Assignment #8 The Necklace

The Necklace is a short story by Guy de Maupassant’s short story, it includes three literary elements that are mainly dominant. Although the author uses all of the elements, he focuses on three of them. I like that he really focuses on using irony in his short story, there are so many examples of it. He actually uses irony in the first paragraph, he says “With no dowry, no prospects, no way of any kind of being met, understood, loved, and married by a man both prosperous and famous, she was finally married to a minor clerk in the Ministry of Education.” I know that when the author uses the words prosperous and famous, the reader would expect the husband to be much more then just a minor clerk.

A main character is Mathilde, from reading this story with my class I've learned that the author intends Mathilde to be cruel and demanding. The girl Mathilde was one of those pretty and charming young girls who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. When they all receive the invitation to the dance, Mathilde wants everything to look wonderful even though they do not have the money. She even uses the money her husband has been saving for a long time to go hunting with his friends.

I'm not going to re-tell the story or give away what happens but I will continue to mention my favorite parts.
I personally really liked the way the author elaborated on the literary elements. I think that in this short story there was a little bit of karma as well and i know not too many people noticed it. He used irony in the perfect way to surprise the reader at just the right time and i know we brought that up in class.

The author also makes the reader think about their own life and if they are similar to Mathilde. That is why I enjoyed reading The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant so much and I wouldn't mind reading another short story from our books in class. This author is an older author and I like how he can make young people like us think and use or heads to figure out what he has written that is hidden.