The Necklace Lesson Plan

How are “A Nightmare” and “Who Can Know?” structured differently than the other stories in this section?

Most of Maupassant’s stories in this collection are structured in the traditional short-story style. He is often considered the father of the modern short story because of this style. In most of his stories, the characters have names and follow the standard Western storytelling structure (introduction, rising action, climax, resolution). Even when a story is told in the first person, the narrator still maintains some distance and there are still set scenes within the story.

“A Nightmare” and “Who Can Know?” are not like that. They are different in the sense that they...