"The Necklace"

“The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant is a story about a young women and how her quest for to feel like royalty inevitably lead to her downfall. The main character Mathilde was always obsessed with the finest things from jewelry to dresses. However, due to her financial status she was unable to afford this lifestyle that she desired so much. Mathilde was describe as, “ She had no dresses, no jewelry, nothing. And she loved nothing but that.” Soon the opportunity arose for her to go to a ball with the best of the best. For this ball she spent her and her husbands saving to buy a dress and look amazing. Nevertheless,  she hungered for more and went to her friend who was well off and asked to borrow a beautiful necklace. The necklace was decorated with diamonds and looked worth a fortune. The tide soon turned when Mathilde lost the necklace at the ball and was forced to make a choice. She and her husband could talk to Mathilde’s friends and explain the truth or buy a new one and never tell her friend. The young couple choose to buy a new one and attempt to pay for it lying to her friend. This decision broke them as the worked tirelessly for ten years until all the payments were made on the replacement necklace.

Lying is a part of society. As much as truth is appreciated and valued sometimes lying is the best route. People lie to protect themselves from embarrassment, protect someone's feelings, or to avoid conflict. In the case of necklace the couple lied to protect them for embarrassment and to avoid the loss of her friend. The idea of lying to save face is not a foreign concept yet in the case of the necklace it not the right thing to do.

In my option when it comes to money and mistakes the faster you own up to it the more time you have to figure out how to come up with an effective solution. When it comes to Mathilde she should have owned up and told her friend that she had lost the necklace. This would have given her friend time to explain that the necklace if fake and they didn't need to waste ten years trying to pay for the necklace. Nevertheless, theoretically even if the necklace is was real if Mathilde had spoken to her friend about it they could have come up with payment plan or just any other system other than them having to pay it all back at once.