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3.2 The Necklace She Lost .. . 9
3.3 Her Life Long Drudgery for Her Vanity. 10
4 The Harm Vanity Brings to the Contemporary Society.. 11
4.1 Damage to Physical Body 11
4.2 Mental Plight.. 11
4.3 Property Costs.. 12
4.4 Deterioration in Social Relationship 13
5 Conclusion. 15
Bibliography 16
1 Introduction
The Necklace or The Diamond Necklace (French: La Parure) is a short story by Guy De Maupassant, first published on 17 February 1884 in the French newspaper Le Gaulois. The story has become one of Maupassant’s popular works and is well known for its ending. Guy De Maupassant (5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a popular French writer, considered as one of the fathers of the modern short stories.
In The Necklace Guy de Maupassant tells us the story of an incredibly wonderful ending and the exquisite description of the weakness of humanity-vanity. In his story, Guy de Maupassant creatively reveals Mathilda Loisel’s dreams of a wealthy, splendid lifestyle while in reality she lives a low-class life. She pursues the beauty of appearance. The necklace is the confession of vanity. Although the appearance of borrowed necklace she wears at the splendid evening party is sensationally beautiful but in fact it is not a real diamond necklace. But Mathilda did not know it was only a fake diamond necklace. She lost it by accident after the party. And then she compensated for the loss with one authentic diamond necklace at the cost of her ten years’ long drudgery ever since the accident. It is made clear by very clear by the author that Mathilda’s lifetime of misery and despair is solely caused by her own vanity. And her vain obsession all ended up ruining her life.
The conflict between the illusion and reality is from the human’s vanity. Mathilda represents for illusion. In Mathilda’s case, the “excessive pride” in her looks and charm caused her to feel as if she deserved a higher ranking social class and the wealth along with it. When she borrowed and wore the necklace to the party, she wanted to give the illusion that she was something that she was not. Vanity caused Mathilda to fantasize about her life and surroundings a world of illusion, rather than reality. However, reality is always cruel. Life has a lot of accidents sometimes just caused by people themselves. For the loss of the necklace, Mathilda has paid 10 years’ hardworking and she had harsh life. Her hands become rough, and she looks too old. Later she accidentally learned that the lost necklace is a cheap and man-made diamond necklace. Her compensation is a real diamond necklace. It is so hard 10 years for Mathilda and her compensation is in vain.
This paper will introduce the vanity in that period and compare it with that of the current times, since vanity as a usual trait in human beings, it does bring much harm to people all the while both physically and spiritually, just like that described in the novel.
This paper is pided into five parts. The first part serves as an introduction. The second part expounds the word “vanity” and analyzes its characteristics. The third part mainly analyzes the main influence of the vanity on the heroine’s life in this novel. The fourth part explains what kind of damages vanity can bring to the contemporary society in nowadays with case studies and typical exemplifications. And it also ties to elaborate on the differences between vanity and honor. The fifth part functions as a conclusion.