Thomas Christensen 31/06/13

Explore how women are presented in ‘Veronica’ and ‘The Necklace’

The protagonists in Veronica and The Necklace have similarities, like all women, but they are also portrayed as being very different to one another. Veronica is presented as being selfless, devoted and committed to her family but also somewhat unambitious. This is typical of her community in that all women were expected to stay at home whilst the men go to the city to work, like Okeke. The reader feels sympathy for Veronica because we feel that she is obliged to stay at home just because of her situation. On the other hand, Madame Loisel in The Necklace is highly atypical of her community. She is presented as being selfish, ungrateful and manipulative of her husband. The reader feels very little sympathy for Madame Loisel at the beginning of the story because of her negative outlook on life, especially compared to Veronica, who always seems to be optimistic.

Even though both women are very different, they are made to look like they are one of many similar women and this is achieved in both stories with the use of personal pronouns at the beginning of the stories. In The Necklace, Madame Loisel is introduced as “one of those pretty, delightful girls.” This pronoun indicates a generalisation of women at the time. Similarly, the first paragraph of Veronica contains only personal pronouns and we don’t find out Veronica’s name until the second paragraph.

We can learn a lot about the protagonists by what they say. Veronica struggles to use complex sentences and instead uses either simple, short sentences or long compound sentences; the type that a young child would use and so enhancing the childlike portrayal of her. When Veronica says, “I can’t just leave my family” and “They are my family, that is enough,” the reader learns that Veronica truly cares for her family. Moreover, the short, staggered sentences imply that Veronica has not been well educated, especially in contrast to Okeke’s longer, more complex sentences. We can also learn that Veronica is very inquisitive, especially at the beginning of the story, through her constant use of questions. One could almost think that Veronica is jealous of Okeke just by the way she asks so many questions but one could also think that she just has hunger and desire to learn. Likewise, we learn that Madame Loisel is very ungrateful when she says, “What earthly use is that to me?” especially as she had just been complaining about her life not being grand enough. On the other hand, one could interpret Madame Loisel as being quite sensitive when she needs to be, like when she says, “I...I...Madame Forestier’s Necklace...I haven’t got it!” The reader can learn from the hesitations and exclamation that Madame Loisel was truly upset.

Following on from this, we can also learn about the characters by what others say about them. This is most clear in Veronica because the reader learns about the protagonist through Okeke, who is the narrator. Okeke is the character that tells us about Veronica’s family and how she is beaten; he tells us that Veronica is wearing ‘shabby’ clothes and about the physical appearance of her. This does not happen in The Necklace though because there is very little opinionated speech.

This links to the next way we learn about the women in these stories – through narrative voice. There is a very strong voice in Veronica from Okeke’s point of view. Okeke gives a lot of his thoughts on Veronica whilst he is narrating the story. He tells us most of what the reader needs to know about Veronica whilst still giving a slightly opinionated view. It is from Okeke’s thoughts that we conjure up our own views on Veronica. This does not happen so much in The Necklace, however, because the story is written in third person limited from Madame Loisel’s view and so we, the reader, are left to come up with our own feelings of Madame Loisel.

Thomas Christensen 31/06/13

The language in Veronica is quite simplistic, as to mimic the educational capabilities of Veronica. This is quite contrasting to the language used in The Necklace, which is more refined and glamourous, much to Madame Loisel’s disbelief. The ‘oriental tapestries’ and ‘bronze candelabras’ are much beyond the simple ‘pieces of cardboard’ and ‘smoking fires’ in Veronica. The grand lexis in The Necklace creates a slight sense of irony within the story – Madame Loisel believes she is living a minor and boring life whereas the words in the story are actually quite attractive. The lexis in Veronica however is very much representative of the typical African lives during civil war. This allows the reader to connect more with the story and in particular with Veronica.

In conclusion, the individuals in these two stories are very different but are both representative of the time they are set in and place. Both women are treated like they should just stay at home but the reader can tell by what is said about them that they both aspire to doing something else with their lives but they are restricted by their surroundings.