With his writing, Guy de Maupassant’s goal is to duplicate reality by combining his observations and reflections; however, he duplicates with such subtlety that the outcome is a surprise to the reader. De Maupassant wants readers to understand how people change depending on circumstances, while helping us see his perspective of life. I believe de Maupassant faithfully duplicates reality, because Cinderella is a fairy tale, but “The Necklace” is the story of what happens to a beautiful woman in the real world. Fairy tales have happy endings, but life “is brutal, inconsequential, and disconnected, full of inexplicable, illogical catastrophes” (Charters 1472). There are many examples of how the unreality of Cinderella compares and contrasts to Madame Loisel's ultimate reality.
Both Cinderella and Mathilde (Madame Loisel) had a fancy dance to attend in an even fancier dress; both could hardly contain their excitement when the “day of the ball arrived” (Charters 881). Both women were the most beautiful and sought after of the ball. “[Mathilde] was prettier than them all” (881). Both raced down the stairs to avoid disclosing her true self, one in rags, and the other in her “modest [wrap] of common life” (Charters 881). Both experienced after-dance transportation problems followed by a letdown. “All was ended for [Mathilde]” (Charters 882). Both women rested the hopes and dreams of life on one night of perfection.
Instead of a handsome prince, Mathilde had a “little clerk” (Charters 879). Cinderella’s prince danced all night, but Mathilde’s husband sleepily watched the purses. Cinderella fled the palace the same time the clerk went to sleep ; he had to work the next day, you see, and he slept until his wife said it was time to go. In the real world, singing bippity-boppity could get a woman committed, but not a cab, especially at four o’clock in the morning. Cinderella lost a precious but breakable shoe; Mathilde lost precious but unbreakable stones. The most obvious difference, besides rodents converting into footmen et al., is the character of the two women. We like Cinderella because her insides are as beautiful as her outsides. However, we tend to dislike vain, superficial people like Mathilde, despite her exquisite fashion sense.
Cinderella is a fairy tale that makes us want to believe in magic and true love. De Maupassant harshly disperses the fairy dust and shows us dirt. Ball invitations are hard to get, a dress replaces a vacation, loving husbands work hard to make their wives happy, and women like Mathilde who are beautiful and poor do not stay beautiful. In de Maupassant’s world, debts must be reimbursed with a decade of needless suffering. Oh, how Mathilde changed!
“How life is strange and changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!” (Charters 884). This could be the appropriate cry of Cinderella or Mathilde, and is de Maupassant’s “personal view of the world” (Charters 1471). De Maupassant’s carefully selected facts provide us with a cumulative sense of reality, the effect of which, in “The Necklace” is a dizzy whammy at the end.
Work Cited
Charters, Ann, The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction (9th Edition), Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 978-1-4576-6461-8