The Necklace

"The Necklace " by Guy de Maupassant is a story of greed and envy and how these two characteristics lead to a substandard life and ultimately to self-respect and pride. Mathilde Loisel is a middle-class French woman married to a clerk. What makes her different from everyone else in her class is her inability to be satisfied. " She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry."(77) De Maupassant shows us how Mathilde Loisel lives in a perpetual state of wanting more.

When her husband surprises her with an invitation to an elegant ball, something that the reader imagines would make her very happy, instead of being delighted and grateful she tosses the paper away. In order to make his wife happy Mr. Loisel offers to buy his wife a new fancy dress for the occasion. To his dismay, she is still not content. She wants jewelry.

She goes to her friend, who we are to believe she stopped seeing years ago, to borrow jewelry. The reason she stopped seeing this friend is because her friend's wealth made her so envious she couldn't stand to be around her. De Maupassant uses an interesting writing technique that paints a perfect picture of Mathilde's character. " She tried on the ornaments before the glass, hesitated, could not make up her mind to part with them, to give them back."(79) De Maupassant could have finished this sentence with "...to part with them". Instead he ads "... to give them back" to show the depth of her reluctance to let go of what she dreams of daily.

Her only moment of happiness throughout the story is during the ball where she is living her fantasy. Her happiness comes to an abrupt end when she sees her husband and is reminded of who she really is.