Guy de Maupassant was the child of an unhappy marriage. His mother has been dessccrriibbeedd as neurotic and his father as a man who sought relief from his wife in the arms of other women. Perhaps the collapse of his parents' marriage engendered de Maupassant's pessimism, reflected particularly in his stories about infidelity and failed relationships. It certainly influenced his own attitude toward women, which, in turn, affected his creation of characters in stories such as "The Necklace."
The purpose of women. De Maupassant's attitude toward women was ambivalent. He was one of few nineteenth-century authors to recognize and celebrate women's sensuality rather than regard it as a sign of corruption. He was also, however, devastatingly cruel to women, whether in his own life or in his fiction. He recommended that the French Academy commission a treatise on how to "break decently, properly, politely, without noise, scene or violence, with a woman who adores you and with whom you are fed up" (de Maupassant in Steegmuller, p. 178). He scoffed at monogamy, insisting that he could not understand how two women could not be better than one, three better than two, and ten better than three.
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