The Necklace and Pygmalion - Literary Essay Example

The necklace is a short story that depicts a cadre of people who do not appreciate the fact that they live a good life but keeps on yearning for more in life. The author is Guy De Maupassant who articulates his writing skills to enlighten the mass about the zeal of wealth acquisition. The story revolves around a spectacular diamond necklace that Mathilde borrows from her friend Mme. This set of the jewel is a sign of wealth to Mathilde. However, Mathilde loses the necklace and spends the next ten years paying to replace the lost necklace. At the beginning of the story, we are made to understand meet Mathilde Loisel who comes from a working-class family, but she wants nothing to do with her family who apparently is coming from a poor background (Maupassant, p. 34). Her parents persuade her not to marry a rich man but instead marry Loisel who works at the department of education. Despite the capability of the family to sustain themselves, Mathilde believes she is living a life of poverty and misery.

Pygmalion

Pygmalion presents a play, which was written by George Bernard Shaw. The story tells about the transformation of a young girls life, which was entrenched in poverty as she struggles day by day to live. Living in poverty and struggling on a daily basis is a complicated way to maneuver out life in the most decent way we know. Given the opportunity, one would wish to make changes to our lives, and situations are possible. It is in this context that Pygmalion tells the story of a poor girl who is disrespected and overlooked due to her appearance and the dialects she speaks.

Pygmalion and Cinderella

George Shaws play of Pygmalion shared one of the standard themes, characters, and ideas as well as a known fairytale, Cinderella. These analyses, however, originates from numerous ideas and genres, can be compared regarding gender roles, themes as well as societal expectations. Both Cinderella and Pygmalion can be analyzed to show the underlying meaning as well as the real reason as o why text exists (Maupassant, p. 36). The two originated differently but have grounds of comparison with the themes and characterization they bear. Bernards Pygmalion was first indicated and told as a myth, but later was adapted as a play with one of the characters Eliza Doolittle transforming with the help of phonetician Henry Higgins. The idea of transformation and change can thus be likened to Cinderella as she underwent a similar case. In Cinderella, it was the white pigeons that assisted her in the urge of transformational, which is given in the excerpt. Cinderella transformed much from a house cleaner into a princess. The fact that Cinderella and Eliza were to rely on other people and animals to help them in their transformation is continued in both texts (Wiener, p. 45). In the case of Cinderella, as soon as she left home she got married to the prince whom she continued to depend on. In the same case, Eliza chose to forsake Higgins and Pickering and immediately got married to Freddy. These texts have a common theme and characterization. In the text, the protagonists Cinderella and Eliza begin as the typical damsel in distress; they portray the type of people that must depend on others for help to come their way. In the case of Cinderella and Pygmalion, both have lost their mothers and have uninvolved fathers as they end up being poor. The similarities of these texts and situational absurdities make statements on the society as being considerably undeveloped.

The Problems Faced By the Heroines

In every scene of Pygmalion, Bernard presents different social classes as well as exploring how they relate to each other. At this time, to climb the social class in England had many obst5acles. As more and more wealthy families prospered and imitated the upper class, there was, distinction and aristocrats tried to maintain their superiority in cherishing attributes that could not be achieved quickly. Such were family background, old traditions, and refined social graces. It is from such attributes that Eliza was despised to have lacked refined speech and manners. These were put to the test one summer at a party dinner. These were such events that would bring families together, and in this case, Eliza was in one such (Wiener, p. 47). In Alfred Doolittle, the daughter Eliza is wretched in poverty just as the father, they are therefore lass eligible for charity than the deserving poor, they at expected to work on their own and Alfred work as a sanitation worker while his daughter Eliza who lives by herself is a flower peddles flowers on the street. In the case of Cinderella living with an evil stepmother, and realize that she can stand-alone rather than waiting for someone to rescue her. Perrault depicts the life that children live after the demise of their real mothers as Cinderella Effects.

The Theme of Transformation

The theme of transformation is one of the areas that Perrault and Shaw focused on after depicting two women who went through life ordeals emerge with lives with hope. Both Cinderella and Eliza in their past life meet many challenges but latter they lived a life of hope that transformed them. Initially, Cinderella was a poor girl who finally found her prince and eventually became a princess. Eliza represented the most critical transformation because she came to live with Higgins as a naive insecure girl whose dream was shattered. She had big dreams, and she wanted to see a realization of the dreams. When she cites her link with Higgins, she becomes an active, opinionated girl; this is in contrast to the initial beginning of Eliza where she was the naive girl. Eventually, she presents an independent woman who now wants to know how she would be treated which is the main reason she leaves the Higgins. Cinderella symbolized a transformational change, which is coupled with a cultural one. In the snow-white previous fairy tale of a heroine, animated the rosy cheeks as well as cropped hair. This transformation is not just the appearance only, but even in the way, Cinderella perceived what life offers to her lately.

The Ball as Imagery

In Cinderella, Perraults display the idea and notion Cinderellas shoes brings about. The presentation is given to a kind of shoe that is similar to those that were worn at home at it was easy to slip off with them. The connotation of the shoe, which was formerly worn within the bedroom, gave this notion as sexual overtones. Nonetheless, it obliterates fashion advertising the beauty to which Cinderella was accorded. Towards the end of history, George Bernard Pygmalion Eliza has come into her being. She has emerged as the real world woman. You the author, I contend that she became an independent being free of Higgins influence; she finally got to chart to find her destiny.

Work Cited

Maupassant, Guy . The Necklace. Chicago: The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1969. Print.

Wiener, Gary. Readings on Pygmalion. San Diego, Calif: Greenhaven Press, 2002. Print.