Guy De Maupassant Irony
2/6/14
Fiction Paper
Jewelry at a Cost The short story “The Jewelry” by Guy de Maupassant displays a theme of irony throughout the story through an objective narrator. The story begins by leading the readers to think that the relationship between M. Lantin and his wife is stable and pleasantly upright. Irony strikes after the sudden death of Lantin’s wife. The irony emphasizes hints that are given earlier in the story through symbolism of material and non-materialistic things.
Irony is a clear theme of this short story. Monsieur Lantin loved his wife and when she passed away he left her things exactly the way he found them, “He had kept his companion’s room just in the order she had left it… (Mays 91).” However, when Lantin went broke …show more content…
At first he is very hesitant to return to the jewelry store to claim the money for the pearl necklace. M. Lantin felt embarrassed of how the necklace came into his possession and tried to enter the shop to claim the money multiple times but was stopped by his own shame. When he finally goes into the store, persuaded by hunger, the money gives him relief. “Then, as he was on the point of leaving, he turned to the ever-smiling merchant, and said, lowering his eyes: ‘…I have some other jewelry, which came to me in the same—from the same inheritance. Would you like to purchase them also from me?’ (Mays 94).” Lantin decides the money is what he wants to ease his pain. He sells all of his wife’s expensive jewelry, quits his job, and begins to spend money like a rich man. He turns from being a man ashamed of selling his dead wife’s false jewelry for money in a time of need to a man that finds happiness in the misfortunes of his marriage.
Monsieur Lantin gets remarried after the death of his wife but is completely miserable with his second wife. Although she was as honest as they come, she had a terrible temper. This second marriage that the reader learns about in the last few lines of the book symbolizes a question that Lantin probably pondered himself; is living in happiness brought on upon immoral values better than living in unhappiness brought on by moral values (Baccellia)? This is another example of irony that …show more content…
His story “The Necklace” is about a piece of jewelry, that is meant to be real, that gets lost and a man and his wife spend ten years in poverty paying back the debt that they owed upon replacing the necklace. The end of the story reveals that the original necklace was fake and not worth much money. This contrasts “The Jewelry” because fortune is gained from the jewelry in one story and poverty is struck because of another; however, both stories have similar settings and characters and a central theme that things are not always as they
Fiction Paper
Jewelry at a Cost The short story “The Jewelry” by Guy de Maupassant displays a theme of irony throughout the story through an objective narrator. The story begins by leading the readers to think that the relationship between M. Lantin and his wife is stable and pleasantly upright. Irony strikes after the sudden death of Lantin’s wife. The irony emphasizes hints that are given earlier in the story through symbolism of material and non-materialistic things.
Irony is a clear theme of this short story. Monsieur Lantin loved his wife and when she passed away he left her things exactly the way he found them, “He had kept his companion’s room just in the order she had left it… (Mays 91).” However, when Lantin went broke …show more content…
At first he is very hesitant to return to the jewelry store to claim the money for the pearl necklace. M. Lantin felt embarrassed of how the necklace came into his possession and tried to enter the shop to claim the money multiple times but was stopped by his own shame. When he finally goes into the store, persuaded by hunger, the money gives him relief. “Then, as he was on the point of leaving, he turned to the ever-smiling merchant, and said, lowering his eyes: ‘…I have some other jewelry, which came to me in the same—from the same inheritance. Would you like to purchase them also from me?’ (Mays 94).” Lantin decides the money is what he wants to ease his pain. He sells all of his wife’s expensive jewelry, quits his job, and begins to spend money like a rich man. He turns from being a man ashamed of selling his dead wife’s false jewelry for money in a time of need to a man that finds happiness in the misfortunes of his marriage.
Monsieur Lantin gets remarried after the death of his wife but is completely miserable with his second wife. Although she was as honest as they come, she had a terrible temper. This second marriage that the reader learns about in the last few lines of the book symbolizes a question that Lantin probably pondered himself; is living in happiness brought on upon immoral values better than living in unhappiness brought on by moral values (Baccellia)? This is another example of irony that …show more content…
His story “The Necklace” is about a piece of jewelry, that is meant to be real, that gets lost and a man and his wife spend ten years in poverty paying back the debt that they owed upon replacing the necklace. The end of the story reveals that the original necklace was fake and not worth much money. This contrasts “The Jewelry” because fortune is gained from the jewelry in one story and poverty is struck because of another; however, both stories have similar settings and characters and a central theme that things are not always as they