Literature Summary of "The Necklace"

Bridget Ruffing

11/14/2012

Excellence in Literature unit one

Novel or Story Title: 'The Necklace”

Author: Guy de Maupassant

Theme

“The Necklace” is a brilliant short story that reveals a lot about human nature, showing what can happen when you ask for too much, are too careless, and, ultimately, the benefits, and trials, of doing the right thing. It has a hilariously ironic ending that leaves the reader full of imaginings, wondering, “What if it had gone differently?” and that thought leading into an endless chain of questions.

Characterization

Mathilde Loisle lives under a great burden, one that she cannot see, lift, or take hold of, but is always there. Her birth. Though she possesses great taste, admirable beauty and refined manners, she has been born into a family of low-income clerks and has married a clerk at the Ministry of Public Instruction. She sits in her house all day long wishing to have better drapes, a larger house, fancier food, elegant dresses, and so on. She is filled with so much self-pity that she cannot even bare to be with her rich friend, Mme. Forestier, who always tempts Mathilde with her fine things.

Plot

The story begins when Mathilde and her hsband receive an invitation to a party for the Ministry of Public Instruction. But, instead of being delighted as her husband had hoped, Mathilde becomes all the more depressed, complaining that she had nothing to wear to such a gathering. But her husband gives her money to make herself a dress, and when the issue of jewelry arises, he suggests that she borrow some of Mme. Forestier's. The story then spirals towards it's ironic ending after Mathilde loses the diamond necklace she has borrowed, and creates more and more debt as she tries to pay for the necklace she buys to replace the lost one.

Setting

“The Necklace” takes place in France, in the 1900's.

Style

Guy de Maupassant wrote this story with much narrative and little dialog, with spare, to-the-point sentences used by the characters. He is very good at giving a life to his characters. The reader has a very good idea of the nature of them, which is quite a feat to be accomplished in a such a short tale.

Review of the Pride and Prejudice BBC Miniseries From 1980

My Jane Austen submersion continues, and I have finished Pride & Prejudice and am now reading Sense & Sensibility  along with listening to Persuasion on Craftlit, a great little knitting/crafting/literature podcast done by Heather Ordover. I also recently finished watching the BBC miniseries version of P&P created in 1980 and thought I might review it here:

Review of Pride and Prejudice, 1980 Series Version

Acting: This production features a wide range of actors for the numerous characters in Austen's book, and some of them took on their task of being the most beloved and despised characters of hundreds of people and represented them very well. I thought the acting done for Lydia, Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins and Elizabeth to be very well done. Elizabeth Garvie, the actress for Elizabeth Bennet, did a fabulous job of using her lines (which were almost all straight from the book) and conveying them with believable emotion and wit. And the rest of the characters I have above mentioned were all played with their deserved amount of foolishness and distaste. The actor chosen for Mr. Darcy,  David Rintoul, while portraying Darcy's proud, sullen, intimidating public air very well, his softer side barely showed. He conveyed little believability in professing his love for the first or second time, hardly smiled, and remained rigid and stiff as a board. I was not pleased with the actor for Bingley, either. He was too silly and awkward, when he was supposed to have been the one perfect at conversing with any and everyone. Mr. Bennet said his lines in the same satirical tone and manner throughout the entire series.

Production and Set: The set and production were certainly nothing astounding, but that can be expected and forgiven, considering the low budget the producers must have been given. The sets were small and unimpressive, one scene ran right into the next without a pause or dissolve, and the sound quality was not so good.

Script and Storytelling: The script was taken almost entirely from the book, which I was reading at the time I watched this. They decided to include nearly every scene from the novel, and in doing so, had to make the scenes short and the series episodes long. If I were them, I would simply have included the most important scenes and quotes. I was also very, very disappointed with the ending. Neither Elizabeth nor Darcy appeared to be very in love with each other, and Darcy professed his love stiffly, and Elizabeth seemed almost afraid of him. When she accepted him, he looked as if he expected her to all along. I was not not impressed.

Overall, I would have to give this 2 out of 5 stars.

Jane Austen Lexicon

Hey there,

I'm back. Been awhile, but since my last post, things kind of fell by the wayside as Thanksgiving and eventually Christmas rolled around. But lately, as I'm still getting over a cold and therefore have a lot more time on my hands, I've been indulging in reading Pride & Prejudice again, and watching all of the movie versions I can find. This isn't the first time I've read the book, but it has made much more sense this time around. I have taken notes on this book in the new Jane Austen-Themed journal that my mom bought for me off of Etsy as a Christmas gift, and I've been perusing the copy of the latest issue of Jane Austen Knits that was another gift, looking for things to knit, and wondering if miss Austen would be pleased with my handiwork. It's fun to think of the charaters in her books wearing the different items shown within the magazine's pages. After I finish reading Pride & Prejudice, I will probably pick up Sense & Sensibility, and watch the movie version of Emma.

I  might be reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, after I see the new movie on Wednesday with my friends. I'm so excited! 

Saturday, October 20th, 2012

Haven't written in a couple days. But lots has happened since my last post. First and most excitedly off, mom got a call from Dr. Epstein with the results form my Halter monitor. He said he's taking me off of the Nadolol and exercise restrictions! This means I can return to dance. I'm already looking at classes and equipment. I'm not sure yet what classes I want to take, but I definitely want to do ballet. I had been in the middle of my sixth year of it when I had to quit do to the long Q-T syndrome Dr. Epstein thought I might have. I'm pretty sure I want to do hip hop too. But if I wanted to do pointe or contemporary, I would have to choose one dance studio over another. It's all rather confusing.

I've also begun reading Moon By Whale Light by Diane Ackerman for biology/nature studies. It is really fascinating. At the moment I'm still reading the first essay, all about bats. It's really sad, because really they are very gentle animals, and never purposefully hurt anyone. And many important breeds are facing extinction, which could have a huge effect on the world.

Today I got out mom's Hello Kitty sewing machine and spent a good part of the afternoon sewing a knitting bag from this great pattern I found on The Purl Bee website. I love it! The pattern was very easy to follow and this might be the first time I've used a sewing machine without getting frustrated. tomorrow I plan on making another one of these bags in a smaller size.

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

No blog post yesterday, because I stayed up late and decided to spend my time watching Dancing With the Stars and Castle. But, aside from reading part of the introduction to Light to the Nations, not much schoolwork got done. Barely anything has been accomplished because almost every day I have to be somewhere, like today, where I wasn't home from one o'clock in the afternoon until sometime around six in the evening, tagging along with mom to go shopping and drop Luke and henry off at the golf course. Not a lot of time for reading and writing.

Today I began an approach paper for The Necklace, but apparently I'm supposed to be writing some other type of essay. Oh well, I guess it is a good thing I didn't get very far. Tomorrow I have an appointment scheduled with my orthodontist at ten in the morning, but hopefully after that I can get some lessons done. I've been considering writing up a schedule for myself, maybe I will.

On another note, I received some very exciting news yesterday. Mom called Dr. Epstein back to ask about the results of my halter monitor test, and he said that he's cancelling my medication and exercise restrictions. In other words, I can do dance and any other kind of sports again! I've already begun looking at dance schools and classes. I can't wait to get started!

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Hello, I haven't been here since Friday. I completely forgot to write on Saturday, and on Sunday I had to go to Church, and then went out shopping, and then Tally came over and we went to Youth Ministry together. So as you can imagine, I was kind of tired.

So today, I slept in until eleven, and went to the post office with mom and Luke. Unfortunately, I didn't finish Peace Like a River over the weekend, but I have read The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant, which is the next short story in the EIL lineup.

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Honestly, I barely got anything done today. I didn't even do much reading. I got up late and kind of lazed around.

Henry and I got to go for a walk down the road this afternoon though, and I enjoyed that. It was bitterly cold, requiring a coat, hat and gloves. I really should knit some more. The walk provided good time to think, and good exercise. I also worked on some drawings.