The Diamond Necklace - Essay Example

The Diamond Necklace by Guy de Maupassant- Mathilde’s dilemma. Introduction: The diamond necklace by Guy de Maupassant is one of his most well known short stories. It narrates an unfortunate event in the life of a woman who forever yearns for the good life in spite of knowing that she can never have it. This essay will attempt to study what happened to Mathilde, the protagonist in the story. Also suggesting what she could have done to make sure that she did not suffer as much as she and her husband did.

Mathilde the protagonist is a young lady who is born into a middle class family but yearns for a life full of opulence. Even though she lives in their humble home she desperately longs for a rich life. One day her husband, Loisel, gets an invitation to a ball. Mathilde pleads and manages to get her husband to part with the money he had been saving for himself and buys a dress for her to wear to the ball. She is still not satisfied and complains that she does not have any ornaments to wear that would go well with the dress.

Acting upon her husband’s suggestion she goes to her friend Madame Forestier and borrows a beautiful necklace from her. Mathilde feels happy throughout the evening and for once in her life feels at par with the ladies that she had been envious of ever since she could remember. However she finds out after reaching home after the ball that the necklace was missing. Both husband and wife search high and low but can’t find the ornament. They decide to replace it with another necklace. They borrow money from many sources and even use up the money that Loisel’s father had left him and buy the necklace for a huge sum, and return it to Madame Forestier without letting her know what actually happened.

A ten year period of extreme hardship follows as they repay the debt that they incurred to buy the necklace. By the end of that difficult period Mathilde comes across Madame Forestier and confesses all that happened. Madame Forestier then reveals that the original necklace Mathilde had borrowed was a clever imitation and worth only a few hundred francs.One can’t help but feel sorry for Mathilde. She had been yearning all her life to be a part of the elite. The one evening that happened proved to be too expensive and deprived her of her peace of mind for ten long years.

Even though the story has the moral that one has to be happy with what one has and the greed leads to eventual destruction. The plight that Mathilde went through could have been avoided if she had dealt with the situation in a different manner. As soon as she found out that the necklace was missing if she had gone to Madame Forestier and told her what happened all that she would have lost would have been the 500 francs. Instead she assumed that the necklace was an original based on the box which contained it.

Even in spite of the jeweler admitting that he had supplied only the box and not the ornament itself, she did not think otherwise.If I had gone to Madame Forestier and confessed, not only would that have lifted a weight from my chest, as it turns out I would also have saved myself a decade of toil, turmoil and tribulation. However that is not going to happen because everyone that reads the story even ten years from now will identify with Mathilde and feel for her. They will also get reminded of the fickleness of the human psyche and the repercussions that one has to suffer on account of it.

The fact, that even after more than a century after Guy de Maupassant’s death, his characters evoke a strange kind of empathy from the reader is worth mentioning. It reinforces the fact that human character and emotions will never change.Conclusion: Apart from short stories and popular novels written by bestselling authors like Sidney Sheldon, Jeffrey archer, Michael Crichton and Dan brown, I also read classics from Herman Melville, Mark twain and Jules Verne. It is basically due to the paucity of time and the tedious planning that is necessary to watch a drama that I feel books are much better than drama.

However I never miss a chance to watch a drama when I can. References:Maupassant, Guy de. The Diamond Necklace. 30 May 2010 .