An Analysis Of The Characteristics “Madame Mathilde Loisel” Through Symbol In The Necklace Ronny Aditya Tampake/4111005 The short story “The Necklace” by Gue de Maupassant is one of Literary work that give a moral message through a simple story. The readers can understand the story easily especially the elements such as theme, characters, setting, plot, conflict and symbol. In this case, this essay is focusing on one of the character “Madame Mathilde Loisel”. Usually, to analize characters is to read the action and the dialog, from that the characters can be known and now it is going to be analyzed through the symbol in this short story. There are some symbols which are widely used and conventional 1. That means some symbols are generaly used in some cases with different meaning. There are several symbols in the story, these symbols are “a diamond necklace”, “a fake necklace”, “Madame Mathilde Loisel herself” and “taxi”. Start from the necklace that Mathilde borrowed from her close friend Madame Forestier for the party. In a real world a diamond necklace usually represents beauty, but in this case represents more than that. Although Madame Loisel looks great with a new, beautiful dress worth “four hundred francs,” she needs the necklace because she has no jewels and thinks that it is “humiliating” to look “poor” in the middle of rich women. That can be an indication of the necklace representing great wealth as she selects the diamond necklace over some bracelets, a pearl necklace and a beautiful “Venetian cross” in “gold and gems.” The necklace can also be used to represent high social status and wealth. Same like a diamond necklace, “taxi” also represents high social status, because in that time only people who had a high social status in society could use a taxi. “The day of the party drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy and anxious. Her dress was ready, however. One evening her husband said to her: ‘What's the matter with you? You've been very odd for the last three days.’ ‘I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear,’ she replied. ‘I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party.’” “Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously. Her hands trembled as she lifted it. She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight of herself. Then, with hesitation, she asked in anguish: ‘Could you lend me this, just this alone?’ ‘Yes, of course.’ 1 Rosen, Annas.1990. Literature and Society: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Nonfiction. She flung herself on her friend's breast, embraced her frenziedly, and went away with her treasure....” However she does not know that the necklace is fake and it even cost five hundred francs. She lost the necklace and she and her husband worked hard or even borrowed some money to buy the replacement for ten years. “She came to know the heavy work of the house, the hateful duties of the kitchen. She washed the plates, wearing out her pink nails on the coarse pottery and the bottoms of pans. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts and dish-cloths, and hung them out to dry on a string; every morning she took the dustbin down into the street and carried up the water, stopping on each landing to get her breath. And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money.... Her husband worked in the evenings at putting straight a merchant's accounts, and often at night he did copying at twopence-halfpenny a page. And this life lasted ten years.” “...And she smiled in proud and innocent happiness. Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her two hands. ‘Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs! . . . ‘” That makes a symbol “a fake necklace” to be a strong symbol that represents Mathilde's desire to be something that she could not accomplish. She does not want to go to the party without a fine dress and some jewelry. When she got all of them, she forgot that she has a responsibility to keep it especially the necklace. At the end of the party, she lost the necklace and then she realized that she should have been careful for what she took. “She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart.” The last symbol is “Madame Mathilde Loisel herself” symbolizes the typical 19th century woman. Back then woman such as herself had no say in what she had in life and what her status was. “’Wear flowers,’ he said. ‘They're very smart at this time of the year. For ten francs you could get two or three gorgeous roses.’ She was not convinced. ‘No . . . there's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women.’” From the explanation of the symbol and as mentioned before that “a fake necklace” is a strong symbol among the others. Because of that Madame Mathilde’s character has been revealed, she is selfish, jealous and greedy. She was jealous of the other rich women that were in the party and she wanted to be like them. The “fake” necklace that she borrowed from Madame Forestier made her the prettiest woman in among the women in the party, but she also suffered because of that. If only she had not borrowed the necklace, she would have a better life without any debts and burden.