Fendi's Writing Portfolio

Draft 3

                                   Maupassant’s Social Caricature
                                                          ——An Interpreting Essay Of Necklace

In the US, the works of O’Henry are known as the “social encyclopedia” by almost all the households. However, at the same time period, Guy de Maupassant, born a humble clerk in a third class family, seems lack the extensive coverage and the piercing insight of his fellows. He is not remembered for acting as nobility in the literature kingdom like his teacher Flaubert, nor is he praised for his sense of romance like Emile Zola. He is more a skilled story-teller than a poetic writer, using his “meteoric writing style” (the preface of Bel Ami, by Maupassant, published in 2004) and leading us into the world of the humble middle-class. It is his works that presents the most realistic mundane life in our faces, and at the same time, the impressive irony, which appears in most of his stories have also gained him the world-fame.

In one of his masterpieces Necklace, Maupassant tells the story of Mathilde, a beautiful woman with a strong vanity, who goes all out to establish herself in the upper-class through a ball, in which, unfortunately, she loses her borrowed precious necklace. After that, she has toil ten years to pay off the compensation, at last, only to be told that the necklace, for which she has sacrificed all her blossom, is just a fake one.

Sure enough, it is a tearful story, yet a realistic one. The writer uses his vivid depiction to let us regard Mathilde just as a close friend around us. We lose ourselves in her sad story and we ourselves blush for her and weep for her. All the above, perhaps is exactly what the author has experienced when writing the story, but it is just not where he stops. He does not simply aim at accusing Mathilde for her excessive vanity. In fact, through the story The Necklace, Maupassant uses his ironic tone toward Mathilde to reflect the sham of the whole society.

Throughout the story, Maupassant has revealed his irony tone toward Mathilde though his subtle diction. These words, either exaggerated or implicative, create a contrastive effect against the reality. They stand out of our usual cognition, representing the author’s attitude explicitly, and showing the hypocrisy of the society at that time being.

Just like the words “suffered” and “tortured ” in the third paragraph (page38,line13), they are meant to express the agony Mathilde has bared in her daily life——ropey dwelling, worn-out chairs, frugal furniture——these can never be too common for a middle-class household, but which turns out to be the source of Mathilde’s “ceaseless torture” (paragraph38, line13). This perhaps will bring us readers a feeling of exaggeration and unreality. How can these ordinary things generate and impose on Mathilde such great torture, causing her endless “angry” and “despair” (page39, line3)? This diction here seems a little baffling, and yet it actually isn’t if we get acquainted with Mathilde’s luxury dream in mind. Her dwelling is definitely incomparable to the “silent antechamber” with the “oriental tapestry” (pagr39, line4).When this kind of mirage becomes the dominant of her life, it is no strange that she will gain nothing else than “ceaseless torture” in her daily life.

This kind of irony also appears in the 55^th paragraph, the word “enveloping” (page31, line33), and in the 98^th paragraph, the word “heroism” (page43, line25). The former one depicts a sarcastic scene in which those gentlewomen are crouching clumsily in their luxury fur coats. On the background of the flowery ball, the word “enveloping” is surely not a grace one, and matches poorly with all the elegant surroundings. In fact, it creates an ironic contrast, letting us feel the author’s mock at the so-called upper-class. Moreover, the word “heroism” is to some degree a most eye-catching word, perhaps some would think that Mathilde’s bravery to face up such dilemma deserves this word, but what if it is only the result of a flush of vanity? She is just reaping as she has sown. As the result of losing the necklace, she has been toiling ten years. She has to pay ten years of her blossom as the cost of a glory night. She also has to use her heroic actions to make up for the loss resulted from her past vanity. Is this really “heroic”? Or it is just ironic!

The author also creates irony directly from the situation. In these cases, with the help of contrastive picturing and detailed depiction, these situational irony represented by Maupassant turns out to be less implicative but more direct and powerful.

A very obvious example of this appears when the husband shows Mathilde the invitation to the ball. “Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she threw the invitations on the table with distain” (page39, line35). As they talks further about the issue, Mathilde’s glances becomes “irritated” and she herself becomes “impatient” (page39, line41), at last, surprisingly, she lets “two great tears descending slowly from the corners of her eyes toward the corners of her mouth” (page40, line2). She is crying for not having a decent dress and is using her tears to force her husband into offering her the money. The reason for Mathilde’s tears seems really impenetrable and the way, the “wisdom” she uses to achieve her goal proves rather ironic. This depiction let us see her extreme materialistic eagerness and let us feel the burden on the couple led by Mathilde’s vanity.

This kind of situational irony also comes forth during the ball, when Mathilde is enjoying the triumph of her beauty and all the homage around her, her husband ” had been sleeping since midnight, in a little deserted anteroom, with three other gentlemen whose wives were having a good time ”(page41,line28). Their totally different attitudes toward the ball let readers regard this marriage a rather strange match. However, the couple of Loisel is not the only representative. Here the author gains his deep insight into the basic structure of the society ——that is the family—— in which the two could by all means share the vows but by no means the woes. It is a typical profile of the society at that time being and a condensing of all its ridiculous and baffling aspects.

The greatest irony, of course lies in its unexpected ending. It seems that the so-called fate is just playing a serious joke on Mathilde, which resembles a nightmare, or that is the very testimony of what the writer has said” how life is strange and changeful”, “how little a thing is needed to de lost or to be saved!”(page44, line5) —— In the life of Mathilde, which is full of unexpectations and uncertainty, a small pace toward a different direction does lead her to an extreme pathetic ending.

——at which, when Mathilde is enjoying the sunshine in the park, enjoying the release from the overburden and the regain of freedom, she, seems already reduced to a tacky, tough-looking woman, completely losing what she treasures most in the past days “beauty, grace and charm”( page38, line8). However, she still retains her integrity and faith in life even after the calamity, which makes us readers feel more or less relieved on the whole. At least, she can lead an ordinary life henceforward, with sudden recollections of her past beauty and heroism, which will fitfully supplement the continuity of her rather invariable life.

However, when seeing Forestier walking in the park, for the first, Mathilde “felt moved” (page44, line13). Is it likely that she feels moved by the beauty of her friend in the former days? Being a child’s mother, Mme Forestier is still young, still beautiful, still charming. As a looker, seeing such a lady in person is a truly “moving” thing. But actually, it is not exactly the cause. In the past, she herself used to be the same as the woman in front, but the necklace leads her onto a totally different way. She toils ten years and tortures ten years, paying off her huge debt and also experiencing the revolutionary transformation on her life and her looks. Such are the compensation she has paid for the lost necklace that now she is even beyond the recognition of her closest friend and is thought to have made a mistake. Here, the author uses the word “astonish”(page44, line16) to describe the change Mathilde has underwent and also the extraordinary task she has fulfilled, during which she perseveres and she tolerates, showing a totally different aspect of her personality. Surely, all those she has achieved does bring us a true sense of “astonishment” and "movement".

Unfortunately, even this humble sense of achievement can never last long, when coming around to talk to her friend, Mathilde is told, to her greatest shock, that the necklace is just paste.
——WHAT AN IRONY!!

 After the story, perhaps all the readers will feel uneasy for Mathilde, but when it comes to whom on earth should be to blame for Mathilde’s tragedy, no one can definitely give an answer. Throughout the story, Maupassant uses an ironic tone toward Mathilde but not a callous and indifferent one. He creates this character to symbol and to reflect the sad plight in which a lot of people are trapped. They get their birth dumbly, torture the life dumbly and finally die their death dumbly, with nobody paying any more attention to them. “They should have got accustomed, ” people think，but what if they have not? The story clearly demonstrates the calamitous changes that take place on one who is eagerly, violently and continuously fighting against her own fate, her humble status and also her bleak future, which, in the end, makes her original quite life a stormy one. In this fighting which she is doomed to lose, she exerts all she has and cordially takes up the terrifying responsibilities, that is, to sacrifice herself, and to be the scapegoat of the oppressing society.

At the meantime, throughout the story, Maupassant’ s irony tone makes us laugh at Mathilde on her excessive vanity, which is such a deviation from the realistic social life, but by no means is the story aimed to let people despise her. If equality and respect have already became a luxury, then what is the wrong with the people, wanting to change this social “bias”, or going all out right doing this? Clearly in this story, what Mathilde has shouldered is far beyond what she deserves. She is posed a controversial character but not simply a wicked one, so that we can easily go into her life and experience all her sorrow and pains, brought about by the hypocritical society.

In conclusion, perhaps the word caricature can best summarize the story, in which Maupassant uses the innocent Mathilde to show the sham of the so-called upper class or even of the whole society, he is using his irony as his brightest paint to depict all the characters and all the scenes vividly, to attract us and also to have us explore all the fake points other than a single necklace.

Surely, the glory moment with the help of the jewelry is just fake. Her heroism in paying back the necklace; her switch from an attractive figure to a tough woman, her ten bleak years filled with toiling, or perhaps the whole buckish society are just based on something fake. To the end, the author gives us a very serious irony, it is not funny, not amused at all.—— actually it is a sharp spearhead targeted directly at the distorting society.

It goes without exaggeration that Maupassant’s article is just as like a drop of dew in the morning, in which the whole world, nice or witched, will be clearly and faithfully reflected. Or it is just like a silent lash at the society, the sound of which is not loud or rotund, but we can feel it by heart. It is really ironic, but it is as grandeur as a monument. It gains people the courage to fight against the distorting social custom, and also against their so-called “destined” fate.
                                                                                                                                        

22.6.07 06:21