Question

Answer the following question in 100 - 120 words:

The inability to accept one’s real circumstances led to suffering and an unhappy life, as reflected through the character of Matilda in ‘The Necklace’. Analyze. 

Answer 1

In Guy de Maupassant’s ‘The Necklace, Matilda Loisel’s perpetual discontent with her modest lifestyle stems from her inability to accept her real circumstances. Born into a middle-class family, she feels “born for all delicacies and luxuries,” resenting her “shabby walls” and “worn chairs”.

This obsession with appearance over substance drives her to borrow a necklace to feign wealth at a grand ball. When she loses it, her pride and fear of confession force her and her husband into ten years of crushing debt and gruelling labour to replace it. Ironically, the original necklace was a cheap imitation, proving that her refusal to find contentment in her reality led to a far greater, self-inflicted misery.