Symbolism in Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”

Hayley Hughes Professor Fowler English 1102 9 February 2013 Short Story Essay khat de Maupassants short story The Necklace uses a rhombus necklace to typeize two contrastive things. The low thing the necklace represents is that deceiving others forget expand to singles downfall. The necklace as well as symbolizes how the effects of greed can change a person. In the story, the reader sees the of import suits personal growth from first gear to sack due to losing a adamant necklace.Mathilde Loisels life is turned top down because she was materialistic, but by the end of the story Mathilde is wiser and more admirable. Mathilde changed in ship canal that could non fork over been possible had she non lost the necklace. The story opens with the beautiful Mathilde Loisel fantasizing m any(prenominal) luxuries she and her married man can non afford. When her husband comes home with an invitation to an grievous bodily harm party, she is up go by because she does not mov e over anything deception to wear. plane after her husband gives her any(prenominal) money for a dress, she whence complains close not having jewelry.Since she does not own any expensive jewlery, Mathilde goes to her hero Madame Forestier and borrows a rhomb necklace. She absolutely loves the necklace and when she and her husband attend the party, everyone notices her and the necklace. afterward they return from the party, Mathilde is sees she has lost the necklace. However, instead of tell Madame Forestier that the necklace had been lost, Mathilde buys a replacement necklace worth 40,000 francs and gives that to her friend hoping she would not see the difference.She and her husband then spend the next ten eld working to pay for the cost of the necklace solely to find out that the original necklace had been a fake. Even though her unutteredship could have been avoided completely, Mathilde became a better person from of losing the necklace. The necklace is the main symbol i n The Necklace. What is a symbol? According to literary productions An Introduction to practice session and Writing, a symbol is a reticence for the elements being signified, (Roberts and Zweig, 382). The necklace could be considered a pagan symbol.A pagan symbol is universally recognise (Roberts and Zweig, 383). Out of all the jewelry Mathilde could have chosen, she chose the diamond necklace. Maupassant just close likely chose a diamond necklace because pack would recognize the staidness of the situation in the story intimately people could understand the value of a diamond necklace as opposed to some of the other jewelry mentioned in the story, which makes the diamond necklace a cultural symbol. The necklace could also be considered a contextual symbol.Unlike a cultural symbol, a contextual symbol gets its moment from the story (Roberts and Zweig, 383-384). In this story, the necklace represents the fact that appearances atomic number 18 not always what they seem an d that the thorniness truth of naturalism can gratuity to ones downfall. Mathilde emergencys to wear a diamond necklace in order for people to think she is wealthier than she is. When she borrows it from Madame Forestier, who is wealthier than Mathilde, she has no reason to commit that the necklace is a fake.Because Mathilde thinks the diamonds as being real, she thinks that others will believe she is flush(p) too. In deceiving others of her wealth, she fundamentally deceives herself. For example, when it is time for them to leave the party her husband gives her the shawl she brought she does not want anyone to see her wearable the shawl because it reminded her that she was not wealthy and she did not want anyone to find out. She wants to live out this conjuring trick as colossal as she by chance can and runs outside with the shawl hoping no one will notice.When she loses the necklace, she is brought hind end to reality and mustiness deal with the consequences. Instead o f accepting her reality that she was not wealthy and being acquisitive, she set herself up for disaster. The necklace symbolizes greed and how it can allude a person. In the beginning of the story, Mathilde is greedy. She pities herself for not being born into a wealthy family, claiming it was an error of destiny, (Maupassant, 200). She and her husband are most likely middle-class, but she is unbosom sad with their financial status. Her husband, Mr. Loisel, is the exact opposite.He takes pleasure in the little things, even praising his wifes beef stew spot she daydreamed about the finest cuisines (Maupassant, 200). All he wants to do is please his wife, but Mathilde is never satisfied. It is because of her greed that she ends up borrowing the necklace in the first place. After losing the necklace and giving the replacement to her friend, not only had the Loisels lifestyle changed, but Mathilde also started to change. She had to do cleaning jobs to earn money, polished in chea p clothes, and argued with food vendors about the price of their goods in order to economise every penny.After the ten years of hard labor, the story describes Mathilde as the strong, hard, and rude womanhood of poor households, (Maupassant, 204). Even though she still reminisced about the party, unlike before where she pitied herself for not being wealthy, now she contemplates what her life would be like had she not been so greedy in borrowing the necklace. She questions how something as teensy as a necklace could have much(prenominal) a big impact on her life saying How little a thing it takes to destroy you or to yet you, (Maupassant, 204).The necklace both destroyed her and saved her. Even though she had to deal with ten long years of working to pay back the money, losing the necklace symbolizes Mathilde losing her greediness and gaining the knowledge that money does not lead to happiness. Works Cited Page De Maupassant, Guy. The Necklace. books An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Roberts, Edgar V. , and Robert Zweig. 10th ed. Illinois Pearson, 2012. 200-205. Print. Roberts, Edgar V. , and Robert Zweig. Literature An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 10th ed. Illinois Pearson, 2012. Print.