Saturday 2 February 2013

Five: 'The Necklace' by Guy de Maupassant


Guy de Maupassant
(1850-1893)
FRANCE
In his relatively brief life, Guy de Maupassant produced an astonishing oeuvre of over 300 short stories, in addition to six novels; more than 200 sketches for newspapers and magazines, essays on travel, and dramatic adaptations. In fact, he was a born storyteller, whose stories revealed a sharp eye for vivid detail and social observation, a balance of detachment and sympathy, and the controlled use of irony. “The Necklace”, one of his most accomplished ironic treatments of bourgeois illusions, was published in 1884.
The link to the text of the story is given below:


NOTES
Meanings of Difficult Words:
  1. Salons: fashionable drawing rooms.
  2. Pot-au-feu: Soup or stew.
  3. Dainty: delicate, fragile.
  4. Tapestry: curtain, drapery, hanging.
  5. Suppleness: flexibility.
  6. Antechambers: small room, container.
  7. Candelabra: holder for candels.
  8. Boudoirs: main chamber, bedroom.
  9. Coquettish: flirtatious, coy.
  10. Gallantries: bravery, civility.
  11. Sphinxlike: mysterious.
  12. Quail: a type of short-tailed bird.
  13. Quay: dock, wharf.
  14. Noctambulant: walking by night or in sleep, sleep-walker.
  15. Vestibule: small room for arrivals.
  16. Chargrin: distressed or humiliated.
  17. Louis: A Louis was worth 20 francs.
  18. Impoverished: poor, barren, exhausted.
  19. Paste: gems made from a hard, brilliant glass containing oxide of lead.

Few Important Lines:
  1. She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper station, since with women there is neither caste or rank: and beauty, grace and charm act instead of family and birth.
  2. She danced with intoxication, with passion, made drunk with pleasure, forgetting all, in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a sort of cloud of happiness composed of all this homage, of all this admiration, of all these awakened desires, and of that sense of complete victory which is so sweet to a woman's heart.
  3. Mme. Loisel now knew the horrible existence of the needy. She took her part, moreover, all of a sudden, with heroism. That dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it.
  4. What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How life is strange and changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!

Important Points:
This 19th century story can still be related to today's world, it has a universal appeal. The situation described in the story is timeless, it is not confined to any particular period Guy de Maupassant could understand human psychology.
The story talks about the responses of humans in situations which are thrust upon them by destiny.
There was no poetic justice in the story as Mme. Loisel did not get a reward for her years of hard work and slavish lifestyle.
The story is a third-person narrative, it follows a basic art of storytelling. The characters are built gradually and minute details are added to it. The main technique here is irony. Guy de Maupassant is doing a psychological analysis of people and their attitudes in this story who are trying to escape their destiny. He writes about the financially deprived.
Madame Loisel had a self-realization and after what happened to her she accepted her own situation. She learned that she should accept destiny the way it is written. There is a wide gap between the rich and the poor in this society. She tried to rise above her own status and flee from her destiny, therefore, she paid for her misgivings. She learned that good looks do not buy a good fortune.
If she had not lost the necklace, her obsession with her beauty and aspirations of becoming rich would have remained with her throughout. Fate played a part in designing her life but her own actions partly led her to where she ended up. If she had not wished for something beyond her reach she would not have gotten the necklace in the first place. Her character arouses sympathy in the end, however, she had to pay a price to understand her own reality.
The necklace signifies that she was bound in her own imagination and her desire for loving material objects. All that glitters is not gold. It was the necklace that bound her to work hard and tirelessly for ten years. The necklace represents her destiny, a tool of realization that makes her understand her situation. The title of the story is ironic because the price she paid for wearing that necklace was too heavy. It makes her a tragic character.
The society has set very high standards for people. The French are very aristocratic in their manners and their rules for the society. Guy has criticized class distinction in this story. People who blindly follow the elite class and are influenced or impressed by them can never seek happiness.
Perhaps the author decided to end the story at the dialogue of Mme. Forestier to leave the readers in awe and shock. The author wanted to let that sudden revelation remain in the air when the story finished, so that the reader would be forced to reflect upon the story and upon Mme. Loisel's misfortune, which is doubled by this shock effect. The readers can feel what Mme. Loisel must have felt and therefore, connected more to the character. Mme. Loisel's response is the same as the response of the reader, and so it is not necessary to pen the reaction of Mme. Loisel.
The following are links to further detailed analysis of the story and its character:

Main Themes:
  • Appearance vs. Reality
  • Destiny/Chance/Fate
  • Class Distinction
  • Individual vs. Society

Questions:
  1. What values motivate Mme. Loisel? Does the story suggest that she is appropriately chastened or that she pays too dearly for her social aspirations?
  2. How does Mme. Loisel change during the ten years after she loses the necklace? What might her life have been if the misfortune had not occurred?
  3. Why does the story conclude before Mme. Loisel responds to Mme. Forestier's revelation about the necklace? Try to imagine her response.
  4. What elements of the story are ironic? How does de Maupassant suggest the gap between appearances and reality?
  5. What do you learn about the values and manners of the society in which the story is set? Is the author's judgement of those values revealed in the story?
  6. What does the symbol of the necklace represent? How is the title of the story accurate?
    Credit-Muneeza Rafiq
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