the necklace essay thesis

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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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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

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• Maupassant, Guy de. "The Necklace."

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The Necklace

Guy de maupassant.

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…

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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: Conflict in Guy de Maupassant's Short Story

Analysis of conflict in The Necklace

• de Maupassant, G. (1884). The Necklace. Gil Blas, 4(77), 1-4.
• Diamond, A. (1978). The necklace and the mirror: The image of woman in La Vie Parisienne. The Romanic Review, 69(4), 311-323.
• Doyle, C. (2013). Realism and the Problem of Real Life in Maupassant's Fiction. French Forum, 38(2), 59-77.
• Fiorenzo, M. (2015). Irony, satire and parody in Guy de Maupassant’s short stories: A stylistic analysis. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, 5(2), 32-45.
• Fowlie, W. (1940). Maupassant and the French Short Story. PMLA, 55(3), 671-690.
• Khalili, M., & Jamshidi, M. (2012). A Marxist reading of Maupassant's "The Necklace". International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 1(6), 56-62.

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“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: Analyzing a Theme of the Insecurity Essay (Critical Writing)

The focal point of the paper is to analyze the theme of insecurity in the short story ‘The Necklace’ by Guy De Maupassant and translated by Marjorie Laurie. It is true that economic inequalities in society are a curse and is reminiscent of the imbalance of the society and have given rise to a sense of insecurity on the individual level.

The possible argument presented in this context would be that of Maupassant because he indicated the faults of the society with hard proof whereas the others simply approached the issue in a philosophic manner. However, it should also be stated that the economic inequalities of society, and the cause of the insecurity, are basically a need in a way. This is because the nature of wealth is to constantly accumulate.

The moment there is forceful equality of economic wealth would start to accumulate in one way or the other resulting in minute economic inequalities in the initial stages and distinctive and gigantic economic inequalities in the end. Thus, it could be stated that economic inequality is inevitable, if not essential, for any society as long as it is within the boundaries and parameters that society is able to sustain but simultaneously it gives rise to social and personal insecurity that is evident in the short story ‘The Necklace’ (Kar, pp. 177-9).

Insecurity, or social insecurity, plays a fundamental part in the story. It is the social norms of wealth that the protagonists are trying to protect and sustain their position in late nineteenth-century Paris. The protagonists are lacking in economic equality with their acquaintances. However, they are always afraid of losing their faces due to it. They are insecure and they are opting for any and every method of saving their social face. The husband, M. Loisel, is trying to buy a gun for 400 francs in order to “ treat himself to a little shooting next summer ” so that he can accompany “ with several friends, who went to shoot larks ” (Maupassant, p. 60). That 400 franc is worth a lot to him but he is willing to part with it as he would be socially insecure if he fails to be at par with his friends.

The same insecurity becomes evident when we find that he is willing to give away the amount kept for the gun so that she can buy a necklace for the invitation because “ there is nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich ”(Maupassant, 60). This is the same insecurity feeling of being left alone in the social norms. However, the most debatable issue of this story among literary scholars and enthusiasts remains until date about the conclusion or end part of the story. Here it is seen that the Loisels are found to be wanting in the context of social norms of riches.

The focal point of this debate remains in the possibility of the purpose of the redemption of the necklace. There are various interpretations related to the basic existence of the necklace altogether. In other words, the basic reason for the writer to bring in the necklace is very interesting indeed. The disappearance of the necklace in the middle phase is also very interesting reading in the sense that it is not very common for a story of the author’s era in Paris to be completed as a story almost with unfinished settlements but mostly with awe. This is the reason literature critics feel or believe that in the story the necklace of Loisel hardly exists. According to them, the ornament is just another stroke of genius by the author when he presented the necklace not so much as a social or an intellectual metaphor but simply as a parody to mock the existing social convention that creates more insecurity among individuals than stability (Kar, p.181).

However, a regret of the loss of the necklace and the redemption of it through extreme hardships can well be seen as an act of revenge against social oppression by the upper class towards the unprivileged. Here the Loisels climbed down the economic ladder in order to save their faces in front of their known economic levels of social mode. It was their insecurity of being outclassed by their friends and acquaintances that made them work hard to recover the money lost. This oppression of socioeconomic class could well be enumerated as a reversal of power within France in days to come.

But then again, a different interpretation can be presented with the return of the necklace the Loisel’s remained to the society and it can well be a symbolic gesture by which the author shows the remorse of the prevailing society in the most collective sense. This remorse may well be a suggestive measure by the society that failed to accept and treat Loisels with more compassion and well-being-without making them insecure. This insecurity had taken a huge toll on the couple and at the end of the story; we find the woman was the most suffered character. Mme. Loisel “ looked old now. She had become the woman of impoverished households- strong and hard and rough .” (Maupassant, p. 65). In simple terms, the social insecurity brought to the Loisels what they tried hard to avoid and were positively afraid of- poverty and social degradation.

The basic theme of the story presents a profound essence of humane values or better to say the writer indicates towards a civilization that is developed in all senses but in human values that deal in the social norms of economic inequalities and its members to suffer in the feeling of insecurity. The result was pitiful, they worked and worked, and “ this life lasted for ten years ” (Maupassant, p.65). This concept could have been regarded as an act of initial socialism but with Maupassant, the approach does not merely is confined within the framework of social justice but evokes a sense of love and compassion whereby it makes the reader possible to love this character of a couple to its interiority. They are common to the core and they know it very well in their hearts. The sense of consumerism is virtually overwhelming in them but it is the maintaining status and insecurity of losing it that comes out as the most instrumental determinant (Lamb, p. 227).

Works Cited

• Maupassant, Guy De; The Necklace; trans. Marjorie Laurie; pp. 59-65; 1934
• Kar, P; Consumer Market in Literature ( Kolkata: Dasgupta & Chatterjee 2005) p. 145
• Lamb, Davis; Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization; ( Wellington: National Book Trust . 2004)
• Sarajevo Blues Poems by Semezdin Mehmedinovic
• "No One Writes to the Colonel" by G. G. Marquez
• Ideas in "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant
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IvyPanda. (2021, October 9). “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: Analyzing a Theme of the Insecurity. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-necklace-by-guy-de-maupassant-analyzing-a-theme-of-the-insecurity/

"“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: Analyzing a Theme of the Insecurity." IvyPanda , 9 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/the-necklace-by-guy-de-maupassant-analyzing-a-theme-of-the-insecurity/.

IvyPanda . (2021) '“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: Analyzing a Theme of the Insecurity'. 9 October.

IvyPanda . 2021. "“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: Analyzing a Theme of the Insecurity." October 9, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-necklace-by-guy-de-maupassant-analyzing-a-theme-of-the-insecurity/.

1. IvyPanda . "“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: Analyzing a Theme of the Insecurity." October 9, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-necklace-by-guy-de-maupassant-analyzing-a-theme-of-the-insecurity/.

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IvyPanda . "“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: Analyzing a Theme of the Insecurity." October 9, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-necklace-by-guy-de-maupassant-analyzing-a-theme-of-the-insecurity/.

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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
• The Necklace Video
• 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