Fools Gold
“The Necklace”, by Guy de Maupassant (1884), is the short story of a married couple in France. The husband, M. Loisel, is a middle-income clerk in the Ministry of Education. He is portrayed as a man of simple needs who is content with his middle class lifestyle. Unfortunately, his wife is not. Mathilde is characterized as a beautiful woman who despises her unattractive surroundings. She lacks the material possessions befitting what she perceives should be her place in society. She does not appreciate what she has or her husband. The conflict in Mathilde’s character between who she is and who she yearns to be comes to a climax when she and her husband are invited to a party with those that are wealthier than they. Mathilde becomes sullen as she imagines other women at the party wearing lavish gowns and jewels looking down upon her in her old dress, devoid of any sparkle. M. Loisel takes money he has been saving for a new gun and gives it to Mathilde to buy a new dress. Unsatisfied with just a new gown, Mathilde asks her friend if she can borrow some jewelry. Carefully examining every piece of her friend’s prized collection, she settles on what appears to be an exquisite and very expensive diamond necklace. Unfortunately, after attending the party, she leaves in a flurry, conscious of the old wrap settled upon her shoulders. Her rapid departure causes her to lose her friends’ necklace—something she and her husband cannot afford to replace. Rather than admit she has lost it, she and her husband take the remainder of their life savings, and borrow an obscene amount of money on credit to buy an expensive replacement necklace to mirror the one she lost. While they get away with the subterfuge of fooling her friend, it takes Mathilde and her husband ten years to pay off the debts. During that time, Mathilde is subjected into performing manual labor, toilling at menial jobs that she would have previously thought beneath her. Finally, when she...