The necklace

            
            
             The character of Mathilde in Guy De Maupassant's short story "The Necklace? can be defined as a dynamic character; one that undergoes a change or develops as a result of the action of the plot. Mathilde starts out in the story as a self-indulgent woman obsessed with her dreams of material possessions. She seems to undergo a change in character, however, while working off the debts she and her husband obtained when they replaced Mrs. Forrestier's necklace. At the end of the story, it seems as though Mathilde's character has changed for the better. She comes off as being more mature and reasonable, and it is easier for the reader to find her likable. .
             In the beginning of the story, Mathilde can be seen by the reader as the unhappy victim of vanity and desire. She is described in the beginning as "a simple person, without the money to dress well?5). She appears to be unhappy with her possessions because she considers them to be cheap, and she often dreams of nicer things; ""She dreamed of the perfume of dainty private rooms? "She dreamed of expensive banquets""(5). Even though most women in Mathilde's social class would never be bothered by the lack of fine material possessions, it seems as though she is obsessed with them. It's as though she refuses to be happy with or even to accept the standard of living she and her husband maintain. When Mathilde's husband, Loisel, brings home an invitation to the Ministry of Education dinner, it only upsets her when in reality it should have made her happy. All she can think about is how she has nothing to wear, and how the other women may look down on her. She tells Loisel to give the invitation to "someone else at the office whose wife will have nicer clothes?6) than her own. Mathilde's vanity becomes very apparent by her willingness to spend her husband's summer vacation money on a dress that she may wear only one time. Even after she has obtained the dress, she still remains unhappy because she has no nice jewelry to wear with the dress, she tells Loisel that she"ll "look like a beggar?7).