Tanner Raymond Raymond 1
English
Mrs. Cyr
7 January 2015 In Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace” he uses literary devices. Literary devices are used in writing to give depth and to enhance the work and play a huge role Guy’s writing.
Guy uses situational irony, theme, dynamic characters, and the point of view in the story to keep you wanting to read.
The fact that Mme. Loisel is a dynamic character means that she changes throughout the story. In the very beginning of “The Necklace” Mme. is middle class and not overwhelmingly wealthy. She feels unhappy, greedy, and over all just bored with her lifestyle.
To illustrate this it states directly from the text, “She suffered endlessly, feeling born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from it’s mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains.”(pg. 29). Following this, Mme. Loisel gets a pretty dress and necklace. She feels happy, very proud, and she feels like she is a high class citizen. Soon after Mme. Loisel spends 10 years of her life paying off loan sharks and other people. Due to this Mme. Loisel is lower class, very poor, hard working, and most likely very grateful now that her debt is gone. In the case that Mme. Loisel is a static character meaning she did not change throughout the story, rather than a dynamic one, we the reader wouldn't be able to understand how Mme. Loisel is feeling in her circumstances.
Secondly, if the point of view in “The Necklace” were to change the whole story would be completely different. The point of view is the angle of considering things to show how an individual is involved. For example Mme. Loisel receives a necklace from Mme. Forestier.

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Mme. Loisel believes the necklace is real diamond. But if the story were in the point of view of
Mme. Forestier we the reader would have been fully aware that the necklace was an imitation.
Also from Mme. Loisel’s husbands point of view he thinks Mme. Loisel will be happy and excited when he got her an invitation. When in reality she is upset and almost insulted because Mme. Loisel believes she has nothing to wear to the event. As Guy writes, “She gave him an irritated glance and burst out impatiently, “ What do you think I have to go in?””(pg. 29). Furthermore it states Mme. Loisel spends 10 years of life paying off her debt.
Mme. Forestier has no idea that Mme. Loisel never knew the necklace was an imitation. The point of view in a story can change the entire plot of one and in the case of “The Necklace” it would have made the story completely different if it were in a different point of view.
Thirdly, almost every good story has a theme to it, it’s the author's message or purpose for writing the story. And as you can take many messages from a story, a good one you can get for example would be “Money can't buy one happiness”. Evidence for this theme can be found in the text, such as, Mme. Loisel because of her good looks and charm that she should be in a higher socials class. But because she is in middle class she is unhappy. For another thing when Mme. Loisel gets the necklace which she believes is real, she becomes overjoyed. But in actuality the necklace is fake and nearly worthless yet Mme.Loisel is happy.
Also including, once Mme. Loisel pays off her debt and has very little money, she is grateful and happy that her debt is gone. As it says in the text, “ Well its over now, and im glad of it.”(pg. 34). The whole purpose of the theme is to bring the story into the light and give it its own purpose.
Lastly, situational irony is a type of irony meaning when you expect one thing to happen but the opposite occurs, its what keeps the story from being predictable and what

Raymond 3 keeps the reader reading. Like when Mme. Loisel gets the invitation and we expect her to be happy yet she is more angry than happy. Another thing to consider is when Mme. Loisel lost the necklace when as the reader we would expect her to be taking good care of it. Another example is a person like Mme. Forestier as highly regarded as herself would have only real jewels yet she did not. As Mme. Forestier says, “But mine was only paste. Why at most it was worth only 500 francs!”(pg. 34). The situational irony is what keeps the reader on their toes to get them to want to read more.
From the information given you can now tell that literary devices play a large role in
“The Necklace” and other short stories.Guy used theme, situational irony,point of view, and dynamic characters to keep the story interesting and to keep you wanting to read.