Mathilde's Pride

Life can be difficult. Sometimes life throws us curveballs, things happen to us that we have no choice in or control over. So-called simple twists of fate can have a permanent effect on our well-being and happiness. They occur seemingly at random and often at the worst possible moment. We deal with them as best we can and forge onward. We often hear the saying, “pride comes before a fall” and typically think someone has got what’s coming to them but Mathilde Loisel’s pride let to such suffering and tragedy it’s difficult not to feel pathos towards her. Sometimes the punishment is worse than the crime. (Cambridge - Pride)

The author, Guy de Maupassant, tells us the story of Mathilde and the necklace in third-person lending it a somewhat detached,

She is charming. She possesses the things that are valued in women in 19th century France. She is not high society only because she was born into a family of employees. (par 1) Women were expected to marry in their class despite having the potential to be more than what they were born into. Parts of the Napoleonic Code gave men the right to control women. Women were to obey and serve. (Women in world history web) Mathilde, although filled with potential, was bound to her modest life, and full of pride, she suffered for it. She dreams of the better life, full of the better things that she believes should be hers but cannot be hers. Her pain contrasts with her husband’s

Mathilde did not. How would you feel about your life if you happened to be born poor and were expected to marry someone within your class? The ending of the story is shocking. Mathilde meets her friend while walking. Mme. Forester does not recognize her at first. Mathilde tells her friend that the necklace she returned was a replacement and she has just finished paying off the debt. In the last lines of the story, Mathilde and we learn the tragic truth. “Mme. Forester much moved, took her by both hands — “Oh my poor Mathilde, But mine were false. At most they were worth five hundred frnts!” (par. 127-28) The necklace was a fake. The irony and the tragedy of it hit us. The punishment of losing everything is much worse than the crime of pride and wanting a better life. I suspect that many people who read this think Mathilde should have been happy with what she had and got what was coming to her. I did not. Losing the necklace, a simple twist of fate, led to such suffering. I found it difficult not to feel for Mathilde. If only she had not lost that