As I worked on my pervious paper, I questioned myself if there was a literary term and if there was which one over powered the story. As I began research for this essay and typed in “The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant” in the Google toolbar, I saw the word irony and quickly came up with the question as to, where is the irony in the story “The Necklace”? To my surprise, this story surrounds itself with irony being found in the smallest details. My first source came from an article written by Dariles Castillo, in 2010. He summarizes the short story but only going into detail on three different occasions, which happens to be the main points.
The first being the introduction, where Madam Loisel is insulting her own home saying, “She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. ” She continuously went about day dreaming of a better life, “She imagined vast saloons hung with antique silks, exquisite pieces of furniture supporting priceless ornaments, and small, charming, perfumed rooms, created just for little parties of intimate friends, men who were famous and sought after, whose homage roused every other woman’s envious longings. “(The Necklace).
The second occasion is the climax of the story and also where the irony begins, which is the necklace missing. Her and her husband looked everywhere but the end result was them having to buy a brand new necklace having no funds left in their name. The last occasion, is ten years later when she runs into her friend who she borrowed the necklace from. She confessed to her friend about her losing the necklace and had been paying it off ever since, but the friend tells her the necklace was nothing but a costume jewelry, this being situational irony.
At the end she learns all could have been avoided by being honest with her friend, or by appreciating what she had instead of what she desired. Castillo source gave me three examples of irony, which was very helpful and good for my research paper. These examples are good because when it’s time to do my research paper I have three perfect examples that I can go into further detail in, and I am sure I will find information regarding them. My second source came from the well known website, Spakenotes. com[->0].
The website helps not only students, but those who need a clear explanation of stories. Spark notes had a small section just for irony. Although it gave me information I found on different websites, it helped me understand the definition of irony in a more understanding way. It also gave me an example of irony, that came from the story itself. Spark notes mentioned Mathilde beauty being ironic. Setting aside the necklace, Mathilde’s beauty was her only values asset. After the ten years of hard work and labor she had to do, her beauty and youth disappeared.
Perhaps the “most bitter irony” of the story is the at the end of the story Guy De Maupassant describes the circumstance which the couple had to change their life completely and the realization of how her old life, the one she resented so deeply, was actually very luxurious compared to her living situations currently. I would not say this was a bad source, but it was not my number one best source either. The information I learned from Spakenotes. com was repeated information I could have found on non reliable source like Wikipedia. om. Although it did help me a bit, do not feel comfortable using this source when it is time to write my research paper. My last source came from an article written by a Ph. D. candidate at the University of South Carolina, Jason Pierce. His article is called “Criticism”, which he goes into depth of the short story, “The Necklace”. As he continues he brings up the discussion concerned with the difference between appearance and reality the story deals with in a “ironic situation”.
He talks about how society than differs from today, and how it was ironic that a society (back than) valued appearance, but Mathilde beauty was excluded because of her ranking. Although we already know the major irony in the story, Pierce brings up two interesting facts. The first continuing about irony being Mathilde name, Madam Loisel. As we know from the story, Madam Losiel envy the high class and wished she had not married her husband, the clerk.
But continuing, if we look closely into her name Madam Losiel sounds like Mademoiselle, which in French terms means an unmarried girl. The second fact Pierce brings up is the story being considered a mystery. We, as the audience, may not consider “The Necklace” a mystery, but what really makes a story a mystery? The story itself may not contain criminals or detectives but the mystery lies in what happens next to Madam Loisel and her husband after that fact they lost the necklace, making the story have suspense and tension.
Pierce explains why she is not a well rounded character and why Guy De Maupassant did not intend for her to be one. Loisel “is defined by what she lacks and what she is not, rather than what she has and is”. Instead Guy De Maupassant made her the motivation to fill in the gaps, which like a mystery the deactivate fills in the gaps. Pierce’s source I would say is my best source and would comfortable using for my research paper. It gave me very detailed, useful, and even information regarding the short story “The Necklace”.
Considering the story is short, I feel confident with the information I found and must say I found more than I expected. But to continue this topic, for my research paper, will be difficult because I feel since my topic is very board the future information I will find will be very repetitive and the end result I will not have enough information to write my final paper.
Castillo, Darile. “Irony. ” Irony. N. p. , 2012. Web. 04 Nov. 2010. Pierce, Jason. “Criticism. ” N. p. , n. d. Web “The Necklace. ” SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n. d. Web. 04 Nov. 2012. .
