Preview

Mathilde's Change In The Necklace

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
216 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mathilde's Change In The Necklace
Mathilde is the protagonist of “The Necklace.” She was a normal woman but she wasn’t happy with her life, she always wanted more than she had. Her actions and attitudes changed from the beginning to the end of the story because of her mistake.
At the beginning of the story, Mathilde was selfish, ungrateful, and was always complaining about her life. After she lost her friend’s necklace and needed to work hard during ten years to get money to buy a new necklace for her friend, she blamed Madame Forestier for having miserable days since the lost of the necklace.
Mathilde also envy the other people because of their rich and was never happy with her life and the things she had. An example was when her husband won an invitation to the ball thinking

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Comparing and Contrasting Desires of Mathilde in ‘The Necklace’ and the unnamed narrator in ‘Araby’.…

    • 1902 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Necklace,” a female character, Mathilde, is living in Paris during the 19th century. She is poor, yet undyingly wishes she was wealthy. One day the woman is invited to a prestigious ball within her city. She immediately she contacts a rich friend and borrows a fabulous necklace. Once the night is all said and done and she returns from the ball, she realizes that the borrowed necklace is lost. She reacts by lying about the necklace and buying her friend a new one. With her financial situation the way it is she goes spiraling into debt and never recovers. Later, once Mathilde admits to her friend that she lost and replaced the necklace, it is revealed that the borrowed necklace was a fake worth very little.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of “The Necklace”, Mathilde is not satisfied with her life, for she is stuck in a middle-class lifestyle when she desperately feels that she is “born for every delicacy and luxury.” (de Maupassant) In the nineteenth century, the wealthiest people commonly threw elegant balls, and invited many of their friends. If de Maupassant decided to have this…

    • 179 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The irony in 'The Necklace' becomes apparent as the very item that had brought Mathilde's dream of 'high living' to life was her and her husband's eventual downfall. Mathilde loses the 'diamond' necklace which she borrowed from her friend and the couple are forced to work for ten years to pay in full the debt they developed after buying a replacement. As it is revealed in the end by Mathilde's friend (from whom she borrowed the necklace) it was actually made of a paste, a cheap substance that has the luster of diamond. In 'The Gift of the Magi', Della forgoes her most prized possession, her long hair, in order to buy her husband, Jim, a Christmas present, a chain to accompany his gold watch which is purpoted that even King Solomon would be jealous of. The irony here is that Jim sells his most prized possession, his golden watch (the very same that Della bought the chain…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Desperation often stems from a lack of something. It could be a result of the lack of fulfillment in basic human emotions such as freedom, compassion, love, happiness or companionship. In these 2 stories, desperation manifests itself through the lack of position, class and money or the struggle to maintain obsolete traditions. When dealing with social and moral issues, the third person narrative allows the viewer to be more objective. In this instance, the tone is heavy, gloomy and full of irony. The expedition in each story foreshadows the tragic events to come. In “The Necklace”, the main character Mathilde, carries a blind sense of entitlement, which makes her feel as though she has been born into the wrong social class. She longs for a life of opulent luxury. Although she comes from a middle class background, she refuses to be looked down upon and feels as though she belongs in the upper level of society.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In “The Necklace,” GUY DE MAUPASSANT character loisel Mathilde who is a very greedy and selfish woman, believes that she was born for every delicacy and luxury there is and feels that she was made for all beautiful jewels and clothes, which cause her emotional…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    You can read “The Necklace” as a story about greed, but this is also about pride. Mathilde Loisel is a very proud woman. She feels far above the humble circumstances and she is forced to live with her husband by her common birth. Her current situation disgusts her. She is also vain too, completely caught up in her own beauty. It is pride that prevents Mathilde from admitting they've lost an expensive necklace. After the loss of the necklace makes Mathilde poor, and her beauty fades, she may learn a pride of a different sort: pride in her own work and…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the article, "The Necklace", the author, Guy de Maupassant, shows the theme, be happy with who you are and what you have, throughout the story by showing how Mathilde starts out, and then how she feels about what happens to her. He shows more of the theme each time when a conflict happens between her and the other people. To start the author shows the theme, be happy with who you are and what you have, in the beginning when she was rich and had a good life. She had married a man of a lower class, and she was unhappy with that he was a lower class.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In these plays, they both found happiness in money. In the Necklace, Mathilde “had no dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but appearance of its possession, led Mathilde to borrow an expensive necklace from a wealthy friend to show it off at the ball she was invited to by the Minister of Public Instruction. She ended up losing the necklace and worked half of her life to get it back. Not knowing that the necklace was fake. She didn’t want anyone to know that she had lost it, and would do anything to earn money.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In my belief, Mathilde Loisel is a static character. She has not really changed since the beginning of the story. In the beginning of the short story “The Necklace” written by Guy de Maupassant, Mathilde is a very stubborn, selfish, and dissatisfied person. This is shown in the story by how she takes the money that her husband has saved for a riffle, to buy a dress she will only wear once to the ball. It is also shown when her husband tells her that they have been invited to a ball, Mathilde simply throws a fit because she has nothing to wear and will look poor when she arrives. One other time that her personality is shown is when Mathilde and her husband are ready to leave, her husband puts a shawl on her to keep her warm but it is old and ragged so she refuses to put it on. Towards the end of the book, Mathilde does stay the same she had before personality wise. This is shown in the story when Mathilde bumps into Madame Forister, 10 years later and rants to her that it has been Madame Forister’s fault that all these years she has had to work to pay off for the necklace that Mathilde lost, when it is no fault but her own. Mathilde also shows that she has had a very tough ten years working to pay off the necklace and is very glad they are over because she has had to bring herself even further down the social ladder because they had to work so much and were basically poor. Throughout the story Mathilde Loisel has had the same personality, always being greedy, dramatic, and envious. Mathilde has definitely learned her lesson, but will always be the same person she was before.…

    • 301 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Compare and Contrast

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the story “The Necklace” the main character, Mathilda Losisel, is unhappily married to a clerk, and is ungrateful of the life she is living. She thinks that she deserves to be living a better lifestyle, and that materialistic objects and fancy things will make her happy rather than love. Mathilda is invited to the ball in the beginning of the story, and immediately she turns selfish and wants her husband to get the things she desires for her ball. Her husband tries everything he can to please his wife in every way that he could do to try to make her happy. Not once in the story did she say thank you for her husband’s efforts because she wasn’t thankful for what he had done for her. She also borrows an expensive necklace from one of her close friends. As she was partying away at the ball, she did not once think about her husband. She was more focused on the fact that other people were giving her attention. Later on in the story Mathilda loses the necklace, and her husband does everything he can to try to get it back. He ended up getting money to buy a brand new necklace, but had to pay off debts he had from raising that money by working it off and Mathilda has to work it off as well. Because of Mathilda’s greed and ignorance it had lead her to the situation of debt she was in. Throughout the story she only worried about herself rather than thinking about how much effort her husband was doing to making her happy. In the end the necklace turned out to…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Necklace Quotes

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It was after the ball when she realized she had lost the necklace, panicked, she comes up to her husband and says, “"I . . . I . . . I've no longer got Madame Forestier's necklace. . . ." (6) The fact that she cannot keep up with other people’s belongings, tells you that she isn’t responsible enough to keep up with her own things. She further verifies that she can’t take responsibility when she continually lies to her friend about it. Mr. Loisel suggests her to “tell her that you've broken the clasp of her necklace and are getting it mended.” (7) So that they can have more time to look for it. Lastly, when she bumps into her friend on the street after ten years of being in debt she says, “Yes, I’ve had some hard times since I saw you last; and many sorrows…and all on your account.” (9) Nonetheless, it was Mathilda’s fault that she lost the necklace and that she couldn’t own up and tell the truth. She does not want to accept the fact that she is responsible for her own…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mathilde is ungrateful and Della’s appreciative. “Mathilde” “ I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone to wear.” Her husband gave her his money that he was saving so she could buy a dress and not worry about looking poor, now she’s complaining that she doesn't have any jewels to wear. The dress wasn't enough for Mathilde, she wanted more. Yet, “Della” “ She hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say my hair grows fast.” Della loved the gift even though she didn't have any hair to comb, her husband knew Della’s hair was one of the most precious things to her so he brought her a comb, and she appreciated the thought.…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mathilde Loisel? Is that really you? And is that my necklace that you haven’t returned to me yet on your neck? What have you become? You disgust me Mathilde.…

    • 2137 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mathilde vs. Dee

    • 622 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mathilde and Dee both seem never to be satisfied when it comes to having valuables but they also care about the possession of others. Mathilde took advantage of her husband, having him loan her a mass of money to buy a dress. “I don’t know exactly, but I can manage it with four hundred francs.”…

    • 622 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays