Envy comes easily. Nevertheless, while envy eats away at the human soul, gratitude nourishes it, filling the soul with the wonderful blessings which life affords.
In his short story “The Diamond Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant considers the human struggle between envy and gratitude through one woman’s distaste for her impoverished life. Maupassant shows that what she believes to be poverty is actually a full and good life.
A Different Life
Mathilde is “pretty and charming,” but, unfortunately, was born into a family of clerks, which doesn’t befit her many charms. What is more, she marries a clerk. Mathilde soon finds herself craving the finer things of life and “unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station.”
Kate Vidimos
Author
Kate Vidimos holds a bachelor's in English from the liberal arts college at the University of Dallas and is currently working on finishing and illustrating a children’s book.
