The Necklace

The Necklace Literary Elements

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.

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