Introduction to "The Necklace"

Introduction

The ‘necklace’ begins by showing the reader about main character namely Madame Mathilde Loisel. The author tells the reader about Mathilde’s though towards her life. This short story focuses on Mathilde Loisel who dreams of the finer things of life and is content with her secure, middle class lifestyle. This is a story that has stood the test of time and is as relevant today. The story takes place in Brittany, Northern France. The author has described the setting in detail but the author concentrates on the way the character’s react to their surroundings. This helps to understand the setting from both an outside and inside view. The author uses the limited omniscient description and makes the third-person narration in this short story that allows the reader an intimate look into Mathilde’s life. This way enables the reader to appreciate the changes that take place in character. There are three characters who are employed in this short story such as Madame Mathilde Loisel, Madame Loisel’s husband, and Madame Forestier. 

Discussion

The plot begins with a description of the main character namely Madame Mathilde Loisel. She is a young lady who was born into a family with little means, a clerk with no dowry, middle class, middle class

and maid. She marries a gentleman who is employed as a clerk in the Ministry of Education. Though she is pretty and charming, she and her husband are not well off financially. In this a short story Mathilde has the conflict with herself. It is described, she feels and believes she was born in the wrong class. She is unhappy with her lot in life. She is portrayed as someone who believes she deserves a better life than the one she has. She wants to please to be envied, to be charming, and to be sought after. The shame that she feels about her own financial and social status is something that many people understand. Matilda's modest life style makes her miserable. She suffers constantly because she feels that she should have been born into luxury. Everything about her surroundings depresses her, including her furniture and faded linens. Most women of her social stature would not even notice the things she sees as great flaws when surveying her apartment. She thinks about luxurious antechambers, with Oriental tapestries, bronze torches and servants who are made sleepy by decadent heating systems.

Madame Loisel’s husband is a clerk in the ministry of education. Mr. Loisel is content with his lot in life, and does everything that he can to make his wife happy because he loves Mathilde Loisel purely and fully. Mathilde is never satisfied with the life of her husband. Because Mr. Loisel loves his wife and just wants her to be happy, he manages to secure for the two of them invitations for a ball being held by his boss, The Minister of Education. Mr. Loisel has no particular desire for himself to attend this ball- he derives pleasure from the simple things in life, like "the good potpie" for dinner but he places his wife's happiness above his own, and wants to give her the kind of magical night that she daydreams of. At first, Matilda is not happy to hear about the ball, because she feels none of her dresses would be pretty enough for it, so Mr. Loisel presses on in his mission to please his wife and gives her as much money as she wants to pick out and buy a dress- money he had wanted to save to buy a gun, but he let his wife buy her dress with it instead. Matilda accepts her husband's generosity, but with no show of pleasure or gratitude. Her dismay is merely canceled out. Contrastingly, when Mathilde turns to a rich friend of hers, Madame Forestier, to borrow some beautiful jewelery to wear to the ball.

Madame Forestier is a school friend of Mathilde Loisel, and she lends Mathilde the necklace that Madame Loisel wears to the ball. Madame Forestier's wealth has intimidated Madame Loisel, preventing her from keeping in touch with her old friend.  Matilda is much more appreciative to be granted permission to borrow a dazzling diamond necklace she embraces Madame Forestier with a passion. These scenes alone reveal and symbolize Mathilde's apathy for the love and life her husband offers her, based on his lack of wealth. Matilda shows love only to her rich friend, who does nothing more than lend her a necklace.

Mathilde does not believe her own possessions to be valuable and believes that people of her social class assume things are only valuable if they are expensive. She fails to realize that objects only have value as long as someone prizes them. She spends so much time convincing herself that possessions only have value if they are expensive that she loses sight of the real value of things. This turns out to be a serious error on her part. The author portrays the depth of emotion of this character throughout this story especially in the scene when her husband comes home with an invitation to the ball. Instead of “being delighted” with the invitation, she throws it on the table “muttering”. The author continues to explain her reaction and how she becomes “irritated” and impatient with her husband.

Conclusion

The author uses materialism, conflict and character to show how some people are never satisfied with what they have and always wanting more no matter at what cost.   The story focuses on two main characters, Mathilde a very materialistic person and her husband, a clerk who is not wealthy by any means but makes enough money to get by. Mathilde is a very selfish person in the story and abuses the love that her husband has for her to try to satisfy her selfish needs. Her husband is a simple clerk who enjoys the simpler things in life. This is a reflection of how materialistic Mathilde is and how she sees herself in comparison to her friend Madame Forester and her own surroundings.

We are drawn into the story when we see the differences between her supposed life and the life she is living. We feel that she might get to live her supposed life when the story progresses. We are also held in by the event of her husband getting an invite to a party of the rich. The author shows us all about both the main character's personalities in the opening of the story. He does not give away the story line as easily as expected.

The author uses irony to produce a surprise ending in this short story. In doing so, the author attempts to teach the readers several different moral lessons. The author asserts that the people who survive the misfortunes of life are somehow stronger and therefore actually benefit from their adversities.