Something that surprised me from the story “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant was its abrupt ending because it was totally unexpected. The Loisels spent many years paying off the debt of a necklace that at the end of the story is revealed to be fake. Imagine living 10 years in poverty and making the effort to pay something that has no value at all.. Something that intrigued me from this story was how Mathilde’s urge to appear wealthy and become higher class led her to make the huge mistake of borrowing a necklace and having to face the consequences when loses it and lives 10 years of misery, after paying off her debts and learning the lesson, the situation seems to humble her. Why would you want to hide who you really are? Why would you want to adopt other people’s habits? Why do we believe we need to impress others with things we can’t even afford sometimes to be loved/ be part of their daily lives? Something that puzzled me can be found in “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife.” This puzzled me because she refers to what she likes to do as “playthings” as if it had no value. I think this might be because women’s work is less valued than men’s and they see it as something to spend/kill her time. I’m a little confused by this. Also, referring to her “wife role” as an honorable role? while her dreams, passions and expectations are “playthings”?
Daily Archives: March 25, 2023
In the story of an hour I was surprised that they lady was happy when her husband was reported dead in a accident. I thought the lady would be sad that now she has to live without her husband and considering she has a heart issues she is probably old so I was surprised to see she was happy and “free” without her husband in her life. I was very intrigued when the lady in the story viewed her husband death as a victory for herself and thought that she was free, I thought this was a weird way for someone to grieve the death of a loved one who recently died. I was puzzled at the end of the story when she had died after finding out her husband was alive and the report was false, I believed that she should of been happy and celebrating his survival because he is her husband but instead she got a heart attack Im sure that also left her husband confused when she suddenly died at the sight of him.
The reading I wanted to focus on which entertained me the most was The Necklace. I had to review the date this piece was written and published because I was intrigued by the fact that it was plainly stated that women didn’t really need anything more than being pretty to obtain a higher social rank. I was intrigued by the fact that it states a woman from the poorest family could be of the same social class as a socialite because she would be pretty enough to allure a well-off man. I think this way of thinking still exists and sadly has become a societal norm [insert Instagram models obtaining fame and money for taking pretty pictures]. I was surprised that Mathilde worked hard to right her wrong. From reading, Mathilde did not come across as the type to want to work hard or make sacrifices. In afterthought, perhaps I misjudged her misery of poverty, with laziness. In reading how she lamented about her poverty, her ungratefulness at her husband’s ability to get an invite to the ball and then seeming to find reason after reason to emphasize her misery at her poverty, I was very surprised that she was agreeable to dismissing their servant and she pulling her weight. On that note, I was puzzled at their social class and how they lived. When the couple were able to locate a necklace similar to replace the lost one, we find out there is 18,000 francs available. They also had a servant on staff. If this was obtainable and they are able to pay a servant, then why is Mathilde so miserable? This puzzled me initially, but again, another afterthought, perhaps Loisel was keeping what was inherited from his father for a rainy day. It was also mentioned that he […]
