Conflict In The Diamond Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

Guy De Maupassant’s “The Diamond Necklace” is a story set in the 19th century. The main characters are Mathilde and her husband. The story talks about how the wife of a common household - Mathilde Loisel, borrows a diamond necklace for an upcoming high class party and subsequently loses it afterward, only that she found out after working for ten years to pay back the debt of the necklace it is but a fake. Mathilde’s clash between the reality she faces and fantasies she longs for demonstrates the central conflict of the story. Through the close look at the thoughts’ process of Mathilde, and how the settings of the party contrast Mathilde’s daily life; Maupassant demonstrates how her wish to detach from the reality that she has in order to live …show more content…
What shaped Mathilde’s character are status and riches, it's all she’d ever dreamed about “She would have liked so much to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after” …show more content…
Of that ball where she was so beautiful and flattered” (303). Not even once did she show any remorse for her glamorous desires nor even realize these fantasies are what created her and her husband’s sufferings. When she finally meet Forestier again after ten years, we see that she’d put all the blame of her miserable life on to her, "Yes, I've had some hard times since I saw you last; and many sorrows...and all on your account" (303). Showing that she had never had any character growth with her ways of thinking, and she still thinks that a beautiful woman such as her should have deserved everything the world has to offer, that after all these years, she was still living in her fantasy