Short Story “The Necklace” (Essay Sample)

Name
Instructor
Subject
Date
The Power of Appearances to Deceive in Guy de Maupassant’s Short Story “The Necklace”
It is strange how people attach value to objects more than they do to their lives. It is equally amazing that the value they attach to objects is based on perception and belief rather than their real quality. This is seen from the value that the characters in the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant attach to a fake ornament because they believe it to be the real thing. This idea is extended to people’s lives because possessing things that are considered valuable creates the impression that one is well off. People value and desire material possessions not because of their inherent value, but because of the perception they create about one’s success and happiness. In “The Necklace,” however, Guy de Maupassant shows that people’s desire to acquire and display wealth is a “show off” aimed at creating the image of affluence and high-class status. Possessions do not reflect the real value of people’s lives, but help to deceive outsiders that one is doing well in life. This portrayal is evident from the life of Mathilde Loisel, who longs to possess the things that rich people must own to prove their success in life, such as rare and precious stones like diamonds. This is despite the fact that she is endowed with natural beauty and charm. She refuses to look inward into herself and see her real “wealth” in terms of beauty and having a loving husband. She yearns for something, even a fake one, which she can put on display before others to create the image of a well-doing and happy person, despite her being unhappy about her own existence and belonging to a working class society. In this regard, Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace” can be interpreted as a portrayal of the way outward appearances deceive and fail to mirror the real value of or truth about things.
The necklace that Madame Loisel borrows from her friend Madame Forestier is the central symbol in the story that portrays the deceptive nature of appearances. The interesting thing is not that the necklace is an imitation, but the fact that Mademe Loisel believes it to be authentic, and therefore values it a lot. The author states that when she saw the diamond necklace, “her heart began to beat covetously” (Maupassant 31). Her major reason for believing that the necklace is authentic, and therefore coveting it, is because it is owned by Madame Friester, who is very rich. She believes that rich people cannot possess or buy fake items, and this knowledge alone makes her to accept and value a fake item. This idea is applicable in most areas in society today with respect to how people value things or opinions that are endorsed by respected institutions. For instance, people tend to believe news by CNN more than they would news reported in tabloids or personal blogs. The reputation of CNN as a credible source of information makes people to readily accept what it reports without questioning its authenticity. Madame Loisel shows this mentality in the way she readily embraces the necklace as a genuine diamond simply because a rich person owns it. The satin case in which Madame Frostier kept the necklace also reinforces Mathilde’s perception because treasured objects are stored in safe places where they cannot get damaged by the elements. Mathilde believes that keeping the necklace in a satin case implied that Forestier valued it herself, and therefore must be a genuine and priceless ornament.
The truth about the necklace’s authenticity and Forestier’s understanding of this reality further shows that objects are as valuable as people make or perceive them to be. Madame Forestier knows that she is possessing a worthless necklace because it is an imitation. At the same time, she understands that people judge things based on appearances and not their inherent qualities. Accordingly, she keeps the necklace because it looks like the original, which deceives anyone who sees her wearing it. However, Mathilde does not know that she is desiring an imitation, which highlights the idea that outward appearances are deceptive. Guy de Maupassant writes from a realist perspective by exploring the day-to-day experiences of ordinary people. In “The Necklace,” he examines the reality of people’s lives, and contrasts it with what they long for. Through the character if Madame Loisel, he shows that what people yearn for is illusory, unreal, and like Madame Forestier’s necklace, unauthentic. People want to create the impression that they are doing well, and they do so by living false lives- stage-managed show-offs intended to convince the world that they are successful in life. Consequently, they accumulate expensive possessions not because they need them, but because they want to use them to create the impression of success. Mathilde achieves this goal when she wears the necklace to a party, where she is the “prettiest woman present, elegant and quite above herself with happiness” (Maupassant 31). On her part, Madame Forestier owns a fake imitation of a diamond to show that she is wealthier than she actually is. Her failure to inspect the substitute necklace that Mathilde returns shows that she did not value the necklace as an ornament. More important, her failure to notice that the substitute is actually an original diamond, shows that people fail to distinguish between what is real and what is deception, which emphasizes the idea that appearances create false impressions.
The ...