The Necklace By Maupassant And The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

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Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace” is about a woman whose downfall is not her destined class as a commoner, but in the inability to accept her position in life. Mme. Loisel was a “pretty and charming girl” born into the middle class. She married a man who was also a clergy, and they had an uneventful life together, even though she still dreamt of the upper class and wanted to have a better life than the one she was having. One day, M. Loisel received an invitation to a ball, and expected that his wife would be pleased, for she had not gone out for a long time. However, she was saddened that she had no dress to wear to this event, and so M. Loisel sacrificed the four hundred francs he saved for a gun to buy her a dress. Still, she was unhappy because she had no jewelry. To her husband’s advice, she borrowed a diamond necklace from her rich friend, and wore it with the new dress to the ball. On the way home, she lost the necklace. After searching gave no results, they found another one similar to it, at the cost of forty thousand francs. The couple had to spend all of their savings and borrowed from many people in order to give back the borrowed necklace. After ten years, they finally paid off all the debt, but had withered and aged greatly. On an encounter in the park with the friend before, Mme. Loisel learned that the necklace she lost was only a paste, and cost just five hundred francs. After reading this story, I was glad; because, despite the tragic nature of M. and Mme. Loisel’s life, I could not help but notice the comical elements in Maupassant’s story, and I feel that I understand the reading on more levels than I could before now that I could look at it from another aspect. As I was reading through the part where Mathilde and her husband were slaving themselves for ten years to pay off the debts caused by the necklace, I imagined in my head the

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