COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE FEMALE CHARACTERS’

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE NECKLACE AND THE GIFT OF THE

MAGI

THESIS PROPOSAL

BY:

NILLA RIZQIYAH

REG. NUMBER: A73219068

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

UIN SUNAN AMPEL SURABAYA

2022

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of study............................................................................................................3
1.2 Research Problem................................................................................................................5
1.3 Significance of study............................................................................................................5
1.4 Scope and limitation............................................................................................................6
1.5 Definition of key terms........................................................................................................6
1.6 Research method..................................................................................................................6
1.6.1 Data Source..................................................................................................................6
1.6.2 Data Collection.............................................................................................................6
1.6.3 Data Analysis................................................................................................................7
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.............................................................................................7
2.1. New Criticism.......................................................................................................................7
2.1.1. Character.......................................................................................................................8
2.1.2. Characterization............................................................................................................8
2.2. Comparative Study..............................................................................................................9
3. POINT TO DISCUSS..................................................................................................................9
3.1 Description of the female characters in Madame Mathilde The Necklace and Della's The
Gift of The Magi...............................................................................................................................9
3.1.1 The female characters in The Necklace..............................................................................9
3.1.2 The female characters in The Gift of The Magi................................................................10
3.2 The similarities and differences of the female characters' attitudes in The Necklace and
The Gift of The Magi short story..................................................................................................10
4. RESEARCH SCHEDULE............................................................................................................11
5. REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study

In literature, male and female characters play important roles in building a

story. “The female character is the objects of the curiosity and fascination,
affection and dislike, admiration and condemnation” (Barnet et al., n.d.). Stralton
(1990) cited in (Peter, 2010) argue that Female characters have been portrayed in
several ways. Some are portrayed as mothers who are restricted to the home but
are still responsible for caring for their household and their husbands. Based on
the explanation by Stratton, female characters take an important role in their
marriage life, including taking care household, husbands, children, and even the
economic field.

Females in marriage will go through many hardships. Hardship refers to a

situation in which life is challenging or unpleasant, usually due to a lack of funds
(HARDSHIP | Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary, n.d.). Hardship in
life means facing difficulties in life, which include economic problems.
Furthermore, with the hardships in life faced by females, it is important how the
attitude of females to solve problems in their married life.

Thus, as the title suggests, this study aims to analyze and compare the
female characters in two different short stories; The Gift of The Magi by O. Henry
and The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant. the researcher is interested in
comparing both the short stories is because the both of stories have similar social
life struggle with the same economic problem which faced by a couple young
married. The researcher thought this study would be fascinating to the reader
because it will reveal how the female character as a wife faced hardship in their
marriage life.

The researcher chose both of the short stories because both of them
represent social life in nowadays life. The Gift of The Magi by O. Henry and The
Necklace by Guy de Maupassant tells about the social life that faces by Mathilde
in The Necklace and Della in The Gift of The Magi. Both stories contain couples
who are underprivileged and young. The hardship in life, which they face, are
hinted at throughout the short stories. Furthermore, the researcher only focuses on
analyzing only on the female characters, which are Madame Mathilde and Della.

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This study will reveal how the female characters solve the hardship in life
problem in both of the short stories.

Several researchers are interested in analyzing The Gift of The Magi by O.

Henry and The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant. In a study by Luo (2016),
researching the narratives and characters in “The Cop and the Anthem and The
Gift of the Magi," the researcher identified the societal critique in both works. By
evaluating the poor living conditions of the characters and narratives in the two
short stories, everyone can learn about the miserable existence of the poor and the
cruel social reality in early twentieth-century America. Same with Nadamala
(2021), investigates both characters of Della and Jim, and examines the aspect of
sacrifice through the significance of Christmas presents, the traditions around gift-
giving, and the influence of these traditions on the characters. Due to this research,
Jim's position in the texts is nanoscopic, but he has a massive significance in
Della's psyche and heart. There isn't a single instance in which Della thinks about
herself in the entire text. She thinks about, runs toward, and imagines Jim.

Additionally, Rehman et al. (2018) and Zala & Joshi (2017) looked at the
same theme of love to analyze the short story. Rehman et al., (2018) looked to the
story's content to determine the subject of sacrifice for pure love. The result is that
They are poor and afford rent. However, they give up everything they own in
order to obtain the spirit of purity, love, and affection, which deepens their
passion. While Zala & Joshi, (2017) discovered the topic of love, its meaning, and
the moral of the stories. Their research results in both stories being full of love and
sacrifice. A reality of life is always found in O Henry's short stories.

Unlike other previous studies, two pieces of research focused on

psychological approaches. Wandansari & Yulistiyanti (2020) analyzed certain
forms of psychological studies by Carl Jung. The Lover archetype appears the
most frequently; this may be because the couple depicts their struggle to live
together after marriage, and also Purnami et al. (2016) analyzed the psychological
condition of the main character of "The Gift of The Magi" short story using
Kenney and Bernhardt's psychological theory. The result is that Della is the main
character in this story. He has a warm nature and gives up everything for someone

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 he loves. In addition, he has to face an internal conflict that makes him have to let
go of something precious within him.

Furthermore, not only "The Gift of The Magi has been researched by
several researchers, but also, there are several pieces of research about The
Necklace short story. Nurmalasari, (2018), analyzed socioeconomic stratification
in nineteenth-century France portrayed in the necklace short story. Nnyagu &
Victor (1967) explored the function of “The Necklace” fiction in assisting couples
in living meaningful lives in a society. And Yadav (2019) is interested in Mathilde
Loisel's characterization portrayal in Albert Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace."
The result of his research is that as a young married woman, Madame Loisel is
gorgeous and endearing, but her conceit causes her to believe as though she is
entitled to more than she has. In actuality, she feels that she failed and was meant
for more due to her appearance. Her unhappiness and vanity led to her demise,
and she lost everything she had, including her youth, beauty, and modest way of
life.

Based on some previous research above, there is none of them compare

both the short stories The Necklace and The Gift of The Magi. Thus, to fill the
gap, the researcher tries to compare both the stories and focuses only on the
female character with the same economic condition. Additionally, this research
will examine how hardship in life affects the female characters' attitudes in The
Necklace and The Gift of The Magi short stories.
1.2 Research Problem
1.2.1 How are Madame Mathilde and Della characterized in The Necklace and
The Gift of The Magi short story?
1.2.2 What are the differences between the female characters’ attitudes in The
Necklace and The Gift of The Magi short story?
1.3 Significance of the study
The researcher assumed that this research would be theoretically and
practically valuable to researchers interested in this topic. Theoretically, this
research may serve as a resource for anybody interested in literary theory,
especially English Literature students. This research will also provide information
about analysis using New Criticism and comparing literary works. The researcher

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 hopes that the reader will learn more about the short story from this research,
which might be beneficial for further research.
Moreover, in practice, the author believes that this research will fill gaps in the
research area of the comparative study by analyzing the similarities and
differences of the female characters in The Necklace and The Gift of The Magi
short story and also help the reader gain a better understanding of the economic
problem that faced by the female characters in their young married life.
1.4 Scope and limitation

This research focused on the female characters in The Necklace and The Gift
of The Magi short story, which is Madame Mathilde in The Necklace short story
and Della in The Gift of The Magi short story. This research also focused on the
differences and the similarities of female characters described in the short story,
based on their hardship in facing the economic problem in their marriage.

1.5 Definition of key terms

1.5.1 Comparative study: A study to compare two literary works or more.
1.5.2 Attitude: an established perspective about someone or something,
usually one that manifests in a person's behavior.
1.5.3 Hardship: A situation of hardship is one in which life is challenging or
unpleasant, frequently due to a lack of funds.
1.6 Research method
1.6.1 Data Source
This research will use primary and secondary data sources. The
narratives, conversations, and dialogues from the short story The Necklace
by Guy de Maupassant and The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry are the
primary sources. On the other hand, the secondary data sources that
support the analysis will be taken from books, articles, journals, and
websites related to this study.
1.6.2 Data Collection
The descriptive qualitative approach will be used in this study to assist
the analysis. This method seeks to explain and discover data connected to
issue statements in depth through several stages of describing phenomena,
classifying them, and observing how the concepts interact (Dey). The
researcher will also adopt library research in this study to collect the data.

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 Library research gathers information through studying and comprehending
data from books, theories, notes, and papers related to the problems. It is a
generic or specialized library that collects resources for in-depth study
initiatives (Mary George, 2008). Hence, the steps are as follows:
1. The researcher will read the short stories three times in each short
story.
2. The researcher will make a data table and interpret each line to
understand the short stories.
3. Then, the researcher will collect the quotations from the short
stories and other sources that related to the issue.
4. The researcher will characterize the select data based on the
research question.
5. The researcher will compile the quotation from the short stories,
which show the similarities between the female characters in both
the short stories.
6. The researcher will classify the data based on the topic categories
that show similarities between the short stories.
1.6.3 Data Analysis
1. The researcher will divide the discussion into two major categories;
the characterization of the female character and the differences in
the female characters' attitudes between The Necklace and The Gift
of The Magi.
2. The researcher will explain the differences in attitude between
Madame Mathilde (the female character in The Necklace) and
Della (the female character in The Gift of The Magi).
3. In the end, the researcher will interpret and conclude the results.

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1. New Criticism
The researcher will analyze using a new critical theory. Both Madame
Mathilde and Della's characterization will analyze using this theory. The new
criticism is also the term given to a diverse and fervent attempt by Anglo-
American writers to draw critical attention to literature. The new criticism,
like Russian Formalism, advances speculative viewpoints on reading
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procedures that give a necessary complement to the literary and aesthetic rise
of modernism (Carter, 2006). In brief, new criticism focuses on explication, or
"close reading," of the work itself (Syahadatud, 2012). It dismisses
historicism's focus on biographical and social issues. Instead, a detailed
examination and study of literary work can provide objective insight into "how
a piece works." The term "new criticism" refers to a philosophy that focuses
on the inherent elements of a work. The intrinsic elements are the theme, point
of view, plot, setting, symbol, character, and characterization (Carter, 2006).

2.1.1. Character
Character is one of the intrinsic elements of literary works. The
character is the main point in prose. Characters have an important role in the
running of a story. In Abram's books, E. M. Forster coined a flat and around
people. A flat character is sometimes known as a type or a two-dimensional
character. It is based on "a single concept or characteristic" and delivered
without much personalization and define it in a sentence. An around character
has a complicated temperament and shown with nuanced particularity. As a
result, describing around character is as difficult as describing a real person
(Abram, 2009). According to the definition above, the character is a real or
imagined entity participating in the act of literary work. The author then uses
language to depict the character's features, bringing the character to life. The
character creates the act with the storyline to create a story.

2.1.2. Characterization
The author of various literary works shows characteristics of their
personality. The character might be fictional or real. Meanwhile, in a fiction
work like a drama, book, or short story, the author explores the personalities of
fictional characters. The trait of a person is called characterization.
Characterization creates imagined people who can live as real people for the
reader within the confines of fiction (Holman, 1985). It explains that
characterization is a strategy used by an author to portray the personality and
character of a fictional character. People must be aware of a character's
primary characteristics to comprehend them.

Characterization in fiction may be done in three ways. The first is the

author's explicit representation of the character through direct exposition. The

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 second is the author's description of the character in their act with no explicit
comment in the hopes that the reader may identify the characters itself.
Finally, without the author's remarks on the character, the portrayal of
characterization can be assumed from character's inner-self (Holman, 1985).

2.2. Comparative Study

The researcher will employ a comparative approach to identify the

similarities and differences between the attitudes of the female characters in The
Necklace and The Gift of the Magi short stories. In 1816, the French phrase
littérature compare gave rise to the term comparative literature. Since the goal of
the comparative study is to connect many literary works from various periods and
places, it requires an interdisciplinary study of texts from other cultures(Theory of
Comparative Literature, n.d.).

Comparative refers to measurement or judgment based on the comparison

(Hornby, 1995). While, Barnet et al., claims that comparing is the act of observing
similarities. As implied by the title, this comparative literature aims to identify
similarities. Writings regarded as works of art are literature, particularly fiction,
drama, and poetry (Hornby, 1995).

Comparative literature research aims to comprehend the relationships

between identities and cultures as they are expressed in literary works. As well as
comparing works from various traditions, genres, periods, and places. (Wilcox,
2020). Because of this, the researcher thought it was reasonable to apply the
comparative literature theory to comprehend the similarities and differences
between the two short stories that will be the object of this study.
3. POINT TO DISCUSS
3.1 Description of the female characters in Madame Mathilde The Necklace and
Della's The Gift of The Magi
3.1.1 The female characters in The Necklace
The female character in the story is named Mr. Loisel.
3.1.1.1 Physiology: Madame Mathilde is a young, beautiful woman
3.1.1.2 Sociology: Mathilde Loisel was born into a family of clerks.
Because she fervently believes that her lot in life is an error of
fate, she constantly rebels against her circumstances. 

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 3.1.1.3 Psychology: Mathilde is a furious, envious woman who will do
anything to fix the "fault of destiny" that she believes has led
her into a completely wrong and insufficient life.
3.1.2 The female characters in The Gift of The Magi
The female character in the story is named Della.
3.1.1.4 Physiology: Della is a young woman. She is the wife of Jim.
She has long, beautiful hair.
3.1.1.5 Sociology: Della lives with her husband, Jim, with modest life.
Their life is far from the wealthy.
3.1.1.6 Psychology: Della is a youthful, caring, unselfish, and
emotional woman who needs Jim's comfort when she is
unhappy. Jim, his husband, is someone she adores.

3.2 The similarities and differences of the female characters' attitudes in The
Necklace and The Gift of The Magi short story

3.2.1 The similarities:

 The materialistic attitude that both characters adopted
brought them to their ironic endings.
 Both stories portrayed a husband and wife as the central
relationship.
 Both characters faced hardship in life.
3.2.2 The differences:
The attitude of the two female characters in both short
stories shows that Mathilde is an ungrateful woman who seeks
riches and admiration. She indicates a negative attitude when
faced the hardship in life because she forced her to wish to be
fulfilled by her husband. It's different with Della in The Gift of
The Magi. She indicates a positive attitude when faced the
hardship in her life. She is compassionate and works very hard
to buy her husband a present.

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 4. RESEARCH SCHEDULE

No Activities Week 1 Week 2&3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6

(25-07-22) (2-08-22) (23-08-22) (30-08-22) (12-09-22)
1 Read the short
stories three
times

2 Make the data

table of the short
stories and
interpret each line
of the short
stories.

3 Highlighting the
data that suit the
issue
4 Collect the
highlight data
from the data
table

5 Explain the data

in the discussion
section

6 Draw a
Conclusion from
the research

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5. REFERENCES

Abrams, M.H. 2009. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Ninth Edition. USA: Wadsworth
Cengage Learning.

Barnet, S., Burto, W., & Cain, W. E. (n.d.). An Introduction to Literature.

Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (2006). Cambridge grammar of English: A comprehensive

guide: Spoken and written English grammar and usage. Cambridge, UK: CUP.

HARDSHIP | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved July 10,
2022, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hardship

Hornby (1995). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford : Oxford
University Press.

Luo, L. (2016). Analysis of social criticism in O. Henry’s short stories. International

Conference on Education, Management and Computing Technology (ICEMCT), 565–
568. https://doi.org/10.2991/icemct-16.2016.121

Maupassant, Guy de, 1850-1893. ( 2003). The necklace and other tales. New York :Modern
Library,

Nadamala, B. S. (2021). Intensity of Della’s character in “The Gift of Mag” by O. Henry: a

study. Research Journal of English (RJOE), 6(1), 209–215.

Nnyagu, U., & Victor, M. C. (1967). MAUPASSANT’S THE NECKLACE AS A

FICTIONAL MEANS OF ASSUAGING THE ILLUSIONS OF LIFE: THE
WOMAN’S PERSPECTIVE. Global Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social
Sciences, 6(9), 86–94.

Nurmalasari, U. S. (2018). A Study of Social Stratification In France In 19th Century as

Portrayed in `The Necklace ‘La Parure’` Short Story by Guy De Maupassant. English
Language & Literature International Conference, 2, 2.
https://jurnal.unimus.ac.id/index.php/ELLIC/article/view/3570

Peter, Z. W. (2010). the Depiction of Female Characters By Male Writers in. December.

Purnami, I. A. S., Sosiowati, I. G. A. G., & Darmasetiawan, I. M. S. (2016). Psychological

Condition Of The Main Character As The Main Factor In Dealing Withconflict In
Henry’s The Gift Of The Magi. 17, 0–17.

Rehman, H. ur, Siddique, M. A., Ahmed, S., & Rehman, S. ur. (2018). Sacrification of

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 beloved things for the sake of true and pure love with the special reference of the Gift
of Magi by O. Henry. International Journal of English and Education, 7(1), 264–269.

Syahadatud, I. D. (2012). Theory of Literature. A Handbook For English Department

Undergraduate Students Faculty of Letters and Humanities UIN Sunan Ampel
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Theory of comparative literature. (n.d.). 1–14.

Henry, O. (1997). The gift of the magi. Simon & Schuster.

Wandansari, M. D., & Yulistiyanti, Y. (2020). Archetype analysis of the main characters in
O. Henry’s short story the Gift of the Magi (1905). Dinamika Bahasa Dan Budaya,
15(1), 29–39. https://doi.org/10.35315/bb.v15i1.7892

Yadav, S. (2019). Character Analysis of ‘Mathilde Loisel’ in the Maupassant’s “The

Necklace.” International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 4(3),
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Zala, K., & Joshi, D. R. . (2017). Theme of love in O ’ Henry ’ s short stories in reference to
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