Book Review

Text/Peppa who loves potatoes

This is a sentence written by Maupassant at the beginning of "The Necklace", which is used to describe the heroine Mathilde. In Maupassant's writing, this character is vivid, real and natural, making people sigh and sympathize.

Maupassant was a French critical realist writer in the second half of the 19th century. Together with Chekhov and O. Henry, he was known as one of the "three great short story masters in the world", which shows that he was extremely accomplished in short stories. Maupassant is known as the "King of Short Stories in the World". His famous masterpieces include "Jewellery", "Ball de Suif" and "My Uncle Jules".

"The Necklace" mainly tells the story of Mathilde, the beautiful wife of a clerk, who borrowed a diamond necklace from her friends to show off her beauty in order to attend a high-society dinner. On the night of the banquet, she got her wish and became the most beautiful woman in the world. But when she got home, she found that the necklace was missing, so she had to borrow money to buy a new necklace and return it to her friend. In order to repay the debt, she scrimped on food and clothing and went through 10 years of arduous debt repayment. In the end, I discovered that what I borrowed was a fake diamond necklace.

After reading Maupassant's "The Necklace", most people will feel that Mathilde's 10-year debt repayment journey is like "drawing water from a bamboo basket in vain". She has gained nothing except a futile waste of time and youth. However, I don’t think so. Although Maupassant increased the irony of Mathilde, he also injected some brilliance of humanity into this character, which made me feel that Mathilde’s 10 years of hard work was not in vain. There is also luck.

Mathilde is a beautiful and charming woman. Because she was born in a family of small clerks, she had no access to rich and status people. In the end, she had to make do with a junior scientist from the Ministry of Education. Member Loisel.

This young woman always has a heart that is uneasy about the status quo. She feels that she is born for all exquisite and luxurious things. So I felt miserable looking at my shabby house, rough walls, old furniture and vulgar clothes all day long.

She always fantasizes about being at various exquisite banquets and using various exquisite utensils, as if only in this way can she be worthy of her youth and beauty.

Finally, an invitation brought back by her husband brought her a glimmer of hope, because this invitation came from the upper class society she yearned for. However, looking at the simple clothes on her body, Mathilde only felt angry because she had no clothes to set off such a party. In the end, her husband spent 400 francs to make her a new dress.

After the new dress was ready, Mathilde looked at her empty neck and felt that there was a piece of jewelry missing. Due to family reasons, the husband could not buy her another piece of matching jewelry. Faced with his wife's reluctance, he finally had an idea and suggested that Mathilde borrow a string of jewelry from a friend. .

Mathilde found her friend Mrs. Forrest and borrowed a diamond necklace. On the night of the party, Mathilde surpassed all other beauties and became the focus of the entire party. This was what she had dreamed of, and now it was finally coming true.

However, as Zweig said: All gifts given by fate have already been secretly marked with a price.

On the night of the banquet, Mathilde and her husband returned home and found that the necklace was missing. After trying many times to find the necklace but unable to find it, husband Loisel and Mathilde decided to pay for a new necklace. They spent all their belongings and borrowed a lot of money, and finally bought the same necklace worth 36,000 francs and returned it to Mrs. Forrest.

From then on, the couple embarked on the arduous road of repaying their debts. They lived frugally for 10 years before paying off their debts.

But the story did not simply end there. One day 10 years later, Mathilde, who was no longer young, ran into Mrs. Forrest and told her all this. But Mrs. Forrest's words struck Mathilde's heart like a thunderbolt from the clear sky. It turns out that the necklace from 10 years ago was fake.

After knowing this answer, the tragedy in Mathilde became even more intense. After 10 years of hard work, everything turned out to be a misfortune. But if Mathilde hadn't been greedy for vanity and enjoyed luxury, and hadn't been uneasy about the status quo and wanted to join a world that didn't belong to her, how could her life have sunk into this tragedy because of a necklace?

Loisel becoming Mathilde’s husband can be said to be the luckiest thing in her life.

Before the necklace was lost, Loisel tried his best to meet all the needs of his wife Mathilde. He hired a servant to take care of her. Knowing that she was vain and glitzy, he also got invitations to the party to please her. . Even in order to satisfy her so-called "the most embarrassing thing in the world is to look poor among many rich women", he spent the money he planned to buy a gun to make a dress for her.

It can be said that this man loved Mathilde very much, and his love also extended to after the necklace was lost.

After the necklace was lost, he tried his best to find it and tried various methods. In the end, he couldn't find it. He decided to compensate Mathilde for the necklace.

To this end, he used the 18,000 francs left by his father, borrowed money from everywhere, and got involved with loan sharks.

However, despite this, he still paid 36,000 francs to buy the necklace. Mr. Loisel, from beginning to end, he acted like a man, never said a word against Mathilde, and never abandoned her to enjoy herself alone. No matter how hard it was, he was with her from beginning to end.

For a woman, she is so lucky to have such a husband.

Mathilde's life seems indeed unfortunate on the surface, but upon closer inspection, she is so lucky. She made a mistake when she was young, and her husband was willing to pay the bill with her. Maybe the ten years of debt repayment were difficult, but with her husband's love and company, Mathilde felt sweet in her heart. What she lost was vanity and glitz, but what she gained was sincerity and waiting.

Sometimes when looking at Mathilde's whole life experience of repaying the necklace, people will unconsciously think of Santiago in "The Old Man and the Sea", who caught a big marlin, but in the end only dragged back Bare skeleton.

Mathilde’s luck lies in the hardships along the way that allowed her to recognize herself.

In the past, she was cared for by servants and loved by her husband, but she was still not satisfied with the status quo. I feel that my family is poor, that everything in my family is not worthy of me, and I always live in those unrealistic fantasies.

But after shouldering the debt caused by the necklace, Mathilde seemed to grow up overnight. In addition to being determined to repay her debts, she also fired her maid, moved to the attic, did all kinds of housework by herself, dressed like a common woman, got scolded for bargaining for groceries, and started to be a down-to-earth housewife.

In 10 years, her appearance had faded, but she suddenly sobered up. 10 years ago, she was so proud and vain that she would not go to parties without good clothes and jewelry. She lost her friend's necklace and did not dare to tell her the whole story in person.

But today, 10 years later, she is dressed plainly and looks older. Facing the still young and beautiful Mrs. Fraser, she confidently tells her about her hardships in order to repay the pain of the necklace. , no sense of inferiority or uneasiness at all. This confidence to face life head-on is the most valuable asset Mathilde has gained in the past 10 years.

The story triggered by a necklace looks like a tragedy and a futile effort. However, looking at Mathilde who is confident that she no longer sticks to her appearance and dress 10 years later, how do we know that this is not another kind of luck?

When Mathilde was young, she was unhappy because she always lived in nihilistic fantasies. She was full of desires and wanted to touch unrealistic delicacy and beauty.

But the old Mathilde, under the baptism of life and the polishing of reality, gradually accepted her increasingly imperfect self. She became confident and fulfilled, and no longer lived in nothingness. The growth given by this reality is far greater than the 36,000 francs.

When I read Maupassant's "The Necklace" in middle school, I was always full of contempt for Mathilde's vanity. However, after 10 years of growth, when I read this novel again, I felt a little more... Understand and sympathize.

It is true that Mathilde was vain when she was young, and we can even say that her tragedy was caused by herself. But sometimes you will find that Mathilde's growth may also be thanks to the loss of the necklace.

If the necklace had not been lost, she might not have realized how much the husband who cared about her all day long loved her. She did not know that this man could make such a big sacrifice in order to repay her vanity mistakes. , and thus learn to live a down-to-earth life with him.

If it were not for the loss of the necklace and the debt, Mathilde would probably have lost herself after that party and wallowed in vanity and extravagance. Maybe she will have more desires and do more outrageous things.

In my opinion, it is indeed unfortunate that Mathilde lost her necklace and spent 10 years of her youth to pay back a fake necklace. But looking at the problem from another angle, after the necklace was lost, we saw Mathilde’s husband’s unyielding companionship, and we also saw her own life transformation from fantasy to reality. From this point of view, how can we simply think that Mathilde's loss of the necklace is absolutely unfortunate?

When we were very young, our history teacher told us that everything has two sides, and we must learn to look at things in two. In Mathilde, a woman, we see not only vanity, but also responsibility and responsibility; not only inferiority, but also growth and transformation.

As the saying goes, "Misfortune depends on blessings, and blessings rely on misfortunes." There is never absolute luck or misfortune in life experience. What we can do is to learn to cherish the luck that passes through life under the baptism of time.

Author introduction: Peppa Pig loves potatoes. There are three loves in life: reading, writing and watching movies. I hope my words can warm you.