Guy de Maupassants The Necklace - Book Report/Review Example

“The Necklace The Necklace” is Guy de Maupassant’s most popular short story. It is a ‘tale with a twist,’ and the surprise ending has a powerful impact on the reader. Madame Loisel is the protagonist of the story. She borrows a diamond necklace from a friend and loses it. Madame Loisel’s husband uses his savings and incurs heavy debt in order to replace the necklace. The Loisels go through a decade of penury and struggle to pay off their debt. At the end of this period, Madame Loisel learns that the necklace was only a piece of imitation jewelry. “The Necklace” relates Mathilde’s attitude towards life and her struggle to face the consequences of her actions. The character of Madame Loisel, and its appeal to the reader, undergoes dramatic change as the story progresses. The reader is scornful of the shallow protagonist who makes her appearance at the start of the story. As the narration progresses, Madame Loisel undergoes a transformation and the reader empathizes with Madame Loisel and her struggle. “The Necklace,” is a poignant tale of human folly. It is also a tale of transformation and human redemption. Madame Loisel is a dissatisfied woman whose social pretension leads to disaster, but she redeems herself to emerge as a woman of genuine character and strength. At the beginning of the narrative, Mathilde Loisel is a dissatisfied housewife. She is constantly aware of “The contrast between her charm, her innate good taste, her beauty on the one hand, and the mediocrity of her life as the wife of a government employee, on the other” (Donaldson-Evans, 167). She feels that she is destined for better things and bitterly resents her position. Madame Loisel foolishly disdains what she has and hankers after what might have been. She spends hours dreaming of “every delicacy and every luxury” (Maupassant, 3) which her modest means cannot afford. She contrasts every aspect of her present life with the luxury that could have been hers under more fortunate circumstances: her poor furniture with exotic tapestries and glowing lamps, her humble maid with grand footmen and her simple meals with rich feasts eaten on silver platters. Madame Loisel is obsessed with the tantalizing dreams of wealth. She does not appreciate the fact that Loisel loves her and that her “hapless husband is forever bending over backward to please” her (Donaldson-Evans, 168). Loisel gets tickets to the party with great difficulty and is “disconsolate” with his wife’s tears over the lack of an appropriate dress. He sacrifices his own dreams of buying a hunting piece in order to furnish her with a new dress. Although she is married to a man who cherishes her in every way possible, she remains wrapped up in her dissatisfaction: “And she wept all day long, from chagrin, from regret, from despair, and from distress” (Maupassant, 6). Her days are filled with sorrow. She does not derive any pleasure from life. She rejects the reality of her existence to imagine another filled with the trappings of a superior social position. Madame Loisel’s yearning for social recognition and wealth leads to her downfall. The ruling passion of her life is “to please, to be envied, to be seductive and sought after” (Maupassant, 5). She is so obsessed with the outer trappings of social position (jewelry and dresses) that “she loved nothing else; she felt herself made for that only (Maupassant, 5). When her husband secures tickets to the prestigious party, she does not appreciate his concern but throws the invitation at his face. Although she is aware that their straitened financial circumstances do not warrant the purchase of a new dress, she rails against Loisel and “her indignation leads to irritability and depression” (Donaldson-Evans, 167). Once this hurdle is overcome, she desires jewelry. Rejecting the alternative of fresh flowers, she borrows the necklace from her friend. She is so enraptured with the jewelry that “her heart began to beat with boundless desire” (Maupassant, 48). Madame Loisel flaunts the new dress and the borrowed necklace at the party and triumphantly basks in the admiration she receives. She is completely wrapped up in the glitter of the social occasion and dances far into the dawn of the new day, “mad with joy,” (Maupassant, 53), selfishly forgetting her husband who waits patiently for her in an anteroom. Ashamed to be seen in the “modest garments of every-day life” (Maupassant, 56), she then insists on accompanying Loisel in the search for a cab.  It is in this period that the necklace is lost. This disaster has dire consequences: her husband ages prematurely, loses his inheritance money, collects debts and works overtime. They dismiss the servant, move to a small attic and Mathilde is forced into the rough drudgery of housework: scrubbing, washing cooking, emptying the garbage and lugging water up the stairs. The Loisels endure very real poverty and hardship. It is evident that “Madame Loisel’s social pretense --- is at the root of the tragedy which necessitates ten years of penury” (Donalson-Evans, 169). As Madame Loisel struggles through the decade, she undergoes a transformation. Madame Loisel emerges from her decade of penury as a stronger, more genuine woman. The reader can empathize with Mathilde’s choosing to conceal the loss of the necklace from her friend. This is very much in line with her character because “she lives in fear of what others will think of her and cannot risk this blow to her fragile identity” (Donaldson-Evans, 169). Even when this timidity of character inspires scorn, one cannot but admire the stubborn pride which refuses to confess the mistake and chooses instead to make good the loss: regardless of the cost to herself. Madame Loisel accepts the consequences of her actions doggedly, without complaining: In fact, “She made the best of it, moreover, frankly, heroically” (Maupassant, 98). It is this unbending courage in the face of adversity which finally makes Madame Loisel the true heroine of the story. “Her heroic acceptance of a fate far worse than the one against which she had struggled in the first half of the story changes her from an object of pity to one of admiration” (Donaldson-Evans, 169). While she spent her earlier life dreaming meaninglessly and pining for luxuries beyond her reach, she now lives life for real. Although there is nothing beautiful in Madame Loisel’s quarrelling with the butcher, scrubbing greasy pans and carrying down the garbage, there is no doubt that she has “replaced, by heroic self-denial, a life of despair and aimless dreaming with by a purposeful life of activity” (Donaldson-Evans, 169). The illusionary world of social pretension is now the real world of struggling to survive. In fact, just as Madame Loisel “substituted something real for something false” (Donalson-Evans, 169) in the case of the necklace, she can be said to have also substituted reality for illusion in her own life. The strongest proof of this transformation lies in her going up to confront her friend. This is the Madame Loisel who earlier refused to meet the same friend because it made Madame Loisel suffer pangs of regret. She would not let anyone at the ball see her in her everyday cloak because “there’s nothing more humiliating than to look poor among a lot of rich women (Maupassant, 36).” Now, although she is “dressed like a woman of the people” (Maupassant, 99), Madame Loisel does not hesitate to accost her beautiful and rich friend in the midst of the fashionable Champs Elysees. Madame Loisel is now a woman of confidence and strength. “The Necklace” is a rich tale of life and human nature. It effectively portrays the transformation of the protagonist, Madame Loisel, from a weak, dissatisfied woman to one of genuine strength of character. Madame Loisel’s social pretensions lead her to lose the necklace and endure a decade of penury. However, that decade becomes a trial by fire from which she emerges a stronger woman, who is no longer obsessed with the trappings of wealth and social position. Losing the necklace saves Madame Loisel from an empty life of dissatisfaction. Works Cited. Maupassant, Guy de. “The Necklace,” Bartleby.com. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. http://bartelby.com/195/20.html THE LAST LAUGH: MAUPASSANT'S "LES BIJOUX" AND "LA PARURE" Donaldson-Evans, Mary. “The Last Laugh: Maupassant’s “Les Bijoux” and “La Parure.” French Forum, Vol. 10, No. 2 (May 1985), pp. 163-174. http://0-www.jstor.org.library.utulsa.edu/stable/41429504 Read More