The Necklace Essay

Character defines individuals. Great qualities like courage and meekness constantly lead to good in the lives of characters. On the other hand, bad qualities can lead to the downfall of a person. Such is the case with Madame Mathilde Loisel in Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace.” In the end, Madame Loisel’s greedy and proud nature get the best of her and lead to her demise.
Madame Loisel’s greed contributes to her demise. For instance, when her husband comes home with an invitation to a very sophisticated ball, Madame Loisel asks for four hundred francs to buy a new dress for the occasion, even though she already has a dress. However, after she acquires the money for a new dress from her loving husband, Madame Loisel does not stop there. She goes on to crave a flashy accessory to join her new dress. Instead of settling for modest flowers as her accessory to the ball like her humble husband suggested, Madame Loisel decides to wear a flashy necklace that she borrows from her wealthy friend.
For example, at the beginning of the story, Madame Loisel believes that she is very beautiful, and as a result, she believes that she deserves a lavish lifestyle full of opulence, wealth, and expensive luxuries. Her ego then leads her to feel that she should have an extravagant necklace to accompany her to the ball, where she ultimately ends up losing it. Another example of her pride is when she does not tell Madame Forestier, the woman she borrows the necklace from, that she lost her necklace, until the very end of the story, after she works for many years to pay off a copy of the necklace she bought to hide the fact that she lost the original. Madame Loisel’s pride does not allow her to tell Madame Forestier until she finishes paying for the replacement necklace. Had she not been proud, she could have told her friend that she had the necklace replaced earlier and saved herself many years of hard