The Importance Of Reality In Guy De Maupassant's The Necklace

Often times, as immature individuals, we willingly allow the frivolous fantasies and desires of our imaginations to elude us from reality. The glamorous lifestyles being lived out on Television, in magazines, or even by our friends, can infatuate us with the false impression that a happy life is a rich life- and that physical possessions will give true satisfaction; However, they generally only lead to more dissatisfaction and strife to fulfill our inner emptiness. When so eager to seek comfort and appeasement by way of those possessions, reality can very quickly become desolated to us, and more often than not, reality has a way of abruptly teaching us lessons for this. In Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” Mathilde is a young European woman,

Her husband and the readers alike are convinced that the personal invitation to the most exquisite of parties would surely be the answer to all of her wildest dreams, but Mathilde unsurprisingly is not yet appeased. Reacting rather immaturely, “she threw the invitation on the table with disdain, murmuring: What do you want me to do with that?” (69). The fact that her husband went out of his way and through awful trouble to get it was not kind enough for Mathilde (69). Quite frankly, she is so greedy, her only responses are “And what do you want me to put on my back?” (69), and “It annoys me not to have a single jewel…” (69). Mathilde’s husband desperately tries to pull out every stop in his plan to delight her, and we begin to see Mathilde take on a rather devious persona. she recognizes her husband’s compassion for her, and in order to get the accessories worthy of impressing the other women, she manipulates him by sobbing and refusing to go (69). The four hundred francs that he intended on purchasing a gun with will merely suffice for the payment of her dress, and the offer to “…wear natural flowers…” (69) is not nearly sufficient. Mathilde, who just moment ago was ready to turn down his lavish gift to her, is now demanding that she have the jewels and clothing equivalent

Mathilde’s husband realizes that she will not be able to survive this perilous event without him, and he decides to expel his entire inheritance and take loans from anywhere he can find in order to pay for the necklace (72). They sell nearly everything to their name, and Mathilde comes to know both “the horrible existence of the needy” (72), and “what heavy housework meant” (72). What possession she once suffered an undesirable life to acquire, she would now suffer a far worse life paying for. After ten long years of strenuous work, Mathilde’s debts are paid off, but at the price of ten years of her life. Her youthfulness has escaped her through the diligent work; However, she still thinks of that night when she had “been so beautiful and feted” (72), only this time, the readers realize that she has an entirely different clarity about what that night really meant. Mathilde realizes that all of her acts of selfishness and envy, all of the greed and materialistic ideals were harbored into a relatively priceless item that she had given up ten years of her life for. Realizing this, Mathilde gathers the courage to tell Mme. Forestier, who did not even notice Mathilde after the toll that time and labor has taken on her body, about the necklace