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)