Setting: Paris in the second half of the 19th century THE NECKLACE By Guy de Maupassant Setting: Paris in the second half of the 19th century Madame Mathilde Loisel comes from a family without money or position. She marries a man who is not wealthy, but she dreams of having a beautiful home and expensive clothes. One evening her husband comes home with an invitation to a reception at a mansion. He expects his wife to be delighted, but Madame Loisel refuses to go because she does not have a proper dress to wear. Her husband agrees to give her money to buy a dress. Madame Loisel needs a necklace to go with her dress, so she borrows a necklace from her wealthy friend Madame Forestier. Madame Loisel attends the reception and has a wonderful time. Upon returning home, she realizes that she has lost the necklace. She and her husband use all the money they have and borrow more to buy a necklace just like the one she lost. After she takes the new necklace to her friend, she and her husband work hard for ten years to pay back the money they borrowed. Madame Loisel looks old and rough when she sees Madame Forestier on the street one day. Guy de Maupassant 1850–1893 Quotes “Everything is divisible into boredom, farce, and misery.” —Guy de Maupassant “If he was understood and loved from the first it was because the French soul found in him the gifts and qualities that have created its finest achievements. He was understood because he had clarity, simplicity, moderation, and strength. He was loved because he possessed a laughing goodness; a profound satire which persists even through tears.” —Émile Zola, French novelist “[Maupassant’s] imagination aims to represent the human being as imprisoned in a situation at once insupportable and inevitable.” —Paul Bourget, French novelist and literary critic Personal History Maupassant was raised by his mother after his parents separated when he was 11 years old. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Maupassant abandoned his studies to fight, believing victory would be swift. However, he became disillusioned when France was easily defeated and civil war broke out. Before his health declined in his mid-30s, Maupassant was an excellent athlete who once saved the English poet Swinburne from drowning. Career Although Maupassant’s literary career lasted a little more than a decade, he wrote about three hundred short stories, six novels, several plays, three travel books, and a volume of poetry. When he was 30, Maupassant published the story “Boule de suife” in an anthology of naturalist fiction. The success of this story allowed him to give up his civil-service job and devote himself to writing. Influences Maupassant’s mother introduced him to the great realist novelist Gustave Flaubert, who encouraged him to give up poetry for prose fiction. Maupassant learned from Flaubert the importance of concision, of finding the exact word and image, and of trying to create objective and realistic portraits of ordinary life.

Quick-Write Response What is greed? Could greed cause a person’s downfall? What is your definition of status? How important is status in today’s society? How important is it too you? What happens to people who place too much importance on status, or the position they have in a group? What is your definition of materialism? Have people become too materialistic? What would you be willing to do to become rich? Is being wealthy important to you? Why or why not?

Pair & Share “Honesty is the best policy” is a common saying. Do you agree or disagree with it? Explain your answer. Tell about a time when you obeyed/disobeyed this saying. Why is it important to always tell the truth? Do you always tell the truth? Is there ever a situation or circumstance in which it would be acceptable or appropriate for a person to tell a lie? Explain your response.

Literary Terms

Setting The time and place where the story occurs.

The sequence of events in a story. Plot The sequence of events in a story. A husband and wife who recently lost their baby, adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.

Symbolism The use of specific objects or images to represent abstract ideas.

Irony A contrast between appearance and reality.

Tone The apparent attitude of the narrative voice.

Point of View Any of several vantage points from which the story is told.

3rd Person Limited Point of View The narrator reveals the thoughts, feelings and observations of a single character (referring to them as “he” of “she”).

Protagonist vs. Antagonist The principle character in a literary work. Counterpart to the main character and a source of a story’s main conflict. The Protagonist is the principle character in a literary work. The Antagonist is the counterpart to the main character and a source of the story’s main conflict.

Surprise Ending (TWIST) Esther is really a 33-year-old woman who was born with proportional dwarfism which causes her to have the appearance of a child. When what happens at the end isn’t what the reader/audience expected to happen (an example of situational irony.)

Characterization Use of description, dialog, dialect and action to create the emotional, intellectual and moral dimension of a character. Beyond personality, characterization may also give clues about social, cultural and geographical background.

Characterization Examples Gilly Freeborn in Letters of a Lovestruck Teenager by Claire Robertson Unfolding in a series of letters to an agony aunt, Gilly Freeborn is quite possibly the most screamingly funny teenage character ever written. Dealing with being pancake flat, having a vain, bitchy older sister, two warring parents and, of course, falling for "the Vision", Gilly is the female answer to Adrian Mole. Cherry Vanilla in Sarah by JT LeRoy OK, technically Cherry Vanilla is 12, therefore not quite a teenager, but I'm including him anyway because JT LeRoy (alias Laura Albert)'s fantastically savvy, yet ethereally naive "lot lizard", mired in a fairytale world of drugs and prostitution, must surely be one of the most original characters invented. Mark in New Boy by William Sutcliffe For all his cleverness, Mark is initially a rather unsympathetic creation. It is only as the novel unravels, in increasingly hilarious segments, that a young man drowning in peer pressure is revealed – tragically only semi-aware of the fact that he is fast losing his own identity. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/12/top-10-teenage-characters

4 Types of Characters Round characters are developed and complex characters that have some of the inconsistencies and internal conflicts found in real people Dynamic character changes as a result of the plot. Static character does not change throughout the work, and the reader’s knowledge of the character does not grow. Flat characters have just a few qualities or traits and are generally not developed. Esther is really a 33-year-old woman who was born with proportional dwarfism which causes her to have the appearance of a child.

“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be.” HW – DUE NEXT CLASS Copy Masters #46 & #50 (Unit 2 Grade 9) Determine meaning, origin & author of this particular idiom Idiom (n.) an expression that means something other than the literal meanings of its individual words. “Neither a borrower, nor a lender be.” says that it is best to not lend [money] to other people and to not borrow from other people. When we lend something we risk losing both the thing we lend and the friendship with that other person. From Hamlet by William Shakespeare; Polonius speaking.

Journal Entry #1 Has there ever been a time in your life where you were envious (jealous) of someone else because of something he or she had? What things have you been jealous over? Would you consider trading your life for someone else’s? Why or why not? If so, who is that person? What material possessions does that person have that would make your life better?