Necklace

In the short story, “The Necklace” the delineation of the characters and the setting tie in perfectly synchronized manner. The role of women in the in the 19th century was the anchor of the entire story. The story revolves around the character of Mathilde. The pivotal character of the short story was simply fulfilling her role as a woman, or at least the best she knew how about it (Abrams, pp. 45). After the key hurdles, greed and lust took over her, and it caused her to lose sight of what was an important part of her life. This caused her and her husband loads of pain, hard work, and mental stress that resulted due to poor decision-making. The story depicts various interesting moments related to the ball-room incident, where the necklace was lost, the Champ-Elysees, where the crucial climax happened. The story represents the character of a wife who goes to the highest extent to depict her extreme materialistic approach.

The two incidences in the story are represented by the scenario of the ball-room and Champ Elysees. Both act as the turning point in the story and the lives of the pivotal characters involved in the story. The role of women in the late 19th century was certainly looked elegant and she endeavored to maintain a decent household, unless they were rich enough to afford, servants to handle such work. In the story “The Necklace”, Mathilde Loisel was a woman who wanted to be the “best” at such a tedious job. She was not happy with the mediocrity of her life and wanted to do more than what she had. Women in the 1880's did not have numerous rights, multiple job offers, and they were often looked as inferior to men (as some people still do today). It seemed that the women in that era strove to be the best in the position they were appointed to be in, a trophy wife. Mathilde was disappointed because she did not have all of the jewels, money and popularity as some of her peers did. Her husband worked unceasingly to provide a mild household, and wanted his wife to be happy. This is obvious, because he went to extraordinary lengths to, please her wife.

The setting of the story “The Necklace” was in Paris, France the late 19th century. This is shown because the name used in the story was French, the currency that ...