The short story, The Necklace, by Guy De Maupassant, discusses the life of a woman and her husband who live in France. The woman, Mathilde, who has a bourgeois mentality has not been content with anything in her life. Her husband, clerk in the Ministry of Education, is not wealthy, but has enough to take care of his business. He is more laid back and content with how their living yet his wife, Mathilde, is not.
Mathildes materialistic attitude is primarily shown by how unhappy she is with her surroundings and her home environment in general. One night, Matildes husband brought home an invitation to a party, they were invited by The Minister of Public Instruction and Mme. Georges Ramponneau. M. Loisel handed the invitation to Mathilde and she wasnt moved by it. Her husband figured she would be excited being that she is always in the house. Not once considering her husbands feelings and how excited and honored he was to be invited to this even, she declined rudely. She is only worried about what people would think of her. Mathilde is not happy with her lifestyle.
She imagined large rooms filled with nothing but the finest furniture worth fortunes. She dreamed of the perfume of dainty private rooms, which were designed only for intimate acts with the closest friends, who because of their achievements and fame would make her the envy of all other women.
These dreams and aspirations demonstrate that Mathildes thoughts are in the wrong place; and go to show how ungrateful and selfish she really is. At first Mathilde declines the invitation. She only agrees to go to the party after her husband bargains with her, and ends up having to buy her a new dress to get her to go. Even after getting a new dress, Mathilde still wasnt satisfied. She says to her husband It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress. I should almost rather not go at all (pg. 40). That statement right there shows how ungrateful she is. But finally, after more griping, her husband suggest she borrow some jewels from a friend named Mrs. Forrestier, and they go to the party. When leaving the party at four oclock in the morning, Mathildes husband goes to put, a modest everyday wrap over her shoulders, and she runs from him. She runs so that none of the other women, draped in elegant furs will see her and look down upon her for wearing such a thing. Both of these incidents emphasize the fact that Mathilde is a very selfish and materialistic person both in her actions and in her thoughts and daydreams.
Another way that Mathildes selfish character is portrayed is through the way she treats her husband. She treats him as if he is a slave, who exists for no other reason but to be blamed for things gone wrong in her life, and for her to order around. Mathilde gives her husband no love, praise, or thanks for any of the sacrifices he makes for her. An example of this occurs in the beginning of the story when Mathilde basically blames her husband because she is not living the life she dreams of. While her husband has adjusted himself to the plain life that they live, Mathilde has not, and she resents him for that. Another example of the materialistic and selfish way that Mathilde treats her husband is when her husband brings home the invitation. Even though her husband is ecstatic at the thought of going to this extravagant dinner, Mathilde basically throws the invitation back into his face:
She looked at him angrily and stated impatiently: What do you expect me to wear to go there? He had not thought of that. He stammered: But your theater dress. That seems nice to me . . . He stopped, amazed and bewildered, as his wife began to cry . . . He said falteringly: Whats wrong? Whats the matter? . . . Nothing, except that I have nothing to wear and therefore cant go to the party. Give your invitation to someone else at the office whose wife will have nicer clothes than mine.
Mathilde is so self-centered that she would make her husband, who wants to go to this party so badly, give up the invitation because she has nothing to wear. She again displays her materialistic and selfish ways when, after the party, she discovers that she has lost her borrowed necklace and makes her husband go out at four oclock in the morning to look for it. He looks for hours and finds nothing, but doesnt give up there. He goes to the police and cab services, while Mathilde, waited on her husband to see what was done. She does nothing while her husband is doing everything he possibly can to save her neck. Finally, after all hope is lost of finding the vanished necklace, the couple bought a new one for thirty-six thousand francs. They had to work and save for ten years, and the husband gave up his inheritance to pay for the necklace his wife lost. And after all he did, Mathilde offers not one bit of thanks or praise to her husband. This emphasizes just how evident her characteristic flaws really are.
Throughout the story, Mathilde is portrayed as selfish ungrateful and materialistic. These traits are shown through her unhappy manner towards her middle class life and through the awful way she treats her husband after all he does for her. Maybe after such a long, tiresome ten years of scrounging up money to buy a new necklace to replace the lost one, Mathilde will change her ways. Perhaps she will realize how much she really has in life, may it be material things or love from her husband, and stop constantly worrying about what she does not have. Maybe she will even recognize how much her husband gives to her and how little he receives in return.
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