Comparing Maupassants Necklace and Chekovs Vanka Essay -- Comparison

Narrators and Sympathy in Maupassants Necklace and Chekovs Vanka In Guy de The Necklace and Anton Chekovs Vanka, the cashiers attitudes are unsympathetic toward the protagonists Mathilde and Vanka. However, where the narrator of The Necklace feels outright hostility toward Mathilde, the narrator of Vanka voices his opinion more passively by pointing out the flaws in Vankas wishful thinking. In The Necklace, the narrators unsympathetic feelings toward Mathilde are made spare in the first paragraph when he states, she had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded by an rich and distinguished man and she allow herself be married to a little clerk at the Ministry of Public Instruction (66). The narrator portrays Mathilde as a selfish and haughty shrew whose besides desire is to be admired and praised by everyone else. Mathilde defines her status by her good looks and thinks it degrading that she is the daughter of a lowly clerk. Also, the phrase let herself be married shows that she consider herself above the common person, and by marrying a clerk she lowered her standards (66). Conversely, in Vanka, the narrator points out the flaws of Vankas wishful thinking by showing the humankind of his situation. Vanka writes to his grandfather as if to Santa Clause, but instead of asking for toys, he asks for freedom from his cruel life by asking his grandfather to take him away from here, floor to the village (48). The narrator, though, shows how Vankas grandfather drinks profusely although Vanka never truly realizes it except when he pictures him as a lively little old man of sixty-five with an evermore put-oning face and drunken eyes (47). The narrator further p... ... (47) and in Vankas dream he appears to laugh, as if reveling in the fact that he has been able to try more mischief, this time in Vankas life (49). Both The Necklace and Vanka portray characters that are treated unsympathetically by their narrators. At the en d of both stories, too, the narrators appear to laugh at the characters because all of their hard work and troubles were for nothing Mathilde lost her youth and beauty for a fake necklace Vanka wasted his hopes on a letter that leave never arrive at its destination. Works Cited Chekov, Anton. Vanka. Understanding Fiction. 3rd ed. Eds. Clanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hill, 1979. 46-49de Maupassant, Guy. The Necklace. Understanding Fiction. 3rd ed. Eds. Clanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hill, 1979. 66-72