Basic Trope: Someone's pearl necklace is ripped off by another person or themselves.
- Straight:
- Alice is mugged by Bob on her way home from a Charity Ball for "Trope Cares" — Bob grabs her purse and tears off her pearl necklace, causing loose pearls to fly everywhere.
- Alice learns that her fiancé Charlie has cheated on her — she rips off the pearl necklace he gave her as an engagement gift because she's emotionally distressed and can't stand the thought wearing something he gave her.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is mugged by Bob on her way home from a Charity Ball — Bob grabs her purse and rips off her pearl necklace... but Alice is wearing a very long lariat-length string of pearls looped around her neck several times. As the necklace snaps, the pearls scatter in every direction, and Bob leaves a trail of pearls behind as he dashes away.
- Alice learns that her fiance Charlie has cheated on her. She rips off the pearls she's wearing because they were a gift from Charlie. Then she opens her jewelry box, pulls out a handful of pearl necklaces, and tears them apart — all the necklaces were all gifts from Charlie.
- Downplayed:
- The pearl necklace gets ripped off or snags on something, but it's a genuine one with tiny knots strung between each pearl, so only two or three pearls fall off.
- Bob informs Alice that her necklace is a fake. He tugs on it and it breaks "see, cheap clasp" he explains.
- The pearl necklace gets ripped off or snags on something, but it's a genuine one with tiny knots strung between each pearl, so only two or three pearls fall off.
- Justified:
- Alice is mugged by Bob, who demands her pearl necklace. Her hands are shaking so badly that she can't undo the clasp — Bob rips the necklace off her neck and dashes away.
- Bob is to much in a hurry to get Alice to surrender her phone, wallet, and keys. He grabs to most visible valuable item on Alice's person and runs with it.
- Inverted:
- Alice has a pearl necklace that was broken long ago, offscreen. Bob repairs the necklace and presents it to Alice.
- Alice's pearl necklace was broken, but she repairs it herself.
- Subverted:
- Alice is mugged by Bob. He takes her purse and her diamond ring, but after examining the pearl necklace she's wearing he drops it and tells her to keep it.
- Alice finds out her fiance Charlie has cheated on her. She smashes the snow globe Charlie bought her on their first vacation and burns the scarf he'd given her for Christmas. Her hand flies to her necklace, which was a birthday present from Charlie, but instead of ripping it to pieces she takes it to a pawn shop.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice is mugged by Bob. He takes her purse and her diamond ring, but after examining the pearls in her necklace he drops it and tells her to keep it. Dave, who is Bob's partner in crime, snatches the necklace before Bob can stop him.
- Alice finds out her fiance Charlie has cheated on her. She destroys most of the gifts that he's given her, but she refrains from destroying her pearl necklace and marches to a pawn shop to sell it. But who should she see there? Charlie, picking out jewelry with his mistress. Alice rips off the pearl necklace and flings the remains of it at Charlie before stalking out of the store.
- Parodied:
- Alice is mugged by Bob on her way home from a Charity Ball — Bob grabs her purse and rips off her pearl necklace... then her pearl bracelets, then her pearl earrings, then the strings of pearls in her hair, and for good measure he takes her pearl anklet as well.
- Alice is wearing nothing but pearls. While at the ball, the pearls snag on a statue and fall, leaving her naked. When she tries to run, she slips on the pearls and falls on her ass.
- Alice finds out her fiance Charlie has cheated on her. She rips off the string of pearls he gave her, but it's a very, very long string of pearls, and they start to pile up around her feet. As a torrent of pearls continues to fall Alice checks her watch, wondering how long this is going to take.
- While trying to flee with Alice's jewelry, Bob slips on the pearls, gets knocked out and is arrested shortly after.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: ???
- Enforced:
- The Alice Show is sponsored by a company that repairs expensive jewelry — showrunners are forced to include a scene where Alice's pearl necklace breaks and she has to go get it re-threaded at the sponsor's shop.
- An Animal Wrongs Group has accused The Alice Show of supporting cruelty towards mollusks by showing Alice wearing pearl necklaces, and public backlash is causing advertisers to retract their support — showrunners are forced to write in a scene where Alice rips off her necklace, declaring that she'll "no longer support an industry that harms defenseless little mollusks."
- Lampshaded:
- Alice is mugged by Bob on her way home from a Charity Ball. Bob tries to intimidate her by ripping off her necklace, but Alice responds with an incredulous, "Did you just rip off my pearls?"
- Alice finds out that her fiance Charlie has lied about the cake flavor he picked for their wedding cake. In a rage, she rips off the necklace that he gave her as an engagement gift — Alice's sister Diane witnesses Alice doing this, and responds with a disbelieving "Did you really just tear off your necklace? Alice, you can be so dramatic!"
- Invoked:
- Alice and Bob need to lure Charlie into an alley. Alice tells Bob to pretend to mug her, knowing that Charlie can never ignore a Damsel in Distress. Bob takes Alice's purse and rips off her pearl necklace, and Charlie enters the alley to defend Alice.
- Bob has captured Alice, hoping to turn her against Charlie. Alice will never turn, but in order to escape she'll need to trick Bob into believing he's won her over. The next time Bob shows up to convince Alice to defect she'll play along, agreeing with all the insults Bob hurls at Charlie. To top it off, she'll rip off the pearls that Charlie gave her, throwing the remains of the necklace on the ground.
- Exploited:
- Alice is mugged by Bob on her way home from a Charity Ball. Bob takes her purse and rips off her pearl necklace. Alice sees that some loose pearls have scattered on the ground, so she pushes Bob. Bob slips on the pearls and falls, giving Alice an opportunity to take back her purse.
- Alice knows there have been a series of snatch-and-run robberies, with the thief targeting expensive jewelry. Determined to catch the criminal, Alice puts a tracking device in her pearl necklace that will only activate if the string holding the pearls together is torn. When thief Bob steals her necklace, she uses the tracking device to track him down.
- Charlie picks up the remains of the necklace, knowing that Alice does not care about it anymore. He then gives it to his mistress to rub salt on wounds.
- Defied:
- The Charity Ball Alice is attending is held up by a gang of notorious thieves who demand wallets from the men and jewels from the ladies. One crook makes a grab for Alice's pearl necklace, but she coldly tells him "This necklace is a priceless antique. Are you really going to rip it off like some sort of animal? Give me a moment and I'll remove it for you."
- Charlie is all set to confess to Alice that he's cheated, and he knows how upset she'll be. And Alice has a tendency to break things when she gets upset. He prefaces his confession by telling her "I know you'll be angry, and you have every right to be, but please don't throw anything at me this time. Or break anything. Maybe take off your necklace before we start talking?"
- Discussed:
- Alice and Charlie are walking home from the Charity Ball. Charlie wants to take a shortcut through a dark alleyway. Alice points out that if they were in a movie, a dark alley would be the kind of place one would find a mugger, specifically mentioning "the violent sort, who rip off a lady's pearls."
- Alice finds out her fiance Charlie has cheated on her. She muses to herself, "if I were the dramatic type, I'd rip off the pearl necklace he gave me as an engagement gift."
- Conversed:
- "I loved the part where the villain ripped off Alice's necklace! It really showed you how he was willing to resort to violence if Alice didn't double-cross her team and steal the MacGuffin for him."
- "You could clearly see how hurt Alice was by Charlie's betrayal in the shot where she ripped off the necklace he had given her. It's especially poignant, given that in the scene before she finds out, she'd told Bob how much the gift meant to her."
- Deconstructed:
- The inexperienced thief Bob tries to yank Alice's pearl necklace, but instead of breaking, the necklace chokes her.
- Alice tries to yank the necklace off, but the clasp leaves a deep scratch on her neck in the process.
- Reconstructed:
- The experienced thief Dave breaks Alice's necklace by holding it with two hands and pulling apart, rather than yanking it against her neck.
- Alice is angry enough to not care about physical pain, giving the scene more poignancy.
Back to Ripping Off the String of Pearls
