Mme. Loisel caused big problems by being greedy. Greedy is wanting more than you need. So throughout the short story, Mme. Loisel is greedy when she wants to look like the rich people and their jewelery. She asked Mme. Forestier if she could borrow some jewelry from her. As
Selfishness led Madame Loisel to feel as if her life wasn’t good enough, and feel as if she deserved better. She did not appreciate the life she had, spending her time day dreaming about living a life of luxury. When her husband arrived home with an invitation to an exclusive party, she was more distraught over not having a proper dress or accessory to wear than she was thankful for her husband’s efforts. She gladly took her husband’s savings, money he was intending to use to buy a gun for himself, and spent it on a dress for herself. Pride got in the way of Madame Loisel admitting her mistake of having lost the necklace. She’d rather accept her debt and spend years paying it off than tell Madame Forestier that she lost her jewels. In her mind, it would be unlike the beautiful, rich
Socrates once wrote, “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” The quote above shows how envy is able to take a toll on a person’s soul and is relevant to the story “The Necklace.” When Madame Loisel is invited to a prestigious party, she borrows a seemingly priceless necklace. Mathilde misplaces the incomparable necklace; thus Madame’s envy for the fame of the party and the accessory she desires causes her to plummet into deep poverty. She works and sacrifices for 10 years, suffering to pay off the immense the debt she dug for herself. Within the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, Madame Loisel presents many negative characteristics including greed, the importance of status, and insecurity through her desire to look wealthy and prestigious. She offers all she has to please those traits within her, to mute and cover the echoing voices that come from within.
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
Monsieur Loisel and Mathilde Loisel have little interaction physically within the story, however their relationship can be described through their dialogue. Monsieur Loisel often sees Mathilde’s bodily expressions and attempts to make conversation. This usually ends in Mathilde ranting about her envies and “needs”. Monsieur Loisel ends up trying to buy her happiness, but nothing is ever enough for her. Her social class is holding her back from happiness, and nothing he can say or buy fills the gap that she has for joy. The only visible moment of happiness we see of her is during the
He is satisfied with his talents and almost never asks for more than what he needs. These two are opposites in many ways, but are also similar to each other because of their tragic flaws that led to their downfalls-Mathilde’s being greed and Finny’s being contentedness in a greedy world. Madame Mathilde Loisel is a beautiful woman who thinks she was cursed by not being able to enjoy the luxuries that many women around her can. She longs for more exquisite dinners, for example, while her husband, Monsieur Loisel, is happy with a simple beef stew. When Monsieur and Madame Loisel receive an invitation to a ball hosted by the minister of education,
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."
Woman throughout the years have experienced many society established conflicts. These conflicts are appreciated in four stories “The Storm” and “The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin (1851-1904), “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), and “A&P” by John Updike (1932-2009). In these stories the feminine role portrayed by each author provides an insight of the image placed upon woman at their time in history. This imaged forced upon woman can be interpreted as the struggles in that moment of time. Thus struggles affect indirectly the way we see woman at present time.
In Guy De Maupassant's “the Necklace,” Mr. Loisel supports his wife, Matilda, and her materialistic longing. Throughout the story, readers will find him spending countless amounts of time and money to fulfill her high class living ambition. Despite his wife's greed and pride, his love towards her never fades. De Maupassant reveals the character of Mr. Loisel through Mr. Loisel's commitment, hard work and love towards his wife Matilda.
Loisel feels as though she deserves more than she has and thinks that she should be offered more luxury, which is a sign of greed. Another example is, “She had no clothes, no jewelry, nothing. And those were the things she loved; she felt that she was made for them” (1). This example shows that Mme.
The internal conflicts established in “The Necklace” were a result of Madame Loisels perception of happiness. Because of her ungrateful and dejected views on life, she didn’t realize nor recognize true merriment. In the text, Guy De Maupassant shows how Madame “..was one of those pretty and charming girls born as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of
Monsieur Loisel, in contrast, is content with his place in life. He too is proud, but of what he has achieved, not what he desires to be. He does not yearn for dainty dinners but is satisfied with plain cooking: “... her husband, who uncovered the soup-tureen and declared with an enchanted air, ‘Ah, the good pot-au-feu! I dont know anything better than that.’” (Maupassant 1). Monsieur Loisel is happy and shows pride in the simple things in life. He is also proud when he receives the invitation to the ball and cannot understand his wife’s negative reaction to the invitation: “Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she threw the invitation on the table with disdain…” (Maupassant 2). He sacrifices money he has saved to buy a gun so that his wife can buy a suitable dress, but she is still not happy.
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.
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
Money and wealth isn't everything. Madame Loisel from The Necklace by Guy Maupassant has to learn that the hard way. Madame Loisel is a woman who feels entitled to a lavish lifestyle. She is a character who is dissatisfied with her current lifestyle even though she has a caring husband who provides her with everything he can. Madame Loisel is invited to an elaborate party in which she feels she needs a beautiful gown and a diamond necklace. In order for Madame Loisel to attend the party her husband gives her 500 Francs and she borrows a very expensive diamond necklace. After the Loisels attend the party they realize that they have lost the necklace and now their lifestyle must change dramatically so that they can pay to replace the necklace. The Loisels both work very hard for the next ten years to pay back the money they borrowed to replace the necklace. Madame Loisel realizes what a comfortable life she had and how her greed got the best of her. Leading her to a life of misery and hard labor to replace the diamond necklace. Madame Loisel is a complex character because she is both round and dynamic.