¶ … lives that have been regretfully lived. It seems as if each of the four main characters offer the reader a glance into the looking glass of life as seen from the perspective of loss. The characters; DeMaupassant's Madame Loisel, Faulkner's Emily, Porter's Granny and Welty's Jackson are woman harboring secrets that have so drastically changed their respective lives that it encourages the reader to contemplate the complete ironies of life, especially if the reader's life has also seen similar circumstances. These lady's stories speak to the heart of what many woman struggle to hide and begs the question "have I made the right choice?" Yet it also seems that the choices made by these each of these ladies is a choice that has been forced upon them due to the circumstances at the time the choices were made, For example, Madame Loisel has always "had no clothes, no jewels, nothing" (Maupassant 1). When the one opportunity to shine as she had always wanted presented itself to her she was desperate to present herself in such a way that would always be remembered. Madame Loisel had always "longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after" (Maupassant 1) that her longings would only be fulfilled with a complete transformation; a transformation so complete that...

Hence, the necklace; and not just any necklace would suffice, but one that was "in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace" (Maupassant 3). It was a necklace that, when she saw it "her heart began to beat covetously" (Maupassant 3). The reader can empathize with Madame Loisel but at the same time wonder at the driving force inside her that led her to believe the necklace was so fine, so valuable that it would be the crowning accouterment to her ensemble.
In Madame Loisel's case the necklace symbolized her dream to be something that she was not, while Faulkner's character is much more difficult to discern. One could make the case that Emily was in fact crazy. After all, there aren't that many women in the world that would kill their lover and then lay with his rotting corpse for years and years. What is truly tragic about Emily is that everyone knew what she was doing, yet no one would take the initiative or cared enough about her to take action. Instead the townspeople "slunk about the house like burglars…while one of them performed a regular sowing motion with his hand out of a sack slung from his shoulder" (Faulkner 2). The townspeople were covering up a smell that could have only been produced by death. That this continued until Emily…