She was very careful at calculating the amount she needed for the dress: she didn’t want to ask for much so her husband would refuse immediately, or ask for less and not be able to buy a nice dress. She asked for four hundred francs, the exact amount he has set aside to buy a gun to shoot larks at Nanterre with his friends. Even after achieving a new dress, Madam Loisel still wants more. She complains to her husband that she “doesn’t have any jewels to wear, not a single gem, nothing to dress up her outfit.” As a result, others at the party will look down on her. But her spirits brighten when Monsieur Loisel suggests that she borrow jewels from her friend, Madame Jeanne Forestier.
Again as you can see it’s all about what she wants not what her husband wants. Madam Loisel’s selfish character is portrayed through the way she treats her husband. She treats him as if he is a slave, who exists for no other reason but to be blamed for things which go wrong in her life, and for her to order around. Madam Loisel gives her husband no love, praise, or thanks for any of the sacrifices he makes for her. An example of this occurs when she asks for money for a dress for the party then asks for more for jewels.
She wastes no time going to her friend Madame Jeanne Forestier to borrow jewels for the grand ball. She borrowed a diamond necklace that made her heart begin to beat with immoderate desire, he hands even ‘shook as she picked it up!’ The day of the Grand ball arrived, Madame Loisel was a success. She was the prettiest woman there, elegant, graceful, radiant, and wonderfully happy. All the men looked at her, enquired who she was, and asked to be introduced. After the party they went home, when they got home they discovered that the diamond necklace was missing. This shows that her personality is not very sympathetic or appreciative of what she has or gets.
She is so self-centred that all she cared about was being admired by everyone at the ball. She again displays her materialistic and selfish ways when, after the party, she discovers that she has lost her borrowed necklace and makes her husband go out at four o’clock in the morning to look for it. He looks for hours and finds nothing, but doesn’t give up there. He goes to the police and cab services, while Madam Loisel, “waited for him all day long in the same distracted condition,” She does nothing while her husband is doing everything he possibly can to save her neck.
Finally, after all hope is lost of finding the diamond necklace, the couple decide to replace it with another one exactly the same, they bought a new one for thirty-six thousand francs. They had to work and save for ten years, and the husband gave up his inheritance to pay for the necklace his wife lost. And after all he did, Madam Loisel offers not one word of thanks or praise to her husband. This emphasizes just how evident her characteristic flaws really are.
Also at the beginning of the story it shows that she is a big dreamer. When she says “She had no dowry, no expectation, no means of meeting some rich, important man who would understand, love, and marry her.” This is shows us that she dreamt of marrying a wealthy man who understands and loves her. Also she dreams more when she says “great drawing rooms dressed with old silk, filled with fine furniture which showed off trinkets beyond price,” This shows that she dreams of having furniture like that at home instead of what she has now.
As for Monsieur Loisel’s character, He does not fully understand his wife, he does his best to please her. When he comes home bearing the invitation to the party, he expects Madam Losiel to be excited and is shocked when she is devastated. He cannot understand why she will not wear flowers to the party instead of jewels. When she declares that she cannot attend the party because she has nothing to wear, he gives her money to buy a new dress. While she complains she has no proper jewellery, he tells her to visit Madame Forestier to borrow some.
Monsieur Loisel is a stark contrast to Mathlide Loisel, being eager and willing to please his wife. For example at the beginning of the story where they both sat at the table at dinner, he did not mind if he never ate of “gleaming silverware” or has “elegant dinners” it says in the story that when he always lifts the lid of the soup tureen, he declares “Ah! Stew! Splendid! There’s nothing I like better than a nice stew”. This shows us that no matter what his wife gives him even if it’s the same dinner everyday he still appreciates it and enjoys her food without complaining.
But it becomes his downfall when she loses the necklace. He is the one to venture back into the cold night to search for the necklace in the streets, even though he is already undressed and has to be at work in a few short hours. He is the one who devises a plan for purchasing a replacement necklace when he says “We’ll have to start thinking about replacing the necklace”. Monsieur Loisel was the one who took out the loan and mortgage to pay for the lost necklace that his wife lost. Although that decision cost him ten years of hard work, he did not complain once or imagine an alternate fate. It is as though his desires do not even exist or, at the very least, his desires are meaningless if they stand in the way of his wife’s.
His character seems weak he lets the people around him dominant him. I know this because as shown at the story when he gives his wife the invitation, she is not happy with it. He seems to be hurt but says nothing about it. His wife has her way in everything, first there is the money to buy a new dress, then he encourages her to borrow expensive jewellery, and finally he goes deeply into debt to buy a replacement for the lost necklace. Even though he knows these things are not wise, he goes along with her and buys the necklace.
Both characters are completely different from each other. For example Madam Loisel is self – centred and selfish, she only thinks about herself, and what she wants not what anyone else around her wants. Monsieur Loisel is loyal to his wife and caring, his always eager to please her. Madam Losiel is very obsessed with her looks and cares too much about what people think of her, whilst again Monsieur Losiel does not care about his appearance. But his easily fooled by his own wife, he gives her whatever she wants and his own desires are meaningless to her. She doesn’t appreciate the things he does for her, instead she’s to busy caring about her appearance and what people think about her.
Madam Loisel was deceived by the necklace from the start of the story when she tried it on and had no clue at all that the necklace could be fake. Her husband took out a loan and mortgage to pay for a real jewel necklace to replace the lost fake one. The truth was then revealed at the end of the story when madam Losiel met Madame Forestier and confessed to her about the necklace she had lost ten years ago. She suffered ten years in poverty due to the lost necklace, she would not have suffered if she had told the truth before. Madam Losiel was also deceived by others at the ball, when everyone treated her as the centre of attention and thronged themselves at her. She had fooled everyone at the ball with her appearance, she did everything in her power to make her self appear different from how she normally appears. She seemed to be competing to look the best in the ball and blend in with the richer classes. She was also obsessed with wealth and upper class. She lives in an illusory world where her actual life does not match the ideal life she has in her head. She believes that her beauty and charm make her worthy of greater things. Her wealth and class are simply illusions, and other people are easily deceived by that. Madam Losiel also deceived Madam Forestier by the necklace. Both women are ultimately deceived by appearances. For example Madame Forestier does not tell Madam Losiel that the diamonds are fake, and Madam Losiel does not tell Madame Forestier that she has replaced the necklace. The fact that the necklace changes which both women do not notice, it changes from worthless to precious. This suggests that true value is ultimately dependent on perception and that appearances can easily deceive.
