Summary and Analysis of The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant - Book Report/Review Example

The Necklace Summary The basic summary of “The Necklace,” by Guy de Maupassant involves a beautiful young woman, Madame Mathilde Loisel. Madame Loisel longed for a life full of riches, expensive clothes and jewelry, and a social life to match. One day, Madame’s husband comes home and gives to her an invitation for a high-class party. Madame complains that she has nothing decent enough to wear, but her husband gives in and helps to pay for a gown. After also complaining about having no jewelry, Madame goes to her friend, Jeanne Forestier, and borrows what she believes to be a very expensive necklace. However, during the party, where Madame Loisel has an amazing time, she loses the necklace. In a haste to replace the necklace without Forestier knowing, Loisel and her husband spend all of their money, as well as money they do not have, to buy this new necklace. The debt puts the Loisels into poverty. The irony of this story is seen at the end, when Loisel meets up with Forestier after many years, only to find that the necklace that was lost was hardly worth a percentage of the one used as a replacement. Theme of Work The themes found in “The Necklace” are irony and greed. Madame Loisel longed for a life of luxury. She refused to go out because she felt that she did not meet any of the standards of the “rich women,” as was stated in the story. She lusted after what others had, and cared not for all that she had in her average life. It was Madame Loisel’s greed that caused the ironic outcome of the story. Had she not been so set on being charming and living, if only briefly, the life that she had longed for, she would have not lost the cheap necklace and gone on to replace it with a much more exquisite piece of jewelry. Her greed brought in the irony of her and her husband having to live worse than ever for ten years. Her greed blinded her of just how precious life was despite all of the material possessions. It was because of this that enabled her to witness how others below her were forced to live. Characterization From the first paragraph of the story, “The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction,” it was clear that Madame Loisel was a self-spoiled girl. This is shown in the way that she automatically links being pretty to having a perfect, rich life. Throughout the short story, Madame Loisel only gets worse. With each new event that arises, she insists that she is unable to face it because of her social and class status. She becomes more snobby and expectant of certain things that come to those of beauty, grace, and poise. Towards the end, when Madame Loisel and her husband have hit poverty level, she becomes more understanding and sympathetic of others who have been in her position for much longer than she has. Yet, at the same time, she still wonders what could have happened if she had not lost the necklace to begin with. This only intensifies when she realizes that replacing the necklace as she did was pointless. Madame Loisel’s character grows as the story progresses. Her character falls in perfectly with the things that are happening to her, and it is clear that she can sense these changes. She reacts accordingly, and even feels something for those in a position that she had longed to avoid, though failed. Setting The story taking place in France really adds to the plot and to the character development. France is a place where either you are rich or you are poor. This is seen by the comparisons that Madame Loisel makes when she views people that are above her or at her level (though, to some extent, she considers herself deserving of the former, but destined for the latter). While the story takes place in a beautiful country, we are given a glimpse of the not-quite so beautiful aspects of it when we see how Madame Loisel lives at the opening of the story, and then lives when they reach poverty level. This allows us, as the readers, to see that the story is not going to be all about beauty, wonder, and amazement. We are able to see parts of lives that are otherwise hidden beneath commercial lies. Point of View The point of view of the story is third person: there is no real description of who is narrating the story. This enables the reader to see the story from many different perspectives, and not from the view of just one person. We are also able to see how the story progresses by getting a glimpse of each character in turn, how they feel, and how they react to the specific situations that are taking place. Imagery The imagery is simple, yet it forms for us the exact pictures that we need to see so that we can understand the story and the characters. The writing used is not fancy, nor does it forms images of things that are irrelevant to the story. It does what it is supposed to, and leaves it at that. This is in concern to the settings and to the events seen throughout this short story. When it comes to the characters, the imagery used portrays those characters so that their likeness matches everything else in the written and mental/visual portions of the text. The reader is able to picture a gorgeous girl who believes that she should be getting better in life, living in a low-class neighborhood, and living in the same way. We put to mind what is desired of the writer by the simplicity, yet descriptive form of his writing. Structure The structure of the story is very basic, common, and achieves what it needs to do. The story structure has a simple beginning, middle, and end. It does not veer off into irrelevant times or scenes; it sticks with what the readers need to know. The specific structure that can be seen in this short story is known as the three-stage story – it has three specific parts, as well as filler to help move the story. The three-stage structure helps to avoid confusion while reading the story. It keeps the readers on track. This is also a basic structure for a chronological setting: the story moves from one point of time, to another, and then to the end time. There is no jumping back and forth between times, nor is any specific moment skipped that is not needed. Plot Development Plot development is a crucial part to any story, whether it is a novel, short story, or a film. Without plot development, the story literally goes nowhere. Fortunately, the plot development of “The Necklace” is extremely well formed. Like the rest of the aspects of the short story, the plot development is done with wonderful precision. As the plot grows, so does the character, and vice versa. The two separate aspects tend to act as one entity. At the same time, the plot stays steady. It never gets to be too much for the reader, nor does it not meet expectations. The main character starts as being a normal person, and then it changes so that this character now has a conflict, which is followed by that character solving that conflict and learning a lesson. Literary Devices The use of literary devices to enhance the author’s work is, perhaps, the foundation of the short story. The author uses many of these devices to get the message out to his readers that he is trying to portray. The biggest device seen is irony; it is the essential theme of the story. Irony can be defined as “when an event occurs which is unexpected, in the sense that it is somehow in absurd or mocking opposition to what would be expected or appropriate.” This can be seen in the ending of the story, when Madame Loisel realizes that she need not have bought the expensive replacement necklace, for her friend’s original necklace had merely been a replica. This caused Madame Loisel and her husband to fall into poverty. Mood is another thing that is often used, and is the second greatest device to help move the story. Madame Loisel’s mood is vital to the plot of the story because her moods decided what was to happen next. She moved from greed, to anger, jealousy, and then ended up at sympathy and understanding. Another helpful device that was used was conflict – the struggle that Madame Loisel put up against herself and against society. Other struggles that are seen throughout the story also have to do with greed (on behalf of Madame Loisel) and loving someone who is simply too difficult to handle (Mister Loisel). It is one conflict after another, but thanks to character and plot developments, it all runs nicely together to produce something coherent. References “The Necklace Summary and Analysis.” The Necklace. 2005. Online. Available http://www.bookrags.com/The_Necklace. March 10, 2008. “Short Stories: The Necklace.” ShortStories. 1998. Online. Available http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Neck.shtml. March 9, 2008. Matthews, Bartleby. “Notes to The Necklace.” 2008. Online. Available http://www.bartelby.org/195/1020.html. March 10, 2008. Maupassant, Guy de. The Necklace. Dover Publications, 2003. Braiman, Jay. “Literary Devices.” 2007. Online. Available http://mrbraiman.home.att.net/lit.htm. March 10, 2008. Maupassant, Guy de. Best Short Stories/Les Meilleurs Contes. Dover Publications, 1996. Read More