Destruction In Guy De Maupassant's The Necklace
It is nothing but human to want more. This essential quality is what makes people human. By striving to be better, this species has done countless extraordinary things by wanting to elevate ourselves higher than others. However, Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” shows the story of young, beautiful, 19th century housewife Mathilde Loisel aspiring to be a luxurious white collar. Even though it is human nature to want more, Mathilde ravening desire to appear as higher class blinds her of what she has and becomes her own downfall.
Loisel is rendered sightless of what she has by her desire for luxury. One must remember that she is not necessarily poor but is of the middle class and perceives herself as being poor because of what she could have …show more content…
Seeing the things she doesn’t have hurts her intensely. In the French version of the text it is said that “[s]he had a well-to-do friend, a classmate of convent-school days whom she would no longer go to see, simply because she would feel so distressed on returning home. And she would weep for entire days from vexation, regret, despair and anguish” (Maupassant 1). Her thirst for more bring emotional grief onto herself. Furthermore, the climax of her life, the product of all of her wanting, is short lived by the loss of the necklace. Her self pride as a higher class woman stops her from telling the truth and decides to buy a replacement for her friend forcing her to lose all her money and material belongings and begin to live in true poverty. The narrator then describes her complete loss of beauty, “[s]he had become the woman of impoverished households — strong and hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew, and red hands” (Maupassant 5). In fact, she has changed so much that her friend could not recognized her shown because when she greats her, the narrator states “The other astonished to be familiarly addressed by this plain goodwife, did not recognize her at all, and
Loisel is rendered sightless of what she has by her desire for luxury. One must remember that she is not necessarily poor but is of the middle class and perceives herself as being poor because of what she could have …show more content…
Seeing the things she doesn’t have hurts her intensely. In the French version of the text it is said that “[s]he had a well-to-do friend, a classmate of convent-school days whom she would no longer go to see, simply because she would feel so distressed on returning home. And she would weep for entire days from vexation, regret, despair and anguish” (Maupassant 1). Her thirst for more bring emotional grief onto herself. Furthermore, the climax of her life, the product of all of her wanting, is short lived by the loss of the necklace. Her self pride as a higher class woman stops her from telling the truth and decides to buy a replacement for her friend forcing her to lose all her money and material belongings and begin to live in true poverty. The narrator then describes her complete loss of beauty, “[s]he had become the woman of impoverished households — strong and hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew, and red hands” (Maupassant 5). In fact, she has changed so much that her friend could not recognized her shown because when she greats her, the narrator states “The other astonished to be familiarly addressed by this plain goodwife, did not recognize her at all, and