The Necklace Greed

According to the Declaration of Independence, one of the rights of all people is the pursuit of happiness. People want to be happy. Unfortunately, most do not know where to find it. Most believe it to be in money or with another person, but in reality, the key to happiness lies within our perception. In Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” the belief that our happiness depends on how we view the world is proven true as Mathilde Loisel bares the consequences of greed, jealousy, and envy. Mathilde Loisel was not a wealthy woman, but she was not a poor one either. “She had no dresses, no jewels” but “she loved nothing but that.” She “suffered ceaselessly” because of her not possessing “all the delegacies and all the luxuries” of those of a higher class. She thought her not having these things the cause of her unhappiness, but in reality it was her view of these objects that caused her such anguish. Her husband had a different perspective; he showed gratitude for the things they had. Their different perspectives are apparent when they sit down to a meal. While her husband compliments the soup saying, “I don’t know anything better than that,” all Loisel thinks about are “dainty dinners [and] shining silverware.” She constantly sees her
life as not good enough and her husband is in despair for he does not know why she is so unhappy. The only time Loisel felt happy was when she was in her new dress and necklace, borrowed from her wealthy friend, Madame Forestier, at the ball.
She felt “prettier than them all” and she was in a “cloud of happiness.” During this time, her dreams were being realized. All that she thought of the wealthy, their leisure, their __, and their happiness, were all true. For one night, all was going right for her, but even in this time of joy, she still felt out of place. As she was getting ready to leave, her husband threw on her shoulders “modest wraps of common life…[that] contrasted the elegance of the ball dress.” Loisel was shocked back into reality and was embarrassed and wanted to leave before the women in “costly furs” noticed
her. Mathilde Loisel perception of riches was different than Madame Forestier’s. Because she was wealthy, Forestier viewed objects as less important. She understood that perception is powerful. The necklace that she lent to Loisel appeared to be real diamonds, but the diamonds were plastic. She knew that when others saw her with that necklace, because of her class, they would not think of it as anything but real diamonds. Loisel believed them to be real diamonds so when she lost them, she was in a panic. Because of her pride, she slaved away for ten years to pay for a lookalike, which cost 36,000 francs, when in reality the original necklace cost at most 500 francs. The different views of the rich and the poor is more apparent when Loisel finally tells Forestier that the necklace she returned to her was a different one and that 10 years of hard work to pay for it had caused her to lose her beauty and become “strong, hard, and rough.” Forestier, instead of being concerned about the price of the necklace, sympathizes with Loisel for the hardships she had gone through. All in all, the takeaway from Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” is that perception is key. The way we view the world affects our happiness. Loisel’s love of riches and jealously of the wealthy caused her to live a life in sorrow and in the end have nothing left. If Loisel could have seen what was important in her life, she could have been truly happy.