Necklace: the symbolism of the Mathilde’s fate

Maggie Jiang

2007-5-17

Draft Two

Necklace: the symbolism of the Mathilde’s fate

“ The Necklace” written by Guy de Maupassant is a very famous work in the literary world. It tells us a woman named Mathilde dreams of the up class living. She borrowed a necklace from her rich friend for a noble party. Unfortunately the necklace was lost. In the end it costs her youth and beauty to pay for this mistake.

This is a story of a woman’s fate. The fate of this women is not easy to analyze because of society. During the time in which the story is set. it was expected that a husband would receive a dowry from the family of his future bride. A man often chose a wife on the basis of how large her fortune was. Unfortunatly, Mathilde is a pretty women without any fortune. So she dreams of the top society but she can not have it. As you can see the necklace plays a very important role through this story. Because of this necklace Mathilde had the opportunity to touch the top class while her life fell into poverty since the necklace is lost. In my view, Maupassant takes advantage of the necklace not only as a clue but also as a symbolism of Mathilde’s dream which can not come ture.

Why can I say this? There are some reasons.

First, Mathilde “had no dresses, no jewels, nothing”P(39). Other women who has the some situation like her will be used to this peace and tranquility life. But Mathilde is not that women.She feels “herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries.”p(38). The dresses and jewels can show one’s status. In spite of the beautiful dress, Mathilde still wants a glory necklace which can make her like a women in the up class of society. Here the necklace for Mathilde is like an important actor who can help her long-term dream to be realized.Mathilde wants to have it just like she wants to have a nobility status. But she hasn’t this kind of the necklace so she only can borrow one from her friend who is very rich. Actually, she succeeded in the party everybody was hearing of her.

When everything is on the successful process, the miserable thing happened. The necklace disappeared. The necklace has to change his role to show Mathilde’s dream or fate on the other side.

What is the other side? The former part of the story describes us that the Mathilde danced as if she was a noble woman with this necklace. However, she is a Cinderella but the real world is not the fair world so no prince will show up to save her from the low status of society without consideration of her fortune. The necklace was lost as if her temporary glorious dream broke suddenly. The up class fate didn’t belong to her finally and also she must pay for this temporary glory. As we can see from the story, the cost of this dream is huge. She works very hard every year for ten yeas, which let her dream and beauty flow away.

Ironically, the necklace is paste. It means even her temporary glory is fake. She still is a middle class woman because of the relationship of her fate and society which judge women according to her fortune. Because of society, Mathilde can never change her life. The fake necklace is always fake. There is no chance that a fake necklace will become a real one as well as there is no opportunity for her dream to be true.

What can we learn from this story? I think it shows us an unfair and materialism society. People judge others by his fortune even use this level to decide whom I should get married. Man can not decide which kind of family he should be born in. So it is not right to divide them into different classes by the fortune. I think the hard working is the priority. If a person works hard, Society should give him an opportunity to change his status.

In conclusion, the necklace is the symbolism of Mathilde’s dream. The dream is changing between the real and the unreal. It will let people feel as if they have been successful. When they wake up, they will find the dream is just the dream and the real world has not changed a little.