[email protected]
8th Grade Writing
23 January 2015
The Importance of Wealth in The Necklace
Wealth is not always a bad thing if one understands
what its meaning is and what it should mean to a person.
We see the importance of wealth in the story The
Necklace through the main character, Mathilde’s, eyes.
We see that the importance of wealth to her is actually
very sad, because her constant want for more things and
money knocks her and her husband from their position as
respected middle-class citizens to a miserable life filled
with poverty and regret.This quote says it best, in my
opinion, “ He is richest who is content with the
least,{Socrates} for content is the wealth of nature.”
In the story, The Necklace, we see a few different
opinions on wealth. First, we see Madame Loisel’s opinion
which is that wealth is what makes you happy and that you
need wealth in order to live happy life. Then, we see
Monsieur Loisel’s opinion, his, it seems, is much different
from Mathilde’s. He is content with what he has and sees
no need in wealth besides the fact that it seems it is the
only thing that will appease his wife. Finally, we see
2
Madame Forestier’s opinion of wealth. Madame Forestier
is so wealthy that, as we see at the end of the story, she
doesn’t even notice the people without her good fortune.
She has never known any different, or if she has, she
doesn’t give any evidence of it, so she probably has the
idea that everyone is as happy as her, which is so false.
So we see the many different views of wealth in
Maupassant’s, The Necklace.
In Maupassant’s The Necklace we also see the different
actions of the main characters. For instance, we see that
when the necklace is lost, Monsieur & Madame Loisel
both panic. When Madame Forestier doesn’t get the
necklace back, she doesn’t panic at all. She doesn’t worry
because, unlike Mathilde and her husband, she has all the
money she could want and doesn’t care if she loses one
necklace because she can just buy another just as fast.
Once again we see the differences between the
characters.
At the end of The Necklace we see the turnout of the
Loisels’ actions. How it ended poorly for the Loisels but
was a blessing to Madame Forestier. At the end of the
story, the Loisels have been working hard for ten long
years in order to pay off the necklace, only to find out from
dear Madame Forestier that the original necklace wasn’t
worth nearly as much as the new one they bought to
replace it.
3
The entire cause of the Loisels’ pain was wealth. If
Mathilde had just been happy with what she had, she
never would have needed that necklace in the first place.
She could have spared her and her husband from a life of
poverty but she was blinded by her want of worldly
possessions. When she was woken up from her dream
she found it was too late to change what she had done.
This is where Mathilde ruined not only her future but her
family’s as well.
Wealth has always been a problem for people but this
was simply because they could not handle it the way that it
was meant to be handled. When people understand that
what they have is enough then they will think themselves
both happy and wealthy with what they have. If Mathilde
had just followed these rules then she would have been
content with what she had.
Citations: Shmoop Editorial Team. “ The Necklace Theme
of Wealth.” Shmoop.com . Shmoop University, Inc., 11
Nov. 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2014., “ The Necklace Themes”
“ Summary” Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories,
Critical Edition Ed. Charles E. May. eNotes.com, Inc. 2004
eNotes.com 17 Dec, 2014
<http//: .enotes.com/topics/necklace#summary-the-story, SparkNotes Editors.
“SparkNote on The Necklace.” SparkNotes.com.
SparkNotes LLC. 2007.Web. 12 Dec. 2014., Famous
Quotes. (n.d). Retrieved January 16, 2015, from
http://www.brainyquote.com/