The Necklace “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant tells the story of a woman, Madame Mathilde, who grew up and married into a poor class system. The story tells the readers she’s unhappy with her life and believes she deserves all the luxuries the rich women have with the fur coats, many jewels, and just wealth in general. After her husband works hard to get invitations to a fancy party, the end result of the night leads to the downfall of Madame Mathilde. Guy De Maupassant uses the theme of appearance vs. reality, the symbol of the necklace, and the character’s actions in the story to show how people can be mislead from the truth by illusions. Guy De Maupassant proved in many of his stories that he thought, “Men were scum, women saints, and if a woman cheated on her man it was only because he was weak and worthless and unable to give her the love and support a woman needs” (Bernardo.)
William Horn Mr.Rininger English 9 16 October 2014 Expository Composition Essay In life people find things that hold value, to be an interest. Sometimes these interests can become obsessions, and we will begin to look at our obsessive values as self-worth and self-definition. Guy De Maupassant wrote this splendid story called The Necklace, which is about a woman named Mathilde who is not happy with what she has earned and lived with in life and does whatever she can to change her life for her idea of a better life. Mathilde wants to be rich so she can afford fine clothing, go to fancy parties, and have a steady and large social life. When Mathilde gets invited to the fancy party, she begins to be frightened with what she will wear because she does not have many clothes in her closet and the few clothes that Mathilde does have in her closet are simply plain clothing wear that she would be ashamed to be seen worn in public.
The title of this short story simply represents symbolism: a diamond necklace in this story is the primary symbolic item. The necklace is used to represent beauty in real life, however in this story it was used to represent wealth and high social status. Madame Loisel needed the necklace because she didn’t own a pair of jewels and felt it was “humiliating” to look poor around rich women. She thinks having this necklace will catch the attention of these important women. It represents her social class.
Myrtle started acting like a rich person just because of a material object. This is materialistic because Myrtle acts rich just because of a dress. Myrtle shows her materialistic qualities when she says “It’s just a crazy old thing; I just slip it on sometimes when I don’t care what I look like.”(pg31) This leads to Myrtle thinking of George in a materialistic manner in the next example. Because George didn’t have enough money to buy a fancy new suit for his wedding day he borrowed one from someone. When Myrtle finds out about this she gets mad at George.
Tom was a born into wealth and so was Daisy, she married him because her name is more important then love. The difference in wealth between Gatsby and Tom made Daisy choose whom she wanted to end up for the rest of her life. “Girls only love men with money.” This quote is true for this book because when Gatsby gets wealthy Daisy starts to fall back for him. There was this one scene where Gatsby throws all of his shirts in the air as if he doesn’t care about these expensive shirts. Daisy grabs all of the shirts and starts to cry because she loves wealth and expensive cloths.
We see her obsession with money and the social status it brings when she cries on her wedding day after hearing her husband (George Wilson) borrowed his wedding suit; implying that he is poor. Myrtle tries to escape her mundane life at the car garage in the Valley of Ashes by having an affair with Tom Buchanan. He is a source of hope for her to have the life she has always dreamt of- one with wealth, glamour, status and comfort. We see how Myrtle shamelessly, infront of her husband, wets her lips and leans in towards Tom when he and Nick come to Mr Wilson’s garage. At her New York apartment with Tom, Myrtle lavishes herself by buying luxury and unnecessary gifts- such as her dog, a common accessory to a wealthy woman’s outfit.
What the reader comes to understand about Daisy, is that her dreams involve having an abundance of money, being adored by those around her and having a good social life. Jordan’s flashback gives further insight into Daisy as a character. When Gatsby leaves for war, we find out that soon afterwards she moves on and gets married. Jordan says, “I thought I’d never seen a girl so mad about her husband.” (Page 75) This displays her attitude towards men, as she was able to love another man quickly after Gatsby as soon as she realized Tom was
Waiting Between the Trees is about Ying-ying who was a wild girl when she was young. She was raised in a wealthy family and her mother always told her that she would bring shame to their family. After her first husband left her for an opera singer she went to America to start a new life. She met a man named St. Clair and knew that she would marry him but could not love him. She eventually learned that she must let go of her past and love this new man.
Her popularity was often displayed by newspapers and magazines. Daisy, as she “seen everything and done everything” (Fitzgerald 22), she cannot stand the very thought of her throwing away her rich lifestyle and popularity by marrying Gatsby. As a “sophisticated” (Fitzgerald 22) woman, she knew that if she married a poor soldier like Jay Gatsby, he would not be able to support her lifestyle and she would not have the same view that the society has about her: a rich, aristocratic woman. Her actions proved that no matter where she went, “her voice [will always be] full of money.” (Fitzgerald 127). As the Beatles would say, money cannot buy love.
Fitzgerald used characterization and symbolism to establish the theme: many people live a lie and pretend to be someone else. As soon as the novel starts, readers are thrown into the Buchanan’s unfaithful relationship and soon get introduced to Myrtle, Tom’s mistress. Throughout the short time she appears in the novel, Fitzgerald characterizes her as a woman who yearns for wealth but doesn’t quite reach it. This is displayed when Fitzgerald lists the things she does before getting to her and Tom’s love nest—buys “a small flask of perfume” and letting “four taxicabs drive away before she selected a new one, lavender-colored with gray upholstery” (27). Purple signifies royalty and wealth, and by waiting to sit in the lavender-colored taxi, Fitzgerald once again demonstrates her yearning for money.