Theme Of Jealousy In The Necklace

The Arrogant Woman

People often acquire jealousy because they long for what they cannot have. The Main character in Guy de Maupassant’s short story, The Necklace, portrays jealousy. Even though she has a good life, she still is not satisfied. She wants the life rich women have, but when she has the chance to experience that life, everything goes wrong. The author uses her to show the negative effects that could come from jealousy. In “The Necklace”, Guy de Maupassant depicts jealousy and pride as dangerous traits through the main characters beauty and desire to want what she cannot have, and the consequences of losing what little she possessed.

Jealousy is often a result of pride, because Mathilde’s unrestrained arrogance causes her to covet over others luck in life. First, Mathilde’s beauty causes her to be self conscious about the way she looks. She laments her station in life saying, “there is nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich.” She also says, “It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like a distress.” Mathilde feels that she has to look a certain way in order to fit in with the rich.

Mathilde eventually pays the price for her extreme self-admiration. “Mine Loisel looked old now.” “She had become the woman of impoverished households…. With Frowsy hair, skirts askew, and red hands….” Because Mathilde was always so full of herself, she suffered the consequences. Mathilde is torn apart when she realizes she had been working so hard for something fake. She realizes the last ten years of her life were a waste when Mme. Foresier says, “Oh my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!” I think this was the hardest thing for Mathilde to hear at this point because she has faced so much since the night she lost the