Fendi's Writing Portfolio

Draft 1

                                                         Title

Statement:
In the story Necklace, Guy de Maupassant has used his irony tone toward Mathilde to reflect the sham of the whole society.

Body:
Para1: The author reveals his irony tone toward Mathilde though his subtle diction. These words, either exaggerated or implicative, have created 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 this turns out to be the source of Mathilde’s “ceaseless torture” (paragraph38, line13). This perhaps will bring 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”? This diction here seems a little too ironic, 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 become the dominant of her life, it is no strange that she will only gain nothing else than the “ceaseless torture ” in her daily life.

This kind of irony also appears in the 55^th paragraph, the word “enveloping”, and in the 98^th paragraph, the word “heroism”. The former one depicts an ironic 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. Actually it has created an ironic contrast, letting us feel the author’s mock at the so-called upper-class. Moreover ,the use of the word “heroism” is to some degree the most sarcastic, perhaps some will 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 vanity. Is this really “heroic”? Or it is just ironic!

Para2: The author also creates irony directly from the situation. In these cases, with the help of contrastive picturing and detailed depiction, the irony represented by Maupassant turns out 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 has hoped, she threw the invitations on the table with distain”. As they talk further about the issue, Mathilde’s glances become “irritated” and she herself become “impatient”, at last, surprisingly, she lets “two great tears descended slowly from the corners of her eyes toward the corners of her mouth”. 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 is really impenetrable and the way, the “wisdom” she uses to achieve her goal proves rather ironic. This depiction lets 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). The 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 and exposes all its ironic aspects in our faces.

Para3: The greatest irony, of course lies in its unexpected ending. It seems that the god is just playing a joke on Mathilde. And other than mere irony, it has brought about rather sad feelings.

When Mathilde comes around to talk to Forestier, her friend, she is actually a bit of proud. She has used up her blossom to pay off her debt, and now gets all that accomplished, in any word, it is worthy of the pride. However, out of everyone’s expectation, she is only told that the necklace, for which she has sacrificed all her blossom, is a fake one. Then, what else is fake? Her glory moment with the help of the jewelry; her heroism in paying back the lost necklace; her switch from an attractive figure to a tough woman, her ten bleak years of toiling, or perhaps the whole buckish society is 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 is just a silent lash at the oppressing society.     

22.6.07 06:43