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How Does Maupassant Show Honesty In The Necklace

Decent Essays

Everyone has heard the saying “honesty is the best policy” when they were younger, but is it always the best policy. The short story The Necklace written by Guy de Maupassant gives an example of a situation where honesty is the best policy. In this story, a young women named Mme. Loisel buys a new dress and borrows a diamond necklace from her friend to be the envy of the evening. After the evening was done, Mme. Loisel and her husband return home only to discover that the precious diamond necklace is no longer around her neck. Instead of being honest and telling her friend that she lost her necklace, Mme. Loisel finds a necklace identical to the one she lost and takes out loans in order to buy it. Mme. Loisel and her husband work multiple jobs …show more content…

An example of trust that was represented in The Necklace is when Mme. Forestier lends Mme. Loisel a piece of jewellery of her choice. Although it is never mentioned in the story, I infer that in the future, Mme. Forestier will be more careful if she ever lends something to Mme. Loisel since her friend didn’t tell her about the lost necklace until it was too late. Another example of how honesty is related to trust is how one lie can ruin a friendship. If you were to lie to somebody and they found out it would make it very difficult for them to trust you, and believe your promises. Trust is something that is very easy to lose, but very difficult to regain, and even one lie can put someone’s trust in you in jeopardy. This is how honesty relates to trust, and how it is important to always tell the …show more content…

One example from the story is how because Mme. Loisel was not initially honest with her friend Mme. Loisel, “…looked old now. She had become like all the other strong, course women of poor households. Her hair was badly dine, her skirts were awry, [and] her hands were red.” (pg. 8) If Mme. Loisel was honest in the first place, she would not have had to work as hard, and it would have reduced a lot of stress from her life. Another example from the story about how Mme. Loisel’s dishonest behaviour caused her stress was when she was giving Mme. Forestier the replaced necklace, and was nervous that if her friend found out that the necklace was different, would Mme. Loisel be taken for as a thief, or what her friend would think of her. I also infer that Mme. Loisel probably felt guilty for being dishonest with her friend. This is two examples from the story that demonstrate how lying and being dishonest can lead to

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