The Necklace: Analysing Imagery & Other Literary Devices

 

Guy de Maupassant, The Necklace (originally written 1884)

The Necklace was written by Guy de Maupassant in 1884 and published in the popular newspaper le Gaulois. The story's protagonist is a young woman, Mathilde, who is not very well off but has been invited to a ball and wants to look her best, look pretty, be adored and show that she has status in the world.  She borrows an expensive necklace, from a friend, Madame Forestier and her own husband has agreed to use their savings to buy her a new dress. The story unfolds, and she loses the necklace on the way home from the ball.  To replace the necklace is very expensive so the couple end up in debt and spend the next 10 years working and living poorly to pay this off. 

I am looking at this work, as it is a realist work, as is my own work, The Quietus.  My work is of its time as is Maupassant;s and there are parallels to be drawn by looking at the social status of the main protagonist, their environment and how imagery has been used in each work to explore and reveal character, so this is how I will begin.

Realism originally was a reaction against Romanticism and began in the 19th century, in literary terms authors like Balzac, Simenon and Zola all wanted to show real life as it was in a true, unfiltered and often gritty world where there is no fairy tale ending.  'In simple words, they argued that literature should depict ordinary people in real-life situations. If literature didn’t represent real-life situations and characters then it should not be called true literature' (Amjad, n.d.).  Maupassant in The Necklace exemplifies this style of writing with a simple story that in many ways is the Cinderella story as the woman wants to go to the ball and be whisked away by a handsome prince, instead, she is stuck with an undistinguished husband 'she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.' (Maupassant:Bibliofile, 2019) and she ends up in more destitution at the end than when the story began.

In my own story, The Quietus, I have used imagery, as I have put my main character in a modern council office ‘The offices were dilapidated and in some places there were even holes in the ceiling, and buckets dotted about as water seeped from the roof every time it rained’ (The Quietus: P3) 

I also have described the home of my main character Amande; ‘Finally, when she felt human again she threw herself onto her sofa, old and tatty now, but once a lovely thing, one of the first items she ever bought after leaving home, deep red with patchwork patterns, mostly very comfortable’ (The Quietus:P8) 

In The Necklace, Mathilde’s take on her home; ‘She was distressed at the poverty of her dwelling, at the bareness of the walls, at the shabby chairs, the ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry’ (Maupassant:Bibliofile, 2019) 

My modern Amande clearly loves the comfort of her rather tatty sofa as it makes her happy.  But Mathilde is embarrassed by her environment considering it not good enough and making her very angry. Amande also doesn't want things as such and doesn't seem in any hurry to find a husband, there is a sureity and safety in her own self.  Whereas Mathilde wanted a husband of higher status, she wants jewles and beautiful furnishings; 'She thought of silent antechambers hung with Oriental tapestry, illumined by tall bronze candelabra, and of two great footmen in knee breeches who sleep in the big armchairs, made drowsy by the oppressive heat of the stove.' (Maupassant:Bibliofile, 2019) Here the use of metaphor reveals a break from reality, an unreal fantasy that Maupassant allows the character to dream of these things as these fantasies of a better life will be the character's downfall. 

In comparing the two works it is clear how the imagery of the women’s homes also says something not just about place, but of character.  The social status of Amande is fairly lowly middle management in a council job however Amande is not unhappy with her lot and clearly is quite happy with her social status, the contrast in my own story is when she is made to go to the terrible Froggett Estate which is filled with inner city crime, dilapidation and general despair of poverty when she returns home from visiting the Estate she had; 'immediately thrown off all her clothes, considered burning them as they smelt so disgusting and then had the longest shower of her life' (The Quietus: P8).

In The Necklace the use of the necklace as a symbol of all the things that Mathilde desires is very well executed in this short story; 'Mathilde will get a taste of the affluent life only while wearing the necklace' (DELONGA, 2024) However the necklace once lost will become the source of despair and impoverishment and sets up the irony at the end of the story.  In my own work, I have not used symbolism throughout however the repeated sighting of the little person in the three chapters is a symbol of something, as yet unknown, in my own story.  

Maupassant also uses alliteration to emphasise the beauty of the things that Mathilde desires, alliteration makes these things sound poetic and beautiful to the ear, not just a picture in her mind, she imagines; 'dainty dinners, of shining silverware...strange birds flying in the midst of a fairy forest; and she thought of delicious dishes' (Maupassant:Bibliofile, 2019).  In my own story I have used alliteration in places such as when Mr French arrives and there is 'a muddled and messy introduction' (The Quietus: P11) and to describe Amande clothes she; 'pulled off her black bobbled coat that had seen better days' (The Quietus:P4) Maupassant uses alliteration for fantasy and beauty and I have used it when things had gone slightly wrong or something is rather shabby so as an opposing device to Maupassant.  I believe in my own story the shabby is exulted somewhat by this device, a heightened sense of shabbiness!.

Looking at Maupassant and comparing the realism from different times it exposes how social status has changed and perhaps what we desire has changed somewhat.  There are parts of society that perhaps do still think that expensive things will make life and social status better however in my own story social status is not a key element but has been highlighted through the use of the Froggett Estate to exemplify modern poverty. 

My own story was just a beginning and it is still a story I do feel that I must continue, The Necklace has been concisely and beautifully written to be a short story that originally appeared in a newspaper, it is almost a moral story about coveting things and showing that much wealth is an illusion. 

References

Amjad, I. (n.d.). Realistic Elements in Guy de Maupassant’s Story ‘A Piece of String’ | PDF. [online] Scribd. Available at: https://www.scribd.com/document/652427929/Realistic-elements-in-Guy-de-Maupassant-s-story-A-Piece-of-String [Accessed 8 Apr. 2024].

Bibliofile, T. (2019). The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant. [online] The Bibliofile. Available at: https://the-bibliofile.com/the-necklace-by-guy-de-maupassant/ [Accessed 8 Apr. 2024].

DELONGA, A. (2024). In ‘The Necklace,’ what does the necklace symbolize? - eNotes.com. [online] eNotes. Available at: https://www.enotes.com/topics/necklace/questions/what-symbolism-necklace-284730 [Accessed 8 Apr. 2024].

Van-de-Velde, Z. (2024) The Quietus, Blurb Publishing, The Netherlands

Diane Arbus: Photographer and Image

 Diane Arbus (1923-1971) was a controversial photographer who began working as a photographer after World War II in fashion photography but she soon started to suffer from depression and walked out.  Arbus was trained first by her husband Allan Arbus but then she was tutored by Lisette Model and this friendship did last a lifetime.  Arbus always wanted to photograph something different and 'Model helped her identify and accept what subjects she wanted to photograph—what Doon Arbus later called “the forbidden.” Art critic Peter Bunnell has said that Arbus “learned from Model that in the isolation of the human figure one can mirror the essential aspects of society.”'(Mac Austin, 2010).  Here I will look at an image, from Arbus' 'Freaks' collection and consider Arbus' ideas and how they connected to wider society.

Diane Arbus's photograph of Eddie Carmel in “A Jewish giant at home with his parents, in the Bronx, N.Y., 1970,”

The image of Eddie Carmel was borne out of Arbus's friendship with the giant, this was established a long time before the image was taken and continued afterwards.  The image here looks at first like a snapshot one might have taken in any living room.  The room itself including the ceiling is in the frame due to the sheer size of the subject.  The parents stand with their son, the giant, they seem to stand awkwardly between the living room furniture.  We are viewing just as the photographer as if we have had to stand back just to understand the scale involved in the image.  The photographer clearly used a flash as otherwise this black and white film image would have been far to dark in this interior environment.  Some have suggested it has a 'Weegeesque' feel about it; 'The atmosphere is added to by the Weegeesque stark flashlight, giving the picture the feel of a “found specimen of urban horror”, as Hevey observes “Arbus, as an ex-fashion photographer, knew what she was doing in using technical disharmony as an underwriting of the narrative disharmony“' (Whetham, 2016) There is technical disharmony here, it is an awkward shot the parents gaze up and their son the giant gazes down upon them.  They do not look at the camera, this is their world we are now in and it is a wonder, as one ponders what a mother must think, that she bore this son, an almost mythical human being. Arbus could have chosen to photograph this in many ways but she chose this frame, in the cramped environment of the family home and to include the parents.  

In a way, this was a masterstroke (in photographic terms) as the intimate family relationship is physically contained and claustrophobic in this miniature house but it is clear it must have been difficult due to scale for the parents to have an intimate relationship as Eddie is far above and far away from them as he is a 'freak' of nature and his parents are just 'normal' how could they have understood.  As a voyeur of this image, we are voyeurs, looking at something that looks so private. Arbus' own argument was;  “there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them”, but, it is really her way of seeing them – the tension that exists in her images between the empathetic and the exploitative – that draws us in and, to a crucial degree, makes us complicit in her transgressive art.' (O’Hagan, 2016) This complicity in the image does make it complicated for the viewer as the image makes us uncomfortable but fascinated and really should we be staring?  When we tell our children when they point out differences when they are young before they know any of the rules of polite society, to 'not stare, as it is rude'

Now, when we look at these images from Arbus we might be inclined to think that she was deliberately trying to be controversial however I don't think this is the case.  I believe that Arbus felt compelled to take these images and, her own life was strange and complicated, there are many views about how she came across to other people and her own transgressive lifestyle, perhaps these people were her people. O'Hagan writes about Arbus;  'The deceptive art of photography also allowed her to create images that complied with her neuroses: about life, about childhood, about outsiderness, physical and psychological.' (O’Hagan, 2016) At the time of these images, these people were outsiders and treated as such, some were, abused, marginalised and attacked.  they went against society, as they spoiled the natural order. In the Zwirner exhibition quotes from opinion makers of the time were included, an example states; “Arbus’s work shows people who are pathetic, pitiable, as well as horrible, repulsive, but it does not arouse any compassionate feelings.”(Smee, 2022) This does show that times have changed and some argue that Arbus' images due to their notoriety helped to change society's opinions of the marginalised. 'Arbus appears less perverse than many of her detractors suggest, but more of a social commentator in the vein of Frank and Evans before her.' (Whetham, 2016).  There is also the suggestion that, as a woman, Arbus had strayed into male territory and this was another reason she was so pilloried for the images taken.  Perhaps if she had been a man they would have, at the time, been hailed as opening society's eyes to those who try to remain invisible for fear of society's wrath. 

There is so much more that could be said here on Arbus and so much has already been written.  As a photographer I always hope that I am compelled to take the image I take, it is not a choice but an urge that will not go away until it is done. Arbus' images are important and however uncomfortable they make me feel personally, they have an important place in photographic history and without Arbus we would never have seen these people and now with the lens of time, these people can be seen as important, as they agreed to this exposure, and they, as they stare back at us, can teach us so much.  

Hairy Lady (date unknown) by Diane Arbus

References

Lubow, A. (2014). The Woman and the Giant (No Fable). The New York Times. [online] 9 Apr. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/arts/design/diane-arbus-recorded-a-bronx-familys-unsettling-dynamic.html [Accessed 4 Apr. 2024].

Mac Austin, H. (2010). Diane  Arbus | Jewish Women’s Archive. [online] Jwa.org. Available at: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/arbus-diane [Accessed 4 Apr. 2024].

O’Hagan, S. (2016). Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer review – a disturbing study. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/25/diane-arbus-portrait-of-a-photographer-review-arthur-lubow [Accessed 4 Apr. 2024].

Smee, S. (2022). Review | Diane Arbus was accused of exploiting ‘freaks.’ We misunderstood her art.. Washington Post. [online] 26 Sep. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/09/26/diane-arbus-exhibit-zwirner/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2024].

Tusa, I.M. (2020). The PhotograpHER addiction diaries - Diane Arbus. [online] Street Hunters. Available at: https://www.streethunters.net/blog/2020/03/29/photographer-addiction-diaries-diane-arbus/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2024].

Whetham, C. (2016). Diane Arbus and her ‘freaks’. [online] Carl Whetham photography. Available at: https://carlwhetham.photo.blog/2016/12/12/diane-arbus-and-her-freaks/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2024].

Welcome to Summer Term One!

 Welcome to the new term!  I am looking forward to creating new things and, in my case, I am not yet sure what that will be!  I am working in Art Portfolio and Applied Media Practice.  For Applied Media I am creating a video diary and I have already recorded and edited the video, please see below.

Over the 'break' I was reading a book called 'Failure' which is stories from modern artists and their failures when creating work.  failure is essential if we are going to learn and these documents of failure are good to read as it really shows how the artists think, all artists have a vision however the execution of that vision is fraught with challenges. 

Documents of Contemporary Art: Failure£20.00

Edited by Lisa Le Feuvre

Many artists live their lives and never become successful and often fame only comes after their death.  Picasso was one of the rare artists that became very successful in his own lifetime.  Artists like Vincent Van Gogh, Johannes Vermeer and so many others suffered terrible poverty and pain during their lifetime, but they believed that their art was worth the struggle. 

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with the Pearl Earring (1665)

Johannes Vermeer actually had 15 children (or, should I say, his wife had 15 children!) 4 died during the birth. Vermeer managed an art dealer business inherited from his father, he made only 36 (known pictures in his lifetime but he could not sell these so he left his family in debt, with his wife petting for bankruptcy the year after his death in 1675. Interestingly, Vermeer used a lot of blue in his painting which was a very special and expensive blue pigment, ultramarine;' It was made of a bright blue mineral called lazurite from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli, which came from Afghanistan. Ultramarine was very rare, so it was the most expensive pigment you could buy at that time. It was even more expensive than gold. How Vermeer could afford it is a mystery.'   (Mauritshuis, n.d.)

On the Tate website, you can see the work of Marlene Dumas and a film about her 'Rejects' series.  This is a series of works that uses portrait paintings that she has rejected from her other collections.  

Marlene Dumas, Rejects (1994-2014)

I found these artworks interesting as the artists had one image on top of another to create these slightly strange-looking faces.  the faces themselves under the title 'Rejects' almost become more interesting because they have been rejected. Lucy Ella Rose write on her blog; 'Rejects challenges the idea of a perfect model and places the excluded or marginalised centre stage, reclaiming outcasts and representing the invisible.' (Rose, 2015) I personally don't think this is particularly true as one of the 'rejects' was Charlotte Rampling (famous actor) and this series wasn't about marginalised people but choices that an artist made regarding her work, to show the work that one once rejected is brave, in this case, the work has been brought together well and there is a clear curation of work and thought and this is more about the artist/author as a kind of God over the images. Dumas states; 'I really like this title rejects because conceptually, if you call something rejects, it is like a failure already, so you can’t really fail because you already acknowledge that you failed. I like that play on the word rejects. [Marlene Dumas:Rejects, 2015] The rejects were an experiment and experimented with, and this is all about the artist's methodology when presented with these past works.  Artists all work in a different way as Canau states in his paper on the creative process Marcel Duchamp was methodical about his research and drawings and notes on each of his works, his works were so extensively studied and researched that he tried to make it impossible for his work to fail and through these notes, anyone could construct his pieces. 'Marcel Duchamp is essentially associated with the conceptual approach, mainly with the readymade, and not with a rational and paradigmatic approach in terms of assimilation and mastering of technical processes at the genesis of the work of art' (Canau, 2022) 

Marlene Dumas, Rejects (1994-2014)

As artists, we should all embrace the idea that we are going to fail, probably quite catastrophically, before we might succeed.  If this happens in our lifetime we should consider ourselves privileged to see our art appreciated.

References

Listverse. (2023). Ten Renowned Artists Who Were Unappreciated in Life. [online] Available at: https://listverse.com/2023/06/20/ten-renowned-artists-who-were-unappreciated-in-life/ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2024].

Mauritshuis (n.d.).  Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). [online] Available at: https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/our-collection/our-masters/johannes-vermeer/ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2024].

National Gallery of Art (n.d.). Who Is Vermeer? [online] www.nga.gov. Available at: https://www.nga.gov/stories/who-is-vermeer.html [Accessed 3 Apr. 2024].

Rose, L.E. (2015). Marlene Dumas: ‘The Image as Burden’ at the Tate Modern, London, Gallery 1. [online] Available at: https://plainspeakingart.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/marlene-dumas-the-image-as-burden-at-the-tate-modern-london/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2024].

Canau, A. (2022). The mind in the creative process. [online] Researchgate. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363024847_The_mind_in_the_creative_process_The_mastering_of_technical_processes_experimenting_breakaway_and_the_exploration_of_error_and_chance_as_creative_strategies_in_the_creation_of_a_work_of_art [Accessed 4 Apr. 2024].

Reflection

 The end of a term came and went and now we are nearly at the beginning of a new one!  I will remind myself where I started which was with Kimiko Yoshida, her haunting images of marriage and identity have really stuck with me this term and in response to her work and others that I explored, I became more and also less. 

Kimiko Yoshida — KyotoKimiko (Genji/Warhol)

I was everywhere and nowhere.  I placed myself over and over again in the domestic environment where I am.  I also in The Quietus was working on the beginning of my disappearance, through Amande (Almond in French), and the mysterious events that will lead to a rather interesting story.  I only had the opportunity to write three chapters due to time constraints however this is a story I really do want to continue to write.  Something I plan on doing once I have effected my own disappearance!  The other project I worked on this term was The Twilight House, I actually enjoyed this immensely, it was an interior design project for a house in France for Gen X who were working on hybrid work.  The house had many faults it was too large, the layout needed work, as although the floorplan and zoning worked in theory the sheer scale would perhaps have made this house have vast unused spaces for the people it was meant for.  If I as doing this again I would have reduced the size significantly and changed the layout to make it flow not just from front to back as my plan but throughout so that there was better connections between rooms. I would also have changed some of the colour scheme and perhaps made more individualised rooms that reflected the target customer further. 

Overall, I was pleased with the work, as a start, on all projects but all projects needed more development and I do think they were just the start of my ideas.  I am going to before the beginning of next term update my website as there were a few issues with the about and the book was not showing correctly.  I am hoping that with a few tweaks, this can also be improved.

Looking forward to next term, I wonder what new ideas this will bring...

Website Feedback & UX Testing

 This week we did Feedback and UX Testing on our Wix Websites.  We created a google form with testing questing and then embedded this into the navigation bar.  We then published our websites and shared the website links so we could all test each others site and get feedback.  

My live site address is now Zoe Van-de-Velde | architecture (zvdv747.wixsite.com)

please click here to view live site.

These are the questions and the responses I received, I will just go through these and make comments and I will update and republish accordingly.

I only received one response however this is still feedback and on the first question the tester thought that my homepage was 'good' so there is clearly room for improvement on this page. I will check this on the mobile view as well as I think there may be an issue on this view. 

The about page again was just 'good'  I do think this page could be designed slightly better and perhaps have more impact when the viewer opens the page and this is something I will look at changing this.  

I decided to remove just the image and I changed the entire background to my about page to my image and then I changed the text to Rohza One and white and placed it to the left hand side of my image I also changed the font of the title and moved this to right side for balance I then saved and republished this.  I then checked my mobile view as well. I just moved the section downwards to ensure the menu was noyt covered and the page was aligned correctly.

Next I looked at my contact page and social links and again this was 'good' so everything is functional but I will just check the mobile view again. I actually quite like my contact page and so I will not make any changes here and everything is working well on both desktop and mobile views. 

I am now going to my portfolio pages.  Again this was still 'good' and I still have more to add here so I rechecked the front portfolio page and I though t the button text and buttons too large on the mobile so I reduced the size if these just by clicking on and using the A- button and then using the move/transform controls to reduce the size of the button. 

I then checked the navigation - this is all good and I do think this works well s no changes here for the moment. 

I then looked at the feedback for the design boards for Twilight house and again just have 'good' which is quite disappointing as I was hoping that these worked well, they still need a few outcomes adding but overall I thought that this was a good design project that I have presented well. 

I checked the project again and the only changes I made were to the size of the text and buttons as I still think that this works well and I also checked on my actual mobile again once I had republished to ensure that everything was live and working correctly. 

My last two questions were would you recommend to a friend and which device are you using. Again there was just good - which I am hoping through the changes I have made that this would move to a more positive response.  The device was desktop.  

My last questions were with comments and these are shown below..

I have now fixed mobile view issues and changed pages, I am pleased everything is consistent and I am hoping that now my site is much improved with these updates.  

Website Gallery: Book Project

 Today we are uploading our book onto Wix and I will be embedding a flipbook

I went Wix and clicked and Pages and Menu and then clicked on 'Add Menu Item' and then 'New Page'.  I think clicked on the three dots on the tab and rename and then typed in the name of my book 'The Quietus. I then dragged the tab down underneath my portfolio to make it a subpage.

I then went to my front portfolio page and clicked on the Add tool in the menu and the I chose 'button' I then chose the button I wanted and dragged it onto the page.  I then clicked on the button and renamed the name of my book and then chose the link for the page I have just made.  I then saved and previewed and checked that it worked.  I customised the button to be consistent with the font type and size of other buttons and I used the Wix gridlines to line up the button.

I then went to my page for my book.  I added a title in Palatino Linotype font at 53pts and then I added text to introduce my book, again in the same font at 24pts.  I then aligned the introduction to the left hand side.  I may adjust my introduction later but this is a start.  I then added a back to portfolio button using the same method as on the front portfolio page.  I also embedded by book using the Add tool and then embed, my own on Blurb should embed as a website however in the classroom it was having trouble with internet connection so I will add this later. 

I also have checked on my mobile itself and made further tweaks with the size of titles and buttons and have republished.  I will check this all again later.

Website Gallery: Photographic Gallery

 Firstly before beginning to add my new gallery I check my copyright and made sure it was up-to-date and was 2024

I then went to my page and menu in the left hand side tools menu and went to the three dots at the end of 'Feedback and Testing' - I then chose the 'Hide from menu' from the pop up box as this was just UX Testing from last term.

I then wanted to add a new page so I went to my pages and menu tool on the left hand side of the screen and I went to the bottom of the pop up box and chose 'New Page' then I chose 'blank page ' in the dialog box and then I renamed my page 'Everywhere and Nowhere' and I made it a subpage by dragging the tab underneath my portfolio page. 

I then added a heading using the add button on the left hand side and then I dragged the heading onto the page.  I then changed the font to Palatino Linotype at 44 pts and then I typed in the title of my project.  I then went back to the add button and added a paragraph which I dragged onto the page.  Again I changed the font to Palatino Linotype at 20pts.  I then aligned both the title and the paragraph introduction using the gridlines in Wix. 

I then added a button by clicking on the 'Add' tool and choosing 'button'  I then dragged the button I had chosen onto the space I made on the page.  I then clicked on the button and renamed it 'back to portfolio' and then I chose a link to portfolio.  I then went to the design box and changed the font to Palatino Linotype 26pts and I then adjusted the position using the move tool to and gridlines on Wix.  I then previewed the page and clicked on the button to check that it linked to my portfolio page. 

I then went to my portfolio page by clicking on the pages and menu, I then added a new button and changed the font and size as above and then clicked on preview to check that it worked.

O then added a gallery by clicking on the 'Add' button in the left hand menu and choosing a suitable gallery.  I then dragged this onto my page and I opened the manage media box and selected all the Wix images and deleted these.  I then added my own images and previewed to check this worked. 

I then went back to manage media in the gallery and added titles and description for each image. 

I then checked my mobile view, I needed to adjust the gallery section and remove black space at the bottom and also using text adjustment I changed the size of the text in titles and buttons as these were too large. I previewed and published and then checked on my phone to ensure everything was working correctly.