The Diamond Necklace and The Rocking Horse Winner

By: Rachel F, Matt G & Christina L

Summary of The Diamond Necklace

• The story is set in France.

• Matilda Loisel is a beautiful middle class woman who wishes she were rich.

• She envies her wealthy friend Madame Forestier.

• One day her husband arrives with an invitation to a ball  which she denies because she has no suitable dress. Her husband gives her money he had saved to buy a dress.

• Matilda complains that she has no jewelry, and at her husband’s suggestion she borrows a diamond necklace from Madame Forestier.

• At the ball, Matilda is finally able to live out her fantasies. When the ball ends, they walk far before they can hail a cab.

•  Upon arriving home, Matilda notices her necklace is missing which they are unable to find.

• The couple find the same necklace at a jewelry store. It is very expensive and they take loans in order to buy it.
• Ten years go by and the Loisels have fallen into crippling poverty in order to pay back the debts and Matilda lost her beauty with the rough housework.

• One day Matilda meets her friend Madame Forestier and confesses that she had replaced the necklace.
• Madame Forestier tells her that the original necklace was fake and it was worth only a small fraction of the one they replaced it with.

Our Topics...

-Parallels between the two stories

-The social commentary the authors are making

-How the characters additudes and beliefs reflect the modern pursuit of materalism

Guy de Maupassant

About the Authors 

- Considered one of the greatest French authors of all time.

- Born on August 5th, 1850 near Dieppe.

- Wealthy parents, his mother divorced his father at age 11

- Took classical studies at age thirteen, continued education until age 19 when he was studying law

-When he was twenty he volunteered in the Franco-Prussian War

- Throughout his 20’s his mental health was deteriorating due to his syphilis.

-Guy wrote about war and its effects on people frequently. He also wrote about the rich and their immoral ways of living. 

D.H Lawrence

- He gained a higher education to move away from his father’s way of living, his mother supported him

- Later in his life, he appreciated his now deceased father, and blamed his mother for driving him away from his dad

- This lead to David writing controversial pieces on politics, women, and the rich.

- David Herbert Lawrence was born in 1885 on September 11th in England

- Father was a miner, mother had an education and held regrets about her family/husband

-  She made Lawrence her favourite after his older brother died

 

The Diamond Necklace Template

Setting - mid 1900’s. Takes place in Paris, France.

Characterization – Matilda, Monsieur Loisel, Madame Forestier

Themes – Personal Challenge

                       Importance of money in society

                       Appearance versus reality

                       Materialism and greed

                       Change and Transformation

                       Dysfunctional Family

Archetypes – The colours black and red, La Seine (River), the quest,                   sacrificial scapegoat

 

The Rocking Horse Winner Template

Setting – mid 1900’s, takes place in England

Characterization – Paul, Hester, Oscar

Themes – Ethics and morality

                       Importance of money in society

                       Notion of luck

                       Appearance versus reality

                       Materialism and greed

                       Dysfunctional Family

Archetypes – Terrible mother, the hero, the colours blue and red, the horse, Oedipus complex, quest, wise old man, sacrificial scapegoat

Parallels: Themes

“The Diamond Necklace” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” share common themes.

 

Appearance versus reality

Dysfunctional Family

Materialism and Greed

Parallels: Characterization

Each story has characters that share traits with characters found in the other story.

Hester and Matilda are very similar.

At the same time, Monsieur

Loisel and Paul

are similar.

Parallels: Archetypes and Setting

Both Stories take place in Western Europe, and take place in roughly the same time period.

The two stories also share

common archetypes:

The Quest

The Colour Red

Sacrificial Scapegoat

 

What Social Commentary are Both Authors Making?

The Rocking Horse Winner

• Hester is the character that represents man’s greed and people who value money over anything else.
• Hester is never satisfied.
• Lawrence uses Hester to criticize a society where nothing is ever good enough. He means to say that as a society, the more money we get, the more we want.

• Lawrence uses “The Rocking-Horse Winner” to criticize our capitalist society.
• He criticizes man’s insatiable greed and a materialistic society.

• In the story, the family does not focus on what they have, which is each other, but they focus on the material things they do not have.
• Paul’s tragic death serves as a lesson on the effect of greed and materialism.
• Overall, Lawrence social commentary is on our capitalist society that values money over everything else. 

Greed

 Materialism

The Diamond Necklace

•  Maupassant criticizes a society that pretends to be something they are not.
• Matilda’s obsession with being in a higher class was her downfall. She was not satisfied with her current circumstances. 
• Matilda borrows the necklace from Madame Forestier in order to give the appearance of having more money than she actually does and to appear more beautiful. In both cases, she was displaying a fake image of herself.  
•  In order to pay for the necklace that was fake to begin with, she lost her beauty and lived a life of extreme poverty, both things she was trying to masquerade by using the necklace.
• The extreme irony of Matilda borrowing the necklace to appear richer but being left poorer than before is used to teach the moral lesson that pretending is wrong.

The Modern Pursuit of Materialism

• Generation obsessed with shopping and buying unnecessary things
• For most people, the ideal state of living revolves around luxury goods
• The things that we own end up owning us
• People define their worth on what they possess
• An over-abundance of luxuries doesn't add any fulfillment to one's life
• Materialism - a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values 

How do the Characters Reflect This?

The Rocking-Horse Winner

Hester - Attitude - unhappy with life because of financial situation, does not feel like she is to blame for this. Does not appreciate or care for her family.

Beliefs - money will make her happy, blames husband for her misfortunes

Father - Attitude- hardworking, dedicated to working to try and please his wife

Beliefs - working and accumulating money is more important than spending time with family

Paul - Attitude - willing to partake in self-harming activities for money, doing so out of need for love from his mother

Beliefs - bringing mother money will make her love him, money can cure all problems

Uncle Oscar - Attitude - willing to gamble with nephew, does not see this as an issue, hungry for more money

Beliefs - more money is always good, feels the need to have more wealth even though he's more than financially stable 

The Diamond Necklace

Matilda - Attitude - unhappy with current life even though she is married has a house and is stable, willing to do anything for the appearance of wealth

Beliefs - wealth and the appearance of wealth equates to happiness, hard work isn't needed to get what you want (beginning)

Husband - Attitude - content with financial situation, works to please wife outrageous demands

Beliefs - money does not equate to happiness as he is content with what he has, living within their means

Madame Forestier- Attitude - pompous, above everyone

Beliefs - the appearance of money equates to happiness, and fooling people to believe she is rich

Continued...

Continued...

• Hester and Matilda both represent people's constant need for more wealth, the feeling of  never feeling satisfied with what you have.
• Paul's Father - values money and his wife's need for it above the actual people in his family
• Paul - believes that wealth can buy happiness and someone’s love

• Matilda's Husband - shows the ultimate way of living, by being content with what they have and spending within their means
• Madame Forestier- needs to prove to everyone that she is wealthy by appearing to have all the expensive brands

Fin.