The short story, The Necklace, by Guy De Maupassant, follows the life of a woman and her husband living in France in the early 1880’s. The woman, Mathilde, is a very materialistic person who is never content with anything in her life. Her husband, a lowly clerk in the Ministry of Education, is not a rich man, but he brings home enough to get by.
Theme - Because of its obvious message, “The Necklace” makes a great short story for teaching theme. Lesson Ideas (5 out of 5) Write a found poem. Not only will your students recognize the cleverness of writing a found poem about a lost necklace, they’ll practice using details from a story, analyzing evidence, and discovering a theme.
The Gift Of The Magi and The Necklace share particular similarities in characters, irony and theme. In both stories the main characters, Della and Mathilde, share similar characteristics. Both are young, and married to very loving and caring husbands. In The Gift Of the Magi, Della is not honest with her husband.
These short story lesson plans use The Necklace as the platform for developing student skills in literary analysis writing. Multiple activities provide guided instruction on how to write a literary analysis paragraph, with detailed lessons that teach students the fundamental literary elements of symbolism and theme.