Mathilde Loisel from “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant is a character that starts the story off as a selfish person who believes she deserves a better life. After an unfortunate event Mathilde is forced to make drastic changes to her lifestyle. After this event, Mathilde becomes a very different and more realistic character. A dynamic character is described as a person that makes changes to their life, they recognize the change, and that thus causes them to have an attitude adjustment. Mathilde is a dynamic character as she changes a great deal throughout the story, she becomes a person filled with self-pride because of her own accomplishments, instead of a person filled with selfish desires of material possessions associated with the rich
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Mathilde is too full of pride to tell Mme. Forestier that she lost her necklace, so she instead buys a replica to replace the one she lost. The debt accumulated from purchasing the replacement necklace would take Mathilde and her husband ten years to pay off. Mathilde had to start working hard to help her husband repay the debt. This is where Mathilde sees what it is like to be a needy member of her social class because while Mathilde belonged to a lower social class, she led a better lifestyle than most of her social class. This new change to her lifestyle causes a change to her attitude, and leads Mathilde to become a more practical person that decides it is time to put in some hard work, instead of wallowing in self-pity over the things that she did not have in life. “That dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it. They dismissed their servant; they changed their lodgings; they rented a garret under the roof” (Maupassant 5). Mathilde would have no choice, but to simplify her lifestyle down to the bottom of her social class if it were to be possible to pay off her debt. “And, dressed like a woman of the people, she went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, her basket on her arm, bargaining, insulted, defending her miserable money sou by sou” (Maupassant 5). The hard work that Mathilde puts in over the course of ten years, doing all her …show more content…
Mathilde changed a lot in her physical appearance, she was simply worn down from ten years of hardship. “She had become the woman of impoverished households-strong and hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew, and red hands, she talked loud while washing the floor with great swishes of water” (Maupassant 5). Mathilde had changed in emotional terms as well. She was no longer the greedy, self-pitiful person who believed that she was above the other members of her social class. Instead, Mathilde was equal to the rest of her social class, if not even worse off than them. Mathilde no doubt wondered what would have become of her life had she not lost the necklace, but she believes that losing the necklace is what made her lose the negative aspects of her personality, and was the change she needed to be saved from her selfish greed. “What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How life is strange and changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved” (Maupassant 5)! After Mathilde, had paid off the debt she crossed paths with Madame Forestier in the park while taking a walk. She approached her and told her about the necklace. Mathilde temporarily reverts to being a selfish person again when she blames Madame Forestier for the hardships she incurred as a result of borrowing her
Mathilde is too full of pride to tell Mme. Forestier that she lost her necklace, so she instead buys a replica to replace the one she lost. The debt accumulated from purchasing the replacement necklace would take Mathilde and her husband ten years to pay off. Mathilde had to start working hard to help her husband repay the debt. This is where Mathilde sees what it is like to be a needy member of her social class because while Mathilde belonged to a lower social class, she led a better lifestyle than most of her social class. This new change to her lifestyle causes a change to her attitude, and leads Mathilde to become a more practical person that decides it is time to put in some hard work, instead of wallowing in self-pity over the things that she did not have in life. “That dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it. They dismissed their servant; they changed their lodgings; they rented a garret under the roof” (Maupassant 5). Mathilde would have no choice, but to simplify her lifestyle down to the bottom of her social class if it were to be possible to pay off her debt. “And, dressed like a woman of the people, she went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, her basket on her arm, bargaining, insulted, defending her miserable money sou by sou” (Maupassant 5). The hard work that Mathilde puts in over the course of ten years, doing all her …show more content…
Mathilde changed a lot in her physical appearance, she was simply worn down from ten years of hardship. “She had become the woman of impoverished households-strong and hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew, and red hands, she talked loud while washing the floor with great swishes of water” (Maupassant 5). Mathilde had changed in emotional terms as well. She was no longer the greedy, self-pitiful person who believed that she was above the other members of her social class. Instead, Mathilde was equal to the rest of her social class, if not even worse off than them. Mathilde no doubt wondered what would have become of her life had she not lost the necklace, but she believes that losing the necklace is what made her lose the negative aspects of her personality, and was the change she needed to be saved from her selfish greed. “What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How life is strange and changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved” (Maupassant 5)! After Mathilde, had paid off the debt she crossed paths with Madame Forestier in the park while taking a walk. She approached her and told her about the necklace. Mathilde temporarily reverts to being a selfish person again when she blames Madame Forestier for the hardships she incurred as a result of borrowing her