Analysis of Greed and Thanklessness in “The Necklace” by

Guy De Maupassant

SARAH1

ROLL NO. 59

SECTION B MORNING

sarahsuman77@gmail.com

Instructor:

DR. ABRAR QURESHI

abrarqureshi@uosahiwal.edu.pk
1. Student of English Department, University of Sahiwal, Sahiwal.

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Abstract
Maupassant’s “The Necklace” having original title “La Parure” is based on a real story and
problems seen in middle class. The role of protagonist, Mathilde specifically highlights the main
themes of the story including greed and thanklessness. The undertaken research highlights the
causes and effects of both these societal issues especially regarding middle class people.
Qualitative approach is used to analyze the undertaken topic using theory of ‘Social
Stratification’. This work elaborates that how greed and thanklessness can ruin one’s life. The
main focus of the research is to avoid; the faith in deceptive appearances of the worldly things,
greediness and jealousy because of status.

Keywords: Greed, class-difference, society, psyche, deceptiveness

Introduction

Henry Rene Albert Guy De Maupassant as a French writer of Romanticism and naturalism
period introduces new literary culture in English Literature by writing short and horror stories.
Being a naturalist and realist, he tried to explain the class difference in the society, the allusions
and psyche of people about life. He mainly highlights the regrets of thanklessness in the society.
Kapau & Simwinga (2019) illustrate “The Necklace” as a story for improving language skills
and explains character of Mathilde in process types and shows that all characters have transitivity
patterns for their behavior. All of his writings emphasize the deep and bitter societal realities of
middle class people as well as elite class with sensitivity and humor; so do the undertaken story,
which is explained by an omniscient. In our societal culture, only rich people gets honor no
matter if they are good or bad in person. Being a Historian, Tyson (2014) considers economic
power as a basic forum for all social, domestic and political activities either it is education,
philosophy or any other field. The poor ones try their best to be like rich in order to get honor
and dignity. This behavior of society shows the interest of people towards the worldly things and
power of objects. Most people become unthankful because they feel proud on their physical
appearances which in result spoil them and cause regret as a by-product.

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Guy De Maupassant is the father of Short Stories and turned our minds towards the basic social
differences and problems. He focuses on the vanity and deceptive nature of people due to greed
and jealousy. No one can beat his level of presenting the problems in a different and beautiful
way. He is interested to explore the bitter realities in a deep way and criticizes the greedy
unthankful nature of people. A famous critic Prunier says:

“His short stories were seen as masterpieces of economy, clarity, and classical in
their formal simplicity, uncommonly varied in their theme was and keenly evocative in their
descriptions.” (Prunier 1966)

Statement of the Problem

Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace” (La Parure) explores the generalization of mentality of
poor people. The complex of poverty makes them greedy and ungrateful which causes regret at
the end.

Research Questions

1. How does poverty divert minds of people towards greed?

2. How does difference of class causes jealousy and thanklessness in people?
3. How does materialism affect middle class women?

Significance of Research

Thanklessness is the unappreciative behavior towards the things one have while greed is the
desire to get more and more especially wealth or power. The significance of this research is to
uncover the societal issues such as greedy nature of people because of poverty. These issues are
needed to be solved in the society by diminishing the dominance of class difference. The main
theme of this research revolves around the causes and effects of greed and thanklessness with
reference to Maupassant’s “The Necklace” in which he highlights the desires of a poor girl
Mathilde who represents the problems of middle class. Pierce (2012) explains that in “The
Necklace” is a story of a beautiful young lady, Mathilde who is not willing to accept her social
status at any cost and is not known by what she actually is, but by what she is not and she has
not. The purpose of the undertaken topic is to discourage the thoughts of low self-esteem in poor

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and abandon them to run after money. This research is helpful to change the mentality of people
being less than others. Adriano (2015) demonstrates that anything one wants is not always good
and being thankful is the key for prosperous life. Thus, the undertaken topic explains that
comparison with others causes jealousy which leads people to fulfill their desires and sometimes
it becomes a “Curse”.

Literature Review

In Literature, the period of Naturalism explores the realistic aspects of society, so do

Maupassant’s stories. His stories not only highlight the issues of society of his time but also of
the current society. He explains how middle class do survive in society, their fight with poverty
and how their mindset pushes them towards thanklessness and its effects on them.

Shafira (2019) analyzes a novel “The Great Gatsby” and a short story “The Necklace”. The
writers of these works are different but both the works have same theme of materialism. Shafira
(2019) highlights effects and impact of materialism on societies. In the undertaken story “The
Necklace” she uncovers the character of Mathilde and her attraction towards power, money and
materialistic things and their causes on her personal life. She considers status difference more
responsible for the falling of Mathilde towards things having attractive appearances.

Yadav (2019) highlights the character Mathilde Loisel by mentioning her greed, vanity and
regret. The aim of his work is to highlight the life style and deeds of Mathilde by explaining her
proud behavior because of her beauty as she thinks that she has born in a poor family by mistake.
He (2019) uncovers the fact that because of her pride and firm faith in deceptive appearances she
loses a lot of things including her modest way of life and beauty but this loss leaves a positive
change in her to accept the reality for what she really is.

Anjani (2018) explains character of Mathilde in the story by following theory of Sigmund Freud.
She elaborates that Mathilde is just following her ‘id’ this is why she has been dissatisfied from
her life and followed her desires blindly. She (2018) considers lack of self-acceptance as the
contributing factor of Mathilde’s greed and thanklessness. The greedy and thankless behavior of
protagonist is actually her psychological conflict which reinforces her to escape from reality.

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Nadukuditi (2018) explains the worth of Maupassant’s work by analyzing his three stories
including “The Necklace”. In “La Parure”(The Necklace) she highlights the materialistic nature
and faith in physical appearances in middle class people and concludes that it leads to cause
greed which at the end becomes “Curse” or sometimes “Blessing in Disguise” for them. She
(2018) says that being a realist Maupassant’s works are equally relatable for people of every
nation and era.

Wang (2017) discusses Maupassant’s unique writing style and highlights the merit of his stories.
He explores that the writer has no match and the use of hidden meanings makes his stories more
attractive for the readers. He appreciates the writer’s realist expressive style about the societal
issues in his stories including “The Necklace”. He unmasks that necklace in story is actually a
symbol used for showing greediness of Mathilde.

Kuhn (2016) deconstructs two stories “La Parure” (The Necklace) and “Le Gueux”. He explores
Maupassant’s works as realist, pessimist and critic; and highlights the themes of class-difference
described in the undertaken story and reveals it as the major issue which causes many problems
for middle class especially. He admits that Maupassant being a realist advocates the rights for
middle class people and social justice for them in the society.

Sari (2016) illustrates that Mathilde is conscious in choosing her life partner and thinks that Mr.
Loisel cannot keep her happy in the way she wants. She is so cautious in this matter but still she
has lack of self-acceptance for herself and her reality. This lacking forces her to believe that she
has not enough accessories to live a prosperous life and in result this leads her to fall for other’s
things which made her thankless and unsatisfied. This thankless behavior costs her everything in
the end.

Binti (2014) analyzes the undertaken story thoroughly and compares the thanklessness of
Mathilde and satisfaction of her husband, Monsieur Loisel. She genuinely explains that it is not
poverty which makes people desperate, actually it is the mindset. Binti criticizes Mathilde’s
hopelessness and thanklessness but at the same time she feels pity for her because of her day-
dreaming. At the same time, she (2014) appreciates thankful, real and satisfied behavior of M.
Loisel. Because he has accepted himself in the way he actually is.

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Laljibhai (2014) explores the story in a critical way and appreciates Maupassant’s style for
presenting bitter realities of life. He highlights the over-expectations of Mathilde Loisel which
led her to misery. He explores the behavior of thanklessness of people and giving no worth for
what they have, which led them towards agony. He (2014) encourages the writing criterion of
Maupassant for its surprising and real endings as also seen in “The Necklace”.

Fonseka (2000) uncovers the fake standards of societal hierarchy through the character of
Mathilde. He explains Maupassant’s criticism on the physical and sartorial standards of the
society which causes jealousy and thanklessness in poor and they don’t see those good things
which they have i.e. kindness, love, etc. He (2000) says that it is the class difference which
makes people more conscious for the things they do not have.

Research Methodology

In order to identify the main attributes of “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant, the story has
been read and analyzed thoroughly. The character of protagonist, Madame Mathilde Loisel has
been discussed completely to expose the realities of society including causes and effects of greed
and thanklessness. This research work provides information which highlights many aspects of
society. The leading journals and research papers are arranged to highlight the main concept of
greed and thanklessness. The primary source of this research is the actual text of the short story
and the methods for analyzation of data are: thorough reading, comprehension of data,
understanding main themes and decoding the use of symbols by author. While secondary sources
are the journals, story analyses, articles and research papers. Dobie (2019) explains the story
“The Necklace” with the help of Marxism to show the impact of class-difference on poor
families as; the story gives a clear picture of a society which unequally distributes the goods and
source to achieve them. Madame Loisel has no power, skills or money, but only her beauty to
attract her husband. The approach of this research is Qualitative because of its literary nature.
The analysis is done by using theory of Max and Weber; “Theory of Social Stratification” which
demonstrates that without any exaggeration people become more class conscious to survive in
the society. And it is the leading factor of their destruction. Through analyzing the story this
paper comes to a conclusion of “how greed and thanklessness is described in the original context
and how it affects the society”. Egel (2018) explains the consequences of greed with reference to
the thoughts of Aristotle as, Greed is the worst enemy of Justice because it is offspring of envy
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and Greed is also considered as a crime as it jeopardizes the existence of any honorable and fair
society.

Theoretical Framework

Theoretical framework is the building block of any research paper which authenticates the used
theories. It convincingly interprets and generalizes the whole data. This research is made to
summarize the causes of greedy and thankless nature of Madame Mathilde. Nurmalasari &
Samanik (2018) considers class difference as the key factor of greed and other social evils in
society with reference to “The Necklace” using Marx and Weber’s theory of “Social
Stratification”. They explain that class difference is the main root of low-self-esteem in poor
because society encourages the person with good clothes and personality rather than deeds. This
point is elaborated by aiming the character of protagonist, Madame Mathilde. Everyone wants to
live a facilitated and luxurious life but sometimes this wish becomes extreme desire as happened
with Mathilde. Her desire leads her towards greed and she became thankless for what she has.
This behavior is common in middle class of the society and affects them severely. The poor for
the sake of honor and to get upper class starts to copy the rich people but having fewer resources
their greed starts to dominate their personalities which at the end ruin their life. “The Necklace”
is the best illustration of class-consciousness in middle class families while Mathilde and her
destruction is the best example of class difference in society.

Textual Analysis

Textual analysis is the complete explanation of the original context with respect to the
undertaken topic. It is used to analyze the topic or story thoroughly by explaining role of the
characters. In the undertaken research, textual analysis of “The Necklace” is as follows in order
to explain greed and thanklessness of Mathilde;

“She was as unhappy………………..the highest lady in the land.” (Maupassant’s Line: 2).

Even from the beginning of the undertaken story Maupassant highlights the thankless and
gloomy behavior of Madame Mathilde Loisel. She seems to be unsatisfied and consider her
lifestyle miserable. Naturally, she is so beautiful and obsessed with her beauty. She thinks that
she deserves all the good and luxurious things in her life and she remains unsatisfied because she

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believes that she has been born and married in middle class family by mistake of fate. Being a
daydreamer, for Mathilde wealth is defined by beauty. This is why she thinks that if fate has not
deceived her and she is not poor she will definitely have the highest rank of all the women of the
world. Her obsession for beauty makes her proud and she considers her beauty a hurdle in
wealthy lifestyle. She always believes that it is the beauty of a girl which can put her and the
richest lady on a same level. Sometimes this behavior is also seen in the present era that people
are so obsessed to themselves if they are good even in one thing they consider themselves as
members of royal family and for them money does not matter. The thing which matters and stops
them from seeing dreams is the class-difference. Maupassant indirectly criticizes the class
consciousness of the society.

“She had no clothes, no jewels……………..with grief, regret despair and misery.” (Maupassant’s
Line: 5-6).

In this passage Maupassant again targets the unthankful nature of the protagonist. She always
desires for new clothes, jewelry and other accessories. Although she has all these things yet not
at that level of worth for which she sees dreams. Thus, she ignores them and starts to blame her
fate and poverty rather than being thankful for what she has. She takes everything she has, for
grant. She even does not visit her only friend Madame Forestier just because of status difference.
Mathilde loves her friend and wants to see her but because of her mindset that she is inferior to
her, ceases her. Class-difference plays main role here because when Mathilde sees her friend she
gets impressed from her fancy things and when she returns home she does not have those things
which makes her sad. In these lines, author explains the fact that poverty is not actually the main
issue for middle class but the societal difference and showing off fancy things. These two factors
are the causes of increasing thanklessness and greedy behavior in the society. Class-difference
causes negative thoughts in minds of middle class and they refuse to accept the realities while
rich ones are good at accepting realities either good or bitter because they have no fear of
judgment.

“I’m utterly miserable at………….middle of a lot of rich woman.”(Maupassant’s Line: 33-37).

These are dialogues of Mathilde and her husband, Loisel. Here the author elaborates the actual
reason of misery in middle class by explaining role of a poor girl, Mathilde. She is arguing with

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her husband for not going to the party. Because she thinks that she has not worthy jewelry and at
party all the women will come with full pomp and show and that will degrade her. Here she is
absolutely right at this point but at the same time she is wrong. She has to accept her reality and
confident for what she really is; then she does not have to hide herself in front of anyone. The
author actually criticizes this point satirically. This is the class-difference and luxurious lifestyle
of rich women which attracts her more than anything and she denies going out because of low-
self-esteem. In modern society this behavior is common because people feels jealous from others
instead of being happy for what they have without thinking that some people don’t even have the
necessary things. This attraction for worldly things more than anything ruins families and
individuals even in this era of modern technology. The other side of this conversation is the
positivity of M. Loisel who gives alternate ideas to her wife to use flowers as jewelry. This
shows that all people of middle class are not lovers of money but some are thankful in the way
they are. In fact, these are the actually realists who accept their poverty and tries their best to
fulfill the needs without complaining.

“Suddenly she discovered…………..with her treasure.” (Maupassant’s Line: 48-52).

Mathilde’s husband gives her an idea to borrow jewelry from her friend, Madame Forestier. She
gets agree with him and these lines are taken from the scene when she is visiting her friend.
Mathilde seems so excited for seeing her friend after a long time and she gets totally impressed
from the things her friend has and starts checking them. Her heart beats fast for every piece of
jewelry she sees. Maupassant states that when she has look on the diamond necklace her heart
begins to beat with greed. Because these are the things she always desires for and now they are
in front of her in real. Here again Mathilde’s greedy nature and her strong desire for expensive
and attractive things is shown by her behavior. In these lines the narrator also shows
controversial behavior of Mathilde. Because in the beginning of the story she does not even want
to see her friend but at the day of the ball when she needs her she goes to see her impatiently and
after getting the required jewelry she thanks her in a joyful way. This also expresses that her
greed makes her selfish too.

“But sometimes, when her………………. much admired.” (Maupassant’s Line: 105).

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After losing her friend’s necklace Mathilde still feels attraction for worldly things. She does not
give up on thinking for expensive things. This line shows her permanent greed and middle-class
mentality. Her husband is doing hard work to pay the debt of which Mathilde is the reason but
she still thinks of the party night when she is the center of everyone’s attention. Although that
evening has changed their life completely but above all facts Mathilde always miss that day and
her look. She always misses the way Ministers give her attention and the way her beauty gives
her honor. With more poverty than before, she cannot change her nature and desire for money
and power but at the same time she feels guilty for her negligence. Many people learn lesson
from some bad experiences so does Mathilde learn. She cannot change her mind and attraction
for royal fancy things. Her greed has become curse for her, still she thinks of the timely attention,
wealthy look and honor instead of being remorse for her carelessness and greed. This is
Maupassant’s style to express the reality in a surprising way as Mathilde thinks that after party
she will get the same attention but she is wrong and after that night she is not able to go out
because of her carelessness. And the good point is that she has changed and feels guilty for her
behavior.

Findings

Findings refer to the information which has been extracted from the original text by using
different methods and investigations. This research is done on the greedy and thankless nature of
Mathilde in short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. Nnyagu & Victor (2018) state
that Maupassant’s “The Necklace” is a true literary work which has a lesson for all type of
classes in the society. They (2018) say that in modern society people spoil their relationship with
their spouse just to fulfill their desires because they are living in fiction so does Mathilde.
Thorough reading and Qualitative research methodology are done to analyze the text completely.
It is found that protagonist of the short story; Mathilde is shown as a poor girl with thankless and
greedy nature. The cause of her greed and thanklessness is actually her poverty and class-
difference. Mathilde’s greed for wealth and her pride for her beauty ruin her future for the next
ten years. She desires for the things she does not even afford and believes in the deceptive
appearances of the things. This behavior is also present in today’s society and it can be overcome
by appreciating the things one have and being thankful for everything because time not always
remains same and forever is just an illusion. It also has been found that the narrator uses “the

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diamond necklace” as a symbol to express the actual behavior of people for beautiful things no
matter either they are good or bad for. Sari (2017) explains the role of leading character Mathilde
and two supportive characters Forestier and Loisel. She describes the character by comparing
them sociologically, physiologically and psychologically. With the passage of time
psychologically Mathilde’s attitude changes and she starts to be thankful.

The following graph shows these changings more clearly with the proceedings of the story:

Comparison of Mathilde's attitude

with Proceedings of the story
Decreasing level of greediness of

120%
Exposition
100%
Rising Action
80%
Mathilde

Conflict
60%
Climax
40%

20%
Falling Action

0%
Proceedings of the story

This down curve of the graph shows decrease in Mathilde’s attraction towards worldly things,
her greed and thanklessness decreases with the passage of time when story proceeds. In the
beginning and even till mid of the story Mathilde falls for every expensive thing and blames her
fate. And the level of her greediness is high. But after the night of the party her behavior starts to
change and she accepts herself for what she is and till the end of the story Mathilde is seen as a
whole different person.

Conclusion

Maupassant being the best short-story writer mainly highlights different social evils of his time
as well as of modern era. There are many themes of The Necklace, but in the undertaken topic
only greed and thanklessness explains the role of protagonist, Mathilde Loisel in the story. She

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proves that Women have more attraction for physical appearances and status than men. This
research is highlighting different aspects of life including causes and effects of jealousy, greed
and thanklessness. Maupassant considers class-difference as the mother of all these societal evils
because it demoralizes many middle class people. The paper elaborates that it is not the poverty
which discourages poor for being themselves but the mindset. Laksmiwati (2020) demonstrates
the factor of extremeness of protagonist’s desire for wealth and worldly things. He explains that
Mathilde’s greedy nature is the reason for her severe downfall at the end of the story. It has been
observed that Mathilde is not actually so poor but it is just her low confidence level, immaturity
and mindset which ruin her. As compared to Mathilde, her husband Loisel is thankful for what he
has and he has no greed for wealth and other worldly things. Throughout the story he seems to be
a calm and thankful person. Syafrina (2020) illustrates that in the undertaken story Maupassant
presents Mathilde as a stereotypical having thankless, emotional and materialistic nature. He
further says that women are although caring, loving and hardworking but typical middle class are
extra emotional as well because of their deprivations.

References

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Philippines.

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Humanities (ELS), Malaysia.

Dobie, R. (2019) A Necklace as a symbol: An intersection between Marxist, Feminist,

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