BIOGRAPHY OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT

Henry Ren Albert Guy de Maupassant was a French naturalistic writer of short stories and novels, considered the greatest French short story writer. Guy de Maupassant was probably born on August 5, 1850 at the Chteau de Miromesniel, near Dieppe, France. He was the first son of Poittevin and Gustave de Maupassant who both came from prosperous bourgeois families. His paternal ancestors were noble, and his maternal grandfather, Paul Le Poittevin, was Gustave Flaubert's godfather. When he was eleven years old, his parents got separated and he and his younger brother Herv were brought up by his mother in the coastal town of Etretat in Normandy. He enjoyed living between the sea and the countryside which made him fond of fishing and outdoor activities. His mother was the most influential figure during his childhood and was her who first introduced him in literature. At the age of thirteen, he entered a seminary at Yvetot to receive his first education, but deliberately managed to have himself expelled because he detested this form of life. Then he was sent to the Rouen Lyce where he showed to be talented in writing poetry and as theatrical actor. In 1870, after finishing his schooling, he started to study law at the Sorbonne University, but soon, at age 20, he volunteered to serve in the army in Normandy during the Franco-Prussian War. After returning to Paris, Maupassant joined the literary circle of the famous writer Gustave Flaubert who became a sort of literary guardian, guiding him in his journalism, literary works and introducing him to other famous writers such as mile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, and Henry James. He decided to enter the civil service, working as a clerk in the Naval and Education Ministries between the years of 1872 and 1880.

In 1880, he decided to resign from the Ministry of Public Instruction and become a full time writer. In the same year he published his first masterpiece, Boule de Suif, a short fiction having the backdrop of FrancoPrussian War. He followed this masterpiece with short stories like Deux Amis, Mademoiselle Fifi and Mother Savage. In 1881 he published his first volume of short stories under the title of La Maison Tellier; it reached its twelfth edition within two years; in 1883 he finished his first novel, Une Vie , 25,000 copies of which were sold in less than a year. His second novel BelAmi, which came out in 1885, had thirty-seven printings in four months. During the next decade, he published six novels and nearly three hundred short stories, many of them in the Paris newspapers Gil-Blas and Le Gaulois. He also wrote plays, poetry, travel essays, and newspaper articles. The Necklace" ("Laparure) appeared in Le Gaulois on February 17, 1884, and was included in Maupassant's 1885 collection Stories of Night and Day (Contes dujour et de la nuit). In spite of his success he had a natural aversion to society that made him look for retirement, solitude and meditation. In search of privacy he traveled to many countries such as Algeria, Italy, England, Brittany, Sicily, Auvergne from which he found more inspiration for his writing. During the 1880s, Maupassant's health declined .He developed a constant desire for solitude, an obsession for self-preservation, a fear of death and paranoia of persecution, that came from the syphilis he had contracted in his early days. On January 2, in 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat and was committed to the celebrated private asylum of Dr. Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris, where he died on July 6, 1893 of complications from the disease.

Characteristics of his work

Maupassant went beyond naturalism because he described life as he saw it without prejudice or pity. His style is simple and direct, sometimes pessimistic, comic and ironical.

 His work reflected his interest in the emotional problems of all classes. His heroes were artisans, peasants, bureaucrats, shopkeepers and prostitutes. Moreover, his psychological curiosity allowed him to excel at revealing the hidden sides of people.

In most of his short stories he described different realities he had been in contact during his life. He focused in aspects such as a difficult childhood, the dilemma of rejected women and their children, problems of identity, the life of clerks in government offices, the peasantry of the Normandy, life in the middle of a war and journalism.

Bibliography
Novels Travel writing

Une vie (1883) Bel-Ami (1885) Mont-Oriol (1887) Pierre et Jean (1888) Fort comme la mort (1889) Notre Cur (1890)

Au soleil (1884) Sur l'eau (1888) La Vie errante (1890)

Poetry

Des vers (1880)

Short story collections

Les Soires de Mdan (with Zola, Huysmans et al. Contains Boule de Suif by Maupassant) (1880) La Maison Tellier (1881) Mademoiselle Fifi (1882) Contes de la bcasse (1883) Miss Harriet (1884)

Les Surs Rondoli (1884) Clair de lune (1884) (contains "Les Bijoux") Yvette (1884) Toine (1885) Contes du jour et de la nuit (1885) (contains "La Parure" or "The Necklace")

Monsieur Parent (1886) La Petite Roque (1886) Le Horla (1887) Le Rosier de Madame Husson (1888) La Main gauche (1889) L'Inutile Beaut (1890)

THE DIAMOND NECKLACE

I. SETTING:

a) Time:

The story takes place around the second half of the nineteenth century.

b) Place: The city of Paris, France. The places in which the situations develop are: The small flat of the main characters in The Rue des Martyrs, Madame Forestiers home , the Palace of the Ministry of Public Instruction, the Seine river, the Palais Royal and the Champs Elysees.

c) Social conditions: The story focuses in three social classes: the low class, the lower middle class and the upper class. At the beginning of the story the main characters belong to the lower middle class, but because of the circumstances they become very poor. On the other hand, the main characters have to interact with people from the upper class such as Madame Forestier, the Minister of Public Instruction and the people in the great ball. d) Mood or atmosphere: The atmosphere is depressing. Madame Loisel is unhappy with her social condition and complains about it all the time because she thinks she deserves to have a better life.

II.

CHARACTERS:

a. Main Characters:

Madame Mathilde Loisel: Mathilde is married to M.Loisel and belongs to the lower middle class. She does not have children, does not work and does not do the housework either. She is young, beautiful, graceful and charming, but also very superficial, ambitious and wants to be admired and envied by everyone. Therefore, she cannot stand living a simple life without elegant outfits, fine jewelry and other privileges she thinks she deserves. Besides, she is immature and selfish because she does not do anything to get the things she wants and instead she expects her husband will get them without caring about him at all. However, because of the cruel lesson she will learn in the story, she will lose her charms, beauty and pride to become a vulgar and unstylish woman. Monsieur Loisel:

Monsieur Loisel is married to Mathilde and belongs to the lower middle class. He works as a clerk in the Ministry of Instruction. He loves Mathilde very much and he is able to sacrifice everything to make her happy. He is hardworking, humble and does not seem to worry very much about keeping appearances. Besides, he offers Mathilde all his support in the difficult situations and tries to solve the problems in a calm and sensible way.

b. Secondary Characters:

Madame Jeanne Forestier: Madame Forestier is Madame Loisels former school friend. She is rich, young, beautiful, and charming. She is also calm, patient and generous with Mathilde to whom she lends a diamond necklace. She has a small child. Housemaid: A young and very poor girl from Brittany who does the housework for the Loisels. Her presence disturbs Mathilde because she reminds her how far her life is from being perfect.

Monsieur and Madame Georges Rampouneau: Minister of Public Instruction and his wife, who invite the Loisels to a party.

III.

PLOT-SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

 PLOT

a. Introduction:
The introduction is the beginning of the story, when the author tells us about the simple origins of Mathilde, her relationship with her husband, the description of their plain flat, how much she suffers because of her social status and her materialistic ambitions. b. Rising action: The rising action develops when Mathilde borrows the diamond necklace from her friend, goes to the ball and after returning home she realizes she has lost the jewel. c. Climax: The climax develops when Mathilde and her husband start looking for the necklace everywhere and since they do not find it, they decide to lie to Mathildes friend to gain time and buy a new one. d. Falling action: The falling actions are the situations that are caused by the necessity to get the money to buy a new necklace. They have to move, reduce expenses, work harder and borrow more money. Then, they buy the necklace, give it back to Mathildes friend and keep working to pay all the debts while Mathilde has to get use to her new life full of privations. e. Denouement: Ten years later, all the debts have been paid and Mathildes appearance and manners have become as the ones of a simple woman. Mathilde runs into her friend and tells her the truth about the necklace. Finally, she gets shocked when her friend tells her that the necklace had been fake and she had sacrifice the best years of her life in vain.

 SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

Mathilde is a beautiful and charming young woman who in spite of coming from a low middle class family of clerks, has always dreamed of a wealthy lifestyle. Having no choice, she accepts to married a little clerk who works in the Ministry of Instruction, Monsieur Loisel. She is tired of living a simple life as the wife of a clerk. She wears simple clothes and has no jewelry. The small place where she lives is plain and has old and worn furniture. Besides, her young house maid constantly reminds her of her social status. However, she dreams of having an expensive wardrobe, wear fancy jewelry and living in a better place with long reception halls, expensive furniture, shining silverware and oriental tapestry. One day Mathildes husband tells her that they have been both invited by the Minister of Public Instruction and wife to go to an important ball .Instead of being happy and excited by the news, she refuses the invitation, bursts into tears and tells him that she cannot go because she does not have a suitable gown to go to the event. When her husband sees her reaction, he tries to calm her and suggests a solution, but since she doesnt want to accept it, all he can do is give her money to buy a suitable dress. The day of the ball is near and even though Madame Loisel has a beautiful dress to wear at the ball, she is still sad because she doesnt have any jewels to wear. Since her husband does not have money to buy her a fine jewel, he suggests that she borrows one from Madame Forestier, a rich friend she has. Hopefully her friend is willing to help her and shows her a lot of jewels from which she borrows a fine diamond necklace. At the ball, Mathilde is having the best moment of her life. Shes the prettiest woman in the ball, captures the sights of lots of gentlemen and dances all night long. At four o clock she and her husband return home and shortly after they arrive, Mathilde realizes she has lost the expensive diamond necklace she has borrowed. They get really scared and look for it

everywhere in the house, but they cannot find anything. Then, her husband goes back the road and looks for it without success, so he decides to go to the police, the newspapers and the cab companies. At seven in the morning, he returns home without news, so he asks Mathilde to write a letter to her friend telling her that she has broken the clasp of the necklace in order to gain some time until they find it. At the end of the week, they lose all hopes so they decide to replace it. They go to many jewelers trying to find a jewel exact as the one lost and finally they find the perfect match. The cost of the jewel is very expensive, but fortunately they get a bargain. However; the money that M. Loisel owns is not enough and has to borrow the rest. He borrows a lot of money from many people, gives notes, dealts with usurers to buy the new jewel. As soon as they buy the jewel, Mathilde gives back the necklace to her friend who fortunately does not realize it is not the original one. After returning the necklace to her friend, things turn worst than before. They do not have much money and have a lot of debts to pay, so they move to a simpler house, dismiss their housemaid and her husband has to work overtime. Now, Mathilde has to forget all her foolish dreams and resigns to live like the ordinary people without any complain. She has to get used to wear worn-out dresses, do the hard house work and struggle with the sellers and other costumers to get a bargain. Ten years later all debts have been paid, but Mathilde has changed a lot .She is not a beautiful, delicate and charming young woman anymore: she has aged a lot, her hair is unstylish, her dresses are plain and worn and her manners are of a vulgar woman. However, sometimes she remembers how lovely she has looked in that ball and gets sat whenever she thinks about what could have happened if she had not lost that jewel. One day, while she is taking a walk in the Champs Elysees she runs into her old friend Madame Forestier who in spite of the years still looks beautiful and charming. At first she does not recognize Mathilde because of her new looks, but then they start to talk. Mathilde blames her friend for the miserable life she has had to endure just because she had lost the necklace and had to suffer to buy one .However instead of being furious, her friend laughs and finally tells her that her efforts have been in vain because

actually the diamond necklace was fake and therefore it had cost much less than the one she had bought.

IV. POINT OF VIEW:

The story is narrated by the author in third person. He is an omniscient limited narrator. Besides, he uses simple language and describes the characters feelings and the scenery in great detail.

V. CONFLICT
It is a Man vs. Herself conflict. In the story the conflict appears when Mathilde loses the Diamond Necklace. Mathildes greed is what really causes this negative event that ruins her life completely. She is obsessed with looking as beautiful, charming and sophisticated as upper class ladies .Therefore, when she goes to her friends house and she is asked to choose a jewel from the ones that her friend offers her; she does not choose a simple jewel, her ambition makes her choose the best of all of them, the one that looks more beautiful and expensive .Then at the ball she focuses her attention on the way other people see her and the compliments they pay her, which is why she completely forgets about taking care of the jewel. As a result, she loses the diamond necklace and to replace such expensive jewel she and her husband have to work really hard, endure difficult times full of privation and sacrifice their youth to discover later that all their efforts have been wasted.

VI.

THEME:

Materialism and greed just brings misery to our life.

Mathildes materialistic attitude and her wish to get more things that she can afford make her life miserable from the beginning until the end of the story. She is not happily married because her husband comes from the

same social class than she, which for her means that she will never be able to have the luxurious lifestyle she deserves. She does not value what is really important such as a loving husband who is always willing to help her, a place to live and the necessary things to have a calm life. Instead of that, she spends her time fantasizing about all the things she would like to have and blaming her destiny. Then, when she loses the diamond necklace and she and her husband have to get the money to buy a new one, her life turns worst than she would have imagined. Not only does she go from middle class to low class, but the difficult times she has to endure ruin her beauty and turn her to the vulgar and rough woman she always hated. At the end Mathilde learns her lesson the hard way.

VOCABULARY

Antechamber (n): A small room connected to a larger room. Bareness (n): Empty, not covered by anything, or not having any decorations.

Bewildering (adj):

Confusing, especially because there are too

many choices or things happening at the same time. Breech (n): Long pants. Caste (n): society. Chagrin (n): Annoyance and disappointment because something A group of people who have a particular position in

has not happened in the way you had hoped: Clasp (n): jewelry etc. A small metal object that fastens a bag, belt, piece of

Clerk (n): Someone, whose job is to keep records, accounts etc. in an office.

Coquette (adj): A woman who tries to attract the attention of men without having sincere feelings for them.

Dainty (adj): Small, pretty, and delicate Despair (n): A feeling that you have no hope at all: Dowry (n): Property and money that a woman gives to her husband when they marry in some societies.

Dwelling (n): A house, apartment etc. where people live. Footman (n): A male servant in past times, who opened the front door, announced the names of visitors etc.

Frock (n): A woman's or girl's dress Gallantry (n) : Polite attention given to women by men Glass (n) : Mirror Gown (n): Long dress worn by a woman on formal occasions Hierarchy: A system of organization in which people or things are divided into levels of importance.

Homage (n): Something that you say or do to show respect for a person or thing that you think is important.

Garret (n): A small room at the top of a house. Impoverish (n): To make someone very poor. Lark (n): A small brown singing bird with long pointed wings. Lodging (n): A place to stay. Mutter (v): To speak quietly or in a low voice, usually because you are annoyed about something, or because you do not want people to hear you.

Paste (n): Artificial diamonds or other artificial stones.

Peasant (n): Poor farmer who owns or rents a small amount of land, either in past times or in poor countries.

Plainly (adv): Simply or without decoration. Quail (n): A small fat bird with a short tail that is hunted and shot

for food and sport, or the meat from this bird. Quay (n) and unload. Queer (adj) : Strange or difficult to explain. : A place where boats can be tied up or can stop to load

Rapture (n): Great excitement and happiness. Shabby (adj): Old and in bad condition from being used for a long time.

Sought after (adj) to get.

: Wanted by a lot of people, but rare or difficult

Tureen (n): A large dish with a lid, used for serving soup or vegetables.

Thunderstruck (adj): Extremely surprised or shocked. Tradesman (n): Someone who works at a job or trade that involves skill with their hands.

Usurer (n): Someone who lends money to people and makes them pay too high a rate.

Vestibule (n): A wide passage or small room inside the front door of a public building

Wardrobe (n) : The clothes that someone has. Wrap (n): A piece of cloth that you wear around your shoulders to keep you warm.

Wild (adj): Showing strong uncontrolled emotions, especially anger, happiness, or excitement.