The illusory self-image based on guy de maupassant research paper examples

Introduction

The necklace is one of the literature works by Guy de Maupassant that focus on the life of a girl who had an illusion of the kind of life that she desired to live. True to her illusions, a chance came for her and she found herself with the high-ranking people in the society. Despite what it coasted her poor husband, her dream came to pass however short lived it was. The consequences that followed the moment transformed her completely (Korba & Maupassant, 9). She was not only made to pay the price for her fantasy but also changed her view towards life. At the end of her struggle and hard work, she realized that it was all in vain. She had strained herself for no apparent reason by not accepting her state and living her life. In this literature, we shall be looking at the character of Mathilde Loisel and her illusionary life.

Mathilde Loisel

Mathilde is a representation of people who are never satisfied with life; they seem to want more from life even when what they desired came their way. After years of longing for a rich and high-class husband, she gets married to a civil servant instead. She does not consider this to be a great thing especially when it is considered that her husband is loving and also able to provide for their daily needs. While with her husband, she still fantasies of some other richer person and luxurious life (Maupassan, 29). To her, life is all about luxurious living. She does not realize other advantages that she has such as having a husband who loves her for who she is and even provides for her needs. In the effort of her husband to bring a smile on her face, she obtains a letter from the government where he is allowed to attend an evening party with his wife. The husband knew that it was the biggest surprise that will cause her much joy and delight.

Her illusionary image is displayed when she makes other unnecessary demand. Thi reveals that even though she had a desire for a better life, she did not have the capacity to handle what she wished for. She did not show any form of hard work to obtain what she wanted and expected everything to be done to her (Jackson, 60).. It should be noted that if a person desires to live a particular kind of life, the desire should be accompanied by hard work. For instance, Mathild should have shown some effort of what she wanted by probably obtaining a job and having money of her own. It is unfortunate that she wanted to live a good life at the expense of her husband. She was not interested in people but what people could offer her. This is even the reason why she went to borrow and requested to be given what she thought was the best. When she arrived at the party, she even forgot about the very person that had introduced her and decided to have fun with other people.

After seemingly having what she wanted, it implied a complete change of her life that followed one night of glamour and coving her poverty. She looses the diamond necklace and has again to put her husband into the strain and stress of finding it. Her illusionary image makes her not to tell her friend the truth about the disappearance of the necklace and comes with lies about it. Her life is full of lies, which affects her family and causes her to live a life of slavery. The lies makes exposes them to a life of bondage and depts. they have to borrow money just to afford a necklace. The necklace is a sign of luxury which she were not prepared for and because she failed to live according to her means, she had to pay for it. This was a complete turn around in her life where she was exposed to a lifestyle of slavery and compulsory hard work just to buy her necklace. It would have been better if she voluntarily worked hard and bought herself some nice stuff instead of the lies she exposed herself. Illusionary living implies that there is no reward for fantasy, all it leads to is a life of frustration and unfulfilled dreams.

Conclusion

Ignorance and illusionary living are factors that lead to the life that Mathilde lived. If she was intelligent enough to realize that the diamond was fake, she would not have had to go through the hustle of getting a new one which coasted her and her husband ten years of hard labor. We also realize that if Mathilde accepted her poverty, life would have been different. First thing, she would not have gone for an expensive jewelry and that she would have come out clear on her friend and informed her that the necklace had disappear (Maupassan, 58). However, it was her ignorance and the lies she chose to live in that made her pay for her mistakes. Subsequently, we realize how illusionary living can cost those we love just as it caused Mathilde’s husband.

Works cited

Jackson, Rosemary. Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. London: Routledge, 1981.
Korba, Joanna. & Maupassant, Guy de. The Necklace. London: Benchmark Education Company,
2007.
Maupassant, Guy de. The Necklace: And Other Stories. New York: Ann Arbor Media Group,
LLC, 2004.