Mathilde Is Stupid

                     Madame Loisel’s is destined for poverty as a result of her actions and character.  Her introversion, greed, and stupidity lead her to a wide path of unhappiness.

                    
                    “She had a rich friend, an old school friend whom she refused to visit, because she suffered so keenly when she returned home” (82).  Madame Loisel distanced herself from people because of the “…grief, regret, despair, and misery” (82) they caused her.  Yet, she visits one friend, burrows a diamond necklace without hesitation, loses the necklace, replaces the necklace for “…thirty-six thousand francs” (84), and then avoids her friend for ten years until she happens to run into her in public right when she had paid off all of her debt for buying the expensive necklace.  I wonder how things could have been different if Madame Loisel was honest in the beginning and spoke with Madame Forestier. 

                 
                    Also, if she had not been so greedy and stupid, just for that gap of time, perhaps she could have had a normal life for the next ten years.  Instead, the immoral force of greed and the inevitable attribute of stupidity contributed to Madame Loisel’s horrendous mistake.  “She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing.  And these were the only things she loved…” (82).  “Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously” (83).  If she had just accepted her husband offer of flowers, things would have turned out fine.  The flowers would have been more beautiful and visible than a thin line going around her neck anyways.  (This does not mean I will not give my wife a diamond necklace, though.) 

                 
                    If Madame Loisel had not been an introvert, or had taken better responsibility of the thirty-six thousand france necklace, or had just worn flowers, her life could have been splendid.  Madame Loisel’s own actions were mistakes from the beginning and had devastating results that lasted for years.  “How stupid [is Mathilde]!” (83).     

This is what happens when you borrow 36,000 franc diamond necklaces in order to attract other men when you are already married.