Some people experience specific conflicts throughout their lives that can affect the way they view themselves and others. An example of this is in the short story The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant, where Madame Loisel is constantly suffering the mental battle of wanting everything she does not have. Jewels, necklaces, and riches - all the materialistic things that Madame Loisel sought after her whole life, cause her to display an ungrateful attitude towards herself and her husband. Once she finally receives something that she wanted, a beautiful necklace borrowed from a friend, she loses it and in order to replace it, she becomes forced to borrow more money from friends. Consequently, she had to spend many years of her life to pay back every person she borrowed money from, when in result, the necklace was a replica and was much cheaper than what she had thought. Madame Loisel undergoes a series of external and internal conflicts, causing the idea that it is important to remain truthful and appreciative to be discerned.
Her persistent mindset of wanting and needing more, is how her internal conflict developed. All of Madame Loisel’s issues relate back to her internal fascination with becoming incredibly rich and valued by her peers. The text states, “She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.” (1) Madame Loisel’s mindset was simply set on materialistic things and being respected amongst her peers. Even throughout the years, her idea of ‘perfection’ never changed a bit. The story reads, “But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.” (5) Ten hard and stressful years later, Madame Loisel is still under the impression that everything she has must be beautiful and valued. This situation expresses irony because although she is beautiful, she still feels a desire to receive expensive things. The text states, “She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans… She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury.” (1) Although she is beautiful
‘The Necklace’ is a morality tale written by Guy de Maupassant where he portrays the life of a beautiful but dissatisfied girl named Mathilde who desires to live a luxurious life despite being born into a clerk’s family and marrying a clerk too. Mathilde’s discontentment in life instigates her to pretend someone rich that she is not. Moreover, it leads her to severe trouble that caused ten years of hardship to Mathilde and her husband. So, this suffering is a punishment for Mathilde which taught her a lesson and changed her dramatically over the course of the story by making her a person of completely different personality for whom appearances
First, the author develops her character through her personality. On page three it says, “The day of the ball drew near and Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy, anxious.” Even though her husband gave her the money he was setting aside for himself to buy her a dress, she still rather wouldn’t go because she didn’t have any jewelry. She was anxious and depressed because of it. Madame Loisel also completely ignored her husband’s suggestion of putting natural flowers in her hair and the fact that they were in style. She much prefers not to go just because she didn’t have all the things she wanted.
Madame Loisel had changed for the better in the end. In the beginning, her desires for expensive possessions were proven multiple times by details such as, "She had no gowns, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that. " Not only did she sought after the high-class lifestyle, she felt entitled to be in it. "Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries."
Outcomes in life are diverse for Madame, like her ideas of materialistic pieces in comparison to her husband’s outlooks on important items. Guy emphasizes how Mme Loisel is not appreciating what she has in the right way as he uses juxtaposition to compare her to her husband, Mr. Loisel. A beginning example is the food that is set before them for dinner. Mr. Loisel seems to be very happy with his meal as he sits down and claims, ‘Ah! A good stew! There’s nothing I like better…’ (pg 190). But
People who are driven by greed end up focusing on what they do not have instead of being grateful for what they do have. This is relevant in the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant because Mathilde Loisel ends up losing everything she owns just because she lets greed drive her decisions and get the best of her. When receiving an invitation to an extravagant ball, she declines because she says she does not have anything nice to wear. In the beginning of the short story she says, “There is nothing more humiliating than looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women.(Maupassant).” The reader sees how she puts value in possessions and what others think of her. After finding a dress and then borrowing a necklace that she thought
Madame Loisel has always believed that she deserves nothing less than an exquisite lifestyle. Since this desire never went away, Madame Loisel is considered to be egotistical and unappreciative because she is unthankful for what she has. Also, she cares about her desires and always getting instead of giving. Oppositely, Della sacrifices her hair, even though it is her most valuable
What would you do if you lost something of great value that did not belong to you? In the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, Madam Loisel says “No… there’s nothing more humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women.” In this passage Madam Loisel was worried about how people would perceive her at the party. I the story was about a couple who was not very wealthy unlike most of their friends. The wife got invited to a very fancy affair and refused to go unless she had a fancy dress to wear. After receiving all the money her husband had saved up he still complained about not looking up to par with the rest of the guests. She then wanted a nice piece of jewelry. She borrows a diamond necklace from one of her friends. She enjoys herself at the affair, but on the way home loses the necklace. The couple then borrows money from everyone they knew to purchase a replacement for thirty-six thousand francs. After returning the replaced necklace she then had to work the next ten years to pay off all the money they had borrowed. She then found out the necklace that was lost was only an imitation. The long-term hardships of the main characters are based upon the false perception of the truth.
She took her husband and the all the things he provided for her for granted. Mathidle was not satisfied with just a new dress, she had to have jewels to go with it. “’It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress. I should almost rather not go at all.’” She also did not care how much money the dress and the jewelry would cost. To her, all that mattered was if she looked good enough to fit in with the wealthy. She was fortunate enough to be able to borrow the perfect necklace from her wealthy friend. “All of a sudden she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb necklace of diamonds; and her heart began to beat with an immoderate desire. Her hands trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, outside her high-necked dress, and remained lost in ecstasy at the sight of
Madame Loisel is a very stuck up character in the beginning of the story. She sees no value to money. She believes she was meant to live a wealthy life, and has high hopes for an elegant and luxurious life. This is shown in story when it says that “She suffered constantly, feeling that all her attributes of a gracious life, even luxury, should have rightfully been hers.”
Selfishness in The Necklace by Maupassant In Guy de Maupassant's, "The Necklace" all the characters in the story exhibit similar behavior by showing that they think of themselves rather than of others. A close look at the behavior of the characters in "The Necklace" reveals more than a story about a spoiled selfish woman, but what we see is a story about a whole society of selfish people. In "The Necklace" a woman named Mathilde lives a depressed life because she does not live the life style that she desires.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18) - It would be difficult to find an aphorism that better describes the fate of the main character in Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”. Set in Paris in the late 1800s, Maupassant’s story shows the costs of pride. The main character, Madame Loisel, borrows a diamond necklace from her rich friend, Madame Forestier, to wear at a ball hosted by the Minister of Public Instruction at the Palace of the Ministry. To her dismay, Madame Loisel loses the necklace, and she and her husband spend the next ten years paying back the loans they had to take out to replace the necklace, only to discover that the necklace was fake. Her pride plunges both her and
Guy De Maupassant's short story "The Necklace" remarkably demonstrates how misfortune can lead to self improvement through the character Mathilde Loisel. Madame Mathilde was one of those beautiful and delightful young ladies with not very many high expectations, achievements, and no way to be accepted into the elaborate society and lifestyle in which she finds herself daydreaming about day and night.
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breaths away”-Maya Angelou. This quote demonstrates that life isn’t about the amount of things one has or can do, but the time one spends with joy and fun, appreciating what they can do and have. In the short story, “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant, the main character does the exact opposite of what this quote represents, she learns the hard way. Madame Loisel, the main character, doesn't appreciate her ways of living and wants something to represent the lifestyle she wants to live. Madame borrows a diamond Necklace, loses it and rather than telling the truth, she lies and buys another. She ends up wasting 10 years of her life working hard to pay off debt. Madame then finds that the diamond necklace was nothing but paste though the replacement was real. Maybe if Madame had been grateful for who she was and what she had, she would’ve lived a better life. De Maupassant uses multiple internal and external conflicts to teach the reader that people should just be grateful for who they are,what they have and what they can do.
Mr. Loisel was obviously excited the day that The Chancellor of Education had invited them to an exquisite dinner. Surely he thought that this was finally a way that he could provide an outlet for Mathilde's deepest desires. Unfortunately, instead of being thrilled as he had predicted, Mathilde acted like a spoiled child, throwing the invitation on the table. "She had no decent dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but these; she believed herself born only for these" (5). She couldn't have been more manipulative than when she began to cry about not having anything to wear. Of course Mr. Loisel suddenly fell into her trap and suddenly decided to give her all of the money in his savings account to buy her a new dress. Most would assume that she'd be satisfied at this point; her husband has just made a huge financial sacrifice for her. However, as time drew near to the night of the party, she became insecure and restless because she thought she would look poor if she didn't have any fancy jewels to wear; she thought she'd look like a beggar. `I'd almost rather not go to the party (30)", she said.
Have you ever want too many things even though your life was already fulfilled and lost yourself? Have you ever ask too much and regret for what you did? Every desire, ambition, selfishness and a bit of extravagant of a human being was carefully portrayed in this story, “The Necklace”. The story is about a young woman named Mathilde Loisel. Born in a family of artisans, she wasn’t rich, but beautiful and glamor. But she never feel satisfied of what she had and never stop dreaming to have more, to live a luxury life with expensive homes and glittering dresses, and eventually paid hard for her nonsense dreams. In “The Necklace”, Guy de Maupassant uses third person limited narration to show how Mathilde Loisel changes in how she