The Necklace
A detailed Summary of The Necklace
In Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace", we see different tones and attitudes. We
can see the attitudes of the characters in the story, especially the main character, Mathilde.
She is after all, the central character around which is built an intricate portrait of a certain
type of woman during a certain era. Of course as there are only two very developed
characters, Mathilde and her husband, we can only gather enough tonal information from
these two. It is enough to paint a very interesting view of the story and de Maupassant's
intentions. We know that characters can set the tone. Ultimately, it is the author who
writes of these characters that creates the tone, whether or not he is sympathetic with
those characters he created. Here, I think we see a very good example of an author who
portrays characters one might not necessarily be sympathetic towards.
The tone was not apparent to me at first, so I reread the story several times and came
to this conclusion. I saw that de Maupassant was trying to say that Mathilde was not an
unusual girl in his world. She was rather typical of the young beautiful women who had
not been born to a richer life. He says that she was one of "those" pretty girls,

all the traits and qualities to be a rich, well adorned woman. But this is really Mathilde's
no thought but of herself and her station in life. She dreams of the attention of suitors
dress. With Mathilde there is little joy. There is no thank you, no showering of affection,
dishes, using her rosy nails in the greasy pots and pans."
married a poor man, a simple clerk from a long line of poor clerks, but this would be the
know what heavy housework meant and the odious care of the kitchen. She washed the
Some common words found in the essay are:
Public Instruction, Maupassant's Necklace, de maupassant, mathilde's husband, , helped form, pride irony, de maupassant's, simple clerk, creates tone, hate mathilde, story de,
Approximate Word count = 1053
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
Category: Novels
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