This essay examines Guy de Maupassant's classic short story 'The Necklace,' focusing on the protagonist Mathilde Loisel's tragic downfall caused by vanity and social pretension. The analysis explores how Maupassant uses dramatic irony to critique materialism and the pursuit of false social status. The essay demonstrates how Mathilde's inability to accept her circumstances and her obsession with wealth ultimately destroys the genuine happiness she possessed.
Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace” is a 19th century French tale advocates that happiness is accepting yourself for who you are, not wanting what you do not have. It tells the story of a beautiful young woman named Mathilde who is disappointed with her low station in life and believes she deserves much better than her fate of being married to a kind, but middle-class husband. Her attempts to seem wealthier than she is and her refusal to accept her circumstances have tragic consequences, and ultimately lead to her downfall.
Mathilde and her husband devote their entire lives to paying for an ornament that Mathilde lost at a ball, which they think is very valuable but which was really paste. Mathilde was too afraid to tell her wealthy friend about the loss, and instead replaced it with what she thought was an exact replica that was made with genuine jewels. The real conflict in the story is between Mathilde’s desire for the life of a wealthy woman who can afford jewels, which she does not have.
If Mathilde had only been happy and accepted herself, with her beautiful appearance, her devoted husband, and also been honest with her friend, the entire tragedy could have been avoided. The jewel, “was worth at the very most five hundred francs!” (Maupassant 116). Mathilde has been transformed from a flippant, beautiful woman who is obsessed with her looks to a woman disfigured by poverty because of a false jewel.
The jewel symbolically represents the false life Mathilde desired. At the beginning of the story, she had a good friend, and a husband who clearly adored her (enough to sacrifice his entire life to paying back his wife’s death). To her credit, Mathilde does try to repay the debt she thinks she owes to her friend. But had she truly valued her friend, and been honest and open about what had happened, she could have saved herself ten years of grief.
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