How Does Guy De Maupassant Use Situational Irony In The Necklace

Situational irony is a method of writing in which something has an effect that is opposite from what is expected. Situational irony can trigger many different emotions in the reader, such as humor, sympathy, dejection, etc. The authors Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry uses situational irony to evoque different emotions in the readers. Guy de Maupassant creates sympathy by using situational irony in “The Necklace.” Mathilde wants to be very rich and famous, but ends up poor. Mathilde already has a decent life, but she does not realize it and wishes for more wealth than everyone. For example, “She imagined vast saloons hung with antique silks, exquisite furniture” (1) and so forth. She only loves jewels and clothes and when her husband suggests her to wear flowers to the party instead of jewelry, she yells at him. …show more content…
She then spends 10 years selling everything her and her husband have and working hard to pay her friend back. Another example of how we start feeling for the character thanks to situational irony is how Mathilde found out that the lost piece of jewelry was fake. She does not tell her friend about the loss, because she feels embarrassed and doesn’t want her sense of pride to be hurt. She spends 10 years of misery trying to save money, her husband and her both working many jobs to buy a new necklace. When, after ten years, she comes to Madame Forestier to return the necklace, her friend says: “‘It was only imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs!’” (8) In conclusion, Guy de Maupassant’s humor in the story, “The Necklace” was created by using situational