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Thank you for visiting this Analysis page.

Here, I have applied text‐mining and visualization techniques to Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace.” Through sentence‐by‐sentence sentiment analysis, keyword frequency exploration, and word co-occurrence networking, I aim to uncover the emotional trajectory, thematic focus, and underlying relationships within the text.

Emotion Timeline

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The compound‐score timeline traces Mathilde’s emotional journey sentence by sentence (1–1017). In the opening segment (sentences 1–150), sentiment hovers just below neutral, reflecting Mathilde’s quiet dissatisfaction with her modest life. Beginning around sentence 150, we see the first notable positive spikes (up toward +0.6 to +0.8), corresponding to her excitement when she borrows the necklace and arrives at the ball.

The strongest positive peak—reaching nearly +1.0—occurs around sentences 350–420, capturing the height of her triumph and social euphoria in the glittering ballroom. Almost immediately after, there’s a sharp plunge into negative territory (down toward –0.8) around sentence 430, marking the moment she discovers the necklace is lost.

Following that, from sentences 430–650, sentiment remains largely negative, oscillating between –0.2 and –0.8, which mirrors the Loisels’ grueling years of debt repayment and hardship. After this prolonged trough, the timeline gradually climbs back toward neutral—with intermittent positive bumps around sentences 750–820 suggesting moments of resilience or fleeting hope.

Finally, in the closing segment (sentences 900–1017), sentiment once again dips sharply below –0.5, reflecting Mathilde’s bitter realization that the necklace was only a worthless paste. This emotional arc—anticipation → exhilaration → despair → endurance → disillusionment—maps tightly onto the story’s dramatic structure.

Top 20 Keywords

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The bar chart’s top 20 tokens are dominated by pronouns, dialogue tags, modals, action verbs, temporal markers, descriptive words, and a striking rural reference. Together they reveal the story’s narrative style, temporal structure, emotional depth, and social backdrop.

  • “one” (highest frequency)
    Appears in time phrases like “one evening” or “one day,” anchoring the narrative’s day-to-day progression.

  • “said”
    Marks the story’s dialogic nature—much of the plot unfolds through characters’ speech.

  • Modals (“would,” “could”)
    Reflect Mathilde’s hypothetical longings and regrets (“she would wear,” “they could afford”), highlighting her inner desires and the gap between aspiration and reality.

  • Action & temporal verbs (“went,” “began,” “made,” “looked”)
    Drive the narrative forward—from attending the ball to the grueling years of repayment—emphasizing the story’s momentum.

  • Temporal nouns (“day,” “time”)
    Reinforce the relentless passage of days and years as the Loisels labor under debt.

  • Descriptive terms (“little,” “old,” “without”)
    Evoke poverty, loss, and deprivation, underscoring the harsh cost of replacing the necklace.

  • “sabot”
    The French word for wooden shoe, pointing to the Loisels’ humble, rural origins and the social‐class tensions at the heart of the tale.

In sum, this frequency pattern shows a narrative built on

  1. Dialogue and introspection (said, would, could),

  2. Temporal progression (one, day, time, began, went),

  3. Emotional and material deprivation (little, old, without), and

  4. Social context (sabot).

Word
Co-occurrence Network

공기어 네트워크 gephi.png

This Gephi visualization maps word co‐occurrence within a 4-word sliding window. Node size reflects degree (number of unique connections), edge thickness reflects co-occurrence frequency, and color intensity emphasizes stronger links.

  • Core Cluster around “would,” “one,” “back,” “man,” and “time”
    These nodes form the network’s densest hub, highlighting the narrative’s focus on daily routines (“one day,” “time went”), male figures (“man,” “back to my husband”), and the conditional mood (“would”). Their interconnections show how Mathilde’s internal reflections (“would,” “could”) are tightly woven with the story’s temporal progression and her relationship to her husband.

  • Dialogue Cluster around “said” and “say”
    The sizeable “said” and “say” nodes connect broadly with pronouns and verbs, underscoring that much of the plot advances through spoken exchanges and reported speech. This reflects Maupassant’s dialog-driven style, in which characters’ words carry thematic weight.

  • Social Contrast Cluster around “sabot” and “francs”
    The link between “sabot” (wooden shoe) and “francs” (currency) highlights class tension: the rural, impoverished background (“sabot”) versus the high-society world measured in “francs.” This edge visually encodes the story’s central conflict between aspiration and social reality.

  • Detail Cluster around “looked,” “made,” and “began”
    These action verbs cluster together, mapping key moments of discovery (she “looked” for the necklace), the decision to replace it (they “made” a purchase), and the onset of hardship (life “began” in penury). Their network ties trace the causal chain from loss to debt.

Overall, the co‐occurrence network reveals four thematic layers:

  • Temporal & relational hub (would, one, back, man, time),

  • Dialogic engine (said, say),

  • Class tension marker (sabot, francs), and

  • Narrative actions (looked, made, began).

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