Patrick

Kenneth Ralston

2001

We were asked to write an analytical essay on a short story of our choice

Patrick
English 9
11/29/01

What caused Mme. Loisel's Downfall?

In Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" Mathilde Loisel, a middle-class housewife, fantasizes about leading a life of wealth.  Mme. Loisel is a proud woman.  She feels herself "born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries" (46).  Since she was born into a middle-class family, she lacks access to the comforts of an upper-class life.  Thinking that her beauty should earn her a higher place in society, she is discontent.  She stopped seeing her wealthy former schoolmate "because she suffered ceaselessly when she came back." (47)  Seeing Mme. Forestier, whom Loisel had once viewed as a peer, in a higher social status than herself disgusts Loisel.  She attempts to make a good outward appearance to others in order to make up for her contempt for her social class.  She dresses as elegantly as possible, clinging to the dream that "Natural fineness, instinct for what is elegant, suppleness of wit, are the sole hierarchy, and make from women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies" (46).  However, after she attends the ball her life slopes downward as debt on the necklace forces her into poverty.  On more than one occasion she has the chance avoid or correct her difficulties with the necklace, and though the humble solution is also the best solution in both cases, she chooses to suffer unnecessarily for vanity's sake.  She makes the choices she does because her pride will not allow her to do otherwise.

Mme. Loisel's pride causes her to make her first mistake shortly before the ball.  Committed to the belief that "there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor around other women who are rich," (48)  she decides that to merely have a dress is not good enough.  She tells her husband that she wants jewelry.  So she asks her old school friend (whom she otherwise avoids) if she can borrow a necklace, which as far as she knows may be worth thirty-six thousand francs.  She uses this necklace at the ball, dancing with other men than her husband, while he sleeps in the back room.  Between the hours in a crowded ballroom and the long walk to find a cab in the night, it was not at all improbable that the seemingly valuable necklace would have been stolen.   Whether the necklace is stolen or just misplaced, it is indeed lost.  Had she stopped to think, Mme. Loisel may have realized that there was some risk in borrowing a necklace that she thought was so expensive.  Also, the impression she makes at the ball would not likely have much bearing on her life later on.  Her refusal to wear natural roses shows us that one of her worst fears is to appear poor.  Thus to prevent injury to her pride she makes a gamble in which winning will bring little, and losing, although the chance of such is overlooked, has drastic consequences.

Mme. Loisel's pride causes her to make another error after she loses the necklace.  To buy time she lies to Mme. Forestier, telling that the necklace is being mended. When Mme. Loisel ultimately cannot recover the necklace she and her husband go into debt and buy a new one, worrying that Mme. Forestier would "have taken Mme. Loisel for a thief" (51).  The obvious decision is for Loisel to tell Forestier the truth.  Forestier would then have been able to tell her that the necklace was a fake.  Mme. Loisel does not know this, but even so Mme. Forestier would not likely take her old school friend for a thief.  Indeed, it is possible that she may have agreed to pay a portion of the debt, or give Loisel board as a servant.  Mme. Loisel commits herself to ten years of drudgery to avoid having an old friend, whom she doesn't much care for, call her a thief.

Thus Mme. Loisel takes on the debt to bolster her pride, the same pride which puts her into her dilemma, and refuses to let her out.  She takes it on "with heroism," (51) to convince herself that she is a good person.  In her eyes it is the honorable solution.  She speaks again to Mme. Forestier, after the debt is paid.  At this point Loisel feels safe.  Forestier can neither pity Loisel, who would feel patronized, nor can she scorn Loisel, in which case she would be offended.  She returns triumphantly to her old friend smiling "with a joy which was both proud and naive at once" (52).  She tells Forestier of her great hardship, expecting praise.  However, her folly is suddenly revealed to her with a single statement: "Oh, my poor Mathilde!  Why the necklace was paste.  It was worth at most five hundred francs!" (52)

Mathilde Loisel's ultimate downfall is caused by her pride.  It causes her to be unhappy in life.  It makes her take a risk.  It does not allow her to take appropriate action in correcting her mistake.  And it refuses to let her see her own foolishness.  Madame Loisel blames her problem on Madame Forestier, but she can't really blame anyone except herself.