How Does Madame Lantin Change In The Jewelry By Guy De Maupassant

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Over the course of the short story, The Jewelry, written by Guy De Maupassant, the main character, M. Lantin, goes through a clear change in personality, behavior, and values. At first M. Lantin is very content with his life and seems to love his wife, Madame Lantin. Then, after her death, M. Lantin is extremely depressed and filled with grief over his wife, however by the end of the story M. Lantin 's personality appears to change completely as he forgets his grief and is able to move on very quickly after being presented the money from the jewelry he sold. At the beginning of the story M. Lantin is very happy in his relationship with his wife, Madame Lantin. She is portrayed as perfect and “the very ideal of that pure good woman to whom …show more content…

Lantin reacts as one would expect him to after losing the wife that he truly loved. He is overcome with grief and completely unable to cope with what has happened. He is “haunted by the memory of her, by the smile, by the voice, by all the charm of the dead woman” and because of this M. Lantin falls into a horrible depression. Even after time passes he is still filled with despair and cries everyday, even while at work, because of the grief of losing Madame Lantin. A little while after his wife 's death, M. Lantin finds that “life became hard for him” as his salary does not appear to be enough to fulfill all his needs since Madame Lantin is gone (De Maupassant 69). This soon leads M. Lantin into debt and eventually, when he has absolutely no money left, he becomes desperate enough to sell his wife 's “fake” …show more content…

Lantin first decides to sell Madame Lantin 's large jewelry collection, he still behaves as one would expect. He is shocked to learn that the jewelry he always believed to be fake and worthless is actually very valuable, at first thinking the jeweler is a fool and has made a mistake, but once this surprise wears off and he realizes this means Madame Lantin had probably been having affairs behind his back, M. Lantin is once again filled with grief, this time it is because of the pain of being betrayed. He spends the night crying until, “completely worn out with grief and fatigue, he went to bed, and slept a leaden sleep” (De Maupassant 71). Despite this new discovery and the shame he now feels over his late wife 's unfaithfulness, M. Lantin returns to the jewelry store the next day in order to complete the transaction with the jeweler. Once he reaches the jewelry store and is given the money for the pearl necklace, M. Lantin 's mood begins to turn around and he tells the jeweler he will return with the rest of the jewelry to sell. After he does this, the immediate change in M. Lantin becomes very obvious, he even begins to argue with the jeweler over the worth of the pieces of jewelry. By the time he leaves the store, Lantin seems to have completely forgotten about his wife 's death and the months of grief he endured. Where he was once filled with despair, Lantin is now filled with joy and excitement. He goes out and buys lavish food for himself, strolls through a

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