The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant - Essay Example

The Necklace This short story by Guy de Maupassant is a tale of love, set against the backdrop of materialism and individualism. It tells the tale ofMadame Mathilde Loisel who is not appeased by her comfortable living and dreams of reaching the opulent levels of society, even while her dutiful husband waits on her every command and hopes to fulfil all her fantasies some day. This story depicts two kinds of love. The unconditional love a husband feels for his beautiful and graceful wife is portrayed through the character of Monsieur Loisel.

Depicted as a simpleton, though he does not understand the dissatisfaction and misery that his wife faces, he tries his best to appease her. He sacrifices all that he can, his gun, his inheritance and 10 years of his life’s worth, just so that his wife can enjoy herself completely for one evening. He never complains or even imagines for himself a different fate. He stays to the end a loyal and supportive husband to his wife. Another kind of love that one finds in this story is the love for material things.

Mme Loisel, the bearer of this love, lives in a mirage. She believes her good looks and charm are enough to make her worthy of the best living. For her it is not the sacrifices that her doting husband does that matter but the small act of kindness that her wealthy friend Madame Forestier bestows on her. The irony here is that the act of kindness which she holds dear to her heart is actually a fake one. Neither has her friend given her a real diamond necklace and nor has she spent her life in true sacrifice, repaying the lost necklace as she would have liked to believe.

The power she perceives the necklace gave her for one night all proves to be a bluff, thus bursting her bubble. For Mme Loisel, the necklace symbolized wealth; it represented to her all the Oriental tapestries, antique silks, priceless ornaments and marvellous dishes that she only wished for but could never afford. It was her connection to the world of glamour where she felt, she belonged because of her good looks and natural charm. The necklace gave her one evening of true enjoyment; it gave her a chance to be who she truly wanted to be.

However, it could not hide the reality of her existence, it could not mask the fact that she truly was just a clerk’s wife in a beautiful dress and some borrowed jewellery. The author in this story uses the necklace as a symbol to point at materialism. He portrays the necklace as that fortune which we constantly keep striving for. He shows how we want more of that which we cannot have while truly never appreciating all that we have. He brings out in the story the irony of a materialistic world, which though has charm and appeal, is hollow and fake from the inside.