The Stories by Guy de Maupassant - Book Report/Review Example

Loisel, the protagonist and wife of a low paid clerk, always pictured herself bequeathed in luxury and comfort and often dreamed of living a high society lifestyle, with a platform to showcase her beauty and airs. However, the man she was married to was not able to provide her with the excitement of living such a life and lived a mundane and monotonous life instead. Thus, the story talks about how the husband realizes his wife’s desires and tries to take her to a high society party; however, Mathilde’s idea of dressing well and being the most noticed person at the party takes her to rid her conscience of being ethical to herself as she takes her friend’s necklace to wear and then loses it.

She was not able to bring herself, to tell the truth to her friend about the lost necklace and, thus, transforms the life of the couple as they sell everything and take up various odd jobs which over the years turn them prematurely old, just so that they would be able to buy back the necklace for Mathilde’s friend. The story talks about the kind of strength and bond that the marriage of the two regains with time as Mathilde realizes the importance of being there for the man that she has married and understanding the kind of sacrifices he has made for her.

The Jewels, one more story by the same author, expresses the semblance of love where a loving wife dies and leaves her husband in a destitute manner, as he tries to figure out the truth through all the cynicism and pain. “Then she would start examining these imitation jewels with passionate attention as if she were enjoying some deep and secret pleasure; and she would insist on hanging a necklace around her husband’s neck, laughing uproariously and crying: ‘How funny you look!

’” Jewels, according to the personal opinion, is more effective in telling the story of love because in this story it is evident that the love between the couple was more than the love for material things in life. It is, thus, more effective in telling the story of how a woman left a man with a heart full of trauma and pain after she passed away and how she didn’t take time to realize her love for him, thus, saving him from undergoing mental agony. As compared to The Necklace, The Jewels is far more simple and convincing in terms of true love.

However, The Necklace depicts the lives of most young girls who fall in love with things rather than people and have to eventually choose a lifestyle for themselves based on wealth. This is a message out to young women that it is not necessary for them to live in the midst of gold; they can live with and in a heart of gold and be happier than they ever thought they would be as well. The style of writing in both stories is simple yet abstract as the author tried not to give the story away as he has left his readers pondering the end of the two couples in both stories.

Guy De Maupassant has used a dramatic way of narrating the tales which are descriptive in nature. A number of excellent analogies and picturesque situations have been provided in both stories as examples full of descriptions have been provided with ease in both papers, making it easy for the readers to imagine the kind of life that the wives had been thinking of. The content provided within these stories is also enough for the author to be able to express the feelings, through the characters that have been woven within the tales.