Irony in Guy de Maupassant’s “The Jewelry”” Essay

IntroductionExpect the unexpected, is some topic that I heard m in all metres. We should follow this rule bandage reading different genres of theme, beca wont writers use derision to keep referees attention, and make their works more interesting. This explore paper deals with one of guy rope de Maupassants short tommyrot The Jewelry and with his virtuous ability to use irony in it. It is some metres said that we rest in an age of irony. Because nowadays even politicians in their speeches use ironical device, in order to catch attention of society. Barry Brummet (expert in Techniques of Close Reading) in one of his speech mentioned that Irony is a kind of winking at each other, as we all understand the game of meaning r fo retroversion that is being hunted.The point was first published in Maupassants short-story collection Contes du jour et de la nuit in 1885. Since that time people commit been reading it, and it won popularity among them. So it has a lot of interesting opi nions and analysis which were made by famous critics and writers alike(p) Leo Tolstoy. Maupassant is considered one of the finest short story writers of all time and a champion of the realist approach to writing.The Jewelry is interesting to read because it contains irony. Irony has always been captivating object to study, and it is widely bopn and popularto use in modern time as in literature so in speech. It is splendid story despite of being short it has deep sense and contains interesting topics to discuss. In The Jewelry reader crapper take hold of what ironical games life can play with us and to what conclusion it can lead us.Chapter IIronyThe Greek etymology of the word irony, (eironeia), means feigned ignorance (a technique often used by the Greek philosopher Socrates), and from (eiron), the one who makes a question pretending to be naive, and is also a verb radical of the Greek to speak. The verb (eirein) itself is probably from the Proto-Indo-European root *wer- say. Irony is a rhetorical device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning. There argon in truth humanityy cases which we tenderness as irony, intuitively feeling the alteration of the evaluation, besides unable to put our finger on the exact word in whose meaning we can checker the contradiction between what is said and what is implied. The force out of irony in such cases is created by a number of statements, by the whole text. Many examples of irony are supplied by D. Defoe, J. Swift and many others.Types of ironyThere are 3 main roles of irony1. Verbal Irony This occurs when a character says one thing but suggests or intends the opposite. For instance in Julius Caesar, Mark Antony says and Brutus is an honorable man, when he really means that Brutus is dishonorable because he has betrayed Caesar. It is rattling similar to sarcasm, although sarcasm is nettlesome and direct while verbal irony is implied.2. Dramati c Irony This is the contrast between what the character thinks to be true and what the readers know to be true. Dramatic irony occurs when the meaning intended by a characters words or actions is opposite of the true situation. Further, the character cannot see or understand the contrast, but the audience can. For example, in Othello, dramatic irony occurs when Othello refers to Iago as honest Iago. Unknown to Othello, Iago is a villain who deceives him into thinking that his married woman has been unfaithful. For this, Othello unjustly kills his wife, believing the whole time in Iagos honesty. Note the difference of opinion in examples for verbal and dramaticirony Antony calls Brutus honorable and knows he is not honorable, while Othello calls Iago honest and does not know of Iagos deception.3. Situational Irony It is the contrast between what happens and what was expected or what would seem to be more appropriate to happen. This type of irony appears from the events and circumsta nces of a story. When we see situational irony, we might think circumstances are unfair or unfortunate for example, if a greedy millionaire buys a lottery ticket and wins additional millions.Irony in literatureHere I wanted to list some(prenominal) examples from literature, by means of which, we could understand what irony is more clearly. Firs examples are from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. I have chosen them, because this story is widely known across the globe. Two households, both alike in dignityThe opening line of Shakespeares play leads the reader to believe that both Capulet and Montague families are worthy of respect that they are given in Verona. As the story progresses, we realize that neither household is dignified. In occurrence, several of their actions are unworthy of their agency in society. Another irony in Romeo and Juliet is that the reader remains aware of the situation that Juliet takes a sleeping portion to assume death, and at the end of the d ay, when Romeo kills himself after thinking that Juliet is dead, the reader is astonished by the tragic irony. Next examples observe from short stories, which I was supposed to read on my first years in university.The Casque of Amontillado, Edgar Allan PoeIn this story, the reader is conscious from the very beginning that Montressor is planning the murder of Fortunato, but Fortunato remains unaware of this and he considers Montressor his friend. It is very ironic how foolish people could be. Fortunato forgot about his past relationship with Montressor, and it led him to fatality.The Necklace, big cat de MaupassantThe protagonist Madame Loise, in order to look good, borrows jewelry from a well-disposed friend and then loses it. With her husband she replaces thejewels but the replacement effects on their financial conditions. Years later, when she meets the same friend again, she learns that the jewels she replaced with real gemstones was mere imitation jewelry. ending to the Chap ter IGenerally, Irony is the difference between what someone does or says in relation to what is understood about what is done or said. Often there is a bit of confusion over what is ironic and what is simply accidental. The two ideas can be easily confused, but there is however, a very distinct difference between what is ironic and what is simply good or bad luck. Irony has several different types and it appears not only in literature, but in routine life also. It is a contradiction between appearance and reality. Irony is a widely known method of explaining something, and is popular to use as in writing and in everyday life so in media. It points on how many different people dont pay attention to what is happening around them, and how many ironic games our fate can play with us. It is not only when we dont mention, but it can happen every day and any time with anyone.Chapter II. The Jewelry by Guy de MaupassantPlot summaryThe story of The Jewelry takes place in Paris. It tells u s about Monsieur Lantin, who worked as a read/write clearance clerk at the office of Minister of Interior. Story begins with M. Lantins falling in love with childly virtuous daughter(whose name will never be told) and their marriage. The story tells how they happily lived together during several years of their marriage. We can see that Lantins wife enjoys going to theatres and loves fake jewelry. She was the best housewife man can ever imagine, and she provided her home with everything. One cold winter evening she came back home from opera freezing and coughing, and after 8 days she died because of inflammation of the lungs. Mr. Lantin loved her very much, so he saved things staying as they were while she was alive. His life completely changed, he couldnt rule his accounts and soon got into depts. One day he determined to cell one of his wifes fake jewelries in order to have some money for food.When he went to the jeweler he learned that his wifes jewelry wasnt fake. Mr. Lantin was shocked, while she was alive, they didnt have so much money to buy suchkind of expensive jewelries, so, she had deceived him with somebody. After cultivation that all of her fake jewelries were not fake, he decide to sell them, after that he decides that he is reach enough and quits his job. He was very quick-witted and pleased with it, so he visits expensive restaurants, orders expensive meals, and boasts to everybody that he is rich, but, he is telling different amounts of money to everybody. After that he marries another girl. They didnt live happy and loving life together as with the first wife. ii.ii Analysis of the storyThis story takes place in Paris, which is in France. As it is the general place of setting, there are also specific ones. For instance, in the beginning M. Lantin meets his future wife at a reception at the house of the second head of his department. After we see places like their house, theater, jeweler shops and so on. However, setting doesnt play majo r role in The Jewelry, so author doesnt pay much attention on displaying it.Two main characters of The Jewelry are Monsieur Lantin and his first wife. These two characters are very important for this story, because all of actions in it are connected with them. M. Lantin is a middle class man, who desperately loves his wife, and thinks that she loves him too, because they had very warm relations. Think like unfaithfulness of his wife wouldnt even come to his mind, and when he learns this fact, he understands that everything is not as it seems to be. In my opinion Lantin is boastful person, and he likes to exaggerate. Maybe because of this characteristic feature, he looked to his family life as if it was ideal. His wife, whose name remains unknown to reader, is professional liar, who is arrogant and narcissistic, even though we dont see it with unaided eye. I came to this conclusion because in the story it is said that expert the man who wins her love He could not find a better wife. Everybody thought that she was a perfect woman, who was able to make happy her man.In fact she could, but, because of hearing these words she became proud of herself, and inside she came to conclusion that she might deserve better man or better life. We dont know what type of man she was dating with, but it is obvious that she could hide her feelings easily, so, she had two faces. One was how she was playacting during staying at home with her husband, and the second is outside ofit. While she was near her husband, she was the most caring wife, tender and kid. She was also very smart, because she ruled household perfectly, but, with the help of her lovers finances. I can say that her place was on the point in time of the theater, because wife of M. Lantin was a perfect actress The theme of The Jewelry by Guy de Maupassant is that life can be full of irony. Each of the ironies shown in The Jewelry display how people keep secrets from one another or themselves, and reveals how the y ignore a situation that upsets them if they are compensated enough. That compensation in this story is money.In this story, Guy de Maupassant as a main literary form of writing uses ironical style. The Jewelry is full of irony from the beginning. It awaked several feeling in me. First, I mat happy, that M. Lantin got married and was living pretty good life, but, I wondered why didnt he also took a part in house holding or even look in what sphere and what amount of money was spent by his wife. I wasnt surprised when it turned out that Lantins wife had a lover, because he wasnt paying much attention on her, go out and have fun. It is possible that because of these reasons she was tired of that routine and wanted to try something new. Her lover may have paid more attention to het or shown his love more clearly. ii.iii Irony in The JewelryThe plot of The Jewelry move from one irony to another. The first couple of paragraphs show how respectable M. Lantins wife was supposed to be. B ut even this early in the story, the author states that The young girl seemed to be the very ideal of that pure good woman to whom every young man dreams of entrusting his future. That seemed to be lets the reader know that the young girl was not chased woman as everybody took her for. This indicates that the girl was hiding something, although what that something was we didnt find out until she died. The second irony which we come across in this story, is the fact that they seemed to live in luxury, but in fact they didnt just simply seem they really did. Unknown to M. Lantin, his wages were being supplemented by his wifes lovers. They were paying for his good food, fine wine and luxuriously furnished house. I suppose if he had opened his eyes, and looked through the household expenditures, he wouldhave learned that the money was coming from somewhere other than his salary.At that point M. Lantin was being fooled by his own self as well as by his wife. But anyway, during that time he was happy After that comes our third irony. If M. Lantin hadnt stopped going to the theatre with his wife, then probably another man wouldnt have had an opportunity to flirt with her, and become her lover. Her attention would have been on her husband or on the stage, not on another man. In every other way, other than the theatre and her jewelry, M. Lantins wife devoted herself to him. We can understand it in lines It would be impossible to conceive of any attention, tenderness, mischievous caress which she did not lavish upon her husband I think she loved her husband. And then of course, there is irony of the jewelry itself the fact that the jewelry was real, while she had been acting like it was imitation of it. Even so far as to let the light catch the crystal, and say, Now, look at them see how well the work was done. You would substantiate it was real jewelry., when he would revile her for wearing the fake jewelry instead of being adorned with ones natural beauty and grace .At that time she might have been mocking at her husband, thinking how stupid he was. After her death, M. Lantin found out that his wifes entire jewelry was real. The jewelry that the wifes lovers gave her paid for their luxurious life. After he realized he could get rich by selling all fake jewelry, M. Lantin forgot all about his wifes affairs, and deceived himself that everything will be okay as long as he became rich. Six months after his wifes death, he married again to a good virtuous woman which made his life miserable.Conclusion to Chapter IIIn conclusion, the story emphasized that looks can be deceiving and that sometimes we are blind to what really is going on. We can question if being happy by dishonest values is worth the financial gains or if the unhappiness from honest values is worth the pain. As we see The Jewelry is a little complicated story, and everybody has its own point of view on it. As it is ironical story, and there are people who may not understand it. In fa ct, I even feel sorry for M. Lantin, because even after his wifes death, he deceives himself as if he were happy. Nowadays many people may face this problem, and no one is insured from this.ConclusionDuring writing of this research paper, I learned more about irony, its types and its usage in language. There are very many cases, though, which we regard as irony, intuitively feeling the reversal of the evaluation, but unable to put our finger on the exact word in whose meaning we can trace the contradiction between the said and the implied. The effect of irony in such cases is created by a number of statements, by the whole of the text. Ironies are easy to find in our daily activities whether in statement, situation, or unexpected event. The simplest irony of our lives is that we feel happier having fun and not worrying about what we are doing or who we are doing it with. At that time ironical situations might occur. Guy de Maupassant was a great French short-story writer. He became famous around the world by the help of his great works. In other words, we can call him bugger off of modern short-story writers.As I read responses of people about his works, they admired him, because his stories contain the face of our everyday life and problems. He points to our negligent treatment for our lives. Maupassants stories was popular nowadays is they were in 19th century. The story, which is discussed in this research paper, The Jewelry, points out how unaware we can be of things that happen around us. So we can call it realistic story. I think it would be suitable to finish my research paper by this quote The simplest of women are wonderful liars who can disembroil themselves from the most difficult dilemmas with a skill bordering on genius Guy de MaupassantBibliography1.Edgar Allan Poe, The Casque of Amontillado, The Norton Introduction to Literature 8th edition 2.Guy de Maupassant, Original short stories, translated by Albert M. C. McMASTER and others, Plymouth ed ition, southeastward Australia 5005 3.Guy De Maupassant, The Jewelry. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 9th edition 4.Short Story Criticism, Gale Cengage, 20045.William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow, 1951 6.William Shakespeare, The tragedy of Othello, Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow 1963 7.http//article.ranez.ru8.http//en.wikipedia.org9.http//schoolworkhelper.net10.http//www.slideshare.net