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Comparing The Necklace, The Golden Touch, And Avarice

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Want VS. Need “To be happy in life you must learn the difference between what you want vs need” (unknown). Most people who can not decipher between want and need don not appreciate life and objects to the fullest. An imbalance of these things can cause unhappiness, bad relationships, and debt. Deciding between things people want and what is need can be hard. The pain of having an imbalance is shown in The Necklace, The Golden Touch, and Avarice. The short story The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassaut, demonstrates people’s greediness. The main character, Mathilde, only ever wanted more than what was giving to her. “She suffered constantly, feeling that all the attributes of a gracious life, every luxury, should rightly have been hers.” Mathilde believed she deserved everything she wanted. She was very rude to her husband. Her desire for materials was stronger than the love she should have shown to people. “Give the invitation to one of your colleagues whose wife will be better dressed than I would be.” She was too worried about looking her best to even thank her husband for the effort he put in to retrieve the invitation. At the end of the story, irony makes its appearance. Mathilde borrowed and lost a necklace from a friend. Her and her husband bought a new one as a replacement, furthermore, dedicated the next ten years to pay for …show more content…

The girl in the poem was very greedy from a young age, the word avarice means greedy. The poem starts with a girl at the age of 6. “She chewed off the seven porcelain buttons from her sister’s christening gown and hid them in a Prince Albert can”. She had no use for them yet had to have them for herself. She cared a peach with her. “She’d weigh a peach in her hands till it rotted.” She had no desire to consume the fruit. The girl at age 26 owned eight engagement rings but was not yet married. “She counts eight enganment rings at least twelve times a day.” Perhaps she used men to gain the

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In Greek Mythology, Midas, a powerful and wealthy king, believed that gold was the key to achieve happiness. He shared his extravagant life with his only daughter, whom he loved very dearly. He was granted one wish and he wished for his touch to turn things to gold. The next day, Midas touches a table and sure enough it turns into gold. His daughter rushes in and overjoyed, he hugs her turning her into a statue of gold.

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In conclusion, Mathilde is a self- absorbed character that never learned her lesson. She makes multiple mistakes throughout the story, yet she blames them on other people. Mathilde was the one who lost the necklace, but her husband is the one that looks for it while she is just sitting at home. Also, her husband was the one that payed off the debt, and gave up the 1800 francs that his father left for him. All in all, Mathilde's character is developed by her actions, dialogue, and

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211 Words | 1 Pages

“I have nothing to wear.” Mathilde Loisel says, even though she has beautiful dresses that she can wear. This is one example of greed, another example would be when she says “I’m utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear.” Her husband said to get flowers, and that “they are very smart at this time of year.” Even though she could

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Views about wealth can be different from every people. Some believes that wealth can solve every problem and provide happiness and others believe that wealth is not really the most important thing in the world. It just depends on what the person wants from being wealthy or how they want to use it in their lives. Two authors, Guy de Maupassant the author of “The Necklace”, and Chinua Achebe the author of “Civil Peace”, wrote short stories where views on materialism are portrayed by characters in similar and in different ways. Madame Loisel from “The Necklace” is a middle class woman who always dreams of becoming rich but ended being poor because of valuing the necklace more than anything to her that caused her happiness at first but years of suffering after .

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Mathilde thought she knew what wealth was, and what it looked like. Mathilde thought the necklace was expensive because her rich friend would buy a real one just because she was rich. She thought that things are always what they seem, but they are in fact not. Mathilde did not know one thing about being wealthy because she had never had wealth. She believed that wealth was always genuine, and it is not.

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515 Words | 3 Pages

Materialism In society, people tend to consider material possessions as more important than moral and spiritual values. Will Smith addressed this when he stated “Too many people buy things they don't need, with money they don't have, to impress people the don't like”. Peoples obsessions with material possessions can warp their perception of love, happiness, and even their memories.

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Mathilde lies to her friend, telling her that she broke the necklace and is getting it fixed. If she had told the truth that she had lost the necklace, she wouldn’t have had to suffer and pay the money for a cheap plastic piece of jewelry. Roger plans to steal in the beginning of the book. Roger thought that stealing was the only way to live. His morals were low, and so were his actions when he tried to take Mrs. Jones’ purse.

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210 Words | 1 Pages

"Avarice" is a poem written by Yusef Komunyakaa that explores the theme of greed and its destructive effects on a young girl. The poem is a haunting portrait of a young girl who is consumed by her desire for material wealth and the power it brings. The imagery in the poem is vivid and intense, and it paints a picture of a young girl who is consumed by her thirst for money. She is described as to “weigh a peach in her hands - Till it rotted”(Komunyakaa 433), which emphasizes the extent to which her avarice has taken over her life. The poem ends, by saying the girl "counts eight engagement rings - At least twelve times a day"(Komunyakaa 433), which suggests that her greed has finally caught up with her.

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Although Mathilde considers herself to be born deprived from all refinements of life, she is more beautiful than any character in the story, as the passage suggests,“She was prettier than all others, elegant, gracious, smiling and crazy with joy.” (De Maupassant). On the other hand, Della’s hair is so gorgeous that it could even devalue the queen of Sheba’s jewels (Henry). Another similarity between Mathilde and Della is that both of them are affected due to their lack of money. Della suffers because she struggles to buy Jim a present (Henry).

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785 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator illustrates Mathilde’s quality of selfishness after her husband asks her how much money she would like for a dress by remarking, “She thought over it… going over her allowance... thinking also of the amount she could ask for without bringing immediate refusal” (222). This portrays Mathilde's greed because she knows she is asking for more money than she needs for a suitable dress. Later, readers discover Mathilde is careless. When she first finds out the necklace is missing, she and her husband have a conversation. Monsieur Loisel asks, “Are you sure you had it when leaving the dance…if you had lost it on the street, we'd have heard it drop.

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489 Words | 2 Pages

This life lasted ten years.” (Maupassant, 4) After the ten years of the hard life, Mathilde was able to pay back her debt from the necklace. She lost her house and her precious

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189 Words | 1 Pages

My sympathy for Mathilde is nonexistent due to me not knowing more into Mathilde’s life growing up. If I knew more of her back story I would be able to evaluate her morals to mine more accurately

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739 Words | 3 Pages

“She had no expansive clothes, no jewelry, nothing. And these were the only things she truly loved” (Maupassant). The princess, as shown above, is a character who relates in very aspects with Mathilde, but is very different from her, too.

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901 Words | 4 Pages

At some point a friend of Madame Loisel lets her borrow a diamond necklace, with the following text in paragraph 48 being her reaction: “... her heart started beating with overwhelming desire. Her hands trembled as she picked it up.” Madame Loisel goes to even call this piece of jewelry, a “treasure”, and ends up putting so much value into this item based on solely appearance that she later struggles to pay off debts when she loses it. Mathilde just assumed that it was an expensive item and because of this, ended up putting a great price on it. Although she made a big deal about receiving such a thing from a friend, it only gave her temporary happiness at the ball.

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1107 Words | 5 Pages

The protagonist of ‘The Necklace’, Madame Loisel, live a rather steady, ordinary middle-class life in the beginning of the story. However, she views that she is intended for a luxurious life, and, therefore, does not cherish what she has. She takes a step forward to her desires, as she was invited to a ball where all the upper-class woman would be, yet she was unhappy with the fact that she does not even have a stone to put on.

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