Importance of Endings in Maupassant and Wharton's Novels - Book Report/Review Example

The Importance of Endings in "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant, and "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton The use of endings is one trick that can adopt to make their literary works have an interesting end. This is mainly because the ending of a book or any other literature can make significant contribution to how the readers perceive it. It affects their impression of the literary works for example a perfect ending increases the esteem of a literature works while a poor ending brings down its esteem. Endings are also important in changing the attitudes that readers have already formulated about the characters in the literature work. This essay explores the importance of endings in two stories "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant, and "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton. Ending have been used to facilitate an unexpected change of plot /achieve plot twist towards the end in the two stories. The type of ending used here is called twist ending. There is an unexpected change of outcome towards the end of the story and this brings up an unexpected conclusion to the story. For example, the two women start talking about the mix of love relationships they had before they just got married. Mrs. Ansley had been in love with the husband of Mrs. Slade before he married her. The two woman had been living as friends since childhood and were now chatting as friends as well. Just towards the end of the story, they reveal the grudges they have had against each other all this years and the tricks they had played on each other. For old woman, and both being widows, this is not the kind of thing anyone would expect them to hold much importance to youthful love battles (Wharton 1). Looking at the story the necklace, the author has also successfully managed to use a twist ending. Loisel and her had bought a new necklace for Mrs. Forester to replace the lost necklace and had kept this as a secret between themselves for 10 good years. They had been paying dearly for it and no one would expect that Loisel would want to reveal it least it brings up an enemity between them. Surprisingly, Loisel decided to tell Mrs. Forester the truth. To her amazement, she was not angered, instead, Mrs. Forester showed love to her old friend and even confessed that her original necklace was not real diamond nut fake, costing only five hundred francs (Maupassant 1). The importance of the use of twist ending in the two stories allows the readers of the two stories to re-evaluate the narratives and their characters as well. For example, one would have thought Mrs. Forester as a harsher strict women because of the fear in Loisel and her husband. However, a reverse of this was revealed when she takes Loisel in two hands and tells her the truth behind her old necklaces. The type of ending is also important in allowing the readers to make discoveries in the two stories for example, only through the last portion of the story do the readers come to know the things that contributed to the somehow cold type of friendship and hidden grudges between Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade. It reveals the romantic rivalry in their youth that made Mrs Slade to harbour feelings of hatred and jealousy against Mrs Ansley. By the words of Mrs. Ansley, ”I had Barbara”, it reveals Barbara was an illegitimate child she had with Delphin, Mrs. Slades husband. At the same time, it helps to reveal the truth behind the rich-looking nature of Mrs Forester. She was not that rich but she gained status by going for substitutes and no one knew of this. Endings have also been used in the two stories to surprise their audiences. This type of ending is called surprise ending. The use of surprise ending as revealed in the last lines by Mrs. Ansley in the story the Roman fever. No reader would imagine the daughters of the two women were not only friends. They were sisters. Mrs. Ansley surprises her friend and the audience of the story by speaking in a way that revealed that Mrs. Slade’s plan to disappoint her friend and make her separate from her fiancee had turned out to be her luck. The plan had backfired and the two lovers. In addition, it is like the relationship never ended even after each of them got married to different persons. This is evidenced by the fact that Mrs. Ashley had she conceived a child with Delphin and the child was her elder daughter Barbara. This means he had a part of him for the 25 years he was married to Mrs. Slade. In the story the necklace, surprise is seen where Mrs Forester reveals that the chain she had given to her friend was not a true diamond. Instead, they were fake and it cost only five hundred francs. This is somehow unbelievable because they had made Loisel outstanding in palace of the Ministry. Everyone admired her including the minister. Mrs Forester had just bought the casing to fool anyone who saw them. This means her expensive look was “artificially rich.” She had not allowed her financial inability to weigh her down as her friend Loisel who would cry because she lacked necklaces, even fake ones (Maupassant 1) Endings in the two stories have been used to bring out shock, both to the audience and some of the characters. Such endings are called shocking endings. In the story The Roman fever, the readers and Mrs. Slade are bound to be shocked at the revelation of an illicit affair that had been going on between Mrs. Ansley and Mr. Slade. They were friends and neighbours for all the 25 years and Mrs. Slade never suspected anything. The same applied to Mr. Ansley because he never complained of Barbara not being his daughter or accused his wife of infidelity. In the story the necklace, it is shocking to realise that Loisel and her husband had laboured for 10 years paying for fake diamond that were even cheaper than the dress Loisel had won at the palace of the Ministry. Shocking endings have been used to create climax in the two stories. Endings in the two stories have been used to reveal tricks and trickery among various characters. For example, Mrs Forester went to order for an expensive box meant to store diamond jewels and placed in it fake jewels. Just like Loisel, anyone would never have imagined the jewel inside the type of casing were not real diamonds. Trick ending is more evident in the story the roman fever. In the story, Mrs. Slade had fooled her friend by pretending to be Delphin and wrote a letter to Grace Ansley. Mrs. Ansley had lived all this years believing it is Delphin who had written the letter (Wharton 1). The use of endings in the two stories have been used to used to bring out irony. Ironic ending in the story the roman fever is seen when for all the years, the two women had lived as friends yet they were actually enemies in their hearts. The two women were arguing which one among the two girls Jenny and Barbara, was outgoing. The truth is that they were comparing two girls sharing the same father. Mrs. Slade tells Mrs. Ansley. “I was wondering, .....how two such exemplary characters as you and Horace had managed to produce anything quite so dynamic”. She meant Barbara. In the story the necklace, ironic ending is evident where Mrs. Forester reveals that she had not noticed that she had received real diamond necklaces in place of her fake ones. She had been careful enough to select necklaces that looks like real diamonds yet she could not notice real diamonds when she was given the diamond necklaces. The use of ironic ending in the stories has helped the two authors to create humour in their stories. In addition to other types of endings, the story the necklace is conspicuous for its use of O. Henry or whip-crack ending. The intentional use of this type of ending as brought a new meaning of the story because of the plot twist. It has helped to bring out the most interesting part of the story. Conclusion There is a successful and significant use of endings in the two stories "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant, and "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton. Examples of endings that are found in the two stories are trick ending, surprise ending, whip-crack ending, shocking ending, ironical ending and twist ending. As suggested by their names, the main importance if these endings were used to create shock, surprise and bring out irony. Twist ending and whip-crack ending were important in facilitating a sudden change of flow of events in the stories. In addition, these endings, for example ironic ending, surprise ending and shocking ending were important in creating human and the climax of the stories and thus generate unexpected conclusions to the stories. The various endings have also given the readers a chance to re-evaluate various characters for example, Loisel should not have resigned to the fate of poverty in her family and deny herself happiness. instead, she should have become inventive and tricky like Mrs Forester. As for Mrs. Slade, she is not as clever as she seemed when she wrote the letter to Grace Ansley. She should have kept a close watch on Delphin that evening. Generally, the endings have increased the esteem that readers could award the two stories. Works Cited Maupassant Guy. (1844). The Necklace. Online: http://www.bartleby.com/195/20.html. Retrieved On 17th November, 2011. Wharton Edith (1934). Roman Fever. Online: http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/ewharton/bl-ewhar-roman.htm. Read More