Pride In The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

Every single person thirsts to be accepted and respected and high regard but some do more than what is necessary to gain that respect. This is essentially true for Mathilde, the protagonist in Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace”. In the story, Mathilde’s pride causes her to become ashamed of the extent of her poverty, which in turn causes her to lie. This lie inflicts great suffering upon Mathilde. In the short story, it is revealed that pride blinds one and causes one to lie for personal gain and recognition, which ultimately leads to suffering and destruction; inner beauty is not to be measured by physical looks and material goods. In the story, the main character’s conflict between her poverty and her view on self worth reveals that poverty is the gateway to self centeredness. Mathilde is born into poverty and grows up poor, she even marries a poor man; she is embarrassed by the extent of her poverty and is extremely discontent with her current living situation. Even though she is …show more content…
Although the beautiful necklace looks very much real and authentic, it’s actual worth is nothing more than 400 francs; it is beautiful but worthless. This reveals that looks are deceiving. When Madame Loisel gives Mathilde the necklace, she does not tell her up front that the necklace is fake because she wants to create the illusion that she is wealthy enough to afford a necklace made of real diamonds the same way that Mathilde uses jewels to hide her true self and appear wealthy. The necklace made Mathilde the “prettiest woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling, and quite above herself with happiness” but when she loses the necklace, she lies about the accident (161). Instead, she works tirelessly and suffers for many years to replace the fake necklace with a real, expensive diamond necklace which goes to show that looks are