Summary:
In his story "The Necklace," Guy de Maupassant creatively and intriguingly reveals Mathilde Loisel's dreams of a wealthy, decadent lifestyle. Mathilde's lifetime of misery and despair is solely caused by her own selfish and vain acts; the stature she so desperately desired, her anguish over the reality that her husband lacked the riches she yearned for, her feelings of insignificance because of her lack of rank, and her vain obsession all ended up ruining her life.
Freshman Composition II
November 1, 2005
The nineteenth century French writer, Guy De Maupassant, tells an intriguing story in "The Necklace." He depicts the painful life of a beautiful woman, unhappily born into an average family of clerks. She felt that she was destined to marry into wealth but sadly found herself settling as she married an average copyist. Unlike the women of today, women in the nineteenth century were not fortunate enough to have a career of their own; they were either born into a wealthy family or married a man with money. In "The Necklace", Guy De Maupassant creatively reveals Mathilde Loisel's dreams of a decadent lifestyle. As her struggles start to unravel, it becomes obvious that her heartache is solely caused by her own selfish and vain acts. The stature that Mathilde so desperately desired sadly resulted into a lifetime of misery and despair. She anguished over the reality that her husband lacked the riches she yearned for, she felt insignificant because of her lack of rank, and her vain obsession ended up ruining a decade of her life. What a painful and expensive lesson to learn so late in life. She should have focused on the things she did have in her life, versus the things that she didn't have.
Like many women, Mathilde Loisel became depressed at how ordinary her life had become with her husband. She spent her days torturing herself with desperate dreams of delicacies and luxuries. She seemed to look down upon her husband, Mr. Loisel, because he was pleased to sit down and dine on a bowl of boiled beef. She on the other hand, causes herself sorrow because she isn't dining on an expensive cut of meat, carried to her by a butler on a silver platter. Mathilde longed for expensive banquets with shining place settings; she would only be satisfied with a gourmet-prepared meal. This is an interesting element of her character and becomes one of the first clues of her starvation for a more luxurious life. Mr. Loisel was an average guy with an average job at the Ministry of Education as a copyist. He doesn't seem to be bothered by their basic yet comfortable lifestyle; however, Mathilde is obviously anguished over the lack of his riches.
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. See, this would have been the perfect opportunity for Mr. Loisel to stop her selfish behavior and challenge her self-esteem and self-worth, but instead he catered to her pride. He suggested that she borrow some jewelry from her rich friend, Mrs. Forrestier. Of course Mathilde borrowed the most magnificent piece Mrs. Forrestier had.
On the evening of the dinner party at the Ministry of Education, Mathilde was on top of the world. "She danced joyfully, passionately, intoxicated with pleasure, thinking of nothing but the moment, in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, on cloud nine with happiness made up of all the admiration, of all the aroused desire, of this victory so complete and so sweet to the heart of any woman" (8). She soon learns a powerful lesson when she loses Mrs. Forrestier's necklace on the way home from the event. What makes her look extremely prideful and vain is when she didn't even think about telling Mrs. Forrestier the truth about the necklace. Did she not think Mrs. Forrestier would understand, or did she not want to make herself look bad? So, instead of telling her the truth, they spent their entire life savings, plus ten years of hard earned money to pay back the loan that they took to replace the necklace.
In the end, both of their lives were affected in a negative way because of her obsession with vanity and money. It is so sad that she honestly felt successful the night of the dinner, just because of her looks and her surroundings; what a distorted view of true happiness and fulfillment. An elegant dress and beautiful piece of jewelry doesn't make a person who they are. A caring and loving person has to be unselfish; caring for others and their feelings. Mathilde Loisel definitely lacked a caring and loving personality. The only person she proved to love was the person she wanted to be. Had Mathilde not spent so much of her life selfishly, she and Mr. Loisel could have had a lifetime of happiness. The most ironic and interesting piece of the story is the conclusion. Their lives were ruined for no reason; had she told Mrs. Forrestier the truth about the lost necklace, she would have known that the necklace was just costume jewelry.
This is the complete article, containing 960 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
