An Analysis of the Necklace

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AN ANALYSIS OF THE NECKLACE KIMBERLY BRAY ENGLISH 125: JOURNEY INTO LITERATURE SARAH LAHUE FEBRUARY 25, 2013 My analysis was on “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. This particular story presented a woman who was desperate for a luxurious lifestyle. She is unhappy in her marriage and unhappy with her life. Her husband represents simplicity and the idea of living within a means. Mathilde obsesses over things that most other women never notice or care about. Fantasies of wealth and social status plague her thoughts and suck her into a delusional black hole until she is forced to downgrade her simple lifestyle to a poverty stricken status. Mathilde and her husband live a simple lifestyle. They have a modest apartment with accessories that fit their surroundings. Her marriage was an arranged marriage and the young man was a clerk working for the Minister of Education. “She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the worn walls, the abraded chairs, the ugliness of the stuffs” (Clugman, 2010) represents how she perceived her status. Her concern was she was not living in the royal manner she believed she was born to do. Her husband lifted “the cover of the tureen” (Clugman, 2010) and all her mind could do was wander to places where she had exquisite meals and service. He was quite satisfied with her cooking, but she was never satisfied. Her dreams of social status kept the reality of her simple life in a dark place. Her husband brings an invitation to a party thinking this would make Mathilde happy. She threw the paper on the table wanting to reject this, but later agrees to go. Her husband had to forego his dream of buying a gun and joining his friends in some shooting in the summer for her to buy a new dress. Knowing her dress is ready, she is still resentful that she has no jewelry to wear. In an attempt to
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