Necklace by Guy de Maupassant - Essay Example

Lecturer Essay 3 Proposal The books, the Necklace by Guy de Maupassant and Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka depict capitalist societies. Various characters in these stories are material minded to an extent that they keep dreaming of great and finer things in life, though they are not able to acquire them (Krasny 2008, 7). They seem not to be contented with their possessions. Instead they keep fantasize about extreme wealth. The necklace for instance, weaves a tale about Madame Mathilde Loisel, a character who is not contented with her secure lifestyle of the middle class.

She is extremely obsessed with wealth (Krasny 2008, 7). She declines to attending the ball, an activity that her husband is invited to attend, because she is ashamed of her social standing. She insists that she must have appropriate dress and jewels for her to attend the function. The husband agrees to buy the dress and suggests that she borrow a necklace from her wealthy friend. While at the ball, she is enchanted with her materialistic items and her own beauty. The story ends in an appropriate irony and symbolism.

The necklace she borrowed was externally beautiful, but fake and phony inside, just like Mathilde. She is really worthy of the necklace she wants to be someone and something that she is not. The book is therefore relevant since it warn us against pride and motivates us to be cautious with what appears since what appears may not be reality. Mathilde is proud and wishes to be wealthy in the eyes of everyone else (Krasny 2008, 7). In reality, her wishes are far from the truth. After losing the necklace, she goes through real poverty and experiences a life of true suffering.

Her love for materialistic things hence causes her downfall; a shallow appearance of herself. A critical analysis of this story reveals an element of political motivation. It gives a lesson to the politicians who only view life on its material side. They are ready to do anything including corruption to satisfy their material needs. They also put the lives of the citizens at stake in the expense of their material gains. In metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Samsa’s family is greatly concerned about money, following the business failure of the father as well as the debts that resulted.

In the thoughts of Gregor and in the conversations of the family members, money appears to be a frequent topic (Krasny 2008, 13). Gregor is majorly concerned about how he is going to lose his job after discovering that he has transformed into an insect. In addition, the office manager implies while checking on Gregor that Gregor’s boss has been suspecting him of stealing money from his firm (Krasny 2008, 13). Moreover, shortly after Gregor awakes at the opening of Part 2, he eavesdrops on the father explaining the family’s financial state of affairs in detail to the mother and Grete, his sister.

Soon after, the father and Grete both take jobs to make up for the loss of Gregor’s income. The family goes ahead to takes in a few borders as a means of generating extra money (Krasny 2008, 13). This further result in an argument about money after the borders discovers Gregor. Franz therefore depicts a society that is money oriented. Everybody in the family worries about nothing other than money. Gregor is not comfortable with his condition since he would not be able to earn money. The love for money gets the family in a pitfall of argument and misunderstanding Work cited Krasny, Michael.

Masterpieces of Short Fiction. Teaching Company, 2008.