The Necklace Video Essay

 

 

Transcript:

The common saying that money is the route to all problems echoes throughout the award-winning short story “The Necklace” . Carefully crafted by the French writer Guy de Maupassant, “The Necklace” broadcasts the crude class structure in Paris, France during the late 19th century. The social hierarchy presents itself through the experience of observing the life of a lower-class family consisting of Mathilde Loisel and her husband. Mathilde, who aspires to live a life of great fortune, discredits the privileged life she lives in attempting to attain the lifestyle of Parisian royalty. “The Necklace” depicts the drastic downfall that Loisel encounters as a direct effect of her fixation with material obsession. Through Maupassants’s use of diction and word choice, he articulates how the drastic effects of greed, ambition, and obsession with material possessions can lead to adverse shifts in various aspects of life such as physical labor, roles within the family and even the way in which one communicates.

Through Losiel’s some ten years of experience working off the debt for the borrowed necklace she lost at a ball, several instances present themselves that explain the lifestyle she is forced to live. Initially,  it can be observed that her mistakes have not only affected not only her own life but also her family. In the opening scenes of the short story, Madame Loisel’s Husband worked as a clerk for The Ministry of Education while also taking care of the chores around the house, providing a modest living for their family. However, a specific portion of the text notes her husband’s shift in employment after they are tasked with repaying the debt, “Her husband worked in the evenings at putting straight a merchant’s accounts, and often at night he did copying at twopence-halfpenny a page.”(Maupassant Par 103). Her husband’s role has now shifted, and as a result, spends the majority of the day out of the house working several jobs to compensate for the vast debt owed. By comparison, noting the change in employment, the direct effects of obsession with material goods, and the consequences of that obsession can be applied to her husband’s new-found lifestyle.

As her husband can no longer take on the duties of the house, she is forced to begin carrying out tasks such as making sure the kitchen must be clean. The author states, “She came to know the heavy work of the house”(Maupassant 101), indicating these backbreaking jobs were not custom to her before her old lifestyle. The tasks of putting away dishes and pots wear away at her nails, much like the consequences of greed are wearing away at her health. This specific portion of the text displays the physical effects of the obsession of material goods and that luxuries such as painted nails have been stripped from her as a direct result. Outlining the shift in her duties around the house, the shift in physical appearance can also be noted in this setting.

Touching on the physical demands of Loisel’s new lifestyle, the next portion speaks about how she must carry out the task of filling up a dustbin with water and traveling back to her home. This task is extremely taxing, and she must take several breaks to catch her breath. At this point, the consequences have started to drain her life by extracting the oxygen from her own lungs. The shift between physical activity can be noted as, during the party, the author displays her physical actions, “She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart.”(Maupassant 54). This indicates a drastic difference in lifestyle as originally Loisel indulges in dancing as a source of physical activity as opposed to later in the story where she must exert all her physical force just to obtain sanitary water. This could have been avoided if Loisel’s greed did not steer her toward her ambitious desires. Applying the central theme of ambition, in this case, can be seen in two ways. A shift occurs regarding the character’s ambition as before we see her ambitions placed in her status as opposed to later in the text in which she’s ambitious in the amount of physical labor she can endure sustaining her home.

Several lines in the subsequent text further the evidence of a shift in the lifestyle of Loisels presents itself as Loisel is contextualized as being dressed clad similarly to a poor woman. The drastic shift employed by the author highlights the significant change in attire, as on the night of the fatal error, she was seen dressed in the most elegant of dresses. Loisel is seen attracting the attention of several guests with noble status attending the party, something stark in contrast concerning the overlooked, filthy, and drab linens she finds herself wearing at the tail end of the story.

A shift in Loiusel’s vocal presence can be noted in both instances of her polar life experiences. Through the introductory phase of the short story, she engages in soft-spoken hopeful language with her desires to achieve the life of nobility, speaking with close friends like Monsieur Loisel about borrowing money for the elegant dress she wore or Madame Forestier about potentially borrowing her most exquisite necklace. This necklace would cause her to lose everything. These losses translate into how she speaks later in the story as she is seen speaking rashly, “she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money.”(Maupassant 101). This is yet another instance that emerges, outlining the costly effects of greed and carelessness, effects that can even alter one’s way of speaking.

Retrospectively viewing Maupassant’s work “The Necklace”, the consequences of Loisel’s actions expand into many areas of not only her life but through her family. The pain and suffering of working through the debt owed for the necklace she lost reeks havoc on her previously established livelihood. This leads to shifts in all aspects of life regarding things such as the physical labor she must endure, the degrading of her physical appearance, and even the way in which she communicates, among others. However, this drastic shift could have been avoided had it not been for her obsession with material status and pride.

 

 

Works Cited:

AllWallyShow, director. YouTube, YouTube, 9 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnbJfge2-Mg. Accessed 30 Nov. 2022.

 

 

Featured Image Works Cited:

Google Images, Creative Commons License