thesis statement the necklace

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

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

The Necklace: a Critical Analysis

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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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Literary Analysis of The Necklace: Essay Example

The necklace: introduction of the essay, the necklace by guy de maupassant: characterization, the necklace essay: conflict and narration, the necklace by guy de maupassant: setting and atmosphere, the necklace essay: tone, language, and major theme, the necklace essay: critical perspective, the necklace: conclusion of the essay.

The Necklace (La Parure) is one of the most famous short stories by Guy De Maupassant. It tells a story about a middle-class French couple in the 19th century. The wife is longing for a luxurious life, unappreciative of her husband, and a relatively happy life the couple is leading. Madame Loisel spends her time dreaming about all the luxuries they cannot afford to purchase while experiencing a feeling of shame for their actual life. The events described in the story reveal the features of the character of the heroine, which eventually leads her to live a life far poorer than she used to lead. An unexpected and ironic outcome provides a complex moral lesson that the readers are supposed to learn along with Madame Loisel. In the end, she learns that her image of high society was not real; the lack of appreciation for her moderate but sufficient fortune led to a disastrous outcome, and her husband’s efforts to provide for her went undeservingly unnoticed. The deceptiveness of appearances is the major theme of the story.

The main heroine, Madame Loisel, comes from a family of clerks. With no dowry and no hopes of being married to a wealthy man, she becomes the wife of a clerk from the Ministry of Education. Mathilde does not enjoy her life, as it is far too modest. She believes she was born to lead a lavish lifestyle and spends her time imagining the rich and luxurious surroundings she deserves (Maupassant 789). The emotions she experiences because of her poor lifestyle are rather strong, as she regards it as a misfortune and even an insult. Mathilde does not appreciate her husband’s efforts to provide for her at all costs. Upon receiving an invitation to a high society soirée, she is miserable due to the lack of clothing and jewelry worthy of a well-off and distinguished person.

Monsieur Loisel is a generous and loving husband. To please his wife, he denies himself the pleasure of buying a gun, giving up the money for Mathilde’s gown for the ball. Monsieur Loisel is attentive to his wife’s changing moods and gives her valuable advice on how to get the jewelry they cannot afford. During the soirée, he does not attempt to tarnish his wife’s delight at being appreciated and admired and sleeps in a waiting room until four o’clock in the morning, even though he must be at work four hours later. Monsieur Loisel displays the qualities of a loving and attentive husband, striving to please his wife. Madame Loisel, however, does not appreciate his attention, as she regards him as an unimportant figure in society, unable to afford to lead a luxurious lifestyle.

There is a third-person narration in the story, with an omniscient point of view, providing us with the innermost thoughts and feelings of the main characters. The conflict described by Maupassant in this short story revolves around Mathilde and the lost necklace. Striving to fit in with the members of high society, Madame Loisel is willing to borrow a diamond necklace from a friend, which she loses after the soirée. Due to her pride, she is unable to tell the truth. She is ashamed that they cannot afford to replace such expensive jewelry. Therefore, the conflict of the story is tied to the lost necklace and the couple’s desperate struggles to repay the debt, which leads them, in the end, to life in poverty, a complete opposite of what Mathilde has always wanted.

The Necklace is set in 19th-century Paris, the Belle Époque. It includes descriptions of middle-class interiors, as well as of high society’s lavish lifestyle. Material things are described through Mathilde’s daydreaming about the luxurious life she was meant to lead. Her actual surroundings are described as ugly and poor, making her suffer greatly. The atmosphere of the story could be seen as dynamic since it changes as the plot evolves. Before losing the necklace, the atmosphere seems rather light and ironic. The reader follows Mathilde’s “sorrows” with a hint of a smile, perceiving her capriciousness and the lack of appreciation for her husband’s affection as typical qualities in a vain young wife. However, after the necklace is lost, there is a substantial shift in the atmosphere. Superficial vanity gives way to the pride that drives the couple to the brink of poverty. The light atmosphere of the first part is followed by the gloomy atmosphere of the last part, with an ironic twist at the end, meant to stress the moral lesson.

The tone is the attitude the author conveys by presenting the events and characters in a certain way. Some aspects of linguistic features indicate the author’s ironic attitude towards the main heroine. For instance, his use of the words “suffer,” “insult,” “torment,” “despair,” and “misery” shows Mathilde’s vainness and her inability to appreciate her life. The husband’s rhetorical question at dinner, “What could be better?” contrasts with her dreams about a luxurious lifestyle. The second part of the story, where the couple is forced to work hard to pay off their debt, indicates the pride of the main heroine: “She played her part heroically” (Maupassant 793).

Aside from irony, Maupassant uses symbolism as a way to convey the central theme of the story. The necklace symbolizes the high society Mathilde is so eager to join. However, as the necklace turns out to be a mere imitation, it symbolizes the superficial nature of the upper class’ appeal. The fake necklace symbolizes the illusion that Madame Loisel is captivated by, eventually leading to a disastrous outcome. Thus, the story’s major theme lies in the idea that notions such as beauty, wealth, poorness, and happiness depend on an individual’s perception. The appearances of upper-class lifestyles were deceptive, just like Mathilde’s appearance at the soirée, where she was such a success. However, neither the necklace nor Mathilde’s seemingly luxurious appearance was genuine. This leads us to believe that Maupassant wanted to stress the importance of the illusory nature of appearances, in which the 19th-century French bourgeoisie was so immersed.

From a sociological/Marxist criticism standpoint, Madame Loisel is a member of the middle class, an aspiring member of the upper class, and, ultimately, a lower-class member. The inability to accept her position in society and a constant yearning for a wealthier life lead the couple to find themselves at the bottom of the social structure. The amount of expensive material possessions indicates the class the people belong to, as well as their social status. Mathilde is deceived by the superficial signs of wealth, leading to her becoming a servant class member.

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant tells the story of a woman preoccupied with her desire to be wealthy and to belong to the upper class. The ironic twist at the end of the story renders her perception inconsistent with reality. As the plot unravels, the deceptiveness of appearances turns out to be the main reason for the disastrous outcome. 

Maupassant, Guy De. “The Necklace.” Short Fiction. Classic and Contemporary. Ed. Charles Bohner and Lyman Grant. Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006. 789-795. Print.

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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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The Necklace

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

Reality and Illusion

In “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant demonstrates that appearances—especially the appearance of wealth—are often at odds with reality. Attempting to appear richer than she truly is, Mathilde Loisel borrows a diamond necklace from her friend Jeanne Forestier and then loses it at a ball. She and her husband buy an expensive replacement on credit, return the replacement to the friend as though it’s the original, and then live ten years in poverty to repay their…

Women and Beauty

At the beginning of “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant writes that for women, “their beauty, their grace, and their charm serve them in lieu of birth and family background” and that “Their native finesse, their instinct for elegance, their versatile minds are their sole hierarchy, making shopgirls the equals of the grandest ladies.” His implication is that a woman’s beauty and poise can offer her upward social mobility. While Maupassant presents this as being the…

Ambition, Greed, and Material Possessions

“The Necklace” is, at its heart, a story about Mathilde ’s social ambition, which takes the form of a desire to acquire luxurious objects that she cannot afford. Through her ruin, Maupassant warns against the dangers of greed and criticizes those who ascribe too much value to wealth and material possessions.

Mathilde invests objects like the diamond necklace she borrows from Mme. Forestier with enormous significance, and her happiness is heavily dependent on her possession…

Sacrifice, Suffering, and Martyrdom

In the final section of “The Necklace,” Mathilde and her husband suffer for a decade as they struggle to pay back their enormous debt from the loss of the necklace . This suffering, combined with the fact that the Loisels live on “rue des Martyrs,” suggests that Maupassant wants readers to see Mathilde and her husband both as martyrs, albeit martyrs of different sorts.

Mathilde is a martyr for a cause: her desire for symbols…

In “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant demonstrates the importance of knowing how to achieve happiness in a meaningful and lasting way. At the beginning of the story, Mathilde and her husband live a modest life, but with enough money to live comfortably. However, Mathilde is perpetually discontented, unable to be happy without the clothes and jewels of a wealthy woman. Although Mathilde achieves a fleeting moment of happiness during the party, the next ten years…

The Necklace: Summary & Analysis

The Necklace (French: La Parure) is a short story written by Guy de Maupassant in 1884. The story became an instant success, as most of the other works written by Guy de Maupassant. In the article, you’ll see its brief summary and analysis.

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The Necklace: Summary

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant tells the reader about Mathilde Loisel , who desperately wished to marry a wealthy man. She ended up marrying Monsieur Loisel , a minor clerk in the Ministry of Public Instruction. The Necklace ’s internal conflict is Madame Loisel’s embarrassment of poverty and the belief she’s worth more. She was dissatisfied with her life but has never seen anything better. Yet, she was convinced that her beauty and charm would guarantee her the wealthy lifestyle she dreamt of. Mathilde Loisel is spending her days dreaming about the incredible life she’s not having.

The rising action of The Necklace starts with an invitation. One day, Monsieur Loisel brings home an invitation to a ball hosted by his boss . He worked hard to obtain it and thought that his wife would be satisfied. However, Madame Loisel got upset with the fact she had nothing to wear. She asked her husband for 400 francs, and he hesitantly gave them to her. Yet, it wasn’t enough, and Mathilde threw another fit because she had no jewelry. Monsieur Loisel suggested she went to see Madame Forestier , who could kindly lend something. Mathilde chooses to borrow a gorgeous diamond necklace. She feels better from just looking at herself in the mirror with the jewels on her neck.

As the time of the ball arrives, Mathilde has the time of her life. Everyone admires her. Men wonder who she is. She spends the night dancing while her husband falls asleep in the other room. At 4 am, Madame Loisel rushes out into a street, so no one can see that she has no fancy fur coat. As they arrive home, Mathilde makes a sad discovery: the diamonds are gone. The loss of the necklace is the climax of the story.

They spend the next days and a week looking for a necklace. Yet, they find nothing. Mathilde writes to Madame Forestier that the necklace’s clasp is broken, and they have it fixed to buy them some time. However, the Loisels were at no luck. Therefore, they decided to buy a new necklace to replace the lost one. As they go to the jewelry store, they learn that it cost 36 thousand francs, twice the amount of money Monsieur Loisel has. The conflict of The Necklace is that to return the lost necklace, he goes into debt and buys it.

Now massively in debt, the Loisels have to change their lifestyle drastically. The falling action of the story covers the next ten years of hard work and poverty. The Loisels had to dismiss their servants and move out of their apartment. Mathilde, once dreaming about the rich life, now had to do all the housework herself. Also, she lost her beauty and charm. Now, she looked like the household’s rough woman, yet facing her part with unexpected heroism and patience. Ten years later, the debt was paid off.

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One day, after a week of hard work, Mathilde decided to take a walk. During the walk, she encountered Madame Forestier, who remained young and charming. Mathilde was hesitant about approaching her, yet still did, even though Madame Forestier had a hard time recognizing her. Once she did, Mathilde told her about the financial situation.

Madame Loisel explains that to return the lost necklace, she and her husband had to buy a new diamond necklace. Due to this, they spent the last ten years paying the debt. Madame Forestier was shocked by the story. She said that her necklace was fake and cost five hundred francs at max.

The Necklace: Analysis

It’s not apparent in the summary of The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant, but the story’s exposition introduces the readers to the protagonist without telling her name. The twist is that she is no princess in the fairytale. She was born to a middle-class family and had little to no chances of living in the above this class.

The analysis of The Necklace shows that Maupassant focused on realism and naturalism. The author believed that fiction should be as realistic as possible. Therefore, the desire to report events as they were explains the setting of The Necklace . Realism took its start in mid-nineteenth-century France and rejected the basics of romanticism. Such works focused on describing people and their actions with little to no subjectivity.

The Necklace: Setting

The Necklace’s plot shows readers all middle-class life elements in the example of a woman fixated on non-existent wealth , Mathilde. The action takes place in Paris, which was full of couples struggling with their finances at the time. The settings of The Necklace are also used to establish the differences between Madame Loisel’s dull home and Madame Forestier’s more comfortable house.

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Even the story’s tone is pessimistic and ironic to show the realms of nineteenth-century Paris’s life.

The author provides no reflection on the actions of the protagonist. Instead, he describes the events and desires of Mathilde as they were. In the end, there is no opinion or hidden message on what the meaning of the story The Necklace is. He reports the events.

The author’s choice of characters can also be explained by realism. At the end of the nineteenth century, Paris was full of middle-class families having a hard time getting by. Therefore, the situation described could happen to anyone there.

When looking at the marriage between the Loisels, the reader won’t find anything surprising. There is no great love between them, as well as no financial benefit.

Monsieur Loisel is attentive and tries to please his wife in possible ways. Madame Loisel, on the opposite, lives in daydreams, dissatisfied with her current life. Yet, when facing the need to pay the debt, they bravely spend years working for it.

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Maupassant devoted several paragraphs to describe Mathilde early in the story. The protagonist appears to be an environment’s product, which shows a naturalistic approach to the characterization. Mathilde was dissatisfied with the financial situation of her family, yet always remained passive. The author showed that characters like her adapt to the circumstances rather than change them.

The Necklace: Humor

The analysis of The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant reveals it’s filled with humor. In general, it is a story based on situational irony. The term refers to the contradiction between the expectation of the reader and what happens. An example of situational irony is the limited value of the necklace. Moreover, the fact that upon the discovery of the loss, no one asked for its actual cost. Or that Madame Forestier decided not to share the information from the very beginning. In case the Loisels knew the price from the start, they wouldn’t have to give up their lives.

The twist of the plot, in the end, makes the reader see the story as a series of contradicting events. At first, Mathilde is the talk of the night. Then, she has almost nothing.

Until the end, some readers might interpret the protagonist’s poverty as a punishment for the night of pleasure and lost necklace. Yet, the ending reveals the dramatic irony: ten years of hard work were unnecessary. The horrible irony in The Necklace is that she spent years paying the debt for a worthless piece . What’s more ironic is that in the process of paying for something that wasn’t worth it, she lost something more important to her—her beauty. She borrowed the necklace to look more stunning but eventually lost her looks completely.

The Necklace shows the bitter irony of Mathilde’s thoughts. The conditions in which she lived, in the end, make her old life seem luxurious for her. She borrowed the necklace to look more wealthy than she is. In the end, she pays with money and her good looks. The resolution of The Necklace is Mathilde’s confession to Madame Forestier about the lost jewels. To add more, she spent years paying for something that had little value from the start.

The rhythm of the story guides the readers’ expectations about the ending. At the start, Mathilde is dissatisfied with her current life. Then, she gets invited to a ball that is the possibility to change something. Yet, the events leading to the reception only show her dissatisfaction with everything. A line of unfortunate events shows that whenever Mathilde gets whatever she wants, she remains unfulfilled. However, the time after a ball is more than a mere dissatisfaction. It is a catastrophe for her life.

Thanks for reading our analysis! We hope The Necklace ’s summary and examination were helpful to generate a topic for a paper. Or you can check the essay ideas and samples to write an analysis on the short story yourself.

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