The Diamond Necklace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The Diamond Necklace - Essay Example Even though she lives in their humble home she desperately longs for a rich life. One day her husband, Loisel, gets an invitation to a ball. Mathilde pleads and manages to get her husband to part with the money he had been saving for himself and buys a dress for her to wear to the ball. She is still not satisfied and complains that she does not have any ornaments to wear that would go well with the dress. Acting upon her husband’s suggestion she goes to her friend Madame Forestier and borrows a beautiful necklace from her. Mathilde feels happy throughout the evening and for once in her life feels at par with the ladies that she had been envious of ever since she could remember. However she finds out after reaching home after the ball that the necklace was missing. Both husband and wife search high and low but can’t find the ornament. They decide to replace it with another necklace. They borrow money from many sources and even use up the money that Loisel’s father had left him and buy the necklace for a huge sum, and return it to Madame Forestier without letting her know what actually happened. A ten year period of extreme hardship follows as they repay the debt that they incurred to buy the necklace. By the end of that difficult period Mathilde comes across Madame Forestier and confesses all that happened. Madame Forestier then reveals that the original necklace Mathilde had borrowed was a clever imitation and worth only a few hundred francs. One can’t help but feel sorry for Mathilde. She had been yearning all her life to be a part of the elite. The one evening that happened proved to be too expensive and deprived her of her peace of mind for ten long years. Even though the story has the moral that one has to be happy with what one has and the greed leads to eventual destruction. The plight that Mathilde went through could have been avoided if she had dealt with the situation in a different manner. As soon as she found out that the necklace was