Summary:
The primary theme of Guy de Maupassant's short story "The Necklace" is that of materialism. Mathilde's illusions of having material wealth lead her and her husband into a state of poverty, making her more hardworking and responsible in the end.
The major theme of 'The necklace' is materialism. The main character, Mathilde, in this story was 'those pretty and charming girls'. She was very discontented with her life. She yearns to enjoy all the luxurious that people in a higher station in life are enjoying. She is 'feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries.' She feels she deserved to own much material possession. She is materialistic as 'she had no gowns, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that. Mathilde is ashamed of her situation in life that she did not like to go and visit her friend, Mme. Forestier, because she suffered when she came back. She is so envious her friend who appeared to be rich.
When her husband brings home an invitation to a ball very excitedly, she is rude and inconsiderate to Loisel. She throws the invitation aside without any consideration for Loisel's feeling. Where, Loisel asks her to buy herself a gown. She shrewdly informs him the amount by calculating an amount he could not refuse. She is concern about her appearance to be part of a more fortunate class of people. After she had bought her new dress, she was still discontented.
She said, "It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on.......I should almost rather not go at all." She considered it is humiliating to look poor among other women who are rich. Thus, she borrowed a necklace from her friend. The story said 'Her heart began to beat covetously' when she first saw the necklace. She is enveloped by greed. Her dreams of wealth and grandeur came true that night. 'She was prettier than them all'; 'she was remarked by the minister himself.' After the ball was over, she left the place in a hurry. She did not want the other ladies to see her in her poverty stricken wraps.
Ironically, her satisfaction is just temporary. She used ten years to pay the loss the necklace. Loisel and Mathile replaced the necklace and incurred a huge debt. The reality brings to her the worth of the material wealth she craved for. Her illusion of material wealth makes her sink into poverty. But her moral change for the better at the end. She is now hardworking and responsible. This brings about her mental, psychological and moral growth. She becomes a better wife for her husband and understands her responsibility as a wife.
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