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HOLY CROSS COLLEGE OF CALINAN, INC.

Datu Abeng St, Calinan, Davao City

The Obsession in the Short Story, The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

Denuyo, Carl Marie

Novabos, Irish
Neroza, Shaira Mae
Banados, Ara Loren
Butaya, Joyce
Romen, Noeri Gill
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October 2021

The Obsession in the Short Story, entitled: The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

An Undergraduate Research Paper

Presented to

The Faculty of the College Department

of the Holy Cross College of Calinan, Inc.

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements

In Literature Studies

By:

Denuyo, Carl Marie

Novabos, Irish
Neroza, Shaira Mae
Banados, Ara Loren
Butaya, Joyce
Romen, Noeri Gill
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October 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover Page i

Title Page ii

Table of Contents iii

Chapter 1. Introduction

Background of the Study 5-7

Purpose of the Study 7

Statement of the Problem 8

Theoretical Lens 8

Significant of the Study 9

Definition of Terms 11-12

Chapter 2. Review of Related Literature 13-19

Review Related Studies 19-23

Chapter 3. Research Methodology 24

Research Design 25

Data Analysis

Ethical Consideration
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Units of Analysis

Scope and limitation

References

Appendices

A. The Story, The Necklace

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Obsession is a feeling or thought where a person has a persistent idea, image and

desire. Obsessions vary to power which the mind is able to work and distract a person, it

possesses the mind, thoughts, and feeds incessant worry and can take over a person’s life.

It distracts a person which results to lose hours in sleep and can cause unproductivity of a

person. Also, obsession can paralyze a person that can lead to compulsive behavior

(Lancer, 2016). Obsessive compulsive disorder is commonly affecting over 2% of the

population, more than one in 50 people. Moreover, obsession may lead to intruding

thoughts of fears, unreasonable worries, or a need to things. When a person is tense and

under stress, the obsession can worsen (Stoppler, 2018).

The indicator of obsession can be determined by analyzing the id, ego, and

superego (Frued, 1923). The negative effects of obsession are categorized into two: the

short-term effects and the long-term effects. The short-term effects include the inability

to function as a contributing member of society, difficulties at school or work, or trouble

maintaining friendships or romantic relationships. Short-term effects can take up many

hours of a person’s day, it can interfere with family and social relationships, compulsions

and obsessions can have a negative effect on education and employment, difficulties

performing everyday activities like eating, drinking, shopping or reading. Some may be
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housebound. It could be a distress and disruption to family members from involvement in

the sufferer’s ritual before treatment (Smith, 2019).

The long-term effects generally develop due to the poor quality of life that most

extreme sufferer have. Long term effects include depression, constant anxiety and an

increased risk of substance abuse (PsycGuide, 2019). Furthermore, there are types of

obsessions and compulsions. Example: constant hand washing can cause skin breakdown.

Obsession compulsive disorder does not usually progress into another disease. It is

usually accompanied with depression, and other anxiety disorders, including social

anxiety, panic disorder, and separation anxiety (Smith, 2019).

In a series of studies carried out by psychologist Judith Langlois and colleagues at

University of Texas, infants as young as a few days old were found to prefer looking at

attractive faces, and their preference matched that of adults. No wonder then that the

prospects of looking more beautiful id endlessly appealing to people. Several people

engage in plastic surgery for beautification, the obsession with beauty is all consuming,

all over the world. Beautiful people score over their not-so-attractive counterparts in

almost every aspect throughout their life. Looks has a big benefit in achieving goals

which commonly gives attractive people an advantage hence, often they are more likely

to be qualified and hired by a company (Madan, 2016).

In the Philippine setting, there are some Filipinos who are showing obsession on

online products for it is easy to access and not time consuming, in just one click, they can

already place their order. They cannot stop buying things online and they spend too

much money to buy things that are not needed, or they could rarely use. They feel guilty

if ever they cannot afford to buy products that they like because they are expensive and
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which eventually affects their sleep (KMJS, 2019). According to Banville (2019) being

obsessed in online shopping is considered a mental disorder which is called as

compulsive buying disorder.

With the foregoing literature, the researchers tend to relate this situation to

obsession manifested by Mathilde in the story, The Necklace. The character Mathilde

feels guilty if she cannot attain the things she wanted. She always wants his husband to

buy her something for every occasion. And also, to prove that Mathilde had a desire of

being rich. The researchers aim to provide some evidence of Mathilde’s strong desire of

something that she could not have.

Purpose of the study

The study’s goal is to explain and interpret obsession in accordance with the researchers’

analysis of a specific piece of what the author intended to express. To initiate awareness

of people who have experienced obsession by such problem. Further, the study is

conducted to seek the indicators of obsession in a certain story. At certain point, the

researchers aim to point out and prove that there is obsession in the story The Necklace

written by Guy De Maupassant. Thus, the researchers’ objective is to figure out how the

id, ego and superego is depicted in the said story. The researchers will study the story

which will hopefully serve as an eye-opener to the people to act towards the effects of

obsession in a person’s life. The people will be made aware of the effects of obsession

within the written story.

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Statement of the Problem

This study aims to discuss the concept of obsession in the selected short story of

Guy de Maupassant’s, The necklace. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following:

1. How is obsession shown by the main character in the story;

2. What are the indicators of obsession as manifested in the story;

3. What are the effects of obsession as shown by the main character Mathilde in the

story; and

4. How did the main character brought resolution to the conflict experienced?

Theoretical Lens

Obsession is a repetitive, invading, persistent beliefs/thoughts that are impossible

to be ignored by a person. It is present in the mind that is constant, intrusive, unwanted

that cause distressing emotion such as anxiety or disgust. People experiencing obsessions

recognize that these persistent images are a product of their own mind and are excessive

or unreasonable.

The psychoanalytical theory which is attributed to Freud (1923) will be used in

this study. It is a theory which can address the issue of mental illness. Further, it also

explains human behavior. Freud believed that childhood experiences have great influence

on molding one’s personality and adult life. Freud elaborated a more structural “psychic

apparatus”. These entities would be an instrument that will be used by the researchers to
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indicate the obsession as seen in the story, The Necklace. Furthermore, it is a way for the

researchers to prove that Mathilde is suffering from obsession in the story.

Significance of the study

People dream big and seek things that will give them pleasure, they seek things

that will suffice their needs. A wise man once said, “The starting point of all

achievements is desire”, that in order to attain success they should be having a desire to

make it happen. But people live in a society where envy and jealousy exist, and a society

which is ruled by selfishness that can trigger a person’s mental state that might result to

obsession.

This study will help the people who are suffering from obsession. They may be

guided on how to distinguish obsession through the signs and patterns that the researchers

will gather from the story. This will also show them the effects of obsession, how it

affects the daily life of the person experiencing obsession, and; they may be guided as to

what practices they can apply in order to be able to find solutions to this issue.

This study will also help future researchers. The result and findings of the study would

serve as a reference for the researchers who are interested to conduct a study with topics

related to obsession.

Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined according to the use in this study.
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Obsession refers to how the main character wants to change her life status; to

desire things that are impossible to have in her situation; the main character has the

obsession of being equal to the ladies in the high society. 

Short-Term effects are used to determine the effects of obsession that refers to
the main character that will suffice her wants. 
Long-Term effects generally develop due to the poor quality of life that most

extreme sufferers have. Including depression, constant anxiety and increased risk of

substance abuse. It refers to the main character obsession on something she desires that

leads to complication.

Id is present from birth and runs on pure instinct, desires and need. It displays the

wants and need of the main character in the story.

Ego operates from the reality principle, which works to satisfy the id’s desires in

the most reasonable and realistic ways. It entails the desires of the main character to

satisfy her wants in life.

Super Ego is the moral compass of the personality, upholding a sense of right and

wrong. It displays the unconscious thinking of the main character to hide the conflict.
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CHAPTER 2

Review of the Related Literature

This part is a compilation of related literature for the purpose of understanding

deeply the objectives of this study. This review will describe, summarize, evaluate and

clarify the subject matter under study.

Obsession

According to Rachman (1980) in distinguishing characteristic in the clinical use

of the term obsession lies in its unwanted nature. This unwanted nature of obsession

extricates from Obsession Compulsive Disorder from other disorders, such us the

paraphilia’s, in the case where the person becomes happy to invite persistent thoughts

into awareness. Usually there are related aspects to the unwantedness of obsessions by

the way that they experienced unreasonable thoughts. A person having this disorder who

often exclaim, “I know it doesn’t make sense, but I cannot stop thinking about it.’’ In

which a person cannot do something else other than doing rituals. This incongruence

between a person and the thoughts is referred to ego dystonic nature of obsessions, where

the person experiences unreasonable thoughts that unable to distance himself or herself

from the thoughts. However, in spite of ego dystonic experience, the person with
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disorder normally recognizes obsessive thoughts in one way or another as their own

thoughts.

Further, Grenier (2007) said that obsession is an insight and originated from

within. However, to the extent that a particular person assesses the obsession is unlike his

or her actual characteristic. This may differ between an individual and across different

situations. But in some cases, obsession may be estimated as an entirely realistic state of

affairs where in the person believes that he or she actually could murder someone.

Moreover, obsession differ in the extent that they will consider the obsession to be

discordance with their actual character, tendencies, and motivations.

According to Baer (2001) as much as a person feels having escape from

superstitious leaning of the 17th century, it could still build thinking in insidious way. In

particular, to obsession that represents aspects of the self that can never be avoided.

Although there was some general consensus among theorist that people with Obsession

Compulsive disorder particularly never act out their obsessions, obsession is related to

particular aversive and depraved acts that are still considered to occur as part of normal

stream of consciousness. Certainly, some have explicitly referred to obsessive intrusions

that resulting ‘’spirit of the perverse’’ and it reflects a universal inclination to involve in

“bad thoughts”. However, this “spirit of the perverse’’ is considered a normal part of our

life. Hence, this “bad thoughts” sometimes entails of embracing and accepting the

thought and it encourages people with obsession to no longer give thoughts that is

significant and important.

In addition, the American Psychological Association’s (2004) term for obsession

indicate an intense interest in o preoccupation with a subject. It matters how intense the
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desire of a person to be interested to a particular thing. It is recurrent and persistent

thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced. An involuntary in nature and may

intrude into one’s consciousness unexpectedly. However, when such thought occurs

aggressively and is associated with significant distress to oneself or others. It can have a

deep impact on one’s capability to form and nurture interpersonal relationships and can

lead to conflict with friends, coworkers, and family.

Furthermore, obsession considered an intrusive, troubling thoughts, and repetitive,

ritualistic deeds. It is time unbearable, significantly harm functioning and/or cause

distress. If an obsession occurs, it is when the massive increase in anxiety and distress it

is serve by the subsequent compulsions serve to reduce the anxiety and distress that a

person experienced. Obsession has common signs the contamination fears, worries about

harm to self or others, the need for symmetry, exactness and order, religious/moralistic

concerns, forbidden thoughts or need a need of confession. These signs or symptoms that

a person show or experienced when he or she undergo obsession. It has a need of

medication towards what a person deals with among this sign (Psychiatry, 2012).

Effects of Obsession

According to Psychguides (2019) the effects of obsession among people

categorize in two the short-term effects and the long-term effects. The short-term effects,

including the inability to function as a contributing member of the society, difficulties at

school or work, or trouble maintaining friendships or romantic relationships. It is how a

person deals with his or her incapacity towards how he functions as member of the

society. It may give big impact to the daily living of a person it is because of the

unlocking willingness of a person to do something. A long-term effect is generally

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developed due to the poor quality of life that most extreme suffers have. Its effects

including depression, constant anxiety and an increased risk of substance abuse. A person

that cannot control his or her emotion that goes to harm other people.

Likewise, Channel (2018) mentioned that compulsion and obsession could take

up many hours of a person daily living it can interfere with the family and social

relationship. They can also have a negative effect on education and employment. It

becomes more severe, avoidance it may increase the problem. A person may avoid

anything, and it might trigger their obsessive fears. Obsession could make a person to

performed activities difficultly like eating, drinking, shopping or reading. Some people

may become housebound, it is often a compounded by depression and other anxiety

disorder. It includes the social anxiety, panic disorder and separation anxiety.

Furthermore, obsession may also, affect the daily living and the daily activities

that a person does. It can wreak an individual life. This obsession can burn up many times

of a person’s day, this can also have an effect on success at school and work. It is

important to remember that getting obsession therapy. Form the mental health

professional can alleviate many of the effects of obsession. If a person has an obsession

or experience obsession it is hard to resolve it with her or his own it is because it is like a

parasite that could harm and it is not good to your body for it has an effect that could

harm a person. The person needs to seek help from others so that they could resolve or

undergo this problem concerning obsession (Healthy Place, 2019).

Causes of Obsession
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According to Psychguides (2019), obsession is a disorder that is not yet fully

understood. However, medical professionals believe that there is a genetic component to

this disease, as there is some research that has shown that this disorder has the tendency

to run in families. The behavior can also be learned based on habits that may have

developed during childhood or over a long period of time.

The cause of obsession includes the compulsions are learned behavior, which

become repetitive and habitual if ever they associated with relief form anxiety. It is when

a person experienced obsession due to genetic and hereditary factors. That was came

from the hereditary of life and family blood. And also, chemical, it is a structural and

functional abnormalities in the brain are the cause. That a mother intake that would give

harm effects to a baby because of taking more chemical when baring a child. It is how

the distorted beliefs reinforce and maintain symptoms associated with obsession. Along

this causes determined it is possible that several factors interact to trigger the

development of obsession the underlying causes may be further influenced by stressful

life events, hormonal changes and personality traits (Better Health Channel, 2018).

Finally, according to Medical News Today (2004) despite a wealth of research,

the exact causes of obsession have not been identified. But then many researchers had

identified some causes of obsession. It is said that it is thought to have a neurobiological

basis, with neuroimaging studies showing that the brain functions differently in people

with the disorder. An abnormality, or an imbalance in neurotransmitters, is thought to be

involved in obsession. This disorder is equally common among adult men and women.

Some of the cause in where defined on childhood it is common in boys than girls, whit
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the usual time of onset of obsession later for female than males. It might trigger by a

combination of genetic mutation, behavioral, cognitive, and environmental factors.

Psychoanalysis 

Psychoanalysis is a set of psychological theories and therapeutic techniques that

has been the theories of Sigmund Freud. It is a belief that all people possess unconscious

thoughts, feelings, desires and memories (Cherry, 2020). It discusses how frustrated that

satisfaction of desires of something and aggressive feelings. It driven by unconscious

wishes that people unawares of in a result to self- defeating behavior (Safran, 2016). It

argues that human behavior is the effect of dealing among the three component parts of

the mind: the id, ego, and superego. 

Id is present at birth and runs on pure instinct, desires, and needs. It is motivated

by the pleasure principle, which want to gratify all impulses immediately. However,

because all desires can’t be fulfilled right away, those needs may be satisfied at least

temporarily, through primary process thinking in which the individual fantasizes about

what they desire. Throughout life, it remains infantile because, as an unconscious entity,

it never considers reality. It remains illogical and selfish.

Ego operates from the reality principle, which works to satisfy the id’s desires in

the most reasonable and realistic ways, such rational thinking is referred to as secondary

process thinking. It’s geared with problem solving and reality-testing, enabling the person

to maintain self-control; just like id, the ego is interested in seeking pleasure, it just wants

to do so in realistic way. Ego is not interested in right or wrong, but in how to maximize

pleasure and minimize pain without getting into trouble. And also, ego operates at
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conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels, it’s consideration of reality is

conscious. Much of the ego’s functioning is also preconscious, meaning it happens below

awareness but takes little effort to bring those into consciousness. 

Superego is moral compass of compass of the personality, upholding a sense of

right or wrong. The superego is continues growing over time, enabling children to adopt

moral standards from other people they admire like teachers. It consists of two

components; the conscious and the ego ideal. If the standards are too high, the person will

feel like failure and experience guilt. The superego not only controls the id and its

impulses towards societal taboos like sex and aggression it is also attempts to get the ego

to go beyond realistic standard and aspire to moralistic ones. And also, superego works at

both conscious and unconscious. 

Review of Related Studies

Obsession is a repetitive, invading, persistent beliefs/thoughts that are impossible

to be ignore by a person. It is how a person have wishes and desires in their life,

sometimes this desire drives us to do something very beneficial not just to themselves but

also to the community. The desires and wishes reflect their personality and tell us who

they really are. As human beings, people dream big and seek things that will give them

pleasure, they seek things that suffice their needs. A wise man once said the starting point

of all achievements is desire that in order to attain success, they should be having a desire

to make it happen. But people live on a society that envy and jealousy exist, a society that

where desires were turned into a parasite called obsession.

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According to Breslin in her study entitled Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD

is an anxiety disorder which consists of variety of symptoms, for a long time, OCD was

thought to be an infrequent disorder. Now, it is estimated that over the course of lifetime

approximately 2.5 percent of individuals will develop this disorder. Stress generally

causes thy symptoms to worsen. This is to be expected since many of the compulsions are

performed in order to reduce stress or anxiety in some way. In this research paper appears

to show that OCD is sometimes present in an individual who also experiences psychosis

and report on the condition of obsessive- compulsive disorder in society.

Another study was also conducted by the American Psychological Association

(2000) entitled Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In this study,

individuals with obsessive- compulsive disorder usually have both obsession and

behavioral symptoms called compulsions, though an obsession only subtype exist as well.

Compulsion are ritualistic action performed to neutralize the anxiety and distress created

by obsession. For example, a patient with obsession about harm may exhibit compulsive

checking behavior. Obsession can also affect one’s prosperity to pursue and maintain

social relationship such as stalking. In this method, individuals are exposed to stimuli that

raise anxiety and provoke obsession. Much of the research on the biology of obsession

has been conducted by examining individuals with OCD.

Furthermore, in a study entitled The Menace Within: Obsession and the Self, by

Aardema (2007), the term obsession generally refers to an excessive preoccupation of

idea or activity. It provides is argued that self-evaluate and self-representational

dimensions in obsessions need to be taken into account to allow for the misrepresentation

of mental states and gives credibility to the obsession. These narrative devices seem to
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originate from a distrust of the self where the person over interests in a sense of self-as-

could-be rather than a sense of self-as-is, which consequently gives rise to a discordance

between the person and the obsession.

Moreover, Nestadt et.al, (2000) in their study entitled A Family Study of

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, revealed that obsessive-compulsive disorder is a

familial disorder. Obsessions are more particular to the phenotype than are compulsions.

Age at onset of OCD is precious in characterizing a familial subtype. It is a psychiatric

situation first described extra than a hundred years ago. The pathognomonic elements of

the ailment are persistent, intrusive, insensible ideas and impulses (obsessions) and

repetitive, intentional behaviors (compulsions). Patients with the sickness recognize that

their thoughts and behaviors are immoderate and unreasonable, and they conflict to resist

them. The lifetime incidence of OCD is estimated to be 1% to 3%, based on population-

based surveys performed in many communities nationally and internationally. Although

the disease impacts people of all ages, the length of biggest danger is from childhood to

center adulthood, Patients trip a continual or episodic path with exacerbations that can

drastically impair social, occupational, and educational functioning; according to the

World Health Organization, OCD is among the 10 most disabling medical stipulations

worldwide.

In another study by Pedley et.al, (2018) entitled, Separating Obsessive-

Compulsive Disorder from the Self, results showed that OCD is seen as originating from

non-modifiable endogenous factors, specifically private characteristics. Ambiguity about

the boundary between OCD and the character was once similarly heightened by way of a

lack of difference in family members’ interpretations about which behaviors had been a
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troublesome symptom of an intellectual health hassle and which were behaviors carried

out for enjoyment or the purposeful pursuit of a goal. The perceived close relationship

between OCD and the character seemed to lead to pessimism involving the likelihood of

recovery. Some persons viewed OCD as offering on a continuum such that men and

women with sub-clinical symptoms exist on the same spectrum as those with the mental

health problem. For some however, labelling of sub-clinical signs as OCD by way of

members of the public used to be a source of frustration for families, who felt that the

severity of OCD was unrecognized.

In addition, family members’ perceptions of the link between OCD and the person

and of a spectrum of OCD presentation inside the time-honored population, may

symbolize vital dimensions of illness perception, which are no longer currently

represented inside existing fashions or assessment measures of sickness perception. The

perceptions that individuals maintain about a health hassle have been shown to be

necessary in determining their coping responses to that condition. Further learn about

using large samples and quantitative techniques are wanted to understand whether or not

these novel perceptions are associated with coping responses and consequences in

household individuals and human beings with OCD. If linked, clinicians might also need

to discover and challenge unhelpful household member perceptions as part of

psychological therapy for families dwelling with OCD.

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CHAPTER 3

METHOD

Research Design

This research will use qualitative method to understand the meaning, concepts,

definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and description of things and not to their

count or measures (Hox, 2005). Further, this will also seek to understand the

characteristics and behavior presented in the story. It will focus on the description of the

characters’ behavior through the psychoanalysis indicators. The story will be explored to

analyze the data needed for the completion of this study.

In addition, it will utilize the textual analysis method to describe the content,

structure and functions of the messages contained in the selected story. The interpretation
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is limited in the analysis of the short story, The Necklace. It analyzes the relation of the

text and the reader. Moreover, textual analysis is also a reader’s response to his own

perception. It targets the reader’s emotions, feelings or thoughts on his interpretation.

Textual analysis is an interpretation of a text (films, television programs,

magazines, advertisements and so on) in order to obtain variety of ways in which it

interprets reality. Researchers will gather an information and interpretation of texts for

deeper understanding (Mckee, 2003). Furthermore, the reader is the one who reads and

gives meaning to the literary work. This illustrates that a reader reads a literary work as if

they become a sport spectator sitting passively, just absorbing the contents of the artistic

creation of a literary work that allows it to dominate his or her thoughts (Thompson,

1992).

Data Analysis

In the conduct of this research, the researchers will utilize the selected short story

of Guy de Maupassant to gain more insights regarding the research problem. The title of

the selected short story is The Necklace. The data that will be collected from the story

will help the researchers’ direction to accomplish the objectives. Also, the researchers

will also use printed resources such as literature and journals for references. For the

improvement of the literature of the study, the researchers will use electronic data which

will enable the researchers to collect larger data from web sources and online sample

journal.

Ethical Consideration
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Ethical consideration is a collection of values and standards that should be

observed when dealing with human concerns. These ethical considerations ensure that no

one act in a way is harmful to society or an individual. It discourages individuals and

organizations from engaging in violent actions and plays an essential role, especially in

research (Bhasin, 2020). Further, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

(2020) presented these ethical norms in research which serve as guidelines for authorship,

copyright and patent rights, data sharing policies, and peer review confidentially

restrictions are all intended to secure intellectual property interests while conducting the

research.

This paper is grounded on the premise of ethical standards as the researchers

ensures that all sources are properly cited following APA 6th edition format. Additionally,

the researchers made sure to verify all the information used in chapters 1 and 2 by

checking and reviewing the collated data included herein which were acquired from

validated research or studies published in different journals. Moreover, no plagiarism can

be detected as information was revised, edited, and paraphrased. In connection therewith,

all interpretations that will be made by the researchers will be critically and thoroughly

treated and analyzed to prevent any biases and to come up with validated results.

In order for this study to meet ethical standards, the researchers have evaluated

the research paper to see if there are ethical norms that show against the rights of

individuals or in societies. As a result, the researchers were able to confirm that no norms

were violated during the initial stage of this research. Moreover, this research evaluation

aided the researchers in constructing a paper that was devoid of property rights.
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Finally, in compliance with the Philippine Cybercrime Prevention Act (RA

10175), the researcher recognizes the works of other writers used in any section of this

research through proper citations to avoid plagiarism.

Units of Analysis

In this part, the units of analysis in the study will discuss the existence of

obsession of the main character in the story The Necklace. The researchers’ analysis will

focus on the answers to the questions identified in the statement of the problem. The

researchers will start by identifying the elements of obsession as depicted in the short

story The Necklace. Further, the researchers will then answer the other questions such as:

how did Mathilde show obsession in the story and how did the main character brought

resolution to the conflict experienced. The analysis is guided by the research questions as

identified by the researchers.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

The analysis of this paper will only discuss the obsession pattern manifested by

the character in the selected short story of Guy de Maupassant entitled, The Necklace.

This study will focus only on the issues of obsession exhibited by the main character.

It will include all the incidents that trigger the emotional aspect of the character.

This study is limited to the concept of obsession identified by Sigmund Freud. The
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indicators of obsession will be identified by analyzing the main character Mathilde and

how she undertakes each emotional struggle.

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Appendices

The Story, The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born, as if by an accident of fate,
into a family of clerks. With no dowry, no prospects, no way of any kind of being met,
understood, loved, and married by a man both prosperous and famous, she was finally
married to a minor clerk in the Ministry by Education.
 29

She dressed plainly because she could not afford fine clothes, but was unhappy as
a woman who has come down in the world; for women have no family rank or social
class. With them beauty, grace, and charm take the place of birth and breeding. Their
natural poise, their instinctive good taste, and their mental cleverness are the sole guiding
principles that make daughters of the common people the equals of ladies in high society.
She grieved incessantly, feeling that she had been born for all the little niceties
and luxuries of living. She grieved over the shabbiness of her apartment the dinginess of
the walls, the worn-out appearance of the chairs, and the ugliness of the draperies. All
these things, which another woman of her class would not even noticed, gnawed at her
and made her furious. The sight of the little Breton girl who did her humble housework
roused in her disconsolate regrets and wild daydreams. She would dream of silent
chambers, draped with oriental tapestries and lighted by tall bronze floor lamps, and of
two handsome butlers in knee breeches, who, drowsy from the heavy warmth cast by the
central stove, dozed in large overstuffed armchairs.
21 She would dream of great reception halls hung with old silks, of fine furniture
filled with priceless curios, and of small stylish, scented sitting rooms just right on the
four o’clock chat with intimate friends, with distinguished and sought-after men whose
attention every woman envies and longs to attract.
When dining at the round table, covered for the third day with the same cloth,
opposite her husband, who would raise the cover of the soup tureen, declaring
delightedly, “Ah! A good stew! There’s nothing I like better…,27 ’’ she would dream of
fashionable dinner parties, of gleaming silverware, of tapestries making the walls alive
with characters out of history and strange bird compliments whispered listened to with a
sphinxlike smile as one eats the rosy flesh of a trout o nibbles at the wings of a grouse.
She had no evening clothes, no jewels, nothing. But those were the things she
wanted; she felt that was the kind of life for her. She so much longed to please, be envied,
be fascinating and sought after.
She had a well-to-do friend, a classmate of convent-school days whom she would
no longer go to see, simply because she would feel distressed on returning home. And she
would weep for days on end from vexation, regret, despair, and anguish.
Then one evening, her husband came home proudly holding out large envelope.
“Look,” he said,” I’ve got something for you.”
She excitedly tore open the envelope and pulled out a printed card bearing these
words:
“The Minister of Education and Mme. Georges Ramponneau beg M. and Mme.
Loisel to do them the honor of attending an evening reception at the Ministrial mansion
on Friday, January 18.”
 30

Instead of being delighted, as her husband had hoped, she scornfully tossed the invitation
on the table murmuring, “What good is that to me?”
“But my dear. I thought you’d be thrilled to death. You never get a chance to go
out, and this is a real affair, a wonderful one! I had an awful time getting a card.
Everybody wants one; it’s much sought after, and not many clerks have a chance at one,
you’ll see all the most important people there”.
She gave him an irritated glance and burst out impatiently, “What do you think I
have to go in?”
He hadn’t given that a thought. He stammered, “Why, the dress you wear when
we go to the theater. That’s looks quite nice, I think”. He stopped talking, dazed, and
distracted to see his wife burst out weeping. Two large tears slowly rolled from the
corners of her mouth. He gasped, “Why, what’s the matter? What’s the trouble?”
By sheer willpower she overcame her outburst and answered in a calm voice
while wiping the tears from her wet cheeks, “Oh, nothing. Only I don’t have an evening
dress and therefore I can’t go to that affair. Give the card to some friend at the office
whose wife can dress better than I can.”
` 64He was stunned. He resumed. “Let’s see, Mathilde. How much would a suitable
outfit cost-one you could wear for other affairs too-something very simple?”
She thought it over for several seconds, going over her allowance and thinking
also of the amount she could ask for without bringing an immediate refusal and an
exclamation of dismay from the thrifty clerk.
Finally, she answered hesitatingly, “I’m not sure exactly, but I think with four
hundred francs I could manage it.”
He turned a bit pale, for he had set aside just that amount to buy a rifle so that, the
following summer, he could join some friends who were getting up a group to shoot larks
on the plain near Nanterre.
However, he said, “All right. I’ll give you four hundred francs. But try to get a
nice dress.” As the day of the party approached, Mme. Loisel seemed sad, moody, and ill
at ease. Her outfit was ready, however. Her husband said her one evening, “What’s the
matter? You’ve been all out of sorts for three days.”
And she answered, “It’s embarrassing not to have a jewel or a gem-noting to wear
on my dress. I’ll look like a pauper. I’d almost rather not to go to that party.”
He answered, “Why not wear some flowers? They’re very fashionable this season. For
ten francs you can get two or three gorgeous roses.”
She wasn’t at all convinced. “No. . . There’s nothing more humiliating than to
look poor among a lot of rich women.
 31

But her husband exclaimed, “My, but you’re silly! Go see your friend, Mme.
Forestier and ask her to lead you some jewelry. You and she known each other well
enough for you to do that.
She gave a cry of joy, “Why, that’s so! I hadn’t thought of it,”
The next days she paid her friend a visit and told her of her predicament.
Mme. Forestier went toward a large closet with mirrored doors, took out a large jewel
box, brought it over, opened it, and said to Mme. Loisel, “Pick something out, my dear.”
At first her eyes noted some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian
cross, gold and gems, of marvelous workmanship. She tried on these adornments in front
of the mirror, but hesitated, unable to decide which to part with a put back. She kept on
asking, “Haven’t you something else?”
“Oh, yes, keep looking. I don’t know what you’d like.”
All at once she found, in a black satin box, a superb diamond necklace; and her
pulse beat faster with longing, her hand trembled as she took it up. Clasping it around her
throat, outside her high-necked dress, she stood in ecstasy looking at her reflection.
Then, she asked, hesitatingly, pleading, “Could I borrow that, just that and
nothing else?”
“Why, of course.”
She threw her arms around her friend, kissed her warmly, and fled with her treasure.
The day of the party arrived, Mme. Loisel was a sensation. She was the prettiest
one there, fashionable, gracious, smiling, and wild with joy. All the men 109turned to
look at her, asked who she was, begged to be introduce. All the cabinet officials wanted
to waltz with her. The minister took notice of her.
She danced madly, wildly, drunk with pleasure, giving no thought to anything in
the triumph of her beauty, the pride of her success, in a kind of happy cloud composed of
all the adulation, of all the admiring glances, of all the awakened longings, of a sense of
complete victory that is so sweet to a woman’s heart.
She left round four o’clock in the morning. Her husband, since midnight, had
been dozing in a small empty sitting room with three other gentlemen whose wives were
having too good a time to leave.
He threw over her shoulders the wraps he had brought for going home, modest
garments of everyday life whose shabbiness clashed with the stylishness of her evening
clothes by the other women who were draped in expensive furs.
Loisel held her back.
“Hold on! You’ll catch cold outside. I’ll call a cab.”
 32

But she would not listen to him and went rapidly down the stairs. When they were on the
street, they didn’t find a carriage; and they set out to hunt for one, hailing drives whom
they saw going by at distance.
They walked toward the Seine, disconsolate and shivering. Finally on the docks
they found one those carriages that one sees in Paris only after nightfall, as if they were
ashamed to show their drabness during daylight hours.
It dropped them at their door in the Rue de Martyrs, and they climbed wearily up
to the apartment. For her, it was all over. For him there was the thought that he would
have to be at the Ministry a ten o’clock.
Before the mirror, she let the warps fall from her shoulders to see herself one
again in all her glory. Suddenly she gave her a cry. The necklace was gone.
Her husband, already half dressed, said, “What’s the trouble?”
She turned toward him despairingly, “I . . . I . . . I don’t have Mme. Forestier necklace.”
“What! You can’t mean it! It’s impossible!”
They hunted everywhere through the folds of the dress, through the folds of the
coat, in the pockets. They found nothing.
He asked, “Are you sure you had it when leaving the dance?”
“Yes, I felt it when I was in the hall of the Ministry.”
“But if you had lost it on the street, we’d heard it drop. It must be in the cab”
“Yes, quite likely. Did you get its number?”
“No. Didn’t you notice it neither?”
“No.”
They looked at each other aghast. Finally, Loisel got dressed again.
“I’ll retrace our steps on foot,” he said,” to see if I can find it.”
And he went out. She remained in her evening clothes, without the strength 50to
go to bed, slumped in a chair in the unheated room, her mind a blank.
Her husband came in about seven o’clock. He had no luck,
He went to the police station, to the newspaper to post a reward, to the cab
companies; everywhere the slightest hope drove him.
That evening Loisel returned, pale, his face lined; still he had learned nothing.
“We’ll have to write your friend,” he said,” to tell her you have broken the catch
and are having it repaired. That will give us a little time to turn around.”
She wrote to his dictation.
At the end of the week, they have given up all hope.
 33

And Loisel, looking five years older, declared. “We must take steps to replace that
piece of jewelry.”
The next day they took the case to the jeweler whose name they found inside. He
consulted his records. “I didn’t sell that necklace, madame,” he said. “I only supplied the
case.”
Then they went from one jeweler to another hunting for a similar necklace, going
over their recollections, both sick with despair and anxiety.
They found, in a shop in Palais Royal, a string of diamonds that seemed exactly
like the one they were seeking. It was priced at forty thousand francs. They could get it
for thirty-six.
They asked the jeweler to hold it for them for three days. And they reached an
agreement that he would take it back for thirty-four thousand if one lost was found before
the end of February.
Loisel had eighteen thousand francs he had inherited from his father. He would
barrow the rest.
He went about raising the money, asking a thousand francs from one, four
hundred from another here, sixty there. He signed noted, made ruinous deals, did
business with loan sharks, ran the whole gamut of moneylenders. He comprised the rest
of his life, risked his signature without knowing if he’d be able to honor it, and then,
terrified by the outlook for the future, by the blackness of despair about to close around
him by the prospect of all the privations of the body and tortures of the spirit, he went to
claim the new necklace with the thirty-six thousand francs that he place on the counter of
the shopkeeper.
When Mme. Loisel took the necklace back, Mme. Forestier said to her frostily,
“You should have brought it back sooner; I might have needed it.”
She did not open the case, an action her friend was afraid of. If she had noticed
the substitution, what would she have thought her a thief?
Mme. Loisel experienced the horrible life needy live. She played her part,
however, with sudden heroism. That frightful debt had to be paid. She would pay it. She
dismissed her maid; they rented a garret under the eaves.
She learned to do the heavy housework, to perform the hateful duties of cooking.
She washed dishes, wearing down her shell pink snails scouring the grease from the pots
and pans; she scrubbed dirty linen, shirts, and cleaning rags, which she hung on the line
to dry; she took the garbage down to the street each morning and brought up water,
stopping on each landing to get her breath. And, clad like a peasant woman, basket on
arm, guarding sou by sou her scantly allowance, she bargained with the fruit dealers, the
grocer, the butcher, and was 200insulted by them.
Each month note had to be paid and others renewed to give more time.
Her husband labored evenings to balance trademan’s accounts, and at night, often,
he copied documents at five sous a page.
 34

And this went on for ten years.

Finally, all was paid back, everything including the exorbitant rates of the loan
sharks and accumulated compound interest.
Mme. Loisel appeared an old woman now. She became heavy, rough, and harsh,
like one of the poor. Her hair untended, her skirts askew, her hands red, her voice shrill,
she even slopped water on her floors and scrubbed them herself. But sometimes, while
her husband was at work, she would sit near the window and think of that long ago
evening when, at the dance, she had been so beautiful and admired.
What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who
can say? How strange and unpredictable life is! How little there is between happiness and
misery!
Then one Sunday when she had gone for a walk on the Champs Elysees to relax a
bit from the weeks labors, she suddenly noticed a woman strolling with a child. It was
Mme. Forestier, still young looking, still beautiful, still charming.
Mme. Loisel felt a rush emotion. Should she speak to her? Of course. And now that
everything is paid off. She would tell her the whole story. “Why not?
She went toward her, “Hello, Jeanne.”
The other, not recognizing her, showed astonishment at being spoken to so familiarly by
this common person. She stammered, “But . . . madame . . . I don’t recognize . . . You
must be mistaken.”
“No, I’m Mathilde Loisel.”
Her friend gave a cry, “Oh, my poor Mathilde, how you’ve changed!”
“yes, I’ve a hard time since last seeing you. And plenty of misfortune-and all on account
of you!”
“Of me. . . How do you mean?
“Do you remember that diamond necklace you loaned me to wear to the dance at
the Ministry?”
“Yes, but what about it?
“Well, I lost it.”
“You lost it! But you returned it.”
“I brought you another just like it. And we’ve been paying for it for ten years
now. You can imagine that wasn’t easy for us who had nothing. Well, it’s over now, and
I am glad of it.”
Mme. Forestier stopped short, “You mean to say you bought a diamond necklace
to replace mine?”
“Yes. You never noticed, then? They were quite alike.”
 35

And she smiled with proud and simple joy.

Mme. Forestier, quite overcome, clasped her by the hands. “Oh, my poor 43Mathilde.
But mine was only a paste. Why, at most it was only five hundred francs!”