The Necklace

The short story, “The Necklace”, written by Guy de Maupassant, displays the the theme of

Ten years of suffering is the cost of having pleasure for only one night! In “The Necklace,” by Guy de Maupassant presents Mathilde Loisel, an attractive, charming but vacuous and selfish middle class lady transforms to selfness, poor, satisfied and hard-working lady. Even though, Mathidle owns a comfortable home and married to a faithful and kind husband, Monsieur Loisel, who seeks her happiness and satisfaction; she was ungrateful to the things that she had been given, because her greed and desire of wealth had captured her thoughts and blurred the real meaning of happiness in her perspective. Mathidle spends most of her time surfing in her day dreams of being wealthy and suffering from accepting the reality, because her imagination was

Do you know a materialistic person, who only cares about money? Do you like this person? Usually, people like this are not so friendly, just like Mathilde was. But in this case, Mathilde was able to change, and we can see this by some facts in the text; she was arrogant and materialistic, then became a motivated and comprehensive, and also she was lazy, but in the final she became a very hard worker woman. Mathilde actions and attitudes changes are very complex, but with these two things as support, it is possible to make this change very clear to understand.

Thereafter, by learning a lesson from her doings there was a great transformation in Mathilde’s character from beginning to end of the story. After giving the diamond necklace to Forrestier she knew they have to live a “horrible” (5) life “of the needy.” (5) . Thus “with sudden heroism” (5) she decided to repay the debt taken for that necklace and “dismissed their servant, changed their lodgings and rented a garret under the roof.” (5) The woman who valued her youth and beauty the most lost it and became the woman of “impoverished household-strong and hard and rough.” (5) But sometimes she

When her husband gave her the invitation to the ball, which was a perfect place to meet the rich people, Mathilde got mad and cried. It was a shame since she has nothing to wear. Mr Loisel gave his money to Mathilde and she got an elegance dress. But she didn’t stop and wanted to have jewels. Mathilde met her friend, Madame Forestier and chose an gorgeous diamond necklace. Of course, she became the prettiest woman in the ball, with everyone stared at her, as if she was the most attractive woman ever. She felt fascinated, just like her dream came true. But then a tragic came to her. She lost the necklace! Mathilde and her husband tried to find the necklace, but they found nothing. Mathilde lost her hope and had aged five years. The Loisels finally decided to replace the diamonds for 36 000 Francs, spent all of their money and accepted to pay the debts. It was such an unfortunate situation. After Mathilde lost the necklace, she was described as “ And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money”. (Maupassant 8). The family was suffering from poverty and have to pay the debts continuously. Mathilde changed immediately and did everything. They have worked so hard to earn every single penny for their life, to survive and pay all those debts. The third person limited

Mathilde finds herself dissatisfied with her life. She craves for riches and glamour. Instead of appreciating what she has, Mathilde craves for jewels and high class commodities. One day, her husband receives an invitation to a formal party, which would give Mathilde a chance to experience the luxuries of high society. However, she seems upset because she does not own a formal dress to wear to the ball. Mathilde’s husband feels compassion for her and gives her his savings to buy a new and elegant dress. The night before the ball, we noticed Mathilde’s greed when she complains that she has no ornament to put on. She arrogantly tells her husband, “It's so mortifying to look poverty-stricken among women who are rich” (Maupassant). For this reason, he then advises her to borrow some jewelry from her friend, Madam Forestier. Blinded by greed, Mathilde follows her husband’s advice and borrows what looks like a diamond necklace. At the ball, she has a great time. However, when she and her husband get home, she realizes she has lost the diamond necklace. Worried by the consequences of losing a diamond necklace, Mathilde’s husband decides to buy a new necklace by using his inheritance, getting loans, and borrowing money from acquaintances. They return the necklace to Madam Forestier and focus on paying their debt. After 10 years of hard labor and misery, they eventually pay all their debts. At the end of the short story, Mathilde finds out that the diamond necklace she borrowed was fake. Ultimately, we see how greed drove Mathilde to misery and

Mathildas envy and desire to be wealthy and to live a lavish lifestyle becomes a much larger problem, when she can no longer visit her friends because of the suffering and jealousy she would experience afterwards. But when Mathilde asked her wealthy friend to borrow some jewelry, she did not seem to experience any suffering, misery, or even

This financial pressure Hester brought upon herself is also sensed throughout the family, explaining the constant whispers of “we need more money”. In comparison to “The Necklace”, the circumstances described through the setting of Mathilde’s life is very similar. Mathilde has a very comfortable life- always having food on the table and having her own servant. However, like Hester, she is not content with what she has and desires more, always comparing herself to others’ financial state. Guy de Maupassant describes Mathilde’s situation to be neither wealthy nor part of social class. She feels as though she deserves to be a member of the more lavish society. Thus, does everything in her power to create a wealthier lifestyle for herself as “she was one of those pretty and charming girls, born by a blunder of destiny in a family of employees” (Maupassant, pg.1).This shows Mathilde’s confidence in herself to believe she was born to be wealthy. However, “She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, married by a man rich and distinguished” (Maupassant, pg.1). In the first couple of lines of the story, Guy De Maupassant introduces Mathilde, whom internally believes is destined for a wealthy and luxurious life. Yet, Mathilde was born in a middle class family and is unsatisfied with her lifestyle

Even still, Mathilde is not satisfied and is unwilling to settle for anything but the best. Because of her vain desire she chooses the expensive jewelry, which is a grave mistake that leads to her paying for a necklace she cannot afford. Due to Mathilde’s prideful character, Monsieur and Madame Loisel will spend ten years of their lives paying back this debt. Moreover, Mathilde’s thoughts reveal that her actions are the cause of the Loisel’s many years of weariness and stress. Alone at her home, Mathilde thinks about “what would have happened” (84) if she had been satisfied with flowers rather than borrowing the necklace.

The moral of the story was greed can only bring bad things to our lives. With all the consequences she faced, we can observe how easy it is for Mathilde to be blinded by wealth. She was unsatisfied with her shabby house and her pathetic style of living. She saw an opportunity to show off herself when she was invited to the glamorous party making her to buy a dress and borrowed the necklace to have a fancy exterior look. The necklace has showed us how wealth is all just a show with no real value and can only bring more trouble than what it is

“She would have liked so much to please, to be envied to be charming, to be sought after” (5). Mathilde’s character is always striving to have others see her outside of her reality, to have someone think of her to be in a higher class of society. De Maupassant uses the class separation to intensify Mathilde’s desires versus reality. She often refers to not having

Mathilde represents the innate human nature in us all. We are all presented with opportunities and choices in our daily lives that have the ability to enhance or corrupt us. When she chose to demand and expect things from her husband that was out of their means, she possibly did not realize the cataclysmic chain of events that would result. Their decision to deceive their friend with the replicated necklace sealed the downward spiral of their economic reality. But the small daily decisions of living in her fanciful imaginings were the first small wrong choices she made that started the whole incident. The drab beginnings of her and her husband’s life could have developed into nicer things if she would have harnessed and controlled the seeds

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.

Like many people, Mathilde sees life in the wealthy classes above her as fabulous and years for a life filled with material satisfaction, although she already lives comfortably. Her perpetual pining for wealth will doubtlessly lead to an unfortunate end for her. She believes that she should be entitled to wealth and that she belongs in the upper class. “She was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if by a mistake of destiny, born into a family of clerks…She was unhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper station…” (Maupassant). She resents the life that she has and even retains minimal contact with one of her rich friends, even though she could

    In the beginning of the story, Mathilde is very narcissistic and filled with greed. The narrator highlighted her narcissism in the text. When Mathilde was looking at the jewelery her friend was going to lend to her, she found one particular necklace that she desperately desired. The narrator describes, “Her hands trembled as she took it. She fastened it round her throat, outside her high-necked waist, and was lost in ecstasy at her reflection in the mirror” (Maupassant 4). This characterization demonstrates her narcissism. Mathilde enjoys the necklace so much, and seems to enjoy it a little too much. The reader may notice this rather negative trait from this scene. Mathilde