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Karen Otto
English 1301
Essay 3
31 October 2011
Wanting More:
Character and Foreshadowing in Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”
The need and want for more plagues human beings; it is human nature. To always want
bigger and better things and not to be quite satisfied with the things already given to them can
bring destruction. “The Necklace,” by Guy de Maupassant creates a picture of this. He shows us
through foreshadowing and his character Mathilde that just because she wants the finest of
things, does not mean she is destined for them.
The truth of Mathilde’s desire for more is shown in the first part of the story. She believes
she was “born for every delicacy and luxury.” Although she has what she needed in life, a home,
a husband, and even a servant, she could not stop wanting more. She believes she is in poverty
by the way she saw her home with “mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains.” Those were the
things “which other women of her class would not even have been aware of.” Her need for more
was so deep, she imagined another life for herself, one with:
exquisite pieces of furniture supporting priceless ornaments, and small, charming,
perfumed rooms . . . parties of intimate friends, men who were famous and sought
after . . . delicate meals, gleaming silver, tapestries peopling the walls . . .
marvelous dishes . . . to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.
This want brings her to “suffer endlessly.” It is all unnecessary and shows Mathilde as a woman
who could never be satisfied with the things she has. No matter what she owns, or could have
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ever owned, Mathilde is always going to be unhappy. She is totally tormented with her social
status that she finds distasteful. In fact she seems to be quite selfish and portrays herself as a
very immature person.
The beginning to Mathilde’s demise is the invitation to the party. The narrator shows
that even though Mathilde is invited to a prominent event with people with whom she ever so
dearly wants to associate in her world of illusion, she is willing to turn the invitation down due to
her lack of satisfaction and her need for more. As the narrator shows, “Instead of being
delighted, as her husband hoped, she flung the invitation petulantly across the table.” Mathilde
has no appreciation; the only thing she cares for is how she is to present herself to these “really
big people.” She complains, “what do you suppose I am to wear at such an affair,” and she
whines, “I’m utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone to wear.” Mathilde’s
desire for more rather than wearing the theater dress she owns and gladly entertaining the
invitation her husband had worked so hard to get shows her destiny is unavoidable. She is about
to be taught a lesson as it happens so often in life. It is clearly seen through Maupassant’s
description of all the things Mathilde wants, and through all her dissatisfaction that he is setting
her up for a downfall. It is our nature to want, and it is destiny that must humble us at times.
Mathilde must go through this lesson so she can come to the realization of how blessed she truly
is. Mathilde must be humbled.
Through the end of the story Mathilde’s want for more brings her to her destruction.
From being in “ecstasy” of seeing herself with her borrowed jewels from Madame Forestier and
dancing the night away “drunk with pleasure,” to noticing the necklace was no longer around her
neck, destiny changes Mathilde’s life in the blink of an eye. She has gone from her middle class
status to a state of poverty. She no longer has the time to imagine the world she believes is
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rightfully hers, “Madame Loisel came to know the ghastly life of abject poverty”; she has begun
to lose it all:
The servant was dismissed . . . they changed their flat; they took a garret under the
roof . . . she came to know heavy work of the house . . . clad like a poor woman
she went to the fruitier, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm . . .
haggling, insulted fighting for every wretched half penny of her money.
Mathilde not only lost the material possessions in her life, but she lost herself, “She had become
like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households.” Her dreams and hopes of ever
achieving the social status and obtaining the wealth she desired became just that, a distant dream.
Destiny has taken Mathilde’s desire for wanting, even though, at the end, her lesson is not
learned. She continues to blame her fate on another without being able to see that it was her want
that was to blame. She believed she deserved all the finest things life had to offer, but instead she
did not realize that she got exactly what was rightfully hers. She felt what it was to be in the
social status that was below her own, and now maybe she will realize her riches.
Mathilde’s destiny was foreseen because of her great desire to want. Wanting more is
human nature, but like Maupassant’s character, there can be a price to pay. It may be better to be
satisfied with what life has given rather than go through the lesson life will teach to show
appreciation. Mathilde was better off with the social status she had before she lost the necklace,
than to have gotten a taste of a life that was not destined to be hers. She lost her possessions she
did not appreciate, and in the process lost herself. After all, just because the want is there, it
does not mean it is destined to be. If things are not worked for or destined to belong to people
they will never be theirs. Destiny cannot be fought.
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Work Cited
de Maupassant,Guy. “The Necklace.” Bartleby.com. Bartleby. n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.