The Gift Of The Magi 'And The Monkey's Paw'

"The Necklace," "A Monkey's Paw," and "The Gift of Magi" all have a distinctive technique that leads to a deeper meaning of the story. The technique of "The Necklace" is represented by symbolism of the necklace. In "A Monkey's Paw," the technique that is seen is foreshadowing. In "The Gift of Magi," irony is the technique that is noticed throughout the story. All three short stories deal with the irony of consequence. Each story involved a major decision and in each case the result of the decision was incredibly unexpected. Through symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony the authors conclude that what's inside the heart is far more important than material wealth.

In The Necklace, Madame Loisel was embarrassed by her poverty which made her state of being even worse with her self-centered actions. Characteristics to describe her actions would be materialistic, ungrateful, and unappreciative. Evidences from the story, about these characteristics, are given to support them. Madame Loisel have plenty of traits that describes her, but the three that stood out the most was materialistic, ungrateful, and unappreciative. With a simple, loving, and caring husband didn’t stop her self-centered actions.

Throughout “The Necklace” the couples have opposite character traits which plays an important role in the story. The husband, Loisel was completely fine with the lifestyle they had and was very grateful. Meanwhile his wife was never satisfied, blames herself for not being married into a wealthy family. Prior to the ball she wanted jewelry to compliment the gown, her

She thinks that because her friend is rich and beautiful, that her material items would extend with that wealth. Instead, it shows Madame that even the richest of people do not always have to have genuine items. Madame realizes that she does have fun at the party even if she is not wearing all authentic things, the opposite of what she thinks she is wearing. A third ironic happening, is when she has been working to pay off the money for the necklace for a decade. Madame clearly admits to her friend on page 196 how she loses the necklace, and has been paying it back for ten years. As someone is reading the story, they will find it silly how Mme. is working for something when she is usually having people, mostly her husband, do things for her. Instead, she is working to pay off the money that she has spent on a replacement necklace. The turnout of the story changes Madame’s views on how silly, textile items, are not always needed for someone to be happy.

Now consider the role of Mathilde Loisel in “The Necklace”. She constantly grieves about her simple life and fantasizes about extravagant life style with rich people and food surrounding her. Her husband is a simple man and is satisfied with his life. He appreciates her for the food which is cooked and never complains. Being in the Ministry of Education their lifestyle is modest. Mathilde is not satisfied on the other hand even when her husband proudly announces that they have been invited at a formal party held by the Ministry of Education. The irony in the story is more or less the same with regard to the female characters. Mathilde cries and gets her prize in the form of a dress but she is never satisfied. She wants jewelry as well. The necklace that she borrows from Madame Forestier teaches her a lesson of life. Since she is not familiar with the real jewelry she picks the cheapest one from her collection and wears it to the party why she loses it. Upon not finding the jewelry her husband takes the pain of selling everything out just to purchase an identical necklace worth 40,000 francs which leaves them poverty stricken for the next ten years during which her husband does three jobs and

The story intially takes place at a ball that Madame Louisel has been invited to by her husband. In the beginning of the story Madame is very indecisive about making an appearance at the ball. She complained she did not have a dress, any jewels, and she was scared she would look like a "pauper"(174). She did not want to look poor around a bunch of rich woman, so she had asked a friend for a piece of jewelry to wear for the night. Excited, she picks out the diamond necklace that seemed to stand out to her. She adored it. The narrator describes it as "lovliest of all, elegant, smiling, and radiating with joy"(175). Having a blast at the party, dancing, drinking, and not thinking about anything else, Madame left the ball around four in the morning. Calling a cab, Madame and her husband were on their way home, delighted with the fun night that they had. Finally arriving at home, they begin to get into comfortable clothes when suddenly Madame notices that the diamond necklace she had borrowed from a friend for the night had gone missing. Searching everyhwere

When her husband gave her the invitation to the ball, which was a perfect place to meet the rich people, Mathilde got mad and cried. It was a shame since she has nothing to wear. Mr Loisel gave his money to Mathilde and she got an elegance dress. But she didn’t stop and wanted to have jewels. Mathilde met her friend, Madame Forestier and chose an gorgeous diamond necklace. Of course, she became the prettiest woman in the ball, with everyone stared at her, as if she was the most attractive woman ever. She felt fascinated, just like her dream came true. But then a tragic came to her. She lost the necklace! Mathilde and her husband tried to find the necklace, but they found nothing. Mathilde lost her hope and had aged five years. The Loisels finally decided to replace the diamonds for 36 000 Francs, spent all of their money and accepted to pay the debts. It was such an unfortunate situation. After Mathilde lost the necklace, she was described as “ And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money”. (Maupassant 8). The family was suffering from poverty and have to pay the debts continuously. Mathilde changed immediately and did everything. They have worked so hard to earn every single penny for their life, to survive and pay all those debts. The third person limited

In The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry (1906), Della is one of two main characters, the other being her beloved husband, Jim. On Christmas Eve, Della has saved very little for a present for Jim when she decides to sell her most prized possession, her long beautiful hair, for more money. After doing this, and buying the perfect gift,

The comparison O. Henry makes between the story of Jim and Della and that of the Magi is rather relevant as the Magi were the ones who are credited with being the origins of the “giving nature” of the Christmas season. In this story, we see a man and a woman so blinded by love that they are willing to make ultimate sacrifices for the happiness of the other. Similar to the Magi, Della and Tim put each other before themselves and through their generosity and considerable lengths they both went to achieve that generosity is something more admirable than any materialistic gift they could ever offer each other, thus making the uselessness of their gifts irrelevant.

Madame Loisel’s pride demands more: “It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress” (Maupassant 2). Ironically, it is Monsieur Loisel who suggests that his wife borrow jewelry from Madame Forestier, and subsequently has to spend the next ten years borrowing money to replace it. As May puts it, “Her husband exhausts his meager inheritance and then borrows the rest, mortgaging their life away to buy a replacement for the necklace” (May 7). Monsieur Loisel sacrifices everything to salvage his wife’s pride.

Madame Loisel is provided with a necklace from Madame Foresteir for the event, since she does not own any jewelry. Wearing the necklace exemplifies that Madame Loisel is disguising her true wealth status, so that she appears to be an upper class person. Furthermore, tangible and extortionate items make her feel happy. When she takes hold of the “superb diamond necklace, her heart started beating with an overwhelming desire. Her hands trembled as she picked it up….She

Mr. Loisel was obviously excited the day that The Chancellor of Education had invited them to an exquisite dinner. Surely he thought that this was finally a way that he could provide an outlet for Mathilde's deepest desires. Unfortunately, instead of being thrilled as he had predicted, Mathilde acted like a spoiled child, throwing the invitation on the table. "She had no decent dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but these; she believed herself born only for these" (5). She couldn't have been more manipulative than when she began to cry about not having anything to wear. Of course Mr. Loisel suddenly fell into her trap and suddenly decided to give her all of the money in his savings account to buy her a new dress. Most would assume that she'd be satisfied at this point; her husband has just made a huge financial sacrifice for her. However, as time drew near to the night of the party, she became insecure and restless because she thought she would look poor if she didn't have any fancy jewels to wear; she thought she'd look like a beggar. `I'd almost rather not go to the party (30)", she said.

Her persistent mindset of wanting and needing more, is how her internal conflict developed. All of Madame Loisel’s issues relate back to her internal fascination with becoming incredibly rich and valued by her peers. The text states, “She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.” (1) Madame Loisel’s mindset was simply set on materialistic things and being respected amongst her peers. Even throughout the years, her idea of ‘perfection’ never changed a bit. The story reads, “But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.” (5) Ten hard and stressful years later, Madame Loisel is still under the impression that everything she has must be beautiful and valued. This situation expresses irony because although she is beautiful, she still feels a desire to receive expensive things. The text states, “She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans… She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury.” (1) Although she is beautiful

Money and wealth isn't everything. Madame Loisel from The Necklace by Guy Maupassant has to learn that the hard way. Madame Loisel is a woman who feels entitled to a lavish lifestyle. She is a character who is dissatisfied with her current lifestyle even though she has a caring husband who provides her with everything he can. Madame Loisel is invited to an elaborate party in which she feels she needs a beautiful gown and a diamond necklace. In order for Madame Loisel to attend the party her husband gives her 500 Francs and she borrows a very expensive diamond necklace. After the Loisels attend the party they realize that they have lost the necklace and now their lifestyle must change dramatically so that they can pay to replace the necklace. The Loisels both work very hard for the next ten years to pay back the money they borrowed to replace the necklace. Madame Loisel realizes what a comfortable life she had and how her greed got the best of her. Leading her to a life of misery and hard labor to replace the diamond necklace. Madame Loisel is a complex character because she is both round and dynamic.

Authors use literary elements to enhance their writing through details to describe a scene in the author’s writing, or use language to elevate the story. “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry and “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, both use many literary elements to give their writing more depth. “The Gift of the Magi” uses irony throughout the story when Della and her husband, Jim, both do not have enough money to buy each other gifts for Christmas. “The Necklace” uses a lot of detail to show what Madame (Mme.) Loisel dreams of at the beginning of the short story. “The Necklace” is one of the many short stories that use literary elements to elevate the story and keep the reader engaged in the author’s writing.