Moreover, numerous factors come into play to decide Mathilde’s fate. However, Mathilde was highly aware of those contradictions and was hunted by a constant feeling of regret and disappointment, believing that a woman of her charm and beauty “had been born for all the little niceties and luxuries of living” (Maupassant, 1999, p.1). The narrator highlights the contrast between her reality and her fantasies: as her mind wanders in expensive mansions furnished with gold and crystals, her reality is that of a working-class clerk’s wife. From the very beginning of the story, the reader is introduced to Mathilde’s inner thoughts and desires. According to Yadav (2019), “social morality was lost, the splendid life of the upper class and the moral concept of profit-seeking, influenced the various social classes, the vain and the pursuit of pleasure, and became the prevailing social atmosphere at that time” (p. Mathilde is the product of a capitalist society that only values the tangible fortunes and disregards the immoralities behind them. This mindset is reflected through the story’s protagonist, Mathilde Loisel, whose dream is a luxurious life that her working-class husband cannot provide for her. Maupassant’s The Necklace was written and published in 1884, a time when society was corrupt and chasing the materialistic pleasures of the upper-class life due to the Industrial Revolution.
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