The Necklace

5. “The Necklace” is told in third person omniscient point of view where the author tells the thoughts of the protagonist, Mme. Loisel, a very selfish middle-class woman who ends up living a lower-class lifestyle. The author, Guy de Maupassant, demonstrates third person omniscient viewpoint through indirect characterization in the quote, “She grieved incessantly feeling that she had been born for all the little niceties and luxuries of living” (70). This quotation suggest that Mme. Loisel thinks she deserves a better lifestyle because of her beauty and charm. Also, this example can extend the plot by making readers assume that Mme. Loisel will eventually stay middle-class because of her desire to be famous and prosperous by destiny. During the rising action, the author again uses indirect characterization as the author writes, “ Oh nothing. Only I don’t have an evening dress and therefore I can’t go to that affair. Give the card to some friend as the office whose wife can dress better than I can” (71). The author is able to describe how Mme. Loisel can’t attend the affair because she feels embarrassed about her middle-class upbringing. But she is able to go to the reception after her husband buys her a new dress and after she borrows a superb diamond necklace from her friend, Mme. Forestier. Mme. Loisel appears to be a self-conscious person due to the fact she couldn’t attend the reception without looking as pretty as all the other girls there. When Mme. Loisel’s husband threw wraps around her shoulders for going home in, she realized how those modest garments interfered with her elegant outfit. Again you see how Mme. Loisel doesn’t want to be pictured as common or average compared to the higher-class people.

6. The story’s protagonist is Mme. Loisel because she is the main character whom the narrator is focusing the most narrative attention on. Her internal conflict is that she’s unhappy because she does not have any luxuries although she feels that she deserves to live in a high society with a famous and prosperous husband. The event that marks the climax is when Mme. Loisel sees Mme. Forestier after ten years and realizes she’s okay with how she has become. Her conflict about her unhappiness due to her lifestyle begins to be resolved through the climax, she realizes that she won’t be like Mme. Forestier and starts to accept that.

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