Mathlide Loisel is a character who has much pride in her. It is her motivation
to act throughout the story, and it is the key to her downfall. Mathlide
downfall comes into place when she does not tell Mrs. Forrestier that she lost
her necklace. Mathlide does not gush out confessions and prostrating herself
while pleading for forgiveness, she takes the responsibility for her mistakes by
replacing Mrs. Forrestier’s necklace. De Maupassant shows her qualities in the
introduction, the incident, and the poverty she endures. At the beginning of the
story Mathlide pride is so strong that she does not want to face reality.
Reality meaning the husband she has and the small household she resumes in. So
in order to reject reality she turns to her dreams in which she has the life of
ease and riches. Pride comes to place when she is complaining to her husband
about the way hey live and how she deserves more than this. When they discover
that they have been invited to a big party, she feels she must live up to her
pride. Knowing without a doubt that they have no money, she wants to have a
beautiful dress and along with the dress she gets a radiant necklace from Mrs.
Forrestier. The incident in which Mathlide loses the necklace plays an active
role in Mathlide’s pride. Mathlide refuses to endure embarrassment by telling
Mrs. Forrestier that she lost her necklace, so she goes and replaces the
necklace. Her pride will not let her stoop so low into apologizing, pleading for
forgiveness for nothing, instead her pride tells her that she is capable of
replacing the necklace, and so she does. Her pride dreadfully leads her into
destitution lifestyle, something she is not most proud of. The reality of her
life becomes more realistic than ever. She is plunged into poverty, and drudgery
that will take away her prized youth and beauty, never to return, but yet she
still has her pride. At the end after all the debts are all paid, she sees Mrs.
Forrestier, who by the way does not recognize her, tells her about the incident
and what she had to do to pay the money, and discovers that the necklace was
nothing more than a fake. Mathlide is a character who has a pride so strong that
she doesn’t notice until her pride hits her with retribution, by leading her
to poverty. She sees her responsibility for losing the necklace, and she had
enough sense of self-sacrifice to pay for restoring it. She sacrifices “with
pride” not only her position, but also her youth and beauty. Pride plays a
crucial role in Mathlide life, role that stands strong and proud, but yet its so
crucial that it drives Mathlides fate.