The Necklace" in the Champs-Elysées

"The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant is an excellent example of realism in literature. This story represents mundane aspects of everyday middle-class life in the late nineteenth century. However, the story breaks away from mundane when Mr. Loisel receives an invitation to a swanky upper-class dinner party. The premise of "The Necklace" centers around the main character, Mathilde Loisel, borrowing a necklace from her wealthy friend Madame Jeanne Forrestier, losing the necklace, replacing it and paying off the loans for ten years. This story contains rich characterization, realistic setting and irony. There are three main characters in "The Necklace," Mr. Loisel, Mathilde Loisel and Jeanne Forrestier. Mr. Loisel is the personification of a real man. He likes to hunt and shoot birds for sport. However, Mr. Loisel is also a simple man. When he sat at the dinner table with his wife Mathilde, he exclaimed "good old boiled beef" (Maupassant 5). Mathilde, unfortunately, does not share his enthusiasm. Throughout most of the story, Mathilde dreams of fancy banquets and parties and delicate, expensive tapestries and decorations. Though Mathilde changes from a middle-class dainty woman to a lower-class pauper, she still fantasizes about being pretty and admired (11). Mathilde can accurately describe what a wealthy woman would be like because Madame Forrestier is wealthy. Madame Forrestier is a dainty, elegant woman who owns jewelry and lovely dresses, unlike Mathilde. At the end of the story, Madame Forrestier is reintroduced. After ten years, Mathilde describes Madame Forrestier as "still youthful, still beautiful, still attractive" (11). It seems as though Madame Forrestier has moved forward with her life while Mathilde has been stuck in a working-class rut for the last ten years. This story is set in late nineteenth century in Paris, France. During this time period, artists such as Monet and other impressionists were making their paintings by looking at what they were painting rather than sitting in their studios. This was a great time of change in how the arts were accomplished. America was closing its frontier at this time and Britain was becoming the commercial and industrial leader of the world. At the end of "The Necklace," Mathilde is walking down "the Champs-Elysées to relax from the cares the week" (11). Champs-Elysées is an avenue in Paris comparable to New York 's Fifth Avenue. This story has a lot of irony. One example is the actual value of the first necklace. It was costume jewelry, but it was put in an expensive box to give the impression that Madame Forrestier spared no expense. Mathilde also used this necklace thinking that it was the real thing for the same reason. At the beginning of the story, Mathilde feels that she is poor. However, by the end of the story, she became accustomed to a working-class lifestyle and is content with this. It is also ironic how Mathilde expected to have a better life after the dinner because she was in the company of those rich women. However, because Mathilde lost the necklace and had to become a working class person she was not able to acquire new rich friends. Guy de Maupassant 's short story "The Necklace" truly transcends time. Any person in today 's world could be seen in a similar situation. Most readers could relate to Mathilde because they too have lost something of a friends and replaced it rather than telling the truth. In most cases however, the item in question would not be "costume jewelry" (11). "The Necklace" has wonderful in-depth, realistic characterization and truly beautiful scenery in a time period when new styles of art and literature were coming out. Also, the irony in this story reaches a point of hysteria in some instances which can be scary because of the reality of the situation. Maupassant does not fully conclude the story, which makes it more intriguing to read. This way the reader can make up their own mind of how they think the story should have ended.

Works Cited
Maupassant, Guy de. "The Necklace." 1884. Trans. Edgar V. Roberts. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Third compact edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006. 4-11.

Cited: Maupassant, Guy de. "The Necklace." 1884. Trans. Edgar V. Roberts. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Third compact edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006. 4-11.