Women in Short Stories of Maupassant and Chopin

How do the writers of necklace and story of an hour use language and structure to present the female characters in the texts

The story necklace written by Guy de Maupassant where they talk about a girl who is pretty and delightful but poor, since she was poor and had no money to dowry she had to marry a poor man who was a junior clerk in the ministry of education and so she could not enjoy the luxurious she wanted to.

She had borrowed a diamond necklace from her friend called madam forestier to wear in a party as they got home after the party she realized she had lost the necklace and so she had to buy a new one to return it to madam forestier. They were in high debts as she had to buy a diamond necklace worth 36000 francs and she had to work really hard to repay all the debts .After ten years they cleared all the debts suddenly she met madam forestier and got to know that the necklace she borrowed was an imitation worth 500 francs only.

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Whereas the text ends making us feel sympathetic towards madam Loisel and showing how hard she could work to pay her friend back thus she used to feel jealous of her being rich.

The text starts by describing a girl being "delightful" and "pretty" "apparently by some error of fate" this emphasizes that thus being pretty and delightful it does not make a big difference in her life as it does not turn out to be an advantage for her because she is not born in a rich family .

so this shows or presents the girl as a gorgeous girl but poor being a disadvantage for her.

The text is written in third person point of view "she is" directly referring to mathilde showing her as the main character in the text. At first she is not named she is only described about how she looks and her family status "poor" which she is not really happy about. So this describes the woman as being unhappy and depressed about.

All over the story they have described how unfortunate and ill-fated mathilde is. This shows clearly when the writer of the text uses the semantic field of a tumbledown to describe their house "peeling wall", "battered walls" and "ugly curtains". The problem is that mathilde is poor otherwise she is pretty enough and so she could be classified as one of the high class lady's. This is shown when the writer of the text says "a girl of no birth to speak may easily be the equal of any society lady".

They also show how resentful mathilde is as she is underprivileged and others are privileged. For example she meditates the equipment's she never had "she dreamt of great drawing- rooms dressed with old silk". She keeps on dreaming of things she never had and so this emphasizes how unsatisfied her life is and how much more she expects. This sows the woman in necklace as unsatisfied with what she has got in her life.

There is use of juxtaposition where they relate the wife with the husband. Whereas the husband is so satisfied with what he has got in his life this is emphasized when the junior clerk says "there's nothing better than a nice stew" shows how happy the husband is where as the wife busy dreaming about her having some luxurious life "elegant dinners" .this illustrates

How unfulfilled her life is and expects more than what the husband desires and offers

Mathilde had a rich friend long time ago .whom she resented and was never happy seeing her. "She would weep tears of sorrow, regret, despair and anguish" this shows how mathilde was so jealous of her friend who was rich .the triplet's show how sad she was and how it really used to hurt mathilde. Throughout the text they talk about mathilde being an envious girl and show how unsatisfied she was with what she got in her life.

The text THE STORY OF AN HOUR is about a woman called Mrs. Mallard with a heart trouble gets to know her husband called Brentley mallard had "died" because of a rail road disaster. Where the she was gloomy for some time "she wept once" but later on she realized the things she could do when the husband was not there "free, free, free!" she could live the life according to how she wants to. Afterwards the husband arrived in the house, he had not died in fact he was far-off from the incidence that took place. Since Mrs. Mallard had a heart disease she died as she was shaken when she saw the husband alive. So this shows that the woman was not happy with her husband and so she wanted to enjoy her life minus the husband

At the start of the text it is said that Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble and so everyone behaves with her softly and nicely. Kate Chopin builds up tension by saying "great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible" the death saddens her for some time but later on she could fell her freedom and realizes that how free she became after he dies. Kate Chopin is mainly focusing on Mrs. Mallard where for some time she was sad then after some time she is happy this shows contrast on the situation .making the story even more interesting.

It seemed that Mrs. mallard was not really happy with her married life and so when the husband died she felt some kind of freedom and she was so happy, thus her husband was important in her life she did not mind living alone after he died because she feels she will be more free "free, free, free!" and could enjoy her life better than she used to with her husband. She is shown as woman who is was not happy with her husband and married lifestyle. So the entire story talks about a woman who was glad her husband died but, died herself when she saw the husband alive. This shows that she was dazed when the husband was alive and wasn't really happy to see him. Making the story more interesting. Indicates that she didn't really like him.

Commentary

So basically I chose the text "the necklace" and "the story of an hour" because they bring out the characteristic of the women in the texts very effectively. And so I thought it would be quite interesting to compare how differently and successfully the writers of the texts bring out the different characteristics of the two women called "mathilde" and "Mrs. Mallard".

Both the texts bring out contras very effectively too. AS in the text "necklace", at the beginning of the text mathilde is show as a greedy and jealous girl whereas at the end she is presented as a hardworking and a well behaved. However in the text "story of an hour" the woman is presented as selfish as she is happy when the husband had died and while at the end she is the one who dies. This shows a kind of similarity between the two texts where both the women have been presented as mean and disgraceful while at the end they both suffer.