It is a compact, neat little package with just the right amount of character and plot development and nary a wasted word. It is one of many of Maupassant’s short stories that earned him recognition as a master of the genre. 

....... The action takes place in Paris, France, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Specific locales include the residence of the Loisels, the home of Madame Jeanne Forestier, the palace of the Ministry of Education, Paris shops, and the streets of Paris, including the Rue des Martyrs and the Champs Elysées. 

Mathilde : Pretty young woman born into a common, middle-class family. She yearns for the wealth, privileges, and fashions of highborn young ladies.  Monsieur Loisel : Government clerk whom Mathilde marries.  Madame Jeanne Forestier : Friend of Mathilde. She allows Mathilde to borrow a necklace to wear to a gala social event.  Housemaid : Girl from Brittany who does the Loisels' housework. Her presence reminds Mathilde of her own status as a commoner. Jeweler : Dealer who provides a replacement necklace.  Monsieur and Madame Georges Rampouneau : Minister of Education and his wife, who invite the Loisels to a party.  Child With Madame Forestier : See number 5 under "Unanswered Questions" for information about this character. 

Plot Summary By Michael J. Cummings ... © 2006

....... In "The Necklace," Maupassant makes every word count, each one contributing to the overall effectiveness of the story. He provides only minimal details to further the plot and describe the important characters. The result is a simple, easy-to-understand story that moves smoothly and swiftly from beginning to end. Details that he leaves out allow the reader to interpret the events and the characters in his or her own way. One may compare "The Necklace" to a painting with subtle shades of meaning. Maupassant himself remains aloof from his characters, passing no judgments on them, neither praising nor condemning them. For example, it is up to the reader to decide whether Mathilde is a victim of bad luck (or fate) or of her own warped perception of the world as a place where success and recognition result from wealth and status. 

Fate vs Free Will

....... Is Mathilde a hapless victim of fate or a victim of her own desires and the choices she makes to fulfill them? In the opening sentence of the story, Maupassant introduces the notion of fate as a controlling force:

False Values

....... People should evaluate themselves and others on who they are intrinsically (that is, on their character and moral fiber), not on what they possess or where they stand in society. Mathilde Loisel learns this lesson the hard way. 

Real Values

....... Honesty, humility, and hard work are what shape character, not the clothes or jewels that a person wears or the high station into which he or she is born. 

Appearances Are Deceiving

....... Mathilde Loisel believed the necklace genuine the moment she saw it. Likewise, she believed that all the people at the party were real, genuine human beings because of their social standing and their possessions. The necklace, of course, was a fake. And, Maupassant implies, so were the people at the party who judge Mathilde on her outward appearance.

Unanswered Questions

• After paying off her debt, Mathilde wonders what her life would have been like if she had not lost the necklace. The narrator does not suggest an answer to this question. What do you think would have happened to her?
• Do you think Madame Forestier will sell the diamond necklace and return the Loisels' money?
• If Madame Forestier does return the money, will Mathilde save her share of it? Or will she spend it to fulfill her old longings?
• What will her husband do with his portion of the money?
• At the end of the story, the narrator tells us that Madame Forestier is walking with a small child? Why does Maupassant introduce a new character, about whom he tells the reader nothing, at this point in the story? Is it possible that the child is supposed is to represent a new generation of Parisians who will go on pursuing false values? Or does the child's presence at the end suggest something else? 
• Write an essay that attempts to answer the first or fourth question under "Unanswered Questions." Support your position with logical reasoning and opinions gleaned from research. 
• Write an essay arguing for or against the view that Mathilde's yearning for wealth and social status, not fate, brought about her downfall. 
• In an informative essay, discuss to what extent French society in the nineteenth century imposed limitations on Mathilde's opportunities to earn money and attain social standing.
• Explain why "The Necklace" continues to enjoy widespread popularity with modern readers.
• Assume the role of a psychologist. Then write a psychological profile of Mathilde. 
• Would the men at the party admire Mathilde if they were aware that the necklace was fake and that she had few material possessions? Provide your answer in an essay supported by relevant passages from the story, as well as other evidence.

A Summary and Analysis of Guy de Maupassant’s ‘The Necklace’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Necklace’ is an 1884 short story by the French writer Guy de Maupassant (1850-93), first published in Le Gaulois as ‘La parure’ in February of that year. If you’re unfamiliar with Maupassant’s work, ‘The Necklace’ is his most famous tale, and worth taking the time to read. If you’re a fan of stories with twist endings , you’ll probably love it.

Plot summary

Mathilde Loisel is a pretty woman who is married to a clerk who works in the Ministry of Education. They do not have much money, and Mathilde spends her days fantasising that her life is more glamorous and upmarket than it actually is.

When her husband is invited to a ball hosted by the minister for whom he works, he is keen for them both to attend, but Mathilde tells him she has nothing to wear to such a high-class social occasion. He tells her he will buy her a nice dress, even though it will mean sacrificing his own pleasure.

Then, Mathilde becomes worried that she has no jewels to wear with the dress. Loisel, her husband, suggests she ask her friend, Madame Forestier, if she has something she will lend to Mathilde for the night. Madame Forestier is happy for her friend to borrow whatever she wants, and Mathilde chooses a diamond necklace.

Mathilde enjoys the ball, and especially likes all of the attention she attracts from the men in attendance. When they are due to leave, at four in the morning, they go outside and try to find a cab to take them home. When they arrive home, however, Mathilde is horrified to discover she has lost the necklace!

Loisel retraces their steps but cannot find the lost necklace anywhere. They realise that they will have to replace the necklace, whatever the cost. To buy them some time, they compose a letter to Madame Forestier, claiming that they are having the necklace repaired. They then try to find out where the necklace was made, and have to buy the clasp and the diamonds from separate jewellers.

Loisel racks up thousands of francs in debt, borrowing from friends and from professional moneylenders to raise the cash. They finally have the necklace, which is returned to Madame Forestier, but now they have to pay back the money to all of their creditors.

This takes them ten long years. They dismiss their servant girl and Mathilde has to perform all of the housework, which ages her rapidly. Loisel, meanwhile, takes on a second job, working for a merchant in the evenings. Finally, though, their debts are cleared.

One day, Mathilde bumps into Madame Forestier, who doesn’t recognise her at first because her friend looks so poor and haggard. Now the debt is paid off, Mathilde feels she can tell her friend the truth, and confesses that she lost her friend’s necklace and she and her husband had to buy a replacement.

In a twist, Madame Forestier tells her friend that the necklace she lent Mathilde was made of imitation diamonds, and was virtually worthless. Mathilde and her husband had spent ten years toiling away for no reason.

In ‘The Necklace’, Guy de Maupassant explores the relationship between appearance and reality. The necklace, of course, is the most explicit example of this: it looks like a genuine diamond necklace but is actually an imitation or fake. And this final twist in the tale leads us to think more carefully about the other details of the story.

But ‘The Necklace’ is more specifically about the dangers of not being happy with what one has, and always wanting more. The nineteenth century saw a rise in the prevalance of consumerism, with many middle-class people seeking to improve their lot and keep up with their friends and neighbours in terms of their possessions, clothes, and social status.

Although Maupassant’s story is hardly searing social satire, the fate of the female protagonist does act as a cautionary tale about the dangers of chasing consumerist gratification in order to impress and be admired by others. The Loisels have a perfectly comfortable lower-middle-class life, and Mathilde has one servant to help around the house.

But this isn’t enough. She dreams of having more. Her food is not enough for her and she wants to dine on finer dishes. One would think she was living a life of poverty from how dissatisfied she is.

This constant desire for more is her undoing, of course – and her husband’s. Her insistence that she have some jewels to wear to the ball is what leads her to find out what real poverty is like, when she and her husband have to downsize from a modest flat to a small garret, and Mathilde has to learn how to work as a servant in her own house. She also loses the natural beauty she had as she has to work so hard at scrubbing the floors.

The critic Rachel Mesch, in her book Having It All in the Belle Epoque , has pointed out that ‘The Necklace’, among other stories, is a kind of Cinderella-story gone awry: whereas Cinderella begins by scrubbing floors and ends up going to the ball in all her finery, Mathilde goes to the ball and, as a result of losing her necklace (not her glass slipper), is reduced to a life of scrubbing floors.

Because she longed for more than she had, she ended up with less than she had to begin with. But the delicious ironic twist at the end of the story shows that her reduction to a life of poverty was all for nothing: just like the admiration she was foolishly and vainly chasing, the necklace she was working to replace was, after all, a sham.

Modern consumerism, then, is a con, with anyone able to afford a cheap imitation necklace able to pass themselves off as a member of the upper classes. Maupassant seems to be suggesting that the ‘finer things’ in life which tempt us are often, at their core, hollow and worthless.

At the same time, however, even when she is reduced to a life of grinding poverty, Mathilde still remembers that one night at the ball when she was admired. It is almost as if she thinks it was worth it, despite what happened next. She wonders what would have happened if she’d never lost the necklace.

Of course, at this stage of the narrative she hasn’t learned that the diamonds she was wearing that night were fakes; perhaps that revelation would make her revise her opinion. And yet, knowing they were imitation diamonds raises further ‘what if’ questions.

If they cost five hundred francs at the most, as Madame Forestier reveals at the end, Loisel’s husband could have easily bought her a cheap necklace and nobody – except for the Loisels themselves – would have been any the wiser. After all, Mathilde was admired at the ball even though she was, it turns out, wearing fake diamonds.

‘The Necklace’ is narrated in the third person by an omniscient narrator. The style is broadly realist, with Maupassant’s narrative voice relating the main details of the story in crisp, concise prose. We don’t get – as we would in the work of later modernist writers – detailed insight into the characters’ thoughts and feelings, although we are given occasional details about Mathilde’s feelings towards her situation.

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The Necklace

By guy de maupassant, the necklace summary and analysis of the necklace.

A young woman, Mathilde, is born to a low class family. With no money for a dowry, she is married to Monsieur Loisel , a clerk from the Board of Education. Mathilde always felt like she should have been born to the upper class and is unhappy in her married life, hating their home, their food, and her lack of fine clothing and jewelry. One evening, her husband presents her excitedly with an invitation to attend an event at the Minister of Public Instruction’s home. To the surprise of M. Loisel, Mathilde–now Mme. Loisel–throws the invitation down in dismay, weeping and complaining that she has nothing to wear to such an event. Her husband offers to give her the money for something suitable, and she calculates the maximum amount she could request without him refusing her immediately. When she requests this amount, her husband pales, thinking of the hunting gun for which he has been saving that exact amount; nonetheless, he agrees.

The day of the ball approaches and Mme. Loisel’s dress is made ready, but she is still dismayed. When asked why, she replies that she is embarrassed to attend the ball without any jewels. Her husband, after being chastised for suggesting she wear flowers in her hair instead, suggests that she ask to borrow some jewels from her rich friend, Mme. Forestier. Mme Loisel agrees and goes to see her friend the next day, greedily choosing one of Mme. Forestier’s finest necklaces.

At the ball, Madame Loisel is a hit - elegant, joyful, and desired for waltzes. She and M. Loisel return home at nearly 4 o’clock in the morning. Once they are home, Mme. Loisel realizes that she lost the necklace. She and her husband discuss the situation frantically; Mme. Loisel that she felt it on her after leaving the ball, so it must be in the road somewhere. Her husband goes back out to look on the ground the entire way they just walked, though he must be at work in only a few hours. He returns empty-handed hours later.

The couple places a notice with the police department and, at the suggestion of her husband, Madame Loisel writes a note to her friend saying the clasp of the necklace has broken and they are having it repaired. After a week with no news, M. Loisel proclaims that they must replace it, and the couple finds a replacement for 36,000 francs. M. Loisel had 18,000 francs from his father’s will and borrows the remaining sum, making “ruinous promises”(p.36) in the process. After all this, Madame Loisel puts the new necklace in the case belonging to the original necklace; she returns it without arousing suspicion.

To pay off the debt, both Monsieur and Madame Loisel must work tirelessly. They rent rooms and Madame Loisel learns to cook, clean for many, be “clothed like a woman of the people”(p.36) and haggle at the market. Her husband works evenings and takes on side jobs bookkeeping and copying. After ten years, they are finally able to pay off all of their debts. Sitting at home, a hardened, old woman, Madame Loisel thinks back on how her life might have been, had she not lost the necklace.

One day, while taking a walk, Mme. Loisel runs into Mme. Forestier. She approaches her old friend, and Mme. Forestier almost doesn’t recognize her. In a sudden burst of emotion, Madame Loisel reveals her entire story of losing the necklace, replacing it, and working off the cost of the replacement ever since. In response, Madame Forestier replies that the original necklace did not contain actual diamonds but rather fake diamonds, meaning the original necklace cost no more than 500 francs.

As writer in 19th-century France, Maupassant writes in a style called Literary Realism. The clearest example of this style comes in the final third of the story, when he describes the poor, working lives of the Loisels. Maupassant contrasts this with the almost romantic description of the party that the Loisels attend, at which Mathilde wore the titular necklace.

As gender played an important role in 19th-century French society, so too does it in " The Necklace ." Women of the middle and upper classes did not work, instead being taken care of by their husbands. Thus, many of the Loisels’ problems involve money. Not only is Mme. Loisel bitter about her inability to improve her social class, but the Loisels also value different things, with those values mapping along gender lines. When invited to the party, Mme. Loisel begins to weep, asking her husband to lend her the money for a new dress, as clothing and jewelry were especially important indicators of status for women. In contrast, M. Loisel thinks to himself that he had wanted to save that money to buy a new gun, a manly pursuit that he could have used to bond with male friends and relax from his busy work schedule.

Beauty is treated in "The Necklace" at times as objective and at times as quite subjective, dependent on social class. On one hand, Maupassant writes that beauty was the way women could advance their place in society. On the other hand, Mme. Loisel sees Mme. Forestier's necklace as beautiful largely because of its supposed worth and the social capital it provides. At the party, it is said that Mme. Loisel felt and looked quite beautiful, and that many men desired to dance with her. In this case, the reader must ask whether this is because of her natural beauty, the upper-class attire she was able to acquire for the event, or perhaps simply her confidence from her clothing.

Until the end of the story, Mme. Loisel is not presented as a particularly likeable or sympathetic character. One example of Mme. Loisel's flaws comes when the couple has just gotten home from the party: Mme. Loisel says, "I have--I have--I no longer have Mrs. Forestier's necklace."(p.35) In this moment, it seems that she is trying, even in her panicked state, not to take the blame of what has happened, refusing to admit that she lost the necklace.

In setting up the eventual irony in one of his classic twist endings, Maupassant is careful to write that the necklace "seemed to them exactly like the one they had lost"(p.36). This is not enough to alert the reader to the eventual irony, but it points to the couple's inability to tell the two necklaces apart precisely because they were not accustomed to lavish jewelry. This in turn raises the question of whether Mme. Forestier would have recognized the substitution; though she does not let on that she recognizes any difference upon seeing the replacement for the first time and seems genuinely surprised when she hears Mme. Loisel's tale after ten years, it is suspicious that a woman of a higher class would not be able to tell the difference.

Finally, the fact that the characters never find out what happened to the necklace points toward the randomness of life and importance of circumstance. As Maupassant writes, "How would it have been if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How singular is life, and how full of changes! How small a thing will ruin or save one!"(p.37) This moral of the story may be seen as a critique of the importance of social class, since the story demonstrates that a simple accident or circumstance forced upon a person (since the necklace could have been stolen purposefully) can doom a person to a completely different way of life. At the same time, Maupassant demonstrates that social class does not correlate to happiness, as Mme. Loisel seems more content in her life and her marriage when in the poor class than when behaving either as a middle- or upper-class woman.

The Necklace Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Necklace is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What does Mathilde spend much of her time fantasizing about in the beginning of the story? Why do you think de Maupassant describes these thoughts so thoroughly, as part of introducing Mathilde’s character

Mathilde fantacizes about all of the things she does not have and feels herself entitled to.... wealth, a large home, delicious foods, beautiful clothing, and exquisite jewelry. Though, I cannot speak for the author, I believe he wants his...

The necklace by Guy de Maupassant

In 'The Necklace', the author initiially uses slow pacing to amplify the tension. When Mathilde loses the necklace, the pace quickens as she hurriedly tries to repay her debt.

What does the word petulantly mean as it is used in paragraph 10?

The modern use of petulantly generally means moody or childish or overly stubborn.

Study Guide for The Necklace

The Necklace study guide contains a biography of Guy de Maupassant, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Necklace
• The Necklace Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Necklace

The Necklace literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant.

• Irony and Deception in “The Diamond Necklace”
• A Comparison of Dee and Mathilde
• Symbolic structures of the fairy tale: A Comparison of 'The Necklace' and 'The Son's Veto'
• A Necklace as a Symbol: An Intersection between Marxist, Feminist, Psychological, and Formalist Readings of Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”
• Dynamic Characteristics of Madame Loisel

Lesson Plan for The Necklace

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Necklace
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Necklace Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Necklace

• Introduction
• Significance
• Bibliography

81 The Necklace Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on the necklace, ✍️ the necklace essay topics for college, 🌶️ hot the necklace ideas to write about, ❓ the necklace essay questions.

• The Necklace From the Marxist Theory Perspective
• Literary Analysis of The Necklace: Essay Example
• The Role on Women as Portrayed in The Necklace
• The “Diamond Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: The Character of Mathilde
• “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: McManus’s Review
• Irony in The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
• The Theme of Deception in The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
• The Necklace: Mathilde Character Analysis The main character of the story “The Necklace” written by Guy de Maupassant is a young woman Mathilde Loisel who wants to live a happy life.
• Marxism in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant This essay aims to define and conceptualize Marxist views in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, an excellent example of a work with an unexpected ending
• Appearance and Reality in “Diamond Necklace” This paper is a critical examination of the story “The Diamond Necklace”, to highlight how Guy de Maupassant uses lifeless things to evoke wisdom in the readers.
• “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant “The Necklace” is one of the best-known short stories by Guy de Maupassant. “The Necklace” embodies pessimism, emotional distress, and frustration.
• Dahl’s “Lamb to Slaughter” and de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” Images in “The Necklace” and “Lamb to Slaughter” show the reader the painfulness and consequences of taking illusion for genuine truth instead of giving real life the benefit of the doubt.
• Pride and Social Struggle in Maupassant’s “The Necklace” This essay summarizes “The Necklace” to cover the main facts presented in the story and explain how the lack of identity and pride proved detrimental to the heroine’s life.
• Short Stories Analysis: “The Necklace” and “The Last Leaf” This work considered short stories “The Necklace” and “The Last Leaf” and their interesting plot line. Particular attention is directed to the characters, emotions and experiences.
• “The Necklace” and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” “The Necklace” by Maupassant and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by Lawrence – stories revolve around families of medium-income with women who are deeply dissatisfied with reality.
• “The Necklace” vs. “Paste”: Character Comparison In these two short stories, Mathilde is portrayed as the pretty and charming wife of Mr. Loisel, a minor clerk in the Ministry of Education.
• “The Necklace” a Short Story by Guy de Maupassant The short story “The Necklace”, by the French writer Guy de Maupassant, is an example of the hollow search for happiness through materialism.
• Lying in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant The paper argues that every lie present in “The Necklace” results in the heroine’s self-deception, revealed by the contrasting reality and the protagonist’s illusions.
• Character Portrayal: “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant In his captivating must-read chef-d’oeuvre ‘The Necklace’, Guy de Maupassant presents the story of Mathilde Loisel who happens to be a woman from a humble background.
• The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant Reflection The paper discusses “The Necklace” has the idea of the deceptiveness of appearance as one of the significant concepts in the story.
• Mathilde in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant The paper is an attempt to analyze Mathilde’s dualistic character describing the morals a reader can receive from her story in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant.
• Men as Breadwinners in Maupassant’s “The Necklace” The gender roles affected men’s perceptions regarding their need to meet the high financial expectations is illustrated in Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace”.
• “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant: Character Portrayal Essay will focus and determine Mathilde’s character as portrayed in the story The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant.
• Poems Comparison: The Necklace and I Stand Here Ironing This paper compares and contrasts Maupassant’s “The Necklace” and Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing”, to analyzes the way the authors examined the subject of poverty.
• Metamorphosis and The Necklace In Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa’s deep-seated melancholy was the main reason for his death. In Maupassant’s The Necklace, Mathilde’s depression did not result to death.
• Modern Fairy Tale: How The Necklace Tricks the Reader The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant is an intriguing story with an unexpected ending. See how it can be considered a modern fairy tale in this essay.
• Symbols & Themes in The Necklace by Maupussant The theme of reality and appearance is outlined in this case because for the persona, the appearance of society is slowly becoming different from the realities experienced.
• Mathilde in Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” This paper focuses on Mathilde from Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” to illustrate how one can achieve character portrayal and development in narrative writing.
• Mathilde in The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant Many works of literature explore life and raise diverse discussions. For instance, The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant encourages conversations on the importance of wealth.
• How Pride Affects Mathilde Loisel in “The Necklace”?
• General Information About the Main Theme of the Story “Necklace”
• Overview of the Historical Period in the “Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant
• Analysis Development of Irony in “The Necklace”
• Mankind’s Obsession With Money in “The Queen of Spades” and “The Necklace”
• Irony and Character Development in de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”
• Analysis and Contrasting Desires of Mathilde in “The Necklace” and the Unnamed Narrator in “Araby”
• Reasons Why Country Lovers Are Against “Necklace”
• Henri Rene Albert Guy de Maupassant and an Overview of His Work “The Necklace”
• The True Significance Behind “The Necklace”
• How Nineteenth-Century Gender Roles Revealed in “The Necklace”
• “The Necklace” Summary and Character Analysis
• Creole Democracy and “The Necklace”
• Analysis – Compare and Contrast of “The Star” by Arthur C Clark and “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant
• External and Internal Conflict in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant
• Analysis of the Similarities and Differences Between “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Necklace”
• Historical and Cultural Stance in “The Necklace”
• Wearing Truth and Deception: Symbolism in Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”
• Precious Items and the Materialistic Character of Mathilde Loisel in the Short Story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant
• General Information About “The Necklace”, Mr. Maupassant
• Character Development Through Irony and Imagery in Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”
• The Shared Representation of Greed in Maupassant “The Necklace” and Alice Walkers “Everyday Use”
• What Is the Summary of “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant?
• What Is the Main Message of “The Necklace”?
• What Does the Necklace Symbolize in the Story “The Necklace”?
• Is “The Necklace” a Real Story?
• What Lesson Did You Learn From the Story “The Necklace”?
• What Are Two Themes From the Story “The Necklace”?
• What Is the Climax of the Story About “The Necklace”?
• What Is the Twist at the End of the Story “The Necklace”?
• Do You Think There Is a Moral in the Story “The Necklace”?
• At Is the Resolution of “The Necklace” Story?
• How Is the Problem Solved in “The Necklace”?
• What Is the Setting of “The Necklace”?
• Why Did Mathilde Cry in “The Necklace”?
• What Are the Main Events of the Story “The Necklace”?
• What Kind of a Life Did Madame Loisel Want in “The Necklace”?
• How Did the Loisels Replace the Lost Necklace in “The Necklace”?
• What Is the Conflict in the Short Story “The Necklace”?
• What Is the Theme of “The Necklace,” and How Does the Author Use Symbolism and Irony to Explain This Theme?
• In “The Necklace,” How Did Mathilde’s Life Change After She Lost the Necklace?
• What Metaphors Are Used in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant?
• Why Does Madame Forestier Fail to Recognize Mathilde in “The Necklace”?
• What Is the Relationship Between Monsieur and Madame Loisel in “The Necklace”?
• What Is the Foreshadowing in “The Necklace”?
• What Is the Rising Action in “The Necklace”?
• What Is the Direct Characterization of Monsieur Loisel in “The Necklace”?
• How Is Mathilde From “The Necklace” Vain?
• Do You Think Matilda’s Over-Ambitious Nature Was the Cause of Her Miseries in “The Necklace”?
• What Caused the Loss of the Necklace in “The Necklace”?
• How Did Mr. Loisel and Mathilda Suffered in “The Necklace” to Return the Borrowed Money?
• What Question Is Left Unanswered in “The Necklace”?

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Necklace — The Necklace: A Critical Analysis

The Necklace: a Critical Analysis

• Categories: The Necklace

About this sample

Words: 781 |

Published: Jan 30, 2024

Words: 781 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, plot summary, character analysis, theme analysis.

• References:
• De Maupassant, G. (1884). The Necklace. Retrieved from https://www.vobal.com/#/documents/history_of_literturereadersgu/the_necklace
• Rose, N. (2020). Materialism is a Destructive force. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-to-want-what-you-have/202010/materialism-is-destructive-force

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“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, Essay Example

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Oppression plays a large role in the brilliant short story by Guy de Maupassant entitled “The Necklace”.  In it, a middle-class woman, Matilda Loisel, who dreams of a luxurious life, is able to have one, glorious night at a ball, wearing a borrowed necklace of diamonds from her childhood friend.  Sometime during the night of the ball, the necklace is lost.  She and her husband go into great debt to buy a replacement, living a life of great poverty for a decade to pay off the debt they incurred to do this.  Years later, the woman meets her old friend by chance in the park and brags of how much she and her husband went through to replace the necklace, only to be told that the necklace was made only costume jewelry and “were not worth five hundred francs”.

The oppression that de Maupassant writes about in this story is two-fold.  The first kind of oppression, in the first section of the short story, comes from within Matilda herself because of her unrealistic dreams and expectations for her life.  The second kind of oppression, more concrete, comes in the second part of the story, where Matilda and her husband both have to give up what comforts they had to begin with in order to pay off the debt that they owe for the necklace.  Both kinds of oppression take their toll are Matilda (though in different ways) and both will be analyzed at length in this paper.

Inner Oppression: The Burden of Fantasy

Guy de Maupassant begins to discuss the theme of Matilda’s inner oppression (or self-oppression) in the first paragraph of the story, introducing her as “one of those pretty, charming young ladies, born….into a family of clerks” (de Maupassant 31), showing the reader from the start that there is a huge divide between Matilda’s life as it is and Matilda’s life the way she wants it to be.  It is obvious that Matilda’s middle class life, married to a clerk from the Board of Education (a worthy but not perhaps very romantic job) is very distressing for her, and she is forever fantasizing unrealistically about what her life might have been like if she had married someone “either rich or distinguished” (31).  While she sits in her apartment of “the shabby walls, the worn chairs, the faded stuffs” (31), she dreams only of “large drawing-rooms, hung in old silks, of graceful pieces of furniture carrying bric-a-brac of inestimable value” (32).

These beginning paragraphs are important to the story because they show from the very first that Matilda is a woman whose oppression comes from within herself: she oppresses herself by longing for a life that she cannot have; she oppresses herself by being unhappy and discontented with the life that she does have.  The frustration that she feels with her life is palpable in the beginning of the story and it is important because it sets the stage for, and gives impetus to, what is going to happen: i.e. the fateful night of the ball, a night which is to forever change the course of Matilda’s life.

When Matilda’s husband comes home with an invitation for the ball at the home of the Minister of Public Instruction, it seems that Matilda’s fantasies might become reality for her, but instead of jumping at the chance to live the kind of life (if only for one evening) that she always dreamed of, she shrinks away at first, asking her husband irritably, “What do you suppose I have to wear to such a thing as that?” (33) and promptly bursts into tears; she is not so distraught, though, that she cannot make a quick and shrewd estimate of how much money she can get out of her husband for a new outfit: “She reflected for some seconds, making estimates and thinking of a sum that she could ask for without bringing with it an immediate refusal…from the economical clerk” (33).  And to make her fantasy life complete, she borrows what she thinks is a fabulous necklace from her childhood friend Mrs. Forestier.

Matilda is freed from her self-oppression for one night, the night of the ball, where she gets to live her fantasy in a way that she always wanted to, and de Maupassant notes that she “was a great success.  She was the prettiest of all, elegant, gracious, smiling, and full of joy” (34).  But at the end of the evening, reality comes back in full force, and Matilda feels oppressed once again when she and her husband wrap up in “modest garments of everyday wear, whose poverty clashed with the elegance of the ball costume” (34) and Matilda wishes to get away quickly, as she feels oppressed again by “the other women wrapping themselves in rich furs” (34). In her haste, she and her husband wind up on a bit of misadventure going home and when they arrive back at their apartment, they find that Matilda has lost the necklace.  De Maupassant is well aware of what is in store for Matilda when he writes that “she removed the wraps from her shoulders before the glass, for a final view of herself in her glory” This will, indeed, be the “final view” for Matilda, for a second later, she realizes that the necklace in missing, and with that missing necklace comes the second, outer form of oppression in this story: the oppression of poverty.

Outer Oppression: The Burden of Poverty

In the fall-out from the loss of the necklace, Mr. and Mrs. Loisel replace the piece of jewelry at a tremendous cost to their middle-class household: thirty-six thousand francs, which they beg and borrow and use up their inheritance to purchase.  Whether she realized it and appreciated it or not, Matilda’s life was one of middle-class comfort before, but all that is to change with the loss of the necklace.  And now the real, outer oppression, the oppression of poverty, takes hold of Matilda’s life. De Maupassant tells the reader that Matilda “now knew the horrible life of necessity” (36), and a lot of their modest middle-class trappings have to go: “they sent away the maid; they changed their lodgings; they rented some rooms under a mansard roof” (36).  So now, the poor life that Matilda has always imagined that she led has become a poor life indeed.  Without a maid to take care of these things for her, she is forced to shoulder, “the heavy cares of a household, the odious work of a kitchen” (36) but with great sacrifice, she and her husband pay off the debt that they incurred to replace the necklace, a debt which takes them a decade to pay off.

The oppression of poverty has a terrible affect upon Matilda.  De Maupassant describes her, after this decade of economic oppression, as “a strong, hard woman, the crude woman of a poor household. Her hair was badly dressed, her skirts awry, her hands red” (37).  This is no longer the bored middle class woman with a maid who fantasized about a life of wealth, although, even in the difficulty of her poverty, she “would seat herself before the window and think of that evening party of former times, of that ball when she had been so beautiful and so flattered” (37).  The fantasy seems different now: in the first part of the story, the fantasy is the vehicle of for Matilda’s self-oppression, the way in which she tortures herself for not having the kind of life she dreams of; by the end of the story, the fantasy has becomes a means of escape from the real, outer oppression of her poverty.  The image of Matilda, resting for a while from her work and thinking for a few minutes about the one night of her life when she was free from the oppressions of her discontent – the night of her life which was also her downfall and led to the oppression of her new life of poverty – is one of the most poignant scenes in the story.

If the story ended there, it would still be tragic, but De Maupassant is not yet done twisting his knife.  In the final scene of the story, the old, hard Matilda, walking in the Champs Elysee  “to rid herself of the cares of the week” (38), runs into her old friend Madame Forestier, “still young, still pretty, still attractive” (38), in contrast to Matilda herself.  Matilda cannot help but brag to Mrs. Forestier of the diamond necklace she replaced at such a tremendous cost, only to have Forestier exclaim that the necklace was cheap costume jewelry and that Matilda has ruined her life for nothing.

To conclude, this is a poignant story about the life of a woman who is at first oppressed by the unattainable fantasies that she has for herself, and then is oppressed by the poverty which results when she tries to make her fantasies into reality.  Both the oppression of her fantasies (the oppression that comes from within herself) and the oppression of poverty (the oppression that comes from the circumstance of her life) exact a toll on her.  De Maupassant, in this story, seems to be exploring the ways in which someone’s character flaws (in this case, Matilda’s unrealistic expectations for her life) can bring about a tragic end for them.  It is Matilda’s ravenous need to act out her fantasies that leads her to borrow the necklace to begin with, then hurry away from the party because she is ashamed of her wrap and lose the necklace in the process, and thus condemn herself to ten years of pointless poverty.  She is, truly, both a victim of her own oppression and of the oppression which life lays down upon her, and the second form of oppression is a direct result of the first. One reason why this story is such a classic, why it can be read even so long after it was written by people in a very different society, is because of De Maupassant’s understanding of the ways in which people do indeed oppress themselves and of the ways in which the circumstances of their life can oppress them as well.  Both are equally tragic and seem equally difficult to combat.

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On Instagram, a Jewelry Ad Draws Solicitations for Sex With a 5-Year-Old

Advertisers of merchandise for young girls find that adult men can become their unintended audience. In a test ad, convicted sex offenders inquired about a child model.

By Michael H. Keller and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries

Michael H. Keller and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries have been investigating the dark side of social media, including the online exploitation of children.

When a children’s jewelry maker began advertising on Instagram, she promoted photos of a 5-year-old girl wearing a sparkly charm to users interested in parenting, children, ballet and other topics identified by Meta as appealing mostly to women.

But when the merchant got the automated results of her ad campaign from Instagram, the opposite had happened: The ads had gone almost entirely to adult men.

Perplexed and concerned, the merchant contacted The New York Times, which in recent years has published multiple articles about the abuse of children on social media platforms. In February, The Times investigated Instagram accounts run by parents for their young daughters, and the dark underworld of men who have sexualized interactions with those accounts.

With the photos from the jewelry ads in hand, The Times set out to understand why they attracted an unwanted audience. Test ads run by The Times using the same photos with no text not only replicated the merchant’s experience — they drew the attention of convicted sex offenders and other men whose accounts indicated a sexual interest in children or who wrote sexual messages.

The Times opened two Instagram accounts and promoted posts showing the 5-year-old girl, her face turned away from the camera, wearing a tank top and the charm. Separate posts showed the clothing and jewelry without the child model, or with a black box concealing her. All of the paid ads were promoted to people interested in topics like childhood, dance and cheerleading, which Meta’s audience tools estimated as predominantly women.

An Instagram post of a 5-year-old girl wearing a tank top and a sparkly charm, her face turned away from the camera.

An Instagram post of a tank top and a sparkly charm on a green patterned carpet.

These boxes represent test ads run on Instagram, which The New York Times chose not to publish in this article because of the response they received from some sex offenders.

Aside from reaching a surprisingly large proportion of men, the ads got direct responses from dozens of Instagram users, including phone calls from two accused sex offenders, offers to pay the child for sexual acts and professions of love.

The results suggest that the platform’s algorithms play an important role in directing men to photos of children. And they echo concerns about the prevalence of men who use Instagram to follow and contact minors, including those who have been arrested for using social media to solicit children for sex.

On Wednesday, New Mexico’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, announced the arrest of three men who were caught in a sting operation trying to arrange sex with underage girls on Facebook. Calling it “Operation MetaPhile,” Mr. Torrez said Meta’s algorithms had played a key role in directing these men to the “decoy” profiles created by law enforcement.

“We could set up a brand-new undercover account, presented as an underage child on that platform, and likely within a matter of minutes, if not days, that child would be inundated with sexually explicit material,” he said, emphasizing the real-world harm that can be caused by online platforms.

The investigation by The Times in February found that thousands of parent-run Instagram accounts attracted sexualized comments and messages from adult men. While some parents described the attention as a way to increase their daughters’ followers, others complained of spending hours blocking users and said they did not understand how the men had found the accounts.

An analysis of the users who interacted with the ads posted by The Times found an overlap between those two worlds. About three dozen of the men followed child influencer accounts that were run by parents and were previously studied by The Times; one followed 140. In addition, nearly 100 of the men followed accounts featuring or advertising adult pornography, which is barred under Instagram’s rules.

Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for Meta, dismissed The Times’s ad tests as a “manufactured experience” that failed to account for “the many factors that contribute to who ultimately sees an ad,” and suggested that it was “flawed and unsound” to draw conclusions from limited data.

When asked about the arrests in New Mexico, Meta said in a statement that “child exploitation is a horrific crime and we’ve spent years building technology to combat it.” The company described its efforts as “an ongoing fight” against “determined criminals.”

‘The Men Engage’

Researchers and former employees who worked with algorithms at Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, said that image classification tools probably deserved some blame.

The tools compare new images with existing ones on the platform and identify users who previously showed interest in them, said Dean Eckles, a former Facebook data scientist who studied its algorithms and is now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Test accounts set up last year by The Wall Street Journal found that Instagram’s recommendation algorithm served sexualized photos of children and adults to accounts that followed only young gymnasts, cheerleaders and other children.

Although Meta’s ad system is not exactly the same as that recommendation system, there are “huge similarities between the models,” Dr. Eckles said.

Former Meta employees familiar with its recommendation and ad delivery systems said that safety teams tried to spot harmful ads, like those promoting scams or illegal drugs, but it was more difficult to identify benign ads that were delivered to inappropriate — and potentially harmful — audiences.

Meta allows advertisers to target certain audiences by topic, and though The Times chose topics that the company estimated were dominated by women, the ads were shown, on average, to men about 80 percent of the time, according to a Times analysis of Instagram’s audience data. In one group of tests, photos showing the child went to men 95 percent of the time, on average, while photos of the items alone went to men 64 percent of the time.

Piotr Sapiezynski, a research scientist at Northeastern University who specializes in testing online algorithms, said advertisers competed with one another to reach women because they dominate U.S. consumer spending . As a result, Dr. Sapiezynski said, the algorithm probably focused on highly interested, easier-to-reach men who had interacted with similar content.

“The men engage,” he said. “The machine is doing exactly what you want it to do.”

Meta, in a statement, acknowledged the competitive ad environment for female viewers and said the “low quality” of the Times ads — from new accounts, with images but no text or explanation — contributed to their being delivered to more men. In addition, Meta said, its Audience Insights data only “shows an estimate of who is potentially eligible to see an ad,” not a guaranteed audience.

Dr. Sapiezynski said even if the system designated the test ads as “low quality,” that did not explain why those featuring children went to more men than those without children.

Estimated Potential Audience

Average demographics of selected groups

according to Meta’s Audience Insights

Actual Audience

Boosted Instagram posts showing a tank top

and a sparkly charm necklace

Boosted posts with a 5-year-old girl wearing

a tank top and a sparkly charm

Source: Meta Audience Insights and Instagram account analytics.

Note: Figures may not add to 100 because of rounding and data availability.

By The New York Times

A few hours after the first ad was posted, one of The Times’s test accounts received a message and a phone call from a man arrested in 2015 in Oklahoma after allegedly using Facebook to try to arrange group sex with girls aged 12 and 14.

“Hey babe,” another man wrote. He had been arrested in 2020 after contacting a 14-year-old girl in upstate New York over Snapchat and offering to pick her up for sex. Charges against him were dismissed after a court found him mentally incompetent.

A third man, in Tennessee, who “liked” one of the photos had four convictions for child sex crimes — including “sex with a child” in 1999, sharing a photo on Facebook in 2018 of a 3- to 5-year-old “being anally or vaginally penetrated,” and using Instagram in 2020 to solicit nude photos from a 12-year-old girl he called his “sex slave.” (Instagram’s rules ban 12-year-olds.)

A fourth man, whom The Times was unable to identify, offered to pay for sexual acts with the girl in the photograph.

The Times reached out via Instagram chat to anyone who had engaged with the ads and explained that they were tests of the platform’s algorithm being run by journalists. The man in New York continued to send messages inquiring about the girl, asking if she was in her bedroom and if she wanted to have sex. He also tried to call her multiple times through the app.

In total, The Times identified four convicted sex offenders who had messaged the accounts, liked the photos or left comments on them. Their Instagram accounts used real names and pictures, or were linked to Facebook accounts that did. Convictions were found by matching that information with sex offender databases and other public records.

Five other men, including one who posted a video on Instagram of a girl known to be a victim of child sexual abuse, according to the Canadian Center for Child Protection, have arrest records involving crimes against children. Those men whose court records The Times was able to review either pleaded guilty to a lesser charge or were deemed mentally unfit to stand trial.

Instagram’s rules prohibit convicted sex offenders from holding accounts, and The Times used Meta’s tool to report the men. The accounts remained online for about a week until The Times flagged them to a company spokesman.

Asked about the accounts, Ms. Lever said, “We prohibit convicted sex offenders from having a presence on our platforms and have removed the accounts reported to us.”

One of the men, who was convicted in New York of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl, falls under a state law — known as E-Stop — that requires sex offenders to register their email address. Every week, the state shares the addresses with technology companies, including Meta.

Ms. Lever did not address how the company uses this information or how the man was able to create an Instagram account.

Some of the men said they responded to the ad out of concern.

One man, who is on parole after spending 46 years in prison in California for murdering his wife, said he was surprised to come across a 5-year-old girl in his feed, which predominantly shows photos of scantily clad or nude adults.

“I got no problem looking at naked women, especially after 46 years in prison,” he wrote. But, he continued, “my attitude about people that engage in child porn or touching a child is pretty simple: Don’t do it.”

The men’s engagement with the ads did not surprise some small business owners interviewed by The Times. Morgan Koontz, a founder of Bella & Omi, a children’s clothing business in West Virginia that promotes itself on social media, said the company received “inappropriate, almost pedophile-type, perverted comments” from men when they started advertising on Facebook in 2021.

“It made our models uncomfortable, and it made us uncomfortable,” she said.

When the company expanded to Instagram, she and her fellow owner, Erica Barrios, decided to avoid the problem by targeting only women, even though fathers and grandfathers are among their regular customers.

Lindsey Rowse, who owns Tightspot Dancewear Center in Pennsylvania, also restricts her ads to women. When she did not exclude men, she said, they made up as much as 75 percent of her audience, and few bought her products. Separately, she limits how often she shares photos of child models in her non-advertising posts because they often attract men, she said.

“I don’t know how people find it,” she said. “I would love to just block all guys.”

Other business owners expressed similar confusion about how their ads were distributed. Since January, the Utah-based children’s clothing company Young Days has seen more than a doubling of the share of men its ads reach with no major changes in its targeting criteria, according to Brian Bergman, who oversees e-commerce. The shift toward men has hurt sales, he said, and the company has since focused on reaching women.

“It’s not a lucrative business for us, but the algorithm keeps pushing us toward men,” he said.

Carson Kessler contributed reporting, and Julie Tate contributed research.

Michael H. Keller is a Times reporter who combines traditional reporting and computer programming. His work has examined technology’s impact on society and shortcomings of the criminal justice system. More about Michael H. Keller

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries is an investigative reporter at The Times who often uses data analysis to explore complex subjects. More about Jennifer Valentino-DeVries