Essay Example on The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant

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The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin were both undeniably exceptional short stories to flip through and interpret both enjoyable as well as indulgent with a deeper meaning that leaves readers contemplating their messages long after they ve finished reading The two stories were particularly easy to compare because of their similar themes involving gender roles as well as marriage norms even though they differ in time and setting In The Story of an Hour Louise Mallard a woman burdened by fatal heart problems handles the death of her husband in the most appalling and perturbing of ways Louise rather than feeling numb and overcome with grief is elated overjoyed with her newfound freedom when she is told her husband Brently is dead only to discover he is actually alive in the closing paragraphs Contrarily Mathilde Loisel in The Necklace is forced to live a life she has always feared after losing a cheap borrowed necklace presumed to be worth 40 thousand francs ultimately spending the next ten years compensating it In both these stories the authors construct an eye opening message that revolves around the consequences of what happens when one lives life ruled by outside options and objects rather than what makes that individual person happy Mathilde Loisel the main character in The Necklace is a beautiful woman of the French middle class who is attached to the notion her simple life is a cruel blunder of fate

She is constantly whining about how plain and uninteresting her life is even though she has a comfortable home and loving husband Having what most would kill for she still dreams of a world of gold and wealth a reality of extravagance and luxury that is chalk full of rich exciting people and parties Fundamentally restated she is a vain thankless woman who possesses the steadfast credence she was born to live a better life Monsieur Loisel her husband on the other hand is a hardworking modest man who enjoys the unpretentious simplicity of his life completely satisfied with the food that is cooked for him as well as his routine job at the Ministry of Education When invited to a formal ball Mathilde borrows a necklace seemingly expensive and misplaces it After searching diligently for it and coming up empty handed they replace it without telling Madame Forrestier and work and save for the next ten years Louise Mallard the main character in The Story of an Hour is a rational woman who plays the role of the good wife exceedingly 



However when she is told her husband is dead she feels as if she has been set free In the text Body and soul free is echoed repeatedly such a statement makes it evident how free she really feels It occurs to her that she should mourn for Brently because that s what any normal spouse would do after the loss of a loved one but at the time she can only feel the vast sensation of utter freedom from another person s dominance and control Louise viewed her marriage as an oppression a cage of iron and the foundation of her heart problems which signifies her relations with Brently are clearly troubling turmoils that rooted both physical and mental obstacles It s brutal irony that concludes the story Brently walking through the door causes Louise s heart to erupt what the doctors later diagnosed as joy and kills her soon after In both these stories the writers sent a clear message to the reader the two women would have encountered less suffering pain and hardship had they only been satisfied with what they had when they had it It goes without saying that Guy de Maupassant and Chopin created two opposing characters that shared a hatred for living under the domination of their presumably devoted husbands Madame Loisel appears to be caught under the crushing thumb of social standards with her middle class mortality while Louise s lack of freedom is due to the binding shackles of her marriage



 Even though she admits that she loves her husband to an extent in the text she also admits that she feels little to no remorse for acknowledging that his death means her liberty The husbands of these two protagonists are also formulated by their respective writers in an equally different manner In The Story of an Hour the reader will find it harder to relate to Louise s apparent state of oppression because Brently is only present in thoughts and memories until the very last sliver of the final paragraph they don t receive an ample understanding of what he s like in personality and mannerisms contradictory to in The Necklace where the reader can clearly discern that Monsieur Loisel was a kind caring husband who would do anything for his selfish wife regardless of how much it costs him The main protagonists of these short stories were written by two very distinctive and exceptional writers both differing in technique and style yet both touching base with similar issues that address gender inequality and marriage roles of the time Both women were looking for something different in their lives Losiel looking for a world of gold and Louise for a world of freedom Nevertheless both discover that life could always be worse so it s best to be content with what you have


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