The Necklace

Mathilde was being very selfish at the beginning because she complained about not having fine clothes or having enough space in her huge apartment. She wanted to be envied and fascinating even though she was in middle class. Her husband had saved 400 franks in order to buy a rifle so in the summer he can go he can go hunting with his friends. But her selfishness made him give her the money for a new dress for a ball everyone is going too. She be's even more greedy and asks for a necklace

“She had no proper wardrobe, no jewels, nothing. And those were the only things she loved.” (PG 274) Mathilde wishes she had all the luxury because all her peers had them, and she feels worthless without it. During the course of the story, Mathilde acts very different because she did not have the opulence to afford them.

Mathilde wanted to be rich and live a luxurious life. She did not just want to be rich but she thought that she deserved to be rich. Before she got married she was living a decent lifestyle,she even had a maid for the house “She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born every delicacy and luxury.” (1). One night Mathilde and her husband got invited to go to a fancy ball. But she did not have any jewelry to wear so she borrowed a necklace from her friend. After the party she realized that the necklace was gone. She and her husband had to go out and buy the same necklace but for thirty six thousand francs. They had to be in debt for more than ten years. One day she decided to tell the woman that she borrowed the necklace from that she lost her original one and this is another one. ‘“Oh my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at very most five hundred francs!...”’(8). Mathilde and her husband were in debt for most of their lives and lived in poverty. The irony in the story is Mathilde wanted to be very rich but ended up the poorest of the poor and the necklace she lost was imitation and she ended up paying so much more money to replace it than she actually

That is to say that in “The Necklace,” Mathilde’s perception of herself as a woman of higher social standing lead to her losing the one thing she had going in life, her true beauty. “It is Madame Loisel 's desire to be part of the upper class which sets the story 's events in motion” (Hatboro and Horsham). Mathilde is described as a beautiful woman who finds her life to be not up to her standards because she is not a part of the higher class. “She had no

A piece from the story is, “She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her” (deMaupassant 2). This shows how unhappy Mathilde is with her life and how she wishes she was among the wealthy women who have probably never even thought about being poor or struggling to pay for

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

In addition to being dishonest and full of pride, Mathilde was also a very greedy person. Greed is a terrible trait to have; it makes life much more difficult for the person possessing the trait, as well as the people who are close to them. An example of a person affected by Mathilde’s greed would be her husband, M. Loisel, who loved Mathilde and tried to give her everything she wanted, such as the invitation to the minister’s party. Even though he was merely a clerk, M. Loisel worked hard to get the invitation, thinking Mathilde would love the opportunity to socialize with the aristocrats. He even gave Mathilde the money to buy a fancy dress, instead of spending the dress money for himself, and had the idea for Mathilde to borrow jewels from Madame Forestier.

Feeling trapped in a life that she does not want or appreciate because she lacks the finer things already presents the negative impact it has on her. Her life is comfortable, yet the appearance of her walls and furniture is not high-class enough for her, damaging not only her happiness but also her own self worth. Another description of Mathilde states, “She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that; she felt made for that. She would so have liked to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after” (1). Mathilde not only wants to have money to selfishly better her own social life but in her dreams of being wealthy, she does not seem to want to do anything more impactful with it. Her focus on the material things such as dresses and jewels traps her in a bubble where she can only be the person she aspires to be if she has items that can be acquired with more money. This will never bring her true happiness or fulfillment because even if she does become incredibly wealthy, she will always want more or to be at a higher class. Mathilde’s dreams become especially impossible to reach when she accidentally loses her upscale friend’s supposed diamond necklace and goes into debt buying an identical one to return back to her friend. Mathilde’s life turns into days full of labor trying to earn back the money and the narrator states, “That dreadful debt must be paid.

For Mathilde, being well off sums to living the life of her dreams. Being working class adds up to weariness. She prefers the fable she has created in her mind. She even cries thinking about being married to her husband who is simply a "little clerk" and living in their small apartment. However, we can not be sympathetic with Mathilde.

She was self-righteous and egotistical. Mathilde felt she deserved better then Claude and treated him poorly. She displayed this when she was rude to Claude about preparing and eating stew. Her only desires were insignificant and meaningless little things, mostly relating to wealth. She was so concerned with what she didn't have that she took what she did have for granted. Her insecurity about her possessions and how others view her was what lead her to borrow Jeanne’s necklace in the first place. Another one of her character flaws was her dishonesty. If she had told Jeanne she lost her necklace she would have saved herself and her husband a decade of strenuous work and unhappiness. Mathilde’s character flaws played a major role in her

This quote shows that Mathilde wishes and thirsts for the materials that belong to those of a higher class. She is seen despairing over her modest life in her small, simple apartment. It is well known that she has everything she needs, but the only way to make her happy is by

She thinks that because her friend is rich and beautiful, that her material items would extend with that wealth. Instead, it shows Madame that even the richest of people do not always have to have genuine items. Madame realizes that she does have fun at the party even if she is not wearing all authentic things, the opposite of what she thinks she is wearing. A third ironic happening, is when she has been working to pay off the money for the necklace for a decade. Madame clearly admits to her friend on page 196 how she loses the necklace, and has been paying it back for ten years. As someone is reading the story, they will find it silly how Mme. is working for something when she is usually having people, mostly her husband, do things for her. Instead, she is working to pay off the money that she has spent on a replacement necklace. The turnout of the story changes Madame’s views on how silly, textile items, are not always needed for someone to be happy.

Mathilde never seemed satisfied with what she had. She envied the upper class and felt she should have what they have. “She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling” (Maupassant). This desire to belong in the upper class caused her only to focus on what she did not have. When her husband surprises her with the invitation to the ball the only thing she can think about is not having the proper dress for the occasion. “She looked at him with an irritated eye, and she said, impatiently: “’And what do you expect me to put on my back?’” (Maupassant). It seemed

In the short story, “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant tells the story of a woman who was born in a family of clerks, Mathilde Loisel. She was a charming, pretty, married lady, whom I don’t feel sorry for. Mme. Loisel was living an adequate life with her husband, M. Loisel. She has a roof over her head, clothes to cover her body, and a peasant to do her “humble housework.”

They leave in a rush because Mathilde doesn't want the other ladies to her in a "modest, everyday wrap" while they were wearing expensive furs. When they arrive home they realize the necklace is gone, so they retrace their steps trying to find it. When they have no luck, they buy the necklace for thirty-six thousand francs borrowing every cent from people. They spend ten years repaying everything back including interest. When it is over, Mathilde confesses to her friend and receives the shocking news that the necklace was costume jewelry and only worth a mere 500 francs at most.