Outline on How Women are Presented in 'The Necklace'
In the essay “The Necklace' by Guy de Maupassant the author uses negative stereotypes and connotations to portray women. These stereotypes reflect the era the text was written in. In this story is defined that Maupassant uses negative stereotypes to portray Matilde. He shows that women are unequal in a society that values financial statues.
In The Necklace, Maupassant has a distinct perspective on how women need to be treated and behave. The short story’s title mirrors the character of Matilde’s obsession with materialistic wealth. Maupassant doesn’t mention her name after her appearance is mentioned in detail. This shows that Maupassant is demonstratingexpressing how his female character is valued only based on her superficial and financial status. Maupassant describes her as a victim because she isn’t wealthy. As he goes on about her good looks, he describes her as “beauty, grace , and charm” these triplets show she is only seen for her looks and is not mentioned for her personality. At the time of the short story’s publication, it was very common for women to climb society’s social ladder by looking beautiful and playing a part. As Maupassant only mentions her appearance he put the imagery inside of the readers head on Matilde looks .
Maupassant uses his character Matilde to discuss how society sees women and the social class they fit into. Matilde is often written about how “She dreamed…fine furniture”. The idea of her dreaminghaving dreams shows how important it is for her to be of a high social group. Maupassant repeats this idea many times showing how superficial Matilde is . She is creating the illusion of her perfect world, this also foreshadows the fact that she thinks her life and class is terrible when actually she would give anything to go back to her statues before she lost it all. Matilde is presented by Maupassant as a materialistic woman, this is presented when she goes on about “fine furniture”. She is actually belittling herself again because she is stating her furniture isn’t to a high standard. The alliteration of “f” gives the idea that she is only talking about the luxurious and fine things about the life she wishes she had. This does compare to when Matilde loses all her money because of the debt she owes Madame Forestier. Maupassant writes “dressed like any working-class woman” which contrasts tremendously to her old life and her dreams. Maupassant makes it clear that she has lost status and her looks. Without them, she is now a boring, poor, average woman. This stereotype idea of women shows that class was seen as a very important part of a woman.
Matilde is presented as Madame Loisel only when she is wearing the necklace. This honorific title shows that when she is seen as a wealthy high-status woman, men treat her differently. The honorific title shows she is married, and has taken her husband last name. This represents that woman are only seen as a husband’s object and when seen as high status they are treated better. However, when Matilde isn’t wearing the fine jewelry, Maupassant presents her as a “young Breton peasant girl”. this gives the perspective that she is only viewed as poor and has no respect from other men. When Maupassant uses “Breton” he associates her to the Breton is a Southwestern Brittonic French language, this language is was used in rural and lower class households. When Matilde isn’t wearing fine jewelry Maupassant presents her as a victim to a particle society and is vulnerable. She is seen as vulnerable because Maupassant saw woman as weak and defenseless.
Women are presented as victims in this text. In “The Necklace', Maupassant uses stereotypical ideas about woman, especially in the 1880s. These ideas reflect the power men had over women. Even though this text was written years ago, the female personas are put in terrible situations and they persevered and tried to breaker the stereotypes enforced by society around them.
