The Necklace

Guy de Maupassant

French writer Guy de Maupassant wrote short stories like "The Necklace" and "Bel Amim", but he also wrote poetry, novels, and newspaper articles. He was an author of the naturalist and realist schools of writing and is best known for his short stories, which are considered highly influential on much of modern literature. It's believed de Maupassant was probably born at the Château de Miromesniel, Dieppe on August 5, 1850. His paternal ancestors were noble, and his maternal grandfather, Paul Le Poittevin, was the artist Gustave Flaubert's godfather.

His parents separated when he was 11 years old after his mother, Laure Le Poittevin, left his father Gustave de Maupassant. She took custody of Guy and his younger brother, and it was her influence that led her sons to develop an appreciation for literature. But it was her friend Flaubert who opened doors for the budding young writer.

Flaubert would prove to be a major influence on de Maupassant's life and career. Much like Flaubert's paintings, de Maupassant's stories told the plight of the lower classes. Flaubert took young Guy as a kind of protege, introducing him to significant writers of the day such as Emile Zola and Ivan Turgenev. It was through Flaubert that de Maupassant became familiar with (and part of) the naturalist school of writers, a style which would permeate nearly all of his stories.

From 1870-71, Guy de Maupassant served in the army. He then became a government clerk. He moved from Normandy to Paris after the war, and after leaving his clerkship in the French Navy worked for several prominent French newspapers. In 1880, Flaubert published one of his most famous short stories "Boule du Suif," about a prostitute pressured to provide her services to a Prussian officer.

Perhaps his best-known work, "The Necklace," tells the story of Mathilde, a working-class girl who borrows a necklace from a wealthy friend when she attends a high society party. Mathilde loses the necklace and works the rest of her life to pay for it, only discovering years later that it was a worthless piece of costume jewelry. Her sacrifices had been for nothing.

This theme of a working class person unsuccessfully trying to rise above their station was common in de Maupassant's stories. Even though his writing career spanned barely a decade, Flaubert was prolific, writing some 300 short stories, three plays, six novels, and hundreds of newspaper articles. The commercial success of his writing made Flaubert famous and independently wealthy.

At some point in his 20s, de Maupassant contracted syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that if left untreated, leads to mental impairment. This was to be the case for de Maupassant, unfortunately. By 1890, the disease had started to cause increasingly strange behavior. Some critics have charted his developing mental illness through the subject matter of his stories. But de Maupassant's horror fiction is only a small portion of his work, some 39 stories or so. But even these works had significance; Stephen King's famous novel "The Shining" has been compared to Maupassant's "The Inn."

After a gruesome suicide attempt in 1891 (he tried to cut his throat), de Maupassant spent the last 18 months of his life in a Paris mental home, the celebrated private asylum of Dr. Espirit Blanche. The suicide attempt was believed to be a result of his impaired mental state.

The overall balance of this period is, as a whole, very positive: France is experiencing splendor in many respects and Paris has become the capital of the world with its exhibitions, its generations of artists and the luxurious and dynamic atmosphere it conveys. Likewise, the Third Republic is mainly responsible for the reorganization of the education system in France, which has been in force to this day. There were also scandals of all kinds: economic, judicial, etc. But this is always part of the opulent and dynamic societies.

Because of the name of the Story, I think it’s about some elegant woman, maybe living in a great city, in the high class.

The story reflects the way that the French people mark the differences between the social classes in 1884, tells also about the abuse that the usurers made at that time. The reunion at the Ministry which the Minister of Education, invites them, looks like is being part of the reorganization of the French education system.

Realism is a movement in literature, which started in the mid-nineteenth century in France, and later spread to the entire world. Its real objective was to root out what is called fantastic and romantic in literature and art, to insert what is real. In literature, writers use realism as a literary technique to describe story elements, such as setting, characters, themes, etc., without using elaborate imagery, or figurative languages, such as similes and metaphors. Through realism, writers explain things without decorative language or sugar-coating the events. Realism is something opposite to romanticism and idealism. Read on to learn more about realism in literature. Realism attempts to illustrate life without romantic subjectivity and idealization. It focuses on the actualities of life, and truthfully treats the commonplace characters of everyday life. The purpose of using realism is to emphasize the reality and morality that is usually relativistic and intrinsic for the people as well as the society. This sort of realism makes the readers face reality as it happens in the world, rather than in the make-believe world of fantasy.

Naturalism is a literary genre that started as a movement in the late nineteenth century in the impact that naturalism has left on literary writers is colossal, leading to the evolution of the modern movement. Generally, naturalistic works expose dark sides of life such as prejudice, racism, poverty, prostitution, filth, and disease. Since these works are often pessimistic and blunt, they receive heavy criticism. Despite the echoing pessimism in this literary output, naturalists are generally concerned with improving the human condition around the world.

The story was written in France, and also the setting was in the same country. It is a Short Story that involves Realism and Naturalism.

At the end of reading the story, I can see that is not what I expected, I thought that the story is going to be about the opulent class of the women that own the necklace but I could find different ways to see the story or not the story, but its message.

A. I think that the center of the story is the necklace, for Mathilde represents "pretending to lead a life that she did not have", for Madame Forestier represents "illusion of wealth", for Mr. Loisel represents " 10 years of sacrifice".

B. Possessions can possess you, in this case, the jewels,

dresses for Mathilda was her objective. She can't relate, the love and loyalty of her husband for her, he was willing to do everything for her. Hard labor, she works harder than ever for those 10 years and this aged her, that her beauty, which had been her only valued asset, disappears because of her labor for the necklace. A different class, the "class" is not always what our eyes can see. C. In this story, the author uses the irony and conflict to represent the theme of discontentment. It also involves the materialism, envy, insecurity, discontent, happiness, sacrifice, selflessness, desperation and humility.

Talking with my oldest daughter about this reading, she told me that she had read this short story last year at school, so I asked her impressions about it, I want to share them:

"The story was chilera, because is very ironic. For me, the rich woman is worst than Mathilde, she always pretends because her necklace was fake. Mathilde was so unfair to her husband, he makes everything for her, he makes a big effort every day and she didn't appreciate it. With the time and the situation, she helped him for paying all the bills for the necklace. I like the end because it wasn't the one that I was expecting".

For me, I think that Mathilda wasn't able to live the life that she got, her husband could have more character and in love, changes her point of view about their life, Madame Forestier demostrates that also the rich people uses things that are not so expensive and that pretends to be. It also was an "Inspirational" reading because we need to be grateful and happy with the things that we have, there are more important things that the materials and everything we have is a blessing in our lifes.