The Idea of Greed in The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant

A scary story is a type of story that mainly focuses on creating a sensation of fear in the readers. Readers love to read scary stories because it gives them a bit of a thrill, an adrenaline rush from being scared out of their minds, and in some ways, it’s just enjoyable to read about things that are frightening. Horror stories let readers look at things from a different perspective and experience a suspenseful and hair-raising feeling. For instance, a great story that has a lot of suspense is “The Necklace,” well-written by Guy de Maupassant. In “The Necklace,” the main character, Mathilde, isn’t satisfied with what she already has and ends up with less than what she started with.

“The Necklace,” by Guy de Maupassant demonstrates the idea of greed and how people should be content with the things they already own. At the very beginning of the story, we are introduced to the protagonist, Mathilde Loisel. She is a very beautiful woman who lives with her husband and dreams that she could have all the delicacies and all the luxuries in the world. Further, in the story, Mathilde is invited to a ball and complains that she has nothing to wear so, Mathilde decides to borrow an expensive diamond necklace from her former friend, Jeanne Forestier. Unfortunately, Mathilde loses the necklace after the party and has to buy a new one to replace it. This causes them to work hard day and night to pay off the debt. Finally, at the end of the story, Mathilde decides to tell Jeanne the truth about the necklace and makes a startling realization.

Additionally, a climax is the most interesting part of a story or the turning point. For example, in the story “The Necklace,” it states, ‘“Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!’” This shows the climax because Mathilde was convinced that she had lost her friend’s valuable diamond necklace but, it turns out to be a cheap replica. This is because when Mathilde first losses the necklace after the party, she decides to hide what happened from Mme. Forestier that day so, she never found out the truth about the necklace. This turning point in “The Necklace” creates suspense for the reader because after all this time we believed that the necklace was worth at most 36,000 francs but, when Mathilde talks to Mme. Forestier the story hits us with a huge plot twist (that the necklace was paste and worth only five hundred francs).

The short story teaches the lesson “be happy with what you already have.” During the story, there are various events that support this lesson. At the beginning of the story, Mathilde and her husband live a simple life with enough money to live pleasantly however, Mathilde is forever discontented, unable to be satisfied without the jewels and clothes of a prosperous woman. On the other hand, her husband is happy and tries to convince Mathilde that she should be grateful for this opportunity even though she doesn’t have the most “beautiful” attire. In the middle, after Mathilde has a brief moment of joy during the party, the following ten years of her life are supplied with true misery, in explicit contrast with her previous self-pity which seemed out of sync with the comfortable life she lived. By experiencing true poverty, Mathilde gains a new perspective on life and learns to be satisfied with what she has.