The Necklace Greed

According to the Declaration of Independence, one of the rights of all people is the pursuit of happiness. People want to be happy. Unfortunately, most do not know where to find it. Most believe it to be in money or with another person, but in reality, the key to happiness lies within our perception. In Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” the belief that our happiness depends on how we view the world is proven true as Mathilde Loisel bares the consequences of greed, jealousy, and envy. Mathilde Loisel was not a wealthy woman, but she was not a poor one either. “She had no dresses, no jewels” but “she loved nothing but that.” She “suffered ceaselessly” because of her not possessing “all the delegacies and all the luxuries” of those of a higher class. She thought her not having these things the cause of her unhappiness, but in reality it was her view of these objects that caused her such anguish. Her husband had a different perspective; he showed gratitude for the things they had. Their different perspectives are apparent when they sit down to a meal. While her husband compliments the soup saying, “I don’t know anything better than that,” all Loisel thinks about are “dainty dinners [and] shining silverware.” She constantly sees her
She felt “prettier than them all” and she was in a “cloud of happiness.” During this time, her dreams were being realized. All that she thought of the wealthy, their leisure, their __, and their happiness, were all true. For one night, all was going right for her, but even in this time of joy, she still felt out of place. As she was getting ready to leave, her husband threw on her shoulders “modest wraps of common life…[that] contrasted the elegance of the ball dress.” Loisel was shocked back into reality and was embarrassed and wanted to leave before the women in “costly furs” noticed