The Necklace Rhetorical Analysis
Anjali Prabhat
Mrs. Keating
Honors English I
30 November 2012 Any skillful author has hundreds of tricks up his or her sleeve for successfully conveying the theme of the story to readers. One of the most effective methods in doing so would be through the use of irony, both situational and verbal. When an event occurs to the contrary of what the reader might have been expecting, the plot thickens, adding a twist or creating a higher level understanding of the story. Irony can also expose a character’s true self and the situation he or she has brought about. For example, if a character’s actions cause an event to occur that is the exact opposite of what he or she would have wanted to happen, then the reader clearly sees the …show more content…
After the party, Madame Loisel loses the necklace, resulting in tireless work, loans, and night jobs for her and her husband in order to pay back the equivalent of the price. The couple finally succeeds when all the money is paid ten years later, only for Mathilde to discover that the necklace was ironically a fake, and worth a very small percentage of what the couple paid. The theme of this story is that an overemphasis on material wealth can shrink the spirit and leave one open to the changeability of fortune. The situational irony highlights this moral because the Loisels would never have had to exhaust themselves if Madame Loisel wasn’t so obsessed with riches and wealth. From the very beginning of the story, she wastes her time dreaming of luxuries such as fine silks, beautiful furniture, and gourmet feasts. Even when she is at Madam Forestier’s house to try on necklaces to borrow, she is never satisfied until she has seen the very best. Madame Loisel’s preoccupation with appearance clouds her judgment as well. As soon as she realizes that she has lost the necklace, she should simply come clean to Madam Forestier. Instead, she is too concerned with how her reputation will be affected, so she keeps quiet. She later pays the price for this when she discovers that the necklace is “false [and]…worth five hundred francs at most.” The life that she gets instead as punishment during the ten years in debt is even more difficult and meager than her life to begin with, which stresses how fame and fortune is so fleeting and unimportant in the scheme of
Mrs. Keating
Honors English I
30 November 2012 Any skillful author has hundreds of tricks up his or her sleeve for successfully conveying the theme of the story to readers. One of the most effective methods in doing so would be through the use of irony, both situational and verbal. When an event occurs to the contrary of what the reader might have been expecting, the plot thickens, adding a twist or creating a higher level understanding of the story. Irony can also expose a character’s true self and the situation he or she has brought about. For example, if a character’s actions cause an event to occur that is the exact opposite of what he or she would have wanted to happen, then the reader clearly sees the …show more content…
After the party, Madame Loisel loses the necklace, resulting in tireless work, loans, and night jobs for her and her husband in order to pay back the equivalent of the price. The couple finally succeeds when all the money is paid ten years later, only for Mathilde to discover that the necklace was ironically a fake, and worth a very small percentage of what the couple paid. The theme of this story is that an overemphasis on material wealth can shrink the spirit and leave one open to the changeability of fortune. The situational irony highlights this moral because the Loisels would never have had to exhaust themselves if Madame Loisel wasn’t so obsessed with riches and wealth. From the very beginning of the story, she wastes her time dreaming of luxuries such as fine silks, beautiful furniture, and gourmet feasts. Even when she is at Madam Forestier’s house to try on necklaces to borrow, she is never satisfied until she has seen the very best. Madame Loisel’s preoccupation with appearance clouds her judgment as well. As soon as she realizes that she has lost the necklace, she should simply come clean to Madam Forestier. Instead, she is too concerned with how her reputation will be affected, so she keeps quiet. She later pays the price for this when she discovers that the necklace is “false [and]…worth five hundred francs at most.” The life that she gets instead as punishment during the ten years in debt is even more difficult and meager than her life to begin with, which stresses how fame and fortune is so fleeting and unimportant in the scheme of