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The Necklace. Day After Reading Activity & Discussion. Objectives:. SWBAT compare Mathilde’s actual life with the one she desires, and explain how the author develops her character through descriptions, actions, and dialogue.
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The Necklace Day After Reading Activity & Discussion
Objectives: • SWBAT compare Mathilde’s actual life with the one she desires, and explain how the author develops her character through descriptions, actions, and dialogue. • SWBAT identify one theme of “The Necklace” and explain how the author uses irony to convey this theme. • SWBAT use details from the text to draw conclusions about the society in which Mathilde lives and explain how the author uses the social setting to convey another theme of “The Necklace”. • SWBAT take a stance on which theme they believe Maupassant is chiefly concerned with conveying and, as such, argue whether Mathilde deserves her fate.
Meet Guy de Maupassant • Wrote about life’s inexplicable, illogical, and contradictory catastrophes. • Some of his best work came from his experience fighting in the Franco-Prussian war and from being a civil servant. • Lived an extravagant life which later led to debt. • He wrote 6 novels and over 300 short stories which all painted a picture of French life at the end of the nineteenth century.
The Necklace • The story takes place in Paris, France in the late 1800’s • In the nineteenth century a very rigid class structure defined the Parisian society. • The average worker earned less that 900 francs a year. • Aristocrats • Wealthy/ Large Estates/ Servants • Earned hundreds of thousands of francs yearly • Middle Class • Merchants/ Clerks/ Others • Lived in a modest home and could afford 1-2 servants • Peasants & Servants • Worked for the rich and farmed the land • The average worker earned less that 900 francs a year. • Currently 1 franc is worth 95 cents.
What is the author trying to convey? • Theme: The moral of the story or the lesson that the author is trying to get the reader to see. • Sometimes this has something to do with understanding the background of the story and knowing what was going on at the time the author was writing.
Characterization • Student should use details from paragraph 1-5 to form initial impressions of who Mathilde is as a character and how that differs from who she wants to be.
Characterization in Paragraphs 1-5 • She is pretty and charming • She was born into a “family of clerks” with no dowry, no expectations, and no way of being known or married by any rich or distinguished man. • She dressed plainly because she could not afford to dress well. • She was an unhappy woman distressed by her poverty and tortured and angered by not being able to have the delicacies and luxuries that the upper class had. • She constantly dreamed of the things that she did not/could not have • A home decorated with Oriental tapestries, and dainty cabinets containing priceless curiosities, food served on marvelous plates, and the gowns and jewels she did not have. She wanted to be envied, to be charming to be sought after.
Characterization • Students should use the dialogue and details that share Mathilde’s reaction to the invitation to continue to understand her character.
Characterization Paragraphs 11-21 • Although she dreams of being rich and mingling with the high society, she does not want to go tot the ball because she does not have a gown that she deems beautiful or fancy enough. • Her reaction and response helps readers understand her all consuming desire to appear and become one of the wealthy members of French society
Characterization • Students should deepen their understanding of Mathilde’s character from the details in paragraphs 29-35
Characterization Paragraphs 29-35 • Although she has a ball gown, she is sad and uneasy and anxious because she does not have jewelry to wear. • She feels there is nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich. • The details reflect Mathilde’s anger and hatred for her social lot in life, and her consuming desire to appear and become part of the wealthy class.
Characterization • In paragraphs 43-50, students must understand why Mathilde chooses the diamond necklace:
Characterization in Paragraphs 43-50 • She wanted the most expensive, ostentatious looking necklace so that she could impress at the ball and appear as though she belonged to France’s upper class.
Characterization • Students should understand how Mathilde tries to portray herself.
Characterization in Paragraphs 51-56 • Mathilde is a success at the ball with others and has a wonderful evening • When her husband tries to cover her with the wrap, she runs from him because she does not want to look poor compared to women who were putting on “costly furs” • In this moment reality sets in and Mathilde returns home to her poor ordinary and unhappy life.
Comprehension • Students should understand that Mathilde has lost the necklace, and be able to articulate why this is a big deal to her based on what they know about her character.
Comprehension • Students should use their understanding of Mathilde to infer why she feels the way she does and why she is hesitant to tell Madame Forestier about the ;lost necklace. At this point, students will likely infer that Mathilde feels pressure either as a result of her pride/greed.
Comprehension • In paragraphs 86-89, students should articulate the worth of the necklace and the severity of the consequences of replacing it. Mathilde and her husband will sacrifice themselves and their lives to replace it.
Comprehension • Students should note how Mathilde’s life changed as a result of having to replace the necklace. • What actions did she take? • What did she sacrifice? • Students should note that, in addition to sacrificing 10 years of their lives, Mathilde and her husband also lost the social standing they once held and became impoverished/ lower class as a result of having to replace the necklace. • Mathilde’s appearance demonstrates the toll of the past 10 years and the harsh reality of her downfall. These details are important for students to ultimately uncover and consider the theme of pride/greed and how it can lead to unnecessary suffering.
Comprehension • In paragraph 105-110, students should understand that Madame Forestier does not even recognize Mathilde, again demonstrating the toll that this has taken on her life (she is truly ruined). • At the text’s end, students must identify and understand the irony: Mathilde and her husband have sacrificed EVERYTHING to replace a FAKE necklace. Students must connect this ironic ending to what they know and understand about Mathilde’s character to uncover one theme of the text: greed and pride often lead to unnecessary suffering.
Social Setting and Theme • What do we learn about social setting and theme from Excerpt 1?
Excerpt 1Paragraph 1-5 • SHE was one of those pretty and charming girls, born by a blunder of destiny in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, married by a man rich and distinguished; and she let them make a match for her with a little clerk in the Department of Education. • She was simple since she could not be adorned; but she was unhappy as though kept out of her own class; for women have no caste and no descent, their beauty, their grace, and their charm serving them instead of birth and fortune. Their native keenness, their instinctive elegance, their flexibility of mind, are their only hierarchy; and these make the daughters of the people the equals of the most lofty dames. • She suffered intensely, feeling herself born for every delicacy and every luxury. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the worn walls, the abraded chairs, the ugliness of the stuffs. All these things, which another woman of her caste would not even have noticed, tortured her and made her indignant. The sight of the little girl from Brittany who did her humble housework awoke in her desolated regrets and distracted dreams. She let her mind dwell on the quiet vestibules, hung with Oriental tapestries, lighted by tall lamps of bronze, and on the two tall footmen in knee breeches who dozed in the large armchairs, made drowsy by the heat of the furnace. She let her mind dwell on the large parlors, decked with old silk, with their delicate furniture, supporting precious bric-a-brac, and on the coquettish little rooms, perfumed, prepared for the five o’clock chat with the most intimate friends, men well known and sought after, whose attentions all women envied and desired. • When she sat down to dine, before a tablecloth three days old, in front of her husband, who lifted the cover of the tureen, declaring with an air of satisfaction, “Ah, the good pot-au-feu. I don’t know anything better than that,” she was thinking of delicate repasts, with glittering silver, with tapestries peopling the walls with ancient figures and with strange birds in a fairy-like forest; she was thinking of exquisite dishes, served in marvelous platters, of compliment whispered and heard with a sphinx-like smile, while she was eating the rosy flesh of a trout or the wings of a quail. • She had no dresses, no jewelry, nothing. And she loved nothing else; she felt herself made for that only. She would so much have liked to please, to be envied, to be seductive and sought after.
Understanding from Excerpt 1 • The French society in which Mathilde lives is one in which individuals cannot transcend their social class, as evidence by the fact that despite being beautiful and charming, Mathilde had to marry a little clerk rather than a rich and distinguished man. • Mathilde’s desires and obsessions with wealth and luxuries suggests that the rich, upper class of France rules society and set the agenda for the lifestyle that people wanted and desired, despite the fact that only the ones lucky enough to be born into wealth could have this lifestyle.
Social Setting and Theme • What doe we learn about social setting and theme from Excerpt 2?
Understanding from Excerpt 2 • Despite being beautiful and charming all the time, Mathilde is only noticed by others in her society when she is at the ball and appears to be one of the wealthy. • She does not want to have her modest wrap because she knows that being poor is akin to being “unseen” of “less that” the wealthy, upper class women.
Social Setting and Theme • What can we learn about social setting and theme from Excerpt 3?
Understanding of Excerpt 3 • When she attempts to transcend the class into which she was born, she is punished severely, dropping into a lower social class than that in which she started. • From this angle, Mathilde is a victim of uncompromising French social structure, as such, readers view “The Necklace” as Maupassant’s critique of French society.
How does the author create meaning? • In “The Necklace” the author uses characterization and irony to convey that human beings often fall victim to their greed and pride. The main character MathildeLoisel, is a woman who is born into a middle class family, but dreams of living a life of wealth and excitement. Her life is changed forever when she lies to hide the fact that she lost what she believed to be a diamond necklace.
Creating Meaning • After losing the necklace, Mathilde & her husband purchase a replacement and work tirelessly for ten years to pay off the debt they incurred. At the end of the text, Mathilde learns that the necklace was a fake and worth only a small fraction of the cost she had paid for it. Through this ironic ending, Maupassant suggests that Mathilde could have avoided years of needless suffering by admitting her mistake in losing the necklace; instead her greed and pride have led to a life of poverty and hardships.
Creating Meaning • However, Maupassant doesn’t permit readers to draw such a tidy conclusion about Mathilde’s fate. The text also raises the question of whether French society is to blame for Mathilde’s downfall. The social setting of the story reveals how one’s station dictates one’s quality of life: it is only when Mathilde perceived to be wealthy that she is perceived to be worthy of attention and affection. When she attempts to transcend the class into which she was born, she is punished severely, dropping into a lower social class than that in which she started. From this angle, Mathilde is a victim of uncompromising French social structure.
Ticket Out the Door • In your opinion, does MathildeLoisel deserve her fate, or is French society to blame? In other words, which of the two below warnings is Guy de Maupassant chiefly concerned with conveying in “The Necklace?” • Excessive pride and greed lead to great suffering. • It is futile to question the social order of French society, and doing so will lead to great suffering. • Support your answer with at least 2 pieces of text evidence!!
