Everybody wants to be liked and accepted. Appearances are often adopted to please other people especially yourself. These unreliable appearances prove to be the misleading front that masks the reality of situations. Eventually, the falsehood of them leads to negative results. This reality is made clear in Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace”. Mathilde Loisel, the main character, longs to be a member of the “high society”. She has always dreamed of a life of leisure however life has found her to be married with a clerk who is not well off financially. When the Loisel’s are invited to a ball, Mathilde becomes very upset insisting that she has nothing appropriate to wear. Her husband bought her a new gown and she borrowed this beautiful …show more content…
She is presented as the pretty girls in a Renoir or Monet painting. Dressed simply, unable to afford anything better, marked her as poor. Like many woman represented during the post- impressionist time, she was a malcontent for she felt that she is intended and “born for every delicacy and luxury”. The belief that she is meant for better things than middle-class forms the core of her personality. Since that is beyond Mathilde’s social reach the only way to escape that status is through marriage. Yet she let herself be married off to a “little clerk in the Ministry of Education”. This developed more of the discontent in her current rank. Despite this, Monsieur Loisel is still tolerant of her behavior and wants to please her. Her excessive pride, materialism and shallowness cause her emotional torture to herself when she feels deprived of luxuries. He realizes this and thinks that presenting her an invitation to the ball will make her happy. To his surprise, he learned that she’ll only be contented if she can give the illusion at the ball that she belongs to the upper class. Society has taught her to desire possessions and as she constantly search for vain fulfillment, she fails to appreciate her social
Many times, Madame Loisel’s husband gave up what he wanted just so she would be happy, even though she would never be content with her life. He did this when he said “Let’s see, Mathilde. How much would a suitable outfit cost- one you could wear for other affairs too- something very simple” (Maupassant 211).
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,
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
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.
Mathilde is a member of the poor social class who feels that she belongs to the elite due to her physical beauty. Mathilde’s husband manages to get invited to an elite party and surprises his wife. Since Mathilde feels she has no fancy clothes
Madame Loisel any of the nice things or luxury that she wanted so she then became depressed as a result of her living a mediocre life and living below her mans and marrying below her standards, As a turn of events in the story Mathilde had to give up her mediocre life and live a poor life and was forced to give up her maid for she could not afford it and work for herself. These change in events developed a character change in Madame Loisel. “From the very first she played her part heroically.”
She is a typical lady fixated on progressing to high society. For one night, she sneaks a look at the life she's lost when she buys a 400-franc dress and gets what she accepts to be a jewel accessory from her companion. She takes fulfillment not in the utility of these things but rather in their appearances. They make men see her at the gathering and ladies begrudge her. At last, Madame Loisel's fixation on belonging is her undoing.
All of her life, she dreams of being a part of the upper class. She is aware of what it takes to me rich but when given the chance to be rich, ruins it with her careless actions. Despite Madame Loisel’s knowledge of what it takes to be in the upper class, she doesn’t fit in because of her lack of sophistication. Madame Loisel does not belong in the upper class because of her inability to act
Around the world, values are expressed differently. Some people think that life is about the little things that make them happy. Others feel the opposite way and that expenses are the way to live. In Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”, he develops a character, Madame Loisel, who illustrates her different style of assessments. Madame Loisel, a beautiful woman, lives in a wonderful home with all the necessary supplies needed to live. However, she is very unhappy with her life. She feels she deserves a much more expensive and materialistic life than what she has. After pitying herself for not being the richest of her friends, she goes out and borrows a beautiful necklace from an ally. But as she
When she is given the opportunity to dress in extravagant clothing and act like she is wealthy, she found a “sense of triumph that is so sweet to a woman’s heart” (3). Mathilda Loisel’s change from the exposition of the short story to the rising action is dramatic. The reader’s first impression of the character is that she is unhappy and resentful but at the party she comes off just the opposite. She was joyful and “danced wildly, with passion, drunk on pleasure, forgetting everything in the triumph of her beauty” (3). Mathilda Loisel’s true character starts to reveal itself when the reader sees how much value she puts in possessions.
Being a dead-drop gorgeous French girl from a family of clerks with “no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded, by any rich and distinguished man,”(Maupassant, 1), Madame Loisel’s life was definitely unfortunate. Madam Loisel did not own any dresses or jewelry and had to dress unadorned. For ten onerous years, she to pay off her debt for accidentally losing Mme. Forestier’s necklace. Madame Loisel even “let herself be married to a little clerk…”(Maupassant, 1). Nonetheless, quite a few of Madame Loisel’s characteristics – selfishness, self-absorption, and deceit are what determined her fate.
Unfortunately, she felt as though her life was going to waste because she couldn’t afford all the finer things in life, unlike her friend Madame Forestier. M. Loisel was lucky enough to have gotten two invitations to a party where only a selected few were given, but Mme. Loisel gives out materialistic reasons as to why she can’t go, such as not having the right dress. M. Loisel, being the loving husband he is, decides to give her the 400 francs that he has been saving to buy a gun to go shooting with his friends, so that she can buy an appropriate dress.
She wasn’t very happy; she felt as if her husband was mocking her. She told her husband that she wouldn’t attend to the party. Since, it would be embarrassing for her to he seen in old,raggedy clothes at the party. So, her husband made the sacrifice of giving her the money he had saved up to hunt with his friends. His wife was kind of happy now that everyone would see her with a beautiful
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.
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