Essay on "Structure of Necklace"

Essay 4 pages (1311 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Necklace: Irony and Structure

The structure of Guy du Maupassant's "The Necklace" is laden with irony. A beautiful woman, born into a tiresome middle-class position, marries a middle-class man. She plots and plans to make a show of herself at a great, upcoming ball, only to find herself cruelly the victim of her own vanity -- the necklace she borrowed to set off her beautiful face and gown is lost. She must sacrifice her beauty to pay back the debt. She works for the next ten years to pay for the cost of the lost jewel. Broken and ravaged, she encounters the woman from whom she obtained the necklace. And then, the final irony:"Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs!" exclaims her friend.

Mathilde's inability to value the real worth of items is one of the consistent themes of the story. At the beginning of the story, she overvalues her own worth. With great irony, the authorial voice casts her in grandiose terms, as she evidently perceives herself: "She was one of those pretty and charming girls born as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans...she let herself be married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Education. Her tastes were simple because she had never been able to afford any other, but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth or family, their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land."

Mathilde's tastes are uneducated -- simple -- but she is filled with a deep and pervasive of 'wrongness,' a contrast between her inner refinement and what she sees as her outer, coarsened circumstances. The irony is evident in the author's voice, as clearly her view of herself as on the level of the highest lady of the land even though she has 'simple tastes' is a contradiction. This will prove her undoing, as she is unable to tell what is an imitation and what is the real thing. She truly does have 'no class' but not in the sense she realizes. Almost immediately, the story strikes a contrast between how things appear and how things really are. Mathilde believes that she appears like a great lady, although she is the child of artisans. However, she is only really able to create the appearance of beauty, wealth, and culture: she is a false diamond like the jewel she borrows.

This repetitive contrast of beauty and ugliness, coarseness and refinement continues throughout the tale. When she serves her husband, for whom she expresses contempt, poor Scotch broth, she can only imagine: "delicate food served in marvelous dishes, murmured gallantries, listened to with an inscrutable smile as one trifled with the rosy flesh of trout or wings of asparagus chicken." His acceptance of their fate and his love of her is a mark against him, rather than a mark in favor of his character. She continually contrasts her humble settings, the girl who comes in once a week to help with the housekeeping, with what she really wants, namely, brocade tapestries, and a ladies' maid. Although she cannot see this, the reader understands that these types of "Masterpiece Theater" visions of refinement are parodies of what an aristocratic lifestyle is supposed to resemble.

The degree with which it wounds her to see others living the life she imagines she was destined to lead becomes sharper, as the writer notes when visiting her friend Madame Forestier, "she suffered so keenly when she returned home. She would weep whole days, with grief, regret, despair, and misery." This weeping will reoccur again at the end of the story, when… READ MORE

How to Reference "Structure of Necklace" Essay in a Bibliography

Related Essays:

ELL Writing Sample Analysis Instruction of Students Thesis

ELL Writing Sample Analysis

Instruction of students who are learning English as a second language (ELL) requires a distinct method of practice, lesson focus on the targeting of strengths and… read more

Thesis 10 pages (2999 words) Sources: 2 Style: APA Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

Art Analysis of an Advertisement: Our African Term Paper

Art

Analysis of an Advertisement:

Our African Identity is Gwyneth Paltrow's African Identity

Denotative Description:

Advertisements make us of a wide range of visual techniques in an attempt to create… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1485 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Fashion / Designers / Beauty

---

Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry Term Paper

Guggenheim

When comparing the two Guggenheim Museums created by Frank Lloyd Wright vs. Frank Gehry's creation, one would think from the names that they would be similar in many different… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (828 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA Topic: Architecture / Construction

---

Writing Skills the Point of This Argument Research Proposal

Writing Skills

The point of this argument in the above paragraph is that the ability to enjoy medieval interpretive dance often requires preparation. The first sentence serves to intrigue the… read more

Research Proposal 2 pages (610 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Philosophy / Logic / Reason

---

Pather Panchali Term Paper

Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali

The prolific Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray once defined his cinematic aesthetic as follows:

Realism in film is not the naturalism of the painter who sets up… read more

Term Paper 15 pages (3990 words) Sources: 3 Style: Chicago Topic: Film / Movies / Television

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>