Short Story Review: The Necklace

“The necklace”, is a short story by Guy De Maupassant, it revolves around a young woman who had these desires to have things she couldn’t afford. Mathilide the protagonist in this story, was invited to a ball, but she did not have enough money to buy a dress. Her husband spent what little money they had to get her one. The next thing she needed was a necklace so she borrowed one from her friend. The necklace she borrowed was an expensive diamond necklace, after that she went to the ball and had lost it there. Her next move was to buy an identical necklace, by doing this it had put the couple in debt. At the end of the story Mathilide finds out the necklace she borrowed was a fake. The lesson here is if she wasn’t unhappy with what she already had, she wouldn’t of borrowed, and lost the necklace. Guy De Maupassant tried to convey the theme of “being discontent can bring you problems.” This conflict was represented throughout the story, and theme. “She suffered intensely, feeling herself born for every delicacy and even luxury” (Pg.1). This is an internal conflict because it has to do with feelings.

The story also says she suffered with her life which made her want luxurious things. Her choices caused her, her own problems later on in the story. This is what supports the theme. Mathilide also did not have a dress to wear (pg.2). Since she didn’t have a proper dress to wear she absolutely “had” to spend money on a new dress. This conflict is both internal, and external because clothes are part of people’s appearance, but also she felt like she needed a better one. Buying the dress in the first place was hard for them considering the financial trouble they have. Her being upset with the dress she already had caused her to buy a newer, and more expensive dress. This is what supports the theme and caused problems by her being ungrateful. Foreshadowing in the necklace takes place when Mathilide, and her husband go to the jewelers. His name was inside the empty case where Madam Forestier’s necklace once was, he then looked through his ledger and said, “It was not I, madame who sold the necklace; I must simply have supplied the case.” This tells us that if the necklace was such a valuable piece of jewelry, it would not of been sold separately. I personally enjoyed this story by, Guy De Maupassant as it has some valuable lessons in it. He used different literary devices in his story like, conflict to support the plot. He also included foreshadowing which hinted at us what was to come in the story.

Works Cited

1. De Maupassant, G. (1884). The Necklace. Retrieved from https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-maupassant/short-story/the-necklace
2. Worton, M. (1998). Critical analysis of “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/critical-analysis-of-the-necklace-by-guy-de-maupassant-english-literature-essay.php
3. Lewis, P. (2018). 5 Lessons we can learn from Guy de Maupassant’s ‘The Necklace’.
4. Park, J. (2018). The power of objects in Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”. Retrieved from https://the-artifice.com/the-power-of-objects-in-guy-de-maupassants-the-necklace/
5. Hines, G. (2019). A literary analysis of Guy de Maupassant’s ‘The Necklace’.
6. Lai, D. (2020). The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant: summary and analysis.
7. Segal, E. (2019). Short stories: The necklace by Guy de Maupassant.
8. White, J. (2016). Symbolism in Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”.
9. Colombo, A. (2018). “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant.
10. Beech, H. (2019). Analysis of “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: themes and symbols.