The Ten Year Debt: The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

The Ten Year Debt
With a starving yearning for elegant belongings, Madame Loisel can’t help but to get into trouble. She dreams of a life where she has servants and fine tableware. Madame Loisel, in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, is blinded by greed, envy and is manipulative.
Furthermore, Madame Loisel feels like nothing is successful in her life. She blames her family for not being rich enough to provide the lifestyle she wants and for not being able to have a rich husband. Madame Loisel demonstrates her sorrow for not being able to afford nice possessions by sitting in her household and fantasizing about a life she never had. She criticizes her life and complains about what she doesn’t have, “Feeling that all the attributes of a gracious life, every luxury, should rightly have been hers” (de Maupassant 294). She feels she was meant to be rich. She portrays her greed by saying that if she attained a certain item, then she would be satisfied, but once she acquired it, she said that she wants something else. She wasn’t satisfied when her husband gave up his rifle money for her to buy a dress because then she wanted jewels to complete her outfit. She wants a fairytale ending with a rich prince and a pleasurable life, similar to the other rich women.

Even more than the need to be prosperous, Madame Loisel is envious of rich people.

She dreams of what she could have instead of focusing on what she has. “She would visualize elegant dinners with gleaming silver…exotic birds in a fairy forest,” (de Maupassant 295). She won’t go to her friend’s house since it reminds her that she is not wealthy. When her husband gets invited to a nice party, she is fuming at him for doing so. It takes her husband a lot of effort to acquire the invitation. She doesn’t want to comprehend other people having nice possessions she can’t have, “She would have loved to be envied,” (de Maupassant 295). She loves being envied like she envies

others.
On account of her envy, Madame Loisel is manipulative. She blames other people for her mistakes. When things go wrong, she makes other people do the work. She makes her husband walk out into the cold to find a lost necklace while she worries inside the house. When she sees her friend, she tries to make her friend feel guilty by saying that Madame Forestier's is the one that messes up her own life by lending the necklace to her. “I’ve been through some pretty hard times since I last saw you… all because of you,” (Maupassant pg.301). Even after the noble deed her friend did, Madame Loisel was mad at her.
For these reasons of being unwholesome, If Madame Loisel has any positive qualities; they do not show in the story. Hence, she is a greedy, envious and manipulative lady and one who only cares about money and wealth. These traits are precise the definition of undesirable. She dreams all day about how rich she could have been and does nothing while her husband works. She then complains about not being rich enough. She envies her friend who has a rich and enjoyable life and then at the end, blames her for her misfortune that she brought upon herself. As a result, Madame Loisel appears never to learn any lessons and therefore never grows as a better human being.