Maggie Jiang

2007-6-17

Draft Three

Necklace: The Symbolism of Mathilde’s dream

“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 top 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.

The fate of this woman is not easy to analyze because of society. During that time, the marriage depends on which class you are in. A man wants to get married with the woman who has a big fortune. Mathilde is a pretty woman 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 true.

Mathilde “had no dresses, no jewels, nothing”(39). Other women who have the some situation like her will be used to this peace and tranquility life. But Mathilde is not that woman. She feels “herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries.”(38). When her husband told her that he had got an invitation to the minister’s party, Mathilde was depressed instead of being glad since she had no glory dress to wear. After her husband gave her money to buy a beautiful dress. She felt annoyed again and this time it was because she had no single jewel. These details reveal to us  in her mind she has a dream about being the rich class woman. A glory necklace which shows somebody’s status can make her like a woman in the top class of society.

Other important details presented in the story, before Mathilde lost her necklace, are the plot she borrowed the necklace from her rich friend. When she asked her friend to lend one beautiful necklace to her, her friend took out many necklaces to let her choose. She liked the one in that black box and “her heart began to beat with an immoderate desire.”(41). 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. The author used the black box here to put the necklace in. I think it is an implication that the black box means the unpredictable future. Sometimes it will be a good thing and sometimes not.

When everything is on the successful process, the miserable thing happened. The necklace disappeared. Mathilde 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 top 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. They are the only thing she was proud of. Although sometimes “she thought of that gay evening of long ago, she knew her dream is lost as soon as the necklace could not been found. Because the necklace is the symbolism of her dream.

In the end of the story, 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.

Throughout the story, we see how a woman’s fate becomes so complicated just because of a necklace. Although this may seem unbelievable, it can be considered sound and it is a description of that society. Mathilde is a victim of the society of her days, a society in which people judge others by fortune.