Madame Mathilde ten years of poverty and labor are a result of fate because if she did not grow up so greedy and selfish, she wouldn't have wanted the jewels and wouldn't have lost the necklace and fate has punished her for it.
In the beginning of the story, Guy de Maupassant has introduced Mathilde as a beautiful child born into poverty. "(82) She was on of those pretty and charming girls born...into a family of artisans." She grows up feeling as if she is meant for the highest class and to be married into wealth and distinction. "She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury"(82)
She marries a clerk in the Ministry of Education yet feels bad she "has married beneath her" (82). Her husband brings home an invitation to a very high class and prestigious ball. She demands she get a very fancy ball gown and jewels; only jewels, to go with it. "She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing and those were the only things she loved, she felt she was made for them." She goes to her rich friend and asks her if she could borrow a beautiful diamond necklace. She wears the necklace and passes as a high class women that all the men were fawning over. When they go to leave she shoves away the garments her husband brought for her to go home in and leaves with the ladies with their costly furs.
She returns home pleased with her beautiful ball gown and pleased with how the night went. While looking in the mirror she notices the necklace is gone. She has lost it, or someone has stolen it! "(83) I've no longer got Madame Forestier's necklace...." They searched and searched fro the necklace and had given up hope. They had to buy another for thirty-four thousand francs. They spend ten years paying off the debt from the expensive necklace.
It was fate that she ended up living the way she really was all her life, poor. She treated her husband badly, she was greedy for things she didn't have and only loved the finer things in life and nothing less. Fate punished her for her frugality.
One thing I remember us talking about in class is the warning not to recount what happened in the story. You're supposed to assume the reader already knows the story and just prove your point and move on. This is a liiitle bit chronological and we're traditionally discouraged from that. It's really well written though I like your wording.
ReplyDeleteI see where you're coming from with your opinion of fate, though I disagree, I think it was well done. Do you think she would be any nicer if she was richer? It seemed to me she cared more about that than even her own husband. If she was richer I think she would be a unlikable snobby person.
ReplyDeleteI like how your paper has life to it. I like how when you read it, you can clearly picture the events happening. One thing I saw, however, was that your first sentence seemed a little bit like a run on sentence. Nice work over all though!!
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