Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover A common problem that people often face in life is when they have to encounter people that don't show their true selves. In the text "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant, the author portrays the theme "Things are not always what they appear." The author shows this by including important elements of the plot such as an inciting incident and the resolution. To begin, the author of "The Necklace" starts to develop the theme with the use of an inciting incident. For example, the lines, "We must see about replacing the diamonds"(Paragraph 79) and "Madame Loisel came to know the ghastly life of poverty" (Paragraph 90), are examples of how he starts the inciting incident which helps develop the theme. In the text, Mathilde is first seen as a self-obsessed lady that just wants to be wealthy, but then she has to replace a necklace that she has lost, and that costs her a great deal of time, work, and money which starts to change the story and the character itself. This shows that the author is starting to develop the theme of "Things are not always what they appear" by starting with her having to change her ways. Without this, the theme would change as well as the whole plot due to the lack of an important start to the story. It is important to know that this …show more content…
In the resolution, Mathilde finds out that the necklace that she lost didn't cost as much as she paid for the replacement. In the text Mathilde says to Madame Forestier "I bought you another one just like it. And for the last ten years we have been paying for it" (paragraph 113). Madame Forestier later says "...Mine was an imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs" (Paragraph 119) This shows that the theme of the story is that things aren't always what they seem to be. Mathilde paid thirty-six thousand francs for the replacement and in the end it ended up costing much more than it was actually
However, she is poor so she borrows a necklace from a friend. She did this instead of wearing flowers for a cheap 15 francs. Mathilde lost the necklace and had to pay it off over the next 10 years. She did this because she wanted to fit in and no one else would be wearing cheap flowers. The theme is also shown in this story by the fact the Mathilde wanted to wear jewelry.
De Maupassant's “The Necklace” characterizes Mathilde Loisel, the main character, as a beautiful, egotistic woman who desires only wealthy apparel. He emphasizes the negative results of narcissism by blinding Mathilde with that trait
That is one way the theme can be related to the text, but another interpretation is how Blanche appears to be sane. In reality, she has trauma related mental problems that become apparent throughout the text. The author tries to portray the character’s lives different then what is actually going on in their private lives. Symbolism is used in the play by Blanche’s “fancy and expensive” items. These possessions from Blanche’s perspective look new and expensive, but they actually are worn out and cheap from the outsider’s view.
First, Madame Matilde Loisel is selfish because, in lines 62-67, she wanted to buy a fancy dress that costs 400 francs, even though her husband was going to use that money to buy a gun so he could go shooting with his friends next summer. After she got a dress, she then demanded she wanted some jewelry to go with the dress.
Madame Forester, deeply moved, took her two hands. " Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs! . . . "
In the second paragraph of the story the author states that she is suffering because she doesn't have the things she wants by saying, “She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains.” (Guy de Maupassant 2) “She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the only things she loved;” (Guy de Maupassant 2) The author included this to let the readers know what kind of “Poverty” Matilde was living in. Mathilde doesn't seem to love her husband as much.
Meanwhile, Mathilde suffers because she cannot buy fancy clothing, diamonds and live in a palace (De Maupassant). In addition to that, both of them have husbands that deeply care for them. Della’s husband, Jim, in order to please her wife, sold his only watch to buy her a Christmas present (Henry). In the meantime, Mathilde’s husband used all his father heritage to help pay for the necklace replacement (De Maupassant). It is possible to see through characterization that even though they are characters from different stories Della and Mathilde have a number of
The narrator illustrates Mathilde’s quality of selfishness after her husband asks her how much money she would like for a dress by remarking, “She thought over it… going over her allowance... thinking also of the amount she could ask for without bringing immediate refusal” (222). This portrays Mathilde's greed because she knows she is asking for more money than she needs for a suitable dress. Later, readers discover Mathilde is careless. When she first finds out the necklace is missing, she and her husband have a conversation. Monsieur Loisel asks, “Are you sure you had it when leaving the dance…if you had lost it on the street, we'd have heard it drop.
At some point a friend of Madame Loisel lets her borrow a diamond necklace, with the following text in paragraph 48 being her reaction: “... her heart started beating with overwhelming desire. Her hands trembled as she picked it up.” Madame Loisel goes to even call this piece of jewelry, a “treasure”, and ends up putting so much value into this item based on solely appearance that she later struggles to pay off debts when she loses it. Mathilde just assumed that it was an expensive item and because of this, ended up putting a great price on it. Although she made a big deal about receiving such a thing from a friend, it only gave her temporary happiness at the ball.
When Mathilde lost her necklace after going to the ball, she had to cooperate with her husband to find a way to replace the
In “The Necklace”, Madame Loisel was never happy with what she
Likewise, the narrator talks about the story from his point of view and not Mathilde, which also signifies a third person narrator. “She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains” (qtd in Barnet et al, 2011). Things that did not only trouble her, besides, made her
The Necklaceis perhaps his most famous work ,which has been also called Madame Bovary in miniature. The story depicts a middle class woman, Madame Mathilde Loisel, who was obsessed with luxuries of the noblemen.. Mathilde was invited for a ball, where she borrowed a diamond necklance from Mrs Forrester, Unfortunately, she lost the necklace and worked