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The Necklace

In: English and Literature

Submitted By Kade121
Words 762
Pages 4
Kade Terry
Eng 102- Tuesday
March 19th, 2013

“The Necklace”

In Guy De Mauppassant’s “The Necklace” Mathilde Loisel is a dynamic character throughout the whole story. She goes from rags to riches for one night. Then she becomes more conservative when she loses a priceless necklace. Last she finally takes responsibility for the lost necklace. Mathilde is a discontent woman in this story, because she wants to be rich like other people in town. She longs to be beautiful and popular while she is with her friends in town. She and her husband found out the hard way that lying doesn’t always pay off like most people thinks it will. Mathilde goes from rags to riches to attend a formal dinner party her husband is invited to. She lives in her fantasized world for one whole night. She manipulated her husband to give her four hundred francs so she could go purchase a very fancy dress. When she could not trick him in to giving her more money she borrows what she thinks is a very expensive and beautiful diamond necklace from a very rich friend of hers named, Mrs. Forrester. She made a trip over to her friend’s house to ask her if she could borrow some jewelry. She looked through every piece of jewelry Mrs. Forrester had until she found that priceless diamond necklace and when she did “her heart throbbed with desire for it. Her hands shook as she picked it up. She fastened it around her neck, watched it gleam around her neck, and looked at herself ecstatically” (pg202). She finally felt like she was in the place she belonged; being beautiful and rich. She finally filled the urge to be a beautiful and classy woman like she had wanted to be the whole time she was alive until later that night when she lost the necklace. When Mathilde loses the necklace she is forced to become a more conservative person. She realizes when she gets home from the dinner party that the necklace was not around her neck anymore. She panics and her and her husband search frantically for the necklace. Mr. Loisel said, “I’m going out to retrace all of our steps to see if I can find it that way.” He came back about 7 that morning and had found nothing, and he had looked all over town (pg 203). Without the necklace Mathilde could not go back to her friends house empty handed. So she lied to Mrs. Forrester and wrote to her and said she had broke the clasp on the necklace and was having it fixed before she returned it to her (pg 203). She shows much concern for the necklace, because she knew if she could not find it she would have to replace it. Mathilde finally takes responsibility for the lost necklace and replaces it with a brand new real diamond necklace that cost forty thousand francs. She is forced to make many changes at home to cut down on her expenses, and her husband was forced to work extra shifts. She becomes a working class woman for the first time. “She learned to do heavy house work, dirty kitchen jobs. Washing dishes wearing away her manicured fingernails and defended her money penny by penny so she could repay the debt she owed”(pg 204). Her husband was forced to “work evenings to make fair copies of tradesman accounts, and late into the night he made 5 cents a page” (pg 104). This life they were living lasted for ten years. Mathilde had accepted poverty for the first time. After the tens years was over Mathilde visited Mrs. Forrester again. Mathilde looks like she had aged 20 years since she returned the necklace. She soon found out that the necklace she had lost was worth only 500 francs, and was part of a party set Mrs. Forrester had bought. Mathilde changes several different times throughout the story as the reader can see by her personality. It is easy to draw conclusions about her personality, because she changes personality so much the story. The changes made after she lost the necklace helped her become a mature and better woman. Mathilde Loisel is a dynamic character throughout the whole story. She goes from rags to riches for one night. Then she becomes more conservative when she loses a priceless necklace. Last she finally takes responsibility for the lost necklace. Her and her husband find out the hard what that lying does not always pay off like most people think it will.

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