Genre
Short story, Realism
Setting and Context
19th-century France
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person narration
Tone and Mood
Realistic; ironic
Protagonist and Antagonist
Madame Loisel is the protagonist; in broad strokes, society and social standing function as antagonists.
Major Conflict
Madame Loisel wants to wear an expensive necklace to a party, but after she loses Madame Forestier's necklace, she and her husband must work to pay off the cost of a new one.
Climax
Madame Forestier reveals that the original necklace had been a fake.
Foreshadowing
Maupassant writes that the Loisels found a necklace that "seemed to them exactly like the one they had lost"(p.36). He pointedly avoids saying that the new necklace was exactly the same as the old one.
Understatement
N/A.
Allusions
N/A.
Imagery
Before getting an invitation to a fancy party, Madame Loisel imagines the lives of the rich in great detail.
Paradox
N/A.
Parallelism
N/A.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A.
Personification
N/A.
