The Analysis of the Story "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant

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CONTENT

PLOT

Exposition

There’s a woman who never grateful for her life

• Matilda Loisel and her husband, Robert Loisel were living with unpretentious life. They can’t be called poor but also rich. Matilda was never grateful with what she has. She wanted everything that rich people have. It can be clothes until food, she wanted all of those. she wanted people seeing her as a rich woman.

Rising Action

Matilda wants her husband purchasing a new dress and she borrowed the jewelry from Ann.

• When her husband Robert Loisel offered her to go to the party, she rejected it because she don’t want to go to the party with old dress and she was getting cry. After Robert knew what that she meant. He gave Matilda much money to buy a new dress. After that, Matilda with second times was crying because she didn’t has jewelry, but her husband suggested her to borrow with her friend Ann

Climax

Matilda lost the jewelry

• Matilda finally is going to the party with a new dress and jewelry. Everyone looked her as a rich woman. Matilda and Robert spent half their night at the party until they were very tired with dancing. They came back to home by cab. Finally at home, Matilda was getting shock because she can’t find the jewelry. They were getting panic because the jewelry is so expensive 

Falling Action

Matilda and Robert struggled to find out the jewelry

• After the accident of jewelry, Matilda and Robert tried to find out the jewelry. First, they asked to cab’s office but the result is nothing. They also checked at the police department but it the same until they borrowed some money with other people to replace the lost jewelry.

Resolution

They life was changing and they just knowing if the jewelry is not expensive

• After they borrowed money to other people, their life was changing because they needed ten years to pay off the debts. One day, Matilda met Ann who has jewelry.  Ann said that Matilda was getting old and she shocked to look that. After Ann knew the reason, She laughed at that time and told if the diamond jewelry which lost was a fake and that’s not worth or cheap.

CONFLICT

The main conflict this story is Matilda Loisel lost the diamond necklace that she borrowed to her friend.

Kinds of conflict

• Matilda felt people thought that she was a poor woman (Man v Mind) = Internal Conflict
• Matilda Loisel lost the diamond necklace that she borrowed to her friend (Man v Man) = External Conflict

SETTING

Place

The setting of the story of the Necklace are Robert and Matilda house, Ann’s house and The house of Robert’s friend party.

Time

In the morning and at night

Function of Setting

• Function of the setting in this story is as background. Since the conflict of the story is about Robert and Matilda Loisel struggled to find out the necklace, so its relationship with the setting is not significant. Even the setting is changed, the conflict still can happen.

CHARACTERS

Matilda Loisel

She was Robert Loisel’s wife. She was pretty and smart. She never felt enough in her life because she wanted everything that rich people had. Her life is either rich or poor. Matilda Liosel wanted people to see her as a rich person. Liosel also woman that losing diamond necklace which she borrowed to her friend Ann.

• Based on the main part or roles in this story, Matilda Loisel belongs to main or major character. Because the story focuses on Matilda Loisel and most of the story is talking about her from the beginning until the end of the story. In the beginning of story tells about a woman who never felt enough with her life. She wanted everything rich people have such as fancy dress, bigger house with many grand rooms, fancy food like lobster until the end how she suffered in ten years. she must work hard to pay off the debts because he lost a diamond necklace whose her friend Ann. Finally she had known that jewelry price is not expensive.
• Based on personal traits, Matilda Liosel belongs to Flat character, because she shows a simple personality in the story. She only concerns with her own interests and she doesn’t care about others. Matilda only concern about her ambition to has expensive things such as dress and jewelry in order to go to the Robert employer’s party and she didn’t care about her husband that kept the money for buying a new gun.
• Based on the possibility to change, Matilda belongs to Static character because the character of Matilda is still remaining the same. At beginning, she wanted to has rich people things until the end she never regret about what she had done.

Robert Loisel

He was a clerk. He worked for the school department. He was a kind man because he loved Matilda and treated her so much well. His favorite hobby is Hunting. He is always patient to respond his wife Matilda about to has a new dress and jewelry. Robert gave his money almost $300 to his wife for purchasing a new dress even though he wanted to use those money for buying a new gun. He was also hard worker because after the accident that losing a necklace was caused by his wife. He struggled to work day by day to pay off the debts

• Based on the main part or roles in this story, Robert Loisel belongs to main or major character. Because the story focuses on Robert Loisel and almost of the story is talking about him from the beginning until the end of the story. At the beginning of the story, he was a man who understands her wife who wanted the new dress with expensive price until he gave his money for his wife to buy that things. He was never angry even though his wife lost a necklace. He helped his wife to find out the necklace through many ways. Until the end of story, he still helped his wife to pay off the debts
• Based on personal traits, Robert Loisel belongs to Flat character, because he shows a simple personality in the story. He only care with Matilda even though Matilda never considered him. For instance, he gave his money to Matilda for purchasing new dress even though he was really wanted to buy a new gun.
• Based on the possibility to change, Robert Loisel belongs to Static character because the character of Robert is still remaining the same. At beginning until the end of the story, he cares about Matilda even though at the end they must work hard to pay off the debts and suffered because the necklace

Ann

She wan Matilda’s friend. She was a rich woman in the town. She has many jewelries and she was also kind woman because she lent her jewelry to Matilda with her pleasure.

THEME

The theme of this story is “ Being grateful is the key of happiness ”

• In this story, Matilda who lived with enough things still looking for the things that she forced herself to get those. After she got everything what she wants, she was suffered by herself that never grateful with she has and her life to be sorrow life. 

POINT OF VIEW

The point of view from this story is Limited omniscient/selected point of view (third person omniscient point of view because the story is not told from the point of view of any of the characters but just through Matilda Loisel and also the author knows what the people are thinking but not all the time. The author not just telling us what happened but also telling about what Matilda Loisel is thinking but we don’t know what anyone else is thinking.

SYMBOL

The Diamond Necklace: It means that thing showed high social status of person.

The kind of symbol is original symbol because it is using based on the context of the work.

CONCLUSION

This story is quite interesting because the necklace became a nightmare for Robert and Matilda Loisel because they lost the diamond necklace whose Ann. The problem in this story was caused especially by Matilda who never grateful with her own. After they do everything to find out the necklace. They still didn’t get any information for it until they thought to replace it with buying a new one.

What a surprise is they borrowed a lot of money to replace the lost necklace to new one with expensive price. They need ten years to work hard to pay off the debts. The whole life Robert and Matilda Loisel was changed because of it. They had a enough or good life before this happened but the end of story is very surprise because the diamond at the necklace is fake, not a real diamond. It’s not worth than $20.