SHORT STORY “THE NECKLACE”WRITTEN BY GUY DE MAUPASSANT

The short story that I have read and analyze is The Necklace. This short story was written by Guy de Maupassant.Three elements that I identify in this short story is characters,plots and moral values.

Firstly, for the characters element the main character of the story is Mathilde Loisel. There are two minor character Mathilde husband, Loisel and Mathilde’s friend, Madame Forestier. Before the loss of the necklace, Mathilde is a naturally gifted woman with beauty, grace and charm. She constantly longs for the life of the rich and elegant. This get her into trouble when she loss the borrowed necklace after the ball. After lost it she fell unhappy and discontented with her life. Mathilde was also materialistic. She is pretentious woman and yearns to be wealthy. She lives in a flat which is shabby and silvesware and oriental tapestry. She believes that material possession will make her happy unfortunately the reality that the Mathilde lose everything. The other character of Mathilde is ungrateful. This part of character we can see when her husband give a suggests that she wear natural flower but she scoffs at his husband idea. She feels she is born to enjoy “all delicacies and luxuries” in life. Mathilde also proud when she wearing the necklace. She is a great success at the ball and fell so proud that she refuses to wait for a cab outside the Minister as she ashamed of her “modest wraps of common life”. Blindness characteristic shows when she is blind to her own strength. We see an indication of this strength in her determination to pay off her debtsand then make such a drastic change in order to do this. However, Mathilde is too foolish to accept her strengths and use them to enchance her life. Her stubbornness blinds her to reality and so, she is always unhappy. She also vain and self-centred. It shown when she reach at the ball with her husband, all people looked at her beauty, she fell that she is a great success, forgetting all in the triumph of her beauty. The good things that we can follow from her and her husband in this story is humble and hardworking attitude. This character shows when the diamond necklace has lost, her husband asks Mathilde to write to her friend to say that the clasp is being mended. They want time to work something out.Then they go from jeweller to jeweller and finally find a similar necklace. To pay back the debt, they has to work hard and become even poorer and she no longer looks young or beautiful, she also have responsible and determined attitude. She said she must paid the dreadful debt because she knows she make a mistake. Mathilde does not realize that she has such a good husband. This is because she is blinded by her desire to live like the rich. She is not contented with what she already has. However, we should not judge her too harshly. She feels frustrated by her marriage because she cannot express her natural gifts of ‘beauty,grace and charm’. Monsieur Loisel is a lovely person. He loves his wife, Mathilde very much but cannot give her the life she wants as he has no wealth or status. He is willing to give up his pleasures like buying a hunting gun just want to make Mathilde happy. Second character is about his honesty. His honesty make him an admirable person. This is shown in the lives of the Loisels. Though poor, the Loisels are honest people. He suffer financial ruin when Mathilde

loses the borrowed necklace. However, they work hard to repay all the debts incurred in replacing the necklace. Loisel also patient person. It shown when he retraces he steps. He goes to the police headquarters and newspapers offices to offer a reward to anyone who find his diamond necklace and go to cab companies but finds nothing. The last character is Madame Forestier. She is a society lady and wealthy person. She is Mathilde’s friend from the convent school. She is willing to lend Mathilde a cheap necklace but is irritated when Mathilde returns it late. She is not a close friend, though at the end she seems to feel very sorry for Mathilde. The author does not tell whether she will now present the necklace to Mathilde since Mathilde has worked so hard to pay for it. We do know that in all those years Madame Forestier has not visited Mathilde. This shows they do not have a close friendship. The last characteristic is about her sympathetic attitude.

The second elements that I analyze in this short story is about moral values. We can find many types of moral values such as we should always be honest. It tells us when Mathilde was afraid to tell Madame Forestier that she had lost the necklace. If Mathilde had been honest with Madame Forestier, she would not have had to go through ten years of hardship. We should things that our life is not about branded goods, Mathilde has the wrong values in life. She thinks that she will be happy when she has more money and more admiration from society. Like Mathilde, she sometimes think that if they have a lot of branded goods, they will be respected and admired. All people have to liable to pay our debts. The Loisels slave for ten years to repay all their debts. This shows moral strength. Their hardwork is actually more admirable then Mathilde’s social success at the ball. Similarly, we have to pay our debts even when it hurts to do so. Of course, we should try to overspend in the first place. A friend also helps at all times. Madame Forestier is willing to lend her necklace to her friend Mathilde. We do know whether she would have allowed Mathilde to pay for the necklace over a period of time, if Mathilde had told her the truth. If Mathilde had been honest with Madame Forestier, she would have found out that the necklace was not worth a lot of money. Perhaps Madame Forestier was not really a true friend after all, since she did not contact Mathilde for ten years. As a rich lady, she would have been able to help the Loisels. The other moral values is we should not measure people by their sosial status. A person’s values does not depend on how rich or poor he or she is. Every human being is valuable in God’s eyes. Besides, moral qualities are more important than riches or talent. Although the Loisels are poor, they have patience and honesty in facing hardship. For the poin of view, the author uses the third person point of view to tell the story but does not reveal all. We do not know why Madame Forestier never discovered she was given a real diamond necklace. We also do not know if she will return the diamond necklace to the Loisels since the lost necklace was made of paste.

The last elements in this short story is plots. The plots of the necklace is chronological. The chronological it mean arranged according to when events take place. The introduction begin with introduce the character. Starting with Mathilde, the charming young woman who wanted so much to be wealthy. She marries M.Loisel a clerk at the Minister of Public Instruction only because she is unhappy with her life and believes she does not stand a chance with anyone higher in social status. Then, the complication shows when they get invitation to a ball but does’it have presentable dress and jewellery. Her husband is a simple and humble man, he ever suggests to her wife to wear natural flowers, but Mathilde scoffs her husband idea. This story making interested at the klimaks when Mathilde has lost the diamond necklace when she reaches home. Her husband retraces their steps, goes to the police headquarters and newspaper and cab companies but find nothing. The resolution after she lost the necklace is she have to sell everything and work hard to pay for the missing necklace for ten years. All of this situation has made Mathilde look old before her time. Lastly, the ending on this plots is they find out the truth about the missing necklace after she meets Madame Forestier and learns from her that the necklace she had lost was only made of paste.

For the conclusion we can see when Mathilde restlessness makes her blind to many things. She is not contented with her natural charm, beauty and elegance. She cannot be satisfied with her husband, who is a kind, generous and loving man. She sneers at the small comforts of her life. Finally, because she persists in being foolish, she loses her natural beauty and little privileges. The irony is that it has all been for nothing, because the necklace that bedazzled her was only an imitation.