The Necklace (Literature)

The Necklace

Exposition 

Setting:  The Middle Classed Home
Character: Main: Mathilde 

                                  Minor: Madame Forestier, The Husband, Monsieur Loisel

• Mathilde was one of those pretty and charming girls
• Born into a lower middle-class family
• Unlikely she would ever meet a man of wealth and social position
• Married to a junior clerk in the Ministry of Public Instruction
• No money for expensive clothes 
• Dressed simply
• Unhappy
• Wanted better things in her life.
• Wanted to be treated as a upper class

Rising Action

• Threw the invitation from the Minister of Public Instruction onto the table
• Unhappy because she has nothing to wear to the ball
• The husband gave her the  $400 that he wanted to buy the gun to Mathilde
• Bought herself a beautiful dress
• Mathilde does not have a single jewellery
• Borrowed a beautiful diamond necklace for the ball

Climax

• Went to the ball and she was the center of attraction
• She lost her necklace during the ball

Falling Action

• Went back to the route where they walked see if they could find it
• Went to the police station the newspaper and to the cab companies
• Waited at home in the same state of shock
• Wrote to Madame Forestier and told her she has broken the clasp and is having it mended
• The next day, took the case that it had come in and went to the jewellers whose name was insidew the lid
• The jeweller did not sell the necklace and only made the case
• Went to a small shop in the Palais Royal 
• Found a diamond necklace that looked exactly the same and it was worth 40,000 francs
• Loisel had 18,000 francs which his father left him and borrowed the rest
• Wrote IOUs borrowed money at outrageous rates of interest 
• Went to the extent of mortaging the rest of his life
• Madame Loisel/Mathilde finally returned the necklace
• Didn't open the necklace fearing that Madame Forestier might notice the change

Resolution

• At the end Mathilde saw Madame Forestier and found out the 36,000 francs the pay to replace the necklace was actually worth five hundred francs at most

The Selfish Giant (Literature)

The Selfish Giant

Exposition:

• Children playing in the garden after school
• Children were playing hide and seek and heard a great voice boom out
• Children peered out of their hiding places to see a very angry giant
• The Giant decided to come home after living for seven years with his friend, the Cornish ogre
• The Giant doesn't want to see the children laughing and shouting
• Children ran away

Characters

• Children
• The Giant 

Setting

• The Garden

Conflicts:

• The Giant decided to build a high wall with spikes around the garden
• Every day the children poked their noses through the bars of the gate and looked longingly at the garden and sadly they wandered off to play on the hard, dusty road
• The Winter came. Snow covered the ground with a thick white mantle and Frost painted the trees with silver
• The giant wanted the Spring to come
• Spring came, the Snow and Frost disappeared and flowers pushed their heads up against the ground and birds sang merrily but in the giant's garden the Snow, the Frost, the North Wind still danced through the bare branches of the trees
• Spring refused to come to the giant's garden

Climax:

• The Giant was lying in the bed one morning, feeling sorry for himself.
• Heard blackbird singing
• Giant lept over to the window and beamed with pleasure.
• The Snow and Frost were gone 
• Every tree had burst into blossom
• Every tree held one of the children whom the giant frightened away
• The children crept into the garden by a hole in the wall
• The Spring rushed in after the children
• One child was standing on the ground
• The child was crying bitterly as he was to small to reach even the lowest branch of the smallest tree
• Giant moved to pity
• Giant knew why the Spring would not go to his garden
• The giant knocked down the walls and turned it into a children's playground

Falling Action:

• Every day after school the children came to play in the giant's beautiful garden
• Every day the giant ask them the same question whether the little boy was with them
• The children do not know where to find the boy and the only time the saw him was when he knocked down the walls
• Giant felt sad because he loved the little boy very much and only the sight of the children playing made him happy
• Giant grew old and weak and could no longer play with the children

Resolution:

• A winter morning the giant was sitting by his bedroom window and saw the most beautiful tree he had ever seen
• The tree's golden branches were covered with delicate white blossom and silver fruit and underneath it stood the little boy
• The giant was happy the boy came back 
• When he reached the little boy, the boy's face was red with anger 
• The giant was angry
• The child smiled gently and asked the giant to follow him 
• The child told the giant to play in his garden which was called Paradise
• That afternoon the children ran into the garden to play in the snow and found the dead giant lying peacefully under a tree, covered with white blossom

Notes:

• The Snow, Frost and the North Wind may represent the coldness inside the giant's heart
• The Spring may represent the warmth inside the giant's heart
• The boy may represent a religious being