The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant Essay

Mathilde, the main character in Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace”, begins as an ungrateful, greedy young woman, then she becomes a diligent working class woman, and finally transforms into an older, more mature woman, who doesn’t like to take responsibility for some of actions, due to a change in setting. In the beginning, Mathilde demonstrates being ungrateful by complaining about her house being shabby, even though she has a maid and does nothing all day. She lets her husband do all the work and earn the money, but complains that, “She had no proper wardrobe, no jewels, nothing. And those were the only things that she loved-she felt she was made for them,” (de Maupassant 2). Mathilde does not work, yet as shown in this quote,
However, Mathilde will lose her diligence after she pays her debt off because she obtains her goal and she will become less hardworking in the final setting of the Champs Elysees. After Mathilde pays off her ten years worth of debt, she becomes older, wiser, and more mature. Mathilde’s 10 year of work were an enlightening experience for her and helps her to accept who she is and to mature into a grown up woman. Mathilde’s maturity does not make her perfect, she still has her flaws, such as the fact that she can’t accept the fact that losing the necklace and going into debt was her fault. When she finds Madame Forestier on her stroll along the Champs Elysees, Mathilde blames her hardships on Madame Forestier saying, “ ‘Yes, I’ve been through some pretty hard times since I last saw you and I’ve had plenty of trouble-and all because of you,’ ” (de Maupassant 8). Mathilde blames her hardships on Madame Forestier because she thinks that because Madame Forestier let her borrow the necklace in the first place it is her fault. Because of this evidence, we know that Mathilde’s changes were due to a change in