Guy de Maupassant, The Necklace - Essay Example

 Guy de Maupassant, "The Necklace" 1. Point of View: In the story “The Necklace” Guy de Maupassant makes use of the services of a third person narrator who owns a restricted sagacity. “I” is not employed in the story. The one who narrates the story has connection with each and every character in the story which is told in retrospect. Maupassant writes, “She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans.” (p.1)The narrator does not examine the inner world of a specific character at the given time. When Mme. Forestier meets Mme. Loisel after the lapse of a number of years, she does not refer to the substantial dent in the beauty of the latter, a routine conversation ensues, as if it is of no consequence, with no surprise element contained in the exchange of thoughts. As such limited knowledge about the characters is revealed, which is mostly about Mme. Loisel, the main character. In employing the third person, the characters emerge with limited temperament; the narrator provides an opportunity to probe deeply into the working of the mind of the character than the narrator who is just concerned with the facts. Creation of characters Characters in a story are either “static” or “dynamic”. Dynamic characters impact the course of the story as it makes progress. Static characters move leisurely and have nothing much to contribute as they are not well developed. Mme. Loisel belongs to the second category. Her outlooks and emotional state change a number of times throughout the story. The story begins by describing the lady as dissatisfied and disheartened by her overall lifestyle. The author writes, “She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her.”(Maupassant, p.1)The expenditure that she had to incur by taking debt, to replace the necklace, affected her daily schedule drastically and she had to do additional labor to survive. Besides her usual household chores she had to scrub floors, wash dishes and clean toilets for ten long years to come out of the trap of debt. The change in the dispositions of Mme. Loisel it almost total as by the end of the story she is no longer even identifiable in look or in charisma as the same person she was at the beginning of the story. The author argues that her basic instincts to live and enjoy the life of luxury had not changed at all, with this observation: “But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.”(p.8) Lucky moments in her suffering life! Setting The beginning of the story highlights the setting. The author writes, “When she sat down for dinner at the round table covered with a three-days-old cloth, opposite her husband, who took the cover off the soup-tureen, exclaiming delightedly: "Aha! Scotch broth! What could be better?”(Maupassant, p.1) Apart from the good food, “a three-day old cloth”, speaks about the poor lifestyle in which she is obliged to adjust and the poor decorations at the home. Women and Femininity Mme. Loisel is a 19th century French version of a desperate housewife. She is a woman in a male-dominated society and has no control over her life. But she is a proud, greedy woman. Destiny plays part in her suffering and the necklace incident is an important example. She is a desperate housewife and has lost track of her destination in life. 2.“She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart.”(Maupassant,p.5) This is an important passage that divides the theme of the story vertically. A suppressed woman finds liberation for a short while in the dancing arena, and derives maximum pleasure that she has been relentlessly seeking since the day of her marriage. “Danced madly” is a good metaphor to describe the state of her mind and body. “Cloud of happiness” is pointer to her impermanent happiness. Like the floating cloud, it will soon pass away as soon as the party is over. Her feminine heart always remains hungry for material pleasures. The party mood is explained through the words “drunk with pleasure” “the triumph of her beauty” etc. 3. The articulation by the author, “She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the only things she loved; she felt that she was made for them. She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after” (Maupassant, p.2) reveals the obvious relating to Mme. Loisel. Thus the author leaves part of the character to the imagination of the reader and the reader enjoys the liberty of active participation in the construction of the remaining part of the character. 4. The theme of the story is about “the basic instincts of womenfolk.” Another theme is “forsaking truth in extreme circumstances.” When the borrowed necklace was lost it was an awful and haunting situation. What if the necklace was never found? Their desperation is depicted by the author, “Then they went from jeweler to jeweler, searching for another necklace like the first, consulting their memories, both ill with remorse and anguish of mind. (Maupassant, p.7) Then they found a counterfeit necklace, gave it to the friend without telling the truth, and saved the situation, with a false note in their heart though! If they had told the truth, they would have saved a lot of ensuing troubles and their consciousness would have been clear. The moral is simple and straightforward. Notwithstanding the adverse situations in life, one must never forsake the path of truth. Reference List Maupassant, Guy De. Short Stories: The Necklace www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Neck.shtmlWeb: Accessed on November 23, 2014 Read More