“…there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich…” : A Marxist Analysis of Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace” Anonymous College

In Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace”, Mme. Mathilde Loisel makes every effort to lead a life that is beyond her means. She uses conspicuous consumption, to display her unreal opulence. When her husband secures an invitation to take her at the Place ministry for celebrations, which is a respectable opportunity, she whines that she does not have a proper dress and jewelry for the occasion. Her husband forfeits his savings, which he intended to use in procuring a gun, amounting to four hundred francs and gives the amount to her so that she can purchase a dress. She borrows jewelry from Mme. Forestier which she mislays and has to pay for it for a decade. Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace” engages in a Marxist objective of controverting conspicuous consumption; the necklace is representational of conspicuous consumption.

Mathilde is ungracious, she does not appreciate the sacrifices that her husband makes when he buys her a dress. She tells him, “It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress. I should almost rather not go at all." She is not content with the dress she has been bought because it will not be sufficient for her to exhibit conspicuous consumption. She...