GENDER, MARRIAGE, POWER DYNAMICS: A MATERIALIST FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT’S SHORT STORY THE NECKLACE

Abstract

In this study, The Necklace (1884) by Guy de Maupassant is analyzed in the light of materialist feminism, in which the suffering of Mathilde Loisel is not caused by personal act of vanity but rather structural inequality within the marriage and housework conditions. This study provides this gap by placing the story of Maupassant in the larger context of criticism of patriarchal capitalism, based on the contributions of materialist feminist theorists. The study employs a qualitative interpretive study based on the feminist literary criticism in which the materialist feminism guides it. The research study presents the power of marriage, domestic labor and symbolic capital through a close textual analysis situated within the historical understanding of the French Third Republic to analyze the impact of these three structures in influencing the life of Mathilde. Theoretical sources used to make the analysis include work by Christine Delphy (1984), Silvia Federici (2004), and Simone de Beauvoir (1949). The results indicate that the dependency of Mathilde on her modest position as a clerk of her husband, her momentary use of symbolic capital by way of adornment, and her 10 years of laborious, unseen work is a testament to the keeping house by women. Even the necklace itself becomes a symbol of capitalist patriarchy that is supposed to change the world but instead, shows the ineffectiveness of the system where looks matter more than reality.