The False Gems: A Literary Analysis of Guy de Maupassant's Short Story

This essay provides a detailed literary analysis of Guy de Maupassant's short story, 'The False Gems.' It delves into the plot, exploring the introduction of Monsieur Lantin, his marriage, and his wife's peculiar fondness for theater and jewelry. The essay examines the plot twists, including the wife's sudden death and the revelation of the jewels' true value. The analysis further investigates the themes of deception, greed, and the pursuit of happiness, highlighting Monsieur Lantin's transformation and the story's moral lesson. The essay also touches upon the story's abrupt ending and the questions it leaves for the reader. The essay makes use of various sources to support the analysis, and it concludes with the reflection that money cannot buy happiness.

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The false Gems
Introduction
The story leaves one with more questions than the answers which allow the reader in
formulating the ideas of their own from the meaning of the story. In the Jewelry, by Guy De
Maupassant, there are various key points in the story which leave one to wonder on what exactly
was the overall intent of the writer (Sem-VI General 3). In the story it is as though it ended
abruptly, in the sense that is should have been more to it. In the essay, it would provide an
overview of the story from my point of view and fill the blanks with solution to the riddle.
In the story as the readers we are introduced to Monsieur Lantin who had become a lucky
young man who marries a young girl at a reception who was the daughter of the provincial tax
collector, who died several years ago. Monsieur Lantin had modest life with modest salary he
earned from the ministry of interior (Sem-VI General 13). He was utterly happy when he married
her wife. In the story it highlights that after years of marriage Monsieur Lantin loved her more
than he did than the first time he met her. Nonetheless, there are two faults he found with the
wife.
Her first fault he highlighted was that of her love for theater (Gale 65). The story unfolds as it

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has declared that she always had her loges cured for the performances. Loge is a kind of private
box office which is in the theater (Rick 45). On that part it struck with the odds how
Monsieur Lantin salary could afford to have her wife go to private box office seats to see these
performances. This seems to be ideal for a wealthy person as I imagine those seats are very
expensive. At this point of the story, there are uncertainties which have arisen at the odds that
something was going on with her wife.
To raise suspicions to a higher notch, Mr. Latin begs her to go without him, since he does
not like the shows. I wondered this could perhaps make her resentful that he did not accompany
her to her obsession. Another fault he disliked was her craze with the false jewelry (Rick 55).
She was very infatuated with the jewelry (Sem-VI General 43). She often stared the false
diamonds as though they were real. There was irony represented in the story since the husband
thought that the jewelry we fake and since she knew the truth she often would say, "Look! are
they not lovely? One would swear they were real." And he would say "You have
bohemian tastes, my dear." (Sem-VI General 4)
Could she have known something that the husband was not aware? My curiosity had
grown at this point. There was abrupt and sudden twist in the story plot, her wife comes down
with cough and latter dies from inflammation in the lungs. From this perspective the story focus
is clearly not on the wife rather on M. Lantin.
The writer from the beginning intended to put Lantin at the core center of attention of the
plot. The mourning of the wife was expressed mostly within the story especially what he went
while grieving her. He falls into debt later and completely broke with no pay (Italo23). He is then

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forced to sell the jewelry to enable him to eat when he discovers that the jewels are indeed real
and valuable.
This insight shed light of her wife, in that he noticed she had an affair that she could
afford such huge amount of real diamonds. He knew they could never have afforded such
jewelry considering, the salary he was getting so the question was, “where did she obtain such
money?” It is much obvious that she had an affair with a wealthy man who adorned her and
bought her jewelry.
Object of greed has been in the story he knew where they came from and decided to see
them. At the jewelry store some of the clerk finds the situation almost humorous and they could
often laugh. It is ironical that the M. Lantin comes to sell the jewelry; they see him eager in
doing it.
When he sold the jewelry he started forgetting his wife because of the new fortunes he
gotten. One of interesting quote from the story was, with money a man can even shake off grief
you can go where you please travel amuse yourself! Oh! If only I were rich!” (Sem-VI General
3) This shows that he thought money would solve all his issues and make him a happy man
which he later realized it was not true.
Deception has also been exhibited in the story example he begin to lie to people about his
found fortune. He tells his boss that he has acquired three hundred thousand francs fortune as a
way of rubbing on the boss face. At another instance at the restaurant when he tell a gentleman
that he has four hundred thousand francs which is double the figure he had. This case he was
trying to impress them that he was something which he was not (Kostas 6).

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Conclusion
From the story he was trying to fit into a class which he did not belong. He had the
impression that the rich are the only happy individual and with money there is no misery. That
was confirmed it was not true in the conclusion when he remarried and the wife made his life
miserable. The morale lesson of the story money will not buy happiness.

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Work Cited
English, Sem-VI General. "General English [Text: Gems of Wisdom–(Part Two)]." (2016).
Boyiopoulos, Kostas. Decadent Short Story. Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
Calvino, Italo. Fantastic Tales: Visionary and Everyday. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.
DeMarinis, Rick. The Art & Craft of the Short Story. Open Road Media, 2016.
Gale, Cengage Learning. A Study Guide for Guy de Maupassant's" The Jewels". Gale, Cengage
Learning, 2016.