Introduction to prose

 THE ANALYSIS OF

GUY MAUPASSANT’S THE NECKLACE

By

ELLA RATNA SARI

19113040

Summary

The short story "The Necklace" by Guy De Maupassant takes place in France several hundred years ago. Mathilde Loisel lives in a flat with her husband, who works as a clerk for the Minister of Education. Their lives are not luxurious, but they are not poor, merely simple. Mathilde, however, longs to be rich. She envies her friend Jeanne who has a large house and lots of jewelry.

One day her husband brings home an invitation to a ball. He thinks his wife will be excited to attend such a fancy party, but instead she is upset. She complains that she has nothing suitable to wear to such an extravagant occasion. Her kind husband agrees to give her the four hundred francs that he had been saving to buy a new rifle to get herself a gown.

The week of the party, Mathilde seems anxious again. When her husband asks her why, she frets that she has no jewelry to wear with her dress. He suggests that perhaps she could borrow something from her friend Jeanne Forestier. Mathilde goes to Jeanne's house and picks out a sparkling diamond necklace to borrow.

She and her husband attend the gala and have a fabulous time. She loves amazing and dances all night. Finally, they head home in the wee hours of the morning. When they arrive home, Mathilde realizes that the necklace is missing. They wonder if it fell off in the carriage that they took home, but neither of them noticed the number. Her husband goes out to search the streets but returns empty handed. To stall for time, Mathilde writes to her friend that she broke the clasp and is having it repaired. In the meantime, they find another necklace that matches the missing one, but it costs thirty-six thousand francs. Her husband fortunately inherited eighteen thousand francs from his father, but they will need to borrow the rest of the money. Finally, they have enough to purchase the replacement necklace and Mathilde gives it to Jeanne who doesn't even look at it.

The next ten years Mathilde's life changes dramatically. They move to a smaller apartment where she has to cook and clean for herself. She also does work on the side while her husband works multiple jobs to pay back all the money they borrowed. After the ten years, the money is all paid back, but Mathilde has aged a great deal.

One day she sees Jeanne Forestier on the street. She decides to tell her the truth about the necklace. Jeanne is stunned by Mathilde's rough appearance. Mathilde explains that it is indirectly because of Jeanne since she lost the necklace she borrowed from her and had to pay for a replacement. Shocked, Jeanne confesses that the necklace Mathilde borrowed was a fake, made of paste, worth no more than five hundred francs.

Clearly, the lesson of the story is that honesty is the best policy. If Mathilde had been honest with her friend from the start, she would have learned that the necklace wasn't made of real diamonds and would not have wasted ten years paying for a replacement.

Plot

Two Little Soldiers by Guy Maupassant uses a progressive plot. Because of the story that presented just flow there is no telling of the past. This story has 3 steps starting from the earlier step (a situation, introduction, and conflict), the middle step (rising, conflict, and climax), and the last step (solution). 

THE EARLIER STEP

One night, her husband returns home proudly bearing an invitation to a formal party hosted by the Ministry of Education. He hopes that Mathilde will be thrilled with the chance to attend an event of this sort, but she is instantly angry and begins to cry. Through her tears, she tells him that she has nothing to wear and he ought to give the invitation to one of his friends whose wife can afford better clothing. Her husband is upset by her reaction and asks how much a suitable dress would cost. She thinks about it carefully and tells him that 400 francs would be enough. Her husband quietly balks at the sum but agrees that she may have the money.

"One evening her husband came home with an air of triumph, holding a large envelope in his hand. Instead of being delighted, as her husband had hoped, she threw the invitation on the table resentfully"

As the day of the party approaches, Mathilde starts to behave oddly. She confesses that the reason for her behavior is her lack of jewels. Monsieur Loisel suggests that she wear flowers, but she refuses. He implores her to visit Madame Forestier and borrow something from her. Madame Forestier agrees to lend Mathilde her jewels, and Mathilde selects a diamond necklace. She is overcome with gratitude at Madame Forestier’s generosity

"The day of the party drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, restless, anxious. Her dress was ready, however. One evening her husband said to her: "What's the matter? You've been acting strange these last three days." She replied: "I'm upset that I have no jewels, not a single stone to wear. I will look cheap. I would almost rather not go to the party.

THE MIDDLE STEP

At the party, Mathilde is the most beautiful woman in attendance, and everyone notices her. She is intoxicated by the attention and has an overwhelming sense of self-satisfaction. At 4 a.m., she finally looks for Monsieur Loisel, who has been dozing for hours in a deserted room. He cloaks her bare shoulders in a wrap and cautions her to wait inside, away from the cold night air, while he fetches a cab. But she is ashamed at the shabbiness of her wrap and follows Monsieur Loisel outside. They walk for a while before hailing a cab.

"The day of the party arrived. Madame Loisel was a success. She was prettier than all the other women, elegant, gracious, smiling, and full of joy. All the men stared at her, asked her name, tried to be introduced. All the cabinet officials wanted to waltz with her. The minister noticed her."

 When they finally return home, Mathilde is saddened that the night has ended. As she removes her wrap, she discovers that her necklace is no longer around her neck. In a panic, Monsieur Loisel goes outside and retraces their steps. Terrified, she sits and waits for him. He returns home much later in an even greater panic—he has not found the necklace. He instructs her to write to Madame Forestier and say that she has broken the clasp of the necklace and is getting it mended.

"In front of the mirror, she took off the clothes around her shoulders, taking a final look at herself in all her glory. But suddenly she uttered a cry. She no longer had the necklace round her neck!"

 They continue to look for the necklace. After a week, Monsieur Loisel says they have to see about replacing it. They visit many jewelers, searching for a similar necklace, and finally find one. It costs 40,000 francs, although the jeweler says he will give it to them for 36,000. The Loisels spend a week scraping up money from all kinds of sources, mortgaging the rest of their existence. After three days, Monsieur Loisel purchases the necklace. When Mathilde returns the necklace, in its case, to Madame Forestier, Madame Forestier is annoyed at how long it has taken to get it back but does not open the case to inspect it. Mathilde is relieved.

"And so they went from jeweler to jeweler, looking for an necklace like the other one, consulting their memories, both sick with grief and anguish. In a shop at the Palais Royal, they found a string of diamonds which seemed to be exactly what they were looking for. It was worth forty thousand francs. They could have it for thirty-six thousand."

THE LAST STEP

 The Loisels began to live a life of crippling poverty. They dismiss their servant and move into an even smaller apartment. Monsieur Loisel works three jobs, and Mathilde spends all her time doing the heavy housework. This misery lasts ten years, but at the end they have repaid their financial debts. Mathilde’s extraordinary beauty is now gone: she looks just likes the other women of poor households. They are both tired and irrevocably damaged from these years of hardship.

"From then on, Madame Loisel knew the horrible life of the very poor. But she played her part heroically. The dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it. They dismissed their maid; they changed their lodgings; they rented a garret under the roof."

 One Sunday, while she is out for a walk, Mathilde spots Madame Forestier. Feeling emotional, she approaches her and offers greetings. Madame Forestier does not recognize her, and when Mathilde identifies herself, Madame Forestier cannot help but exclaim that she looks different. Mathilde says that the change was on her account and explains to her the long saga of losing the necklace, replacing it, and working for ten years to repay the debts. At the end of her story, Madame Forestier clasps her hands and tells Mathilde the original necklace was just costume jewelry and not worth anything.

"One Sunday, as she was walking in the Champs Élysées to refresh herself after the week's work, suddenly she saw a woman walking with a child. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still charming."

POV ( point of view )

The point of view of this story is that of a third person narrator. The story is not told from the point of view of Madame Loisel or anyone else who is actually involved in the story. Instead, it is just some uninvolved narrator.

The third person narrator who relates the story provides so much insight into Mathilde Loisel’s thoughts, emotions and feelings that the reader gets a clear picture of her point of view. However, because the story is related by the narrator, who is removed from the action that takes place in the story and is not one of the characters in it, it might not be technically accurate to say that "The Necklace" is told from Mathilde Loisel’s point of view.

The story, in fact, opens with a description of Mathilde that tells us right from the start something about her point of view. She was pretty and charming and believed that she should have been born to a family with a higher social status than that of her own family. Because she had no path to meet and marry a “man of wealth and distinction,” she married someone she looked down upon. The narrator communicates her feeling of superiority to her husband and his status by telling the reader that “she let herself be married” to...

References 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Necklace#cite_ref-2

Von Bernewitz, Fred and Geissman, Grant. Tales of Terror! The E.C. Companion, Seattle: Gemstone Publishing and Fantagraphics Books, 2000, p. 198.