Question

The Necklace

by Guy de Maupassant (excerpt)

The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.

She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth. Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant, a supple mind are their sole hierarchy, and often make of women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.

. . . When she sat down to dinner, before the round table covered with a tablecloth in use three days, opposite her husband, who uncovered the soup tureen and declared with a delighted air, "Ah, the good soup! I don't know anything better than that," she thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestry that peopled the walls with ancient personages and with strange birds flying in the midst of a fairy forest; and she thought of delicious dishes served on marvellous plates and of the whispered gallantries to which you listen with a sphinx like smile while you are eating the pink meat of a trout or the wings of a quail.

Select all the correct answers.
In which two sentences does the author use an ironic tone toward the subject?
A)She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.
B)Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant, a supple mind are their sole hierarchy, and often make of women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.
C)The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks.
D)She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station.

Answer 1

C)The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks.

D)She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station.

Step-by-step explanation:

Ironic tone is a resource, which aims to use words that manifest the opposite sense of their literal context. That is, to be ironic is to state exactly the opposite of what one thinks. The idea is to value something or someone when, in fact, the implicit meaning is of devaluation. This is what the author does when he uses the excerpts in letters C and D.