What Is The Value Of Honesty In The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

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.

In “The Necklace”, Mathilde Loisel is a woman who cannot tolerate her lower-class status, believing “herself born for every delicacy and luxury”(82). Mathilde’s vain materialistic goals, make her bitter and unhappy. The main point of irony in the story is the fact that Mathilde borrows the necklace and looses it. The necklace was very expensive, or so she thought, so she ended up in poverty

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

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

Now consider the role of Mathilde Loisel in “The Necklace”. She constantly grieves about her simple life and fantasizes about extravagant life style with rich people and food surrounding her. Her husband is a simple man and is satisfied with his life. He appreciates her for the food which is cooked and never complains. Being in the Ministry of Education their lifestyle is modest. Mathilde is not satisfied on the other hand even when her husband proudly announces that they have been invited at a formal party held by the Ministry of Education. The irony in the story is more or less the same with regard to the female characters. Mathilde cries and gets her prize in the form of a dress but she is never satisfied. She wants jewelry as well. The necklace that she borrows from Madame Forestier teaches her a lesson of life. Since she is not familiar with the real jewelry she picks the cheapest one from her collection and wears it to the party why she loses it. Upon not finding the jewelry her husband takes the pain of selling everything out just to purchase an identical necklace worth 40,000 francs which leaves them poverty stricken for the next ten years during which her husband does three jobs and

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

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

Mathilde thinks that objects have power to change life, but when she gets the necklace and the dress, there comes an end to her happiness. She should feel happy for having a comfortable house and a loving husband but gives away the control of her happiness to the objects that she does not even possess. Both necklace and dress have great transformative powers. She was finally the woman that she should have been- happy, admired and envied. It has been rightly said, “The power does not lie within the objects but within

She was always dreaming and seeing things as if it was fantasy. “She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born with all the delicacies and all the luxuries” (Maupassant). The author allows the reader to foreshadow that her ways brings her into a devastation. She had everything she needed: a husband, a nice income, and she even had the looks. She just wanted more. Mathilde didn’t understand how with such great looks why she couldn’t have riches. Even though her husband bought the both of them tickets to a ball, Mathilde still refused to go because she had not one thing to wear. However, when she easily convinces her husband into buying a dress that cost four-hundred francs, even though her husband had other plans to do for the money. Now, she had a dress, but, with greed, she still demanded she needed something else. “It annoys me not to have a jewel, not a single stone, to put on. I shall look like distress. I would almost rather not go to this party” (Maupassant). Maupassant clarified that even though her husband went and bought her a dress, she still wanted something

Mathilde husband spends his money that he is saving just to buy her a dress, and she borrows a necklace from her friend Madame Forestier. She lose the necklace and works ten years in order to buy another necklace. She spends the money on a necklace that looks the same as the one she loss, but in the end the necklace that she loss was not worth as much. Madame Forestier states: “Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs!...”(“Maupassant”). This quote explains that Mathilde works hard to get another necklace that was not expensive in the beginning. Mathilde is a egocentric person that thinks the revolve around her. In “The Gift of the Magi,” Della situation is different from Mathilde. Della was worried about only having one dollar and eighty-seven cents which was not enough to buy her husband a christmas gift. Della admired her beautiful long hair, but she decided to cut it off in order to give her husband a chain for his watch. After she cuts off her hair, Della panicked that her husband will not love her anymore. When her husband returned home from work, she explained to him how she cut

In “The Necklace” Written by Guy de Maupassant in 1884 Mathilde was very selfish, while her husband was very generous. Mathilde's husband was invited to a party, which he thought Mathilde was going be thrilled. Mathilde throwing a tantrum at her husband saying how she had no dress since they were poor. Even though, he knew she was ungrateful Mr. Louisel, yet showed generosity, since he gave the money he was originally saving for a gun to Mathilde to buy a dress. Later on, she complained about her choice of jewelry. Her husband suggested her to borrow one of her friends' jewelry, Madame Forestier since she was rich. In the text it states, (P.2) “She suffered endlessly, feeling born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house..." Maupassant showed that even after having a roof to live under she still thought she "deserved" more than what she had because of her looks. After the party, Mathilde realized she lost her friend’s necklace and had no choice other than replacing it. They found a necklace that was a replica of the original necklace, which was 3,600 francs. Mathilde and her husband for 10 years of their life were wasted into paying a debt. Mr. Louisel’s generous dialogue continued since he helped Mathilde pay off the debt when it was initially all Mathilde fault. After vowing to replace Madame Forestier's necklace Mathilde's attitude changed completely after perceiving she was self-centered and selfish and have to be appreciative what you have. In paragraph 96 the author says, "She came to know the heavy work of the house, the hateful duties of the kitchen. She washed the plates, wearing out her pink nails on the coarse pottery and the bottoms of pans. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts, and dish-cloths, and hung them out to dry on

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.

But he said: ‘Very well. I will give you four hundred francs. And try to have a pretty gown’” (3). This generosity, in consequence, makes Madame Loisel become even more spoiled. Madame Loisel’s unhappiness, in turn, causes Monsieur Loisel to become even more adulating, as he not only pays for her dress, but also allows her to dance with other men while he sleeps in the anteroom instead of his own home. Finally, Monsieur Loisel’s suggestion to lie to Madame Forestier about the necklace causes Madame Loisel to become strong and hard-working in order to pay off their debt, “Thereafter Madame Loisel knew the horrible existence of the needy. She bore her part, however, with sudden heroism. That dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it” (8). These mutual changes in response to the other’s flaws, such as Madame Loisel becoming more hedonistic as her husband becomes more sycophantic and Madame Loisel