Herb 1 Alex Herb Professor Eberle Intro to Literary Studies 27 September 2010 Underneath the Cracks Love creates

great emotions and feelings that cause people to see only what is right in front of them; these people are considered to be blinded by love because they fail to see what is crystal clear to others. A main theme of The Jewelry is being blinded by love because it contains many circumstances where the characters are unable to see the obvious because of the love for another, the love of jewelry, and the love for wealth. M. Lantin was the type of man who knew what he wanted and would go after it no matter what the circumstances were; at first glance, he fell in love with his wife. The young girl seemed to be the very ideal woman to whom every young man dreams of entrusting his future (58). He knew right away she was going to make his life complete and full of happiness. However, There were only two points upon which he ever found fault with her her love of the theater, and her passion for false jewelry (58). M. Lantin did not read into these faults he saw in his wife, and that is where he made his mistake. What was made so obvious and clear to outsiders was never seen through M. Lantins eyes because he loved his wife so much that her having an affair couldnt possibly be happening to him. While he was focused on loving her, she was fantasizing about the other man, (she would) begin to examine the false jewelry with passionate delight, as if she experienced some secret and mysterious sensations of pleasure in their contemplations (59). She took advantage of his love for her and played with it right in

Herb 2 front of him as if she was never doing anything wrong in the first place, and he was not able to see any part of her deceiving side because of how much he loved her. Her excessive need and passion for the theater was used as a diversion to distract M. Lantin from realizing her false attendance at the theater was really her affair with another man. She knew he disliked the theater, and it only took him a few performances with her for him to beg her to go without his company. She was able to hoax him into unknowingly giving her permission to go out by herself to commit infidelity because of the guilt he was feeling by not accompanying her. This was her plan all along because it was his idea for her to go out by herself, so she did not have to make up an excuse to spend time away from her husband. After each experience with the other man she received a generous gift of expensive jewelry which helped reinforce her deceiving act as being successful and worth it. After his wife passed away, he wondered why he could no longer afford his lifestyle, And he asked himself in astonishment how she had managed always to furnish him with excellent wines and with delicate eating which he could not now afford at all with his scanty means (60). His wife couldnt have possibly provided all this luxury from M. Lantins salary alone; she had outside help from someone of wealth. Eating out of the palm of her hand, M. Lantin was fooled by her waiting on his every want and need. It would be impossible to conceive of any attentions, tendernesses, playful caresses which she did not lavish upon her husbandsix years after he married her, he loved her more than he did the first day (58). She distracted him from realizing the truth by showering him with attention and affection; she wanted him to believe she loved him as much as he loved her by doting on him every minute they were together.

Herb 3 M. Lantins wife was so focused on increasing her collection of false jewelry that she failed to realize how much her husband really did love and care about her. Her obsession to accumulate this jewelry blinded her in seeing what she really meant to her husband. M. Lantin loved her unconditionally and would have done anything to make her happy, and she could not see that. If she knew how much he loved her, she should have been happy and satisfied with their life together, but ultimately she was unhappy with her marriage with M. Lantin. Each addition of jewelry from the man she was having an affair with made her fall more in love with not only the jewelry, but the attention and appreciation she earned from this other man. M. Lantin may not have been able to provide for her expensive taste for materialistic items, but his love for her was so rare and so priceless that his wife should have been happy. Financial security and expensive jewelry were more important to this woman than the true love of a mans heart; she was not dependent on the love of a man and lived her unfaithful life lying for wealth. Everything she ever said and did to M. Lantin was all seen as a game to her because she knew he was like a cat constantly chasing a mouse; he was never going to stop chasing after her to win her heart. After the death of his wife, M. Lantin discovered the true value of his wifes fake jewelry collection which made him a very wealthy man. As soon as he realized what fortune he gathered, all of his sadness and negative feelings for the loss of his wife evaporated into thin air. Because of this wealth, it blinded M. Lantin into believing the money healed his sorrow and created happiness in his life again. M. Lantin quit his job saying, Sir, I come to give you my resignation. I have just come into a fortune of three hundred thousand francs (63). He thought the amount of money he gained from his wifes jewelry solved all of his problems in life and

Herb 4 gave him an advantage over his old life. Each time he talked about his fortune he automatically increased the amount, making him more confident and giving him a boost in self esteem. Six months after his wifes death, M. Lantin rushes into a second marriage because he is able to provide for her every want and need. He replaced the feeling of love with the ownership of wealth because his second marriage created a miserable and unhappy life he did not expect. His love for money blinded him into thinking he was happy again; when in reality it created more harm than happiness in his life. M. Lantin and his wife both failed to realize what was beyond the surface and hidden underneath the cracks. Lives full of love and happiness could have been achieved if only they were able to look past what was right in front of them and see what the rest of the world was seeing. The love for another, love of wealth, and love of fake jewelry prevented M. Lantin and his wife from living their lives to the fullest and appreciating what they had already had to begin with.