Critical Analysis About The Story "The Necklace"

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The short story, The Necklace, by Guy De Maupassant, follows the life of a woman and her

husband living in France , is set in old-age France, at that time wealth is very important, and
social class was even more. France that time was a city ruled by classicism, whereone had to be
introduced into society no matter, their beauty, income, or grace. The story revolves around a
young woman Mathilde and her husband who initially led an ordinary middle class life but
became utterly impoverished because of an unfortunate incident Mathilde, is a very materialistic
person who is never content with anything in her life. Her husband, who works as a clerk, was
not that reach, but he brings home enough to get by. He's contented with the simpler things he
had in life, yet his wife, Mathilde, wasn't. Nothing is good enough for her. The way she act
selfishly serves as evident in her attitude toward the material things in her social life and in the
way she treats her husband.
Mathilde’s materialistic attitude is primarily shown by how unhappy she is with her
surroundings and mostly her life. One day she received an invitation to a ball, she buys a new
dress for she hesitate to attend the ball because she has nothing to wear and borrows a necklace
from her friend with a belief that she will look way nicer if she wore one, and after the ball she
found out that she had lost the necklace. Incapable to suffer the embarrassment of telling
Madame Forestier the truth, the couple agreed to purchase a similar diamond necklace from as a
substitute nevertheless who the nephews was too expensive and they end up paying 34,000
franc. Both Morsieur and Mathilde are compelled to take extra job and live in scarcity. After 10
years Destiny brought them together and so Mathilde told Madame Forestier the truth. Then, she
discovered the whole truth that the necklace was an imitation.
Maupassant begins the plot with a description of the protagonist, Mathilde, a young lady born
into a family with little means, and who marries a clerck worker. Maupassant employs the
limited omniscient narrative perspective and utilizes third-person narration in this short story
that allows his readers an intimate look into Mathilde’s life. His tone in this piece is
unsympathetic towards the protagonist. Maupassant actually raises the level of disgust from his
reader towards this character.In general, the story was really a good and interesting one. this
story is a story cleverly planned and superbly executed. He incredibly portrays the depth of
emotion of this character throughout this story especially with those conversations.
I am mesmerized the way the writer, Guy de Maupassant, gave and presented the detail in the
story. The plot has a throbbing quality, a sequenced rise and fall and was really accurate through
it's title and passage. The story it self is cleverly schemed and superbly accomplished. And, the
reader will be surprised once he finished reading it because it has unexpected ending that will
make you wonder. Furthermore, you will comprehend some things in life by reading this. All in
all, the story was good and fascinating one.

Critical Analysis about the story "The Necklace"


Guy de Maupassant's literary piece "The Necklace" was published in 1884 and focuses
on Mathilde’s life. She is born from a low-class family; with nomoney for a dowry.
Mathilde, a lovely beautiful, yet poor woman, is unhappy with her life status and
dreams of being a rich, wealthy upper-class woman. The theme suits when the story
was made when in 19th-century French Society, women of middle and upper-class
don’t work while poor women work with the men. The Influence of the time period is
greatly exhibited in the story. Mathilde, is now with Monsieur Loisel, her husband.
Loisel who work as a clerck Mathilde is rather disappointed with her life, not having a
fancy dresses to wear not having sets of jewelry, and not having the riches like of a
upper-classwomen.
An inciting incident happen when she receives a ball invitation from her husband
hoping that it would make her happier. She then becomes unhappy because she has
nothing to wear. She owns no fancy dresses or jewelry. Then, she buys a new gown
yet she is still undecided weather to go to the ball or not because she does not have
jewelry and come up of an idea to borrow a jewelry. Then, they run into problem when
she looses the necklace, and pays for a new one. It took 10 years for them to pay their
debts until she crossed paths with Madame Forestier and discovered that the necklace
was fake. This takes the story into thinking that everything that she did could have had
the same results as if she bought a fake necklace. She would not had to borrow the
necklace but most importantly, it all would be resolved if she would tell the truth.
The story depicts the theme of Marxism when Mathilde lies in the category of
Politariet in her social system. This means that she is capable of pretending to be
someone she's not, and wore things she can't even afford in the first place. With her
fancy gown she then felt that she needed to be part of the high classes of the social
hierarchy. Only when she looses the necklace that she is reminded of her status.At the
point she looses the necklace, she realized that she has to work hard in order to find
money to repay the losing necklace to Madame Forestier. They even suffer a very
tough life for 10 years until she meets Madame Foretier back to repay the necklace.
She felt that the necklace would be very expensive because it belongs to Madame
Forestier who is a Bourgeoisie, a higher class people and by that, she is incapable to
suffer embarrassment of telling Madame Forestier.
In conclusion, The Necklace shows the reality of two class of people which are
Politariet and Bourgeoisie. Mathilde who belongs to Politariet class having a tough life
compared to Madame Forestier who belongs to high class society which is
Bourgeoisie. Even though Mathilde would not looses the necklace, things will be the
same for her if she buys fake necklace because of her status. She does not have enough
money to live like higher class people. Thus, things will only be resolved if she tells
the truth to Madame Mathilde

Marxist Approach; "The


Necklace"

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