her and made her angry." Through this personification, the house and its parts are given their own distinct personality—one that antagonizes Mathilde and seeks to inflict misery on her. This personification also allows Mathilde to remove herself from her own feelings of misery and anger. She takes no responsibility in her feelings of dissatisfaction and instead blames her surroundings, including her own home, for the way she feels. Mathilde's husband is forced to endure his wife who "suffers ceaselessly" in their home and who thus makes a life-changing decision to secure an invitation to a ball in an attempt to make her happy for one evening.

There are a number of examples of personification in "The Necklace." This is a literary technique whereby something that isn't human, such as an animal or an inanimate object, is endowed with human qualities. A particularly useful example in "The Necklace" comes in the description of Mathilde's humble lineage:

She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans.

In this particular excerpt, fate has been personified. Fate does not blunder; only humans can do that. What the author is getting at here is the notion that fate made the mistake of putting Mathilde, a charming, pretty girl, into a lowly family of artisans. What's more, this corresponds to how Mathilde evaluates the conditions of her birth.

For this is a woman who regards herself as being possessed of noble blood. So the fact that she was born into such a humble family is a constant source of humiliation. Mathilde's firm belief that she's destined for better things will lead her to make the fateful decision to wear the titular necklace to the Education Ministry ball.

Then there's the personification used to describe the shabby appearance of the Loisels' cramped apartment:

All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her.

No matter how bad the condition of someone's dwelling place, it cannot torment or insult anyone. But that's precisely how Mathilde feels; it's almost as if she's being attacked by her humble living conditions. Again, she thinks she's born to better things and so is aware of her domestic environment in a way that other women of her class would not be.

When Madame Loisel goes to see her wealthy friend, Madame Forestier, she asks about borrowing some jewelry for the fancy party to which her husband has acquired an invitation. She looks through all the woman's goods and finally spots an exquisite diamond necklace, "and her heart began to beat with uncontrolled desire."  Although we often speak of hearts as the actual physical location of our feelings or emotions, this is not literally the case.  Our hearts do not actually feel emotion.  To describe Mathilde's heart as beating with an "uncontrolled desire" constitutes an example of personification and communicates just how desperately Madame Loisel wants the jewels. She desperately wants to feel elegant and rich, just like the other women who will be at the party.  Her heart does not actually feel desire; it merely describes the emotion as originating there in order to convey how intense it is.

Personification entails awarding behaviors often done by humans to inanimate objects (or animals). Since these do not act like "persons",  authors use creative license to make these inanimate things act in a way that is more relatable to the reader.

One of the examples found in the story is:

those ancient night cabs which, as though they were ashamed to show their shabbiness during the day, are never seen round Paris until after dark.

This personification aims to emphasize on the ugliness of these night cabs by putting their description in context. Being in Paris society equals being "in the fashion". As such, you could never be seen wearing the wrong thing, talking to the wrong people, or even riding on the wrong set of wheels. In this excerpt, the cabs even feel so sorry for themselves that they would only come out at night for fear of being seen. In reality, whether they ride in the daylight or at night does not matter. The author just wants to make a point of sarcasm to make the reading more entertaining.

Another example of personification is:

she thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestry that peopled the walls with ancient personages and with strange birds flying in the midst of a fairy forest

Essentially this is telling us that the tapestry on the wall is decorated with ancient and important characters, "ancient personages". However, the fact that this decoration gives an ambiance in the room that makes it look like there are more persons in the room, and adds to the presence of the tapestry itself, the word "peopled" entails that it is bringing the people into the room. Again, this is another way of showing an inanimate object conducting human behaviors.

When Madame Loisel is at the party, she is described as "drunk on pleasure." Madame Loisel is not literally drunk of course, but the metaphor conveys just how much she was enjoying herself at the party.

There are other metaphors later in the story. For example, when Madame Loisel's husband goes out to search for the necklace, he goes "everywhere the tiniest glimmer of hope [leads] him." This is a metaphor because hope does not literally glimmer. The word glimmer implies that the hope is small and limited, and it also conveys an impression of darkness, which in turn implies the hopelessness of the situation.

Another metaphor is used when the husband returns from his search for the necklace and is described as a "hollow, pale figure." He is not literally hollow of course, but the metaphor helps to emphasize how devastated he is because of the loss of the necklace. He feels perhaps weak and completely devoid of all hope.

One week later, having still not found the necklace, we are told that the husband has "aged five years." He has not really aged five years, but this metaphor helps to show how stressed he is because of the missing necklace. The stress of knowing that it will cost them a considerable amount of money to replace the necklace has clearly taken its toll on him.

When Madame Loisel is forced to do the housework herself, she is described as looking "like a commoner." This is an example of a simile, and it helps to convey how far Madame Loisel has had to fall, in terms of her social status, in order to pay for the replacement necklace.

A metaphor is a figure of speech whereby you compare two different things which nonetheless have something in common. In “The Necklace,” the eponymous item of jewelry is not the same thing as Mathilde's pride, but they do have something very important in common: they are ultimately worthless.

Initially, Mathilde is blissfully unaware of all this. She doesn't know that the bright, glittering object she wears to the ball is nothing more than a fake. But because of her overweening pride and vanity, she wears it in the belief that it will make her the undisputed belle of the ball, the center of attention.

In the event, she turns out to be right; all heads turn when they see her. But that doesn't alter the simple fact that the necklace is still a fake.

However, it's not just the necklace that's phony. Mathilde's pride is also made from second-rate material; it has no value. Mathilde has always believed that she was descended from upper-class stock, when in actual fact she comes from a long line of petit-bourgeois civil servants.

Her pride, then, is built on false foundations. It is pride in something that never existed, in much the same way that the glittering, valuable necklace that she thought she wore to the ball never existed.

Guy de Maupassant's tale of a beautiful, yet petty, young woman who is disconsolate over her social position demonstrates the use of figurative language throughout the narrative.

When her husband tries to cheer his wife who bemoans their social position by showing her an invitation he has received to a ball at the Ministerial Mansion, Madame Loisel tosses it aside petulantly because she has no dress appropriate for such a ball. To make her happy, her husband gives her money with which to purchase a new dress. However, after finding a lovely gown, Mme. Loisel is yet dissatisfied, declaring that without "a jewel or a gem," she will appear poor. She expresses her thought in a simile: "I'll look like a pauper." 

At the ball, Mathilde Loisel is so attractive that she gains the admiration of all the men in attendance. In a short passage that includes figurative language, Maupassant writes,

She danced madly, wildly, ...giving no thought to anything in the triumph of her beauty,..

There is also a metaphor in this passage: "a happy cloud....of all the adulation." (in an unstated metaphor her feelings are compared to "a happy cloud"]

Further in the narrative, after having lost the necklace and endured hardships in the effort to repay the loan on a new one, Mathilde is described as being "clad like a peasant" [simile] as she bargains with the grocers and fruit dealers.

Early in the story, the narrator tells us that Madame Loisel dreams of grand and elegant surroundings, including "tapestries peopling the walls" (an example of personification, when one gives a human characteristic to a non-human object.  When Madame Loisel goes to the party in the expensive dress her husband bought her, and the borrowed pearls, the narrator describes her as being "drunk with pleasure."  As the story progresses and the necklace is lost, there is a reference to the toll this financial distress is taking on her husband, who is described as "have aged five years" (an example of hyperbole, or extreme exaggeration). 

One large metaphor from the story is the invitation that Monsieur Loisel brings home to his wife. It is literally a ticket into a party where all the "really big people" will be, but it is metaphorically a ticket into 10 years of hard labor and degradation.

Madame Loisel felt trapped in the wrong life; she dreamed of having all the finer things she deserved because of her fine looks, grace, and charm. But, alas, she lived a modest life as the wife of a clerk in an apartment with one maid. Upon learning of the invitation to a party hosted by the Minister of Education and his wife, Madame Loisel insists upon procuring proper attire to wear amongst such fine people; this includes wearing real jewelry. After borrowing one of Mme. Forestier's diamond necklaces, she is excited to attend the party and mingle amongst the people whose class she so desperately wishes to be a part of. The night of the party, though, ends disastrously. Mme. Loisel has misplaced the necklace; she makes an exhaustive search for it, but is unable to find it. Her husband and she must replace the necklace, which requires her using her entire inheritance, borrowing from friends and crooks, and going into horrible debt. She and her husband dismissed their maid and moved into a smaller apartment.

They had to adjust to a life of "abject poverty." Her days filled with menial duties of cleaning, cooking, and going to the market. After meeting Mme. Forestier 10 years into this new life of always going without, the truth is unveiled: the necklace had been a fake. 

The invitation to the party, then, welcomed Mme. Loisel (and her husband) into a hell of an existence.

There are small and large metaphors in “The Necklace.”

When Madame Loisel goes to the ball, she is “quite above herself with happiness.” (She isn’t literally over herself. She enjoys herself so much that she is “drunk with pleasure.”)

After the necklace is lost, her husband looks at the “agonising face of the future,” a vivid image, but definitely a metaphor, since the future has no face.

There are other small metaphors that are figures of speech—part metaphor, part tradition, like speaking of the “whole tribe of money-lenders,” which refers to the Jewish moneylenders.

The larger metaphor in this classic story, though, is the necklace itself. It is also a symbol for the realities of value, and how what you think matters often doesn’t, and how you often don’t value the things that matter most.

Imagery is description using any of the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Much, though not all, of the imagery in this story is visual, showing Mrs. Loisel's obsession with appearances. For instance, the "sight" of the "little Breton peasant" who does her housework makes Mrs. Loisel "despair," because it does not correspond to her fantasies of a house full of servants.

Some of the imagery is based on Romantic novels Mrs. Loisel must read:

She imagined silent antechambers, heavy with Oriental tapestries, lit by torches in lofty bronze sockets, with two tall footmen in knee-breeches sleeping in large arm-chairs, overcome by the heavy warmth of the stove. She imagined vast saloons hung with antique silks, exquisite pieces of furniture supporting priceless ornaments, and small, charming, perfumed rooms.

The "she imagined" reveals that these are not images she has really seen or really exist. These are highly romanticized and exotic images—such as "Oriental" tapestries, that suggest a fantasy world not necessarily corresponding with anything that exists in real life. Because they are fantasies, no reality will ever live up to them.

Maupassant uses contrasting images to show the difference between Madame Loisel's real life and her insatiable, sensuous desires. At home, she has

dinner at the round table covered with a three-days-old cloth, opposite her husband, who took the cover off the soup-tureen, exclaiming delightedly: "Aha! Scotch broth! What could be better?" she imagined delicate meals, gleaming silver, tapestries peopling the walls with folk of a past age and strange birds in faery forests; she imagined delicate food served in marvellous dishes, murmured gallantries, listened to with an inscrutable smile as one trifled with the rosy flesh of trout or wings of asparagus chicken.

In her mind's eye, Madame Loisel's homelife is made to seem mean and tawdry by comparison with an imagined fantasy life.

Maupassant also uses imagery to show rather than tell us what Madame Loisel is feeling when she finds the beautiful diamond necklace at her friend's house:

Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously. Her hands trembled as she lifted it. She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight of herself.

We believe in Madame Loisel's "ecstasy" because of her beating heart and trembling hands as she sees and touches the necklace. Imagery throughout the story helps us understand Madame Loisel's love of superficial beauty, which only highlights how much she must suffer when she and her husband spend years paying off the debt to replace the necklace.

There are a few examples of similes and metaphors in this story. I have provided three such examples below, with some brief explanation of each. I hope you find the examples and explanations useful.

She danced wildly, with passion, drunk on pleasure, forgetting everything in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a sort of cloud of happiness, made up of all this respect, all this admiration

In this first quotation, Mathilde is described as being "in a sort of cloud of happiness." This is a metaphor because, of course, she is not literally in a cloud. The metaphor helps to show how Mathilde, at this moment in the story, is surrounded by her own happiness, much as one would be surrounded by a cloud if one were in it. The cloud image also connotes that Mathilde is so happy that she feels like she is floating.

At the end of one week they had lost all hope. And Loisel . . . had aged five years

In this second quotation, the metaphor is, "Loisel ... had aged five years." Loisel hasn't literally aged five years in one week, but this metaphor suggests how stressful that one week was, by suggesting that Loisel's physical appearance has ben so drastically affected by it.

And, dressed like a commoner, she went to the fruiterer's, the grocer's, the butcher's, her basket on her arm, bargaining, insulted, fighting over every miserable sou.

In this third quotation the simile is, "dressed like a commoner." Comparing Mathilde's clothes to those of a commoner helps to emphasize how much poorer Mathilde has become, and how that poverty is now reflected in her physical appearance. The simile also helps to explain why Madame Forestier doesn't recognize her later in the story.

In The Necklace (the short story by Guy De Maupassant) the necklace itself could be taken as a metaphor for the illusion that goodness and integrity,respect and status in society rely upon wealth and material possessions.

A couple risk all that they have, which may not be much but at least means respect, reputation and earning their own living mostly free from debt. This story could say a lot about the credit situation many of us are in now - many countries are chained in public borrowing and many households are fighting and working every hour to repay material possessions or houses they couldn't really afford.

Maybe those things look like a sham to us too,now, as parents work longer and longer hours not spending time with their families trying to pay down debts.

Appearances are deceptive   'all that glisters is not gold.'

The couple in the story risked everything to pay for something that wasn't really worth it.

A metaphor is a type of comparison, when you are using one thing to stand for something else.  There can be simple metaphors, such as a comparison within a sentence, and conceptual metaphors, where something has a bigger meaning.

For example, the necklace in this story is a metaphor for Mathilde’s pride.  Mathilde refused to go to the ball unless she had a necklace and dress worthy of her high opinion of herself.  This is why she borrowed a necklace from her friend. 

"It annoys me not to have a single piece of jewelry, not a single ornament, nothing to put on. I shall look poverty-stricken. I would almost rather not go at all."

In fact, she chose the flashiest one she could find.  Her friend guides her toward an appropriate and perfectly fine necklace, but she wants the flashiest one.  Once she has chosen that, she feels that she will stand out at the ball.

A metaphor can also be a figure of speech.  When Mathilde goes to the ball, her happiness is described with a metaphor.

She danced with rapture, with passion, intoxicated by pleasure, forgetting all in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a sort of cloud of happiness comprised of all this homage, admiration, these awakened desires and of that sense of triumph which is so sweet to woman's heart.

Clearly she is not in an actual cloud.  By comparing her happiness to a cloud, the author helps us picture how she is feeling.  Mathilde is happy because she is the most beautiful lady at the ball, and everyone is paying attention to her.  For the time being, she can forget her poverty.

Mathilde is poor.  Everything she wears at the ball is outside of her means.  She has to force her husband to use all of his savings on an expensive dress, and borrow the jewel from a rich friend.  None of this is part of her normal lifestyle.

When Mathilde loses the necklace, she loses her pride.  She has to replace the necklace, and this costs a fortune.  Her beauty and standard of living is reduced.  In the end, Mathilde’s pride cost her everything.  She wanted to be noticed, and she was, but the experience at the ball was not real because it was based on an illusion of who she was and what she could afford.  Everything about her was actually fake, including the necklace.

In Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace," there are many uses of personification, in which inanimate objects are given qualities that only humans can possess or actions that only humans can take.  In the story's opening line, in describing the background of Madame Loisel, the narrator says she has been born into "a family of artisans" because "fate had blundered over her." Fate is an abstract notion that is unable to blunder--or in other words, make a mistake.

Madame Loisel desires the finest material things in life, and she becomes emotional about the things that she cannot have.  The narrator describes her eyes as "furious" and says that "her heart began to beat covetously" though these body parts cannot literally experience these very human emotions.

And lastly, when Madame Loisel is thinking about the the worn out home furnishings that surround her, the narrator observes, " All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her." The "mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains" are inanimate objects that are literally incapable of either tormenting or insulting her. 

A simile is a direct comparison of two things that are unrelated but that do share one common characteristic or trait. The easiest way to identify a simile is by looking for the "noun like noun" or "noun/verb as a noun/verb" format.

Interestingly in "The Necklace", Maupassant chooses to describe the characters using direct and indirect characterization rather than using similes and other figurative language. Yet, an example of simile that is used in the narrative would be the following:

...she thought of delicious dishes served on marvellous plates and of the whispered gallantries to which you listen with a sphinx-like smile while you are eating the pink meat of a trout or the wings of a quail.

In this case, the smile is being directly compared to the facial expression of the sphinx. Since the comparison is direct, it is considered a simile.

Personification is the adjudication of human features to an inanimate or an inhuman subject. To spot an example of personification in literature, look for instances where objects are given some sort of power to dominate or control a human character. Often, authors use personification to show how the object resembles something that is alive.

In "The Necklace" we can find an example of personification in the following excerpt

...one of those ancient night cabs which, as though they were ashamed to show their shabbiness during the day, are never seen round Paris until after dark.

Since cabs do not have emotions, nor do they care whether they look shabby or not, the author has personified them by saying that they feel ashamed by the way that they look. This is a classic example of personification.

    Madame Mathilde Loisel is the unsatisfied wife and would-be social climber of a simple Parisian clerk from the Ministry of Education in Guy de Maupassant's short story, "The Necklace." Mathilde is an attractive woman who is bored with her life and dreams of the material possessions of the rich--dresses, jewelry, tapestries, silver and "exquisite dishes." But on her husband's salary, she knows her dreams will never come true. Nevertheless, she believes her destiny is bound for something greater. Thus, the simile from the second paragraph:

    She was simple since she could not be adorned; butshewasunhappyasthoughkeptoutofherownclass; for women have no caste and no descent, their beauty, their grace, and their charm serving them instead of birth and fortune.