The Architecture of Reversal: An Intrinsic Analysis of Plot Twist in Guy De Maupassant’s The Necklace Film Script

Nurwenni Safitri, Andang Suhendi, Asriani Asriani


Abstract


This article examines the intrinsic narrative architecture of the plot twist in the film script adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s The Necklace (La Parure) through a formalist–structuralist perspective. The study is derived from a qualitative descriptive analysis of the script as an autonomous narrative text, with particular attention to the organization of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution; the strategic withholding of information; and the retrospective effects produced by the final revelation. The empirical analysis shows that the script follows a recognizable classical five-stage plot while deliberately manipulating the distribution of information so that the revelation concerning the necklace becomes structurally disproportionate to the apparent scale of the preceding crisis. The exposition establishes the protagonist’s dissatisfaction and aspiration for social recognition; the rising action converts aspiration into action through the invitation, preparation, borrowing of the necklace, and social performance; the climax turns the borrowed object into a source of irreversible material crisis; and the falling action prolongs hardship while stabilizing the audience’s provisional interpretation. The final revelation that the necklace was an imitation then operates as peripeteia, transforming the resolution into a secondary interpretive climax. The article argues that the twist is not an ornamental surprise but the organizing mechanism that retrospectively integrates the entire plot, intensifies structural irony, and generates thematic resonance concerning appearance, social aspiration, material value, and human misjudgment.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.30743/jol.v8i2.14431

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