The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant: The Harm Of Greed
633 Words3 Pages
Tilak Misner
Vuong
Period 5
10/8/14
The Harm of Greed
In his short story “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant shows that a person’s selfishness and longing for materialistic wealth causes them to ignore and not appreciate the positive moments in their lives. Madame Loisel is a woman with beautiful looks, a kind husband, but a low economic status. She longs to lead a rich and luxurious lifestyle, so much to the point that things such as old and worn-out furniture, “which another woman of her class would not even have noticed, gnawed at her and made her furious” (1). de Maupassant’s use of the word ‘gnawed,’ which means ‘to cause persistent stress and anxiety’ shows how often she complains about her life and how she constantly lessens and looks down on facets of her life that she is quite fortunate to…show more content… In the end of the story, Madame Loisel confronts Madame Forestier to tell her that she had lost the necklace that was loaned to her for the party and that the necklace they returned was a replacement they (Madame Loisel and her husband) had bought. Though her husband had also worked insanely hard to make enough money to buy the replacement necklace, Madame Loisel tells Madame Forestier, “‘I bought you another just like it’ [...] And she smiled with proud and simple joy” (8). By mentioning nothing of her husband’s large effort, Madame Loisel comes across as very selfish. Furthermore, she is proud of the fact that she returned a very expensive necklace that she herself had lost, illustrating that Madame Loisel didn’t really care about the sacrifice her husband had to make to get that money. This also shows that she believes it was worth it to have that necklace and look stunning for those few hours- even though it was followed by ten years of suffering. Thinking this illustrates a very self-involved person, and one who does not truly appreciate what others do for her. A ‘thank you’ to her husband never exits her