The comparative analysis of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Necklace - Essay Example

? Rough Draft Rough Draft “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” Versus “The Necklace” James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” were created in different historical periods, in different states and completely different settings. The characters of these works experience different fates and the stories plots have different endings. Yet, these two works definitely have common features even at first glance - they raise the problem of marriage and gender roles in marriage and in terms of form both of them are short stories. Detailed analysis of the stories makes it possible to state that “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “The Necklace” share more similarities than differences. These may be found in the stories’ common themes, literary forms and styles. To begin with, James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” have much in common thematically. Specifically, both of them examine relationships between a husband and a wife in a marriage. Even more, both stories center on roles played by major characters in marriage. For example, in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, James Thurber creates a portrayal of a marriage which is not typical at all. The protagonist Mr Walter Mitty is husband to a woman who plays a dominant role. The way she acts may even be called authoritarian. Besides, she bears the burden of duties typical for a male partner in a marriage. In particular, Mr Mitty’s wife runs the house. In this context, whatever happens, Mrs Mitty behaves as if she was Mr Mitty’s boss. At the same time, Mr Mitty is treated as if he was of a considerably lower status. Having taken up Mr Mitty’s role, his wife acts in a manner typical for a man rather than a woman. Respectively, Walter performs the role of a woman in marriage, a child, or whatever Mrs Mitty thinks he is. To illustrate, once Mrs Mitty returns home from the hairdresser’s and meets Walter in a hotel, she pushes him in shoulder and addresses her husband in a rough manner not typical for a woman. Because of this, their conversation looks more like quarrelling. For instance, “Something struck his shoulder. “I've been looking all over this hotel for you,” said Mrs. Mitty. “Why do you have to hide in this old chair? How did you expect me to find you?” “Things close in,” said Walter Mitty vaguely. “What?” Mrs. Mitty said. “Did you get the what's-its-name? The puppy biscuit? What's in that box?” (Thurber, 2011) The foregoing example and other examples in the story allow claiming that Mr Mitty’s wife has such character traits that evidence her masculinity. Apparently, she is a kind of a woman that is not likely to be admired by men. Indeed, her masculinity and acting in a manlike manner would divert any typical male. On a similar note, one of the themes explored by Guy de Maupassant in “The Necklace” is relationship as well as gender roles within marriage. Yet, the contrasting point is that the woman in the marriage portrayed in the story is very feminine. Unlike Mr Mitty’s spouse, Mathilde is described as “beautiful” as well as “charming”, the one who longs to be adored by men. Evidently, this desire is the greatest motive to get expensive things. For example, in the story “She had no dresses, no jewelry, nothing. And she loved nothing else; she felt herself made for that only. She would so much have liked to please, to be envied, to be seductive and sought after” (Maupassant, 2011). Apart from this, Mathilde’s femininity is demonstrated by her excessive sensitivity and overwhelming emotions. This adds up to her feminine image especially with the male-dominated world in the background. Also, both stories enjoy the common theme of escapism. To specify, in Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, escapism is the central theme. Walter Mitty is described as “a middle-aged, middle-class man who escapes from the routine drudgery of his suburban life into fantasies of heroic conquest” (Napierkowski, 1998). It is daydreaming that takes up a considerable part of Mr Mitty’s life. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, Walter is all the time daydreaming for the purposes of securing an escape from realization of his weakness as a male and his feminine character. Hence, Walter Mitty uses his imagination to create in his mind the image of himself as an unrivalled hero. Essentially, this image is the opposite to Walter’s nature in grim reality. Interestingly, Mr Mitty happens to escape the reality as often as five times during only a part of one day. In Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”, the main heroine daydreams excessively, too. Mathilde’s escapism focuses on bringing changes to her current social status. Being a member of the middle class in France, the protagonist dreams about being a part of the upper class. In a marriage that took place only because she was supposed to marry rather than for love, the young lady imagines crowds of handsome men who treat her in gallantry manner. In addition, with her love of expensive lifestyle, Mathilde feels hatred towards the house where they live. Interestingly, the Loisels are described by the author as not poor at all. This may be illustrated by the fact that they were able to hire a servant. Yet, greed causes Mathilde to desire more. Simialr to Walter Mitty, Mathilde lives in her imagined world and savours her fantasies. Her daydreams, just like those of Mitty, have many sophisticated details. At the same time, the two types of escapism and daydreaming differ. Whereas Walter Mitty daydreams only because he finds this condition as his only way to survive, Mathilde Loisel daydreaming is rooted in her greediness and dissatisfaction with life typical for French middle class. Also, it is worth mentioning that Mr Mitty’s daydreams frequently depict him doing nice things not for the benefit of his, but rather to help other people. Specifically, Walter dreams about sacrificing his efforts to make other people healthy. Unlike Mathilde, he is not haunted by thoughts of how to get rich and admired. Instead, he finds himself dreaming about aiding others by sacrificing his physical health or doing other things (Thurber, 2011). One more common theme found in the stories is the contradiction between characters’ appearances and reality. According to Napierkowski, Madame Loisel is beautiful yet discontented. Hence, her beauty is merely an appearance. For instance, let us take the episode at the ball. Although Mathilde is very successful and admired even by the minister, her beauty is not real, just as appearance, since the young woman pretends to be something she is actually not. Thus, as Napierkowski concludes, “ it is not the reality of wealth or high social class that is important for Madame Loisel, just the appearance of it” (Napierkowski, 1998). As for Mr Mitty, he resorts to daydreaming for the purposes of fleeing from the somber reality of his dissatisfying life. In the story, the heroic and leading roles that Walter plays mean to be a compensation for this character’s secondary role in his real life. In other words, Walter Mitty also wishes to appear something he actually is not. Therefore, the stories discussed in this paper conceal the real selves of their major heroes via appearance. Mr Mitty uses a range of characters represented in his heroic daydreams, while Madame Loisel, in her turn, conceals her real self by creating an appearance of being a member of the French upper-class. Still, a common thing here is that both characters use their appearances for pretending what they can never be. Whereas both works are short stories, there are certain differences in the literary form between them. James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” were written from what is known in literary theory as the third person limited perspective. Also, these stories are known to have been created with the help of the so-called historical/ biographical approach. Specifically, James Thurber is believed to have been a prototype of Mr Witty when he was in his first marriage which eventually failed (Fensch, 2001, p. 267. As for Guy de Maupassant, he depicts the life of the French society and existing classes he knew very well. It appears that the major difference between the literary forms is that Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” is a kind of an inversion story, in other words a story which uses the surprise-inversion technique. The latter, demonstrates itself in the unexpected ending. In relation to the literary style, both works extensively use irony. For example, in Thurber’s story irony may be traced in clear discrepancies between something Walter wants to be and his real self. As for “The Necklace”, irony may be found nearly everywhere. In particular, the author’s language is rather ironical and sometimes it happens to be sarcastic. For example, Madame Loisel is portrayed in an ironical way everywhere in “The Neckalce”, especially at the end. For instance, in the following paragraph the irony is rather well expressed, “Her tastes were simple because she had never been able to afford any other, but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her, for women have no caste or class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth or family, their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land.” (Guy de Maupassant, 2011) In a nutshell, the stories “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “The Necklace” that have been examined in this essay are full of various features common for both. Namely, these are common themes, the common literary form, and use of irony in style. Although the stories end in a different way and are based on different settings, they deal with the issue of escapism, misplaced gender roles in marriage, as well the theme of appearance versus reality. Also, both stories were created from the perspective of a third person limited and were written with help of the historical/biographical approach. References Bloom, H. (2004) Guy de Maupassant. Infobase Publishing. Fensch, Thomas (2001). The Man Who Was Walter Mitty: The Life and Work of James Thurber. New York: New Century Books. Fusco, R. (2004) Critical Views on “The Necklace”. In H.Bloom (ed.) Guy de Maupassant. Infobase Publishing, pp. 60-64. Heuscher, J. (2003) Psychology, folklore, creativity, and the human dilemma. Charles C Thomas Publisher. Maupassant, Guy de (2011) The Necklace. Shortstories. Retrieved from http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Neck.shtml#3 Napierkowski, M. R (Ed.) (1998) Novels for Students. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale. Thurber, J. (2011) The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Zoetrope: All-Story. Retrieved from http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=100. Read More