Literary Analysis of The Jewels by Guy De Maupassant

The element of Surprise. It’s an unexpected or astonishing event that most of the time, catches the audience off guard during a story. Guy de Maupassant uses this element in his story “The Jewels”, to provide a massive turning point in the protagonist’s life. At the beginning of the story, Mr. and Mrs. Lantin begin falling in love. The story immediately shows this in acts of symbolism as the author states in the first sentence, “M. Lantin became enveloped in love as in a net”. This statement is showing that Mr. Lantin is beginning to fall for Mrs. Lantin and presenting their love as if Mr. Lantin is being caught in a net by Mrs. Lantin and engulfed in her beauty. In, “The Jewels” by Guy De Maupassant, the author uses a great deal of symbolism and emotion throughout the story.

Mr. and Mrs. Lantin get married, and Mr. Lantin finds himself strongly in love with Mrs. Lantin, “he loved her even more than he did the first day”, then the author states that “there were only two points upon which Mr. Lantin ever found fault with her. Her love of the theater, and her passion for false Jewels”. The author does a great job of captivating his audience at the beginning of the story by using vivid details to show the strong love between both Mr. and Mrs. Lantin. The author uses a large array of expressive detail and emotion as well as symbolism, especially during Mrs. Lantin’s death, showing the amount of utter despair Mr. Lantin is feeling. For example: “Lantin was nearly following her into the tomb. His despair was so frightful that in one single month his hair turned white. He wept from morning till night, feeling his heart torn by inexpressible suffering”.

Towards the middle of the story, Guy de Maupassant shows the reader that after Mr. Lantin’s wife passes away life becomes hard for him; “he got a little into debt, like men obliged to live by their wits”. He got so poor, that “at last, one morning that he happened to find himself without a cent in his pocket”. The author is presenting to the reader that it appears as if Mrs. Lantin’s death drove him into such a state of depression and despair that it strongly affected his economic growth in a negative way having plummeted into debt and not having any money. Maupassant presents to the audience a feeling of despair and sorrow towards Mr. Lantin as he is shown going into poverty. However, after years of thinking his wife’s Jewels was fake, the author has him come straight from poverty and debt, to having 196,000 francs. This, however, led to him quitting his job and exaggerating the amount of money he gained going from 200,000 francs to 400,000 francs. In conclusion, the author ends the story in a depressing manner. Having Mr. Lantin remarry to a hot-headed woman and stating that “She made his life very miserable”.

The author does a great job of showing Mr. Lantin’s deep sorrow by using the element of despair, and then molding the story from sad to happy when the Jewels is found to be real. At the end, however, Guy de Maupassant ends the story on a very depressing note. He makes it seem to the reader as if all the wealth brought him was misery. I believe that this was a very melancholy ending but it makes the reader think. One possible thought is that it was only that he made the wrong choices. Maybe he acted too hasty with his decisions after going from empty pockets to wealth almost instantly. Works Cited De Maupassant, Guy. “The Jewels” The Norton Introduction to Literature. 12 th ed. W. W Norton & Company, 2017. 656, 661. Print