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Since the very genesis of humankind, people have been trying in vain to ease their existence with the beliefs they build around their lives. Some people, in desperate need of support, find salvation in religion and blind trust for the superpowers above. The other ones, having chosen a sophisticated and slippery path, build their beliefs in their own minds, and eventually become absorbed by the illusion. However, while a part of these believers sincerely does not understand the existence of other life outside a created bubble, some deliberately refuse to perceive the reality in the way they should see it. A number of wordsmiths used this notion to dwell upon the ways their characters might act within the scope of illusion and isolation from the devastating routine. In order to take a closer look at the ways of this depiction, the main characters of R. Dahls Lamb to Slaughter and G. de Maupassants The Necklace will be analyzed.
To begin with, it is of paramount importance to establish the overall prerequisites to deliberate life in deception. The main character of the first story, a caring wife Mary Maloney seems to be quite satisfied with the life she has, especially at times she has to be around her beloved spouse, doing her best for him to be satisfied. The mundane evenings she spends while pouring a glass of whiskey for her husband on getting back home in between continuous sewing make Mary lose the sense of real life, turning everything into a machine that does not require much contemplation. However, everyone knows that the slightest breach in a mechanisms framework might lead to some irrevocable implications. In Marys case, it fails once she hears that her husband is no longer a part of her life:
&And I know its kind of a bad time to be telling you, bet there simply wasnt any other way (Dahl 3).
After hearing the words of closure, Mary could no longer feel locked up in the bubble, as from now on, she is faced with the reality of being a single mom. The author illustrates how her mind refuses to take this message seriously, pushing her to follow the established suit. Hence, once Patrick tries to bring her back to the world around them, she falls apart.
The main character of The Necklace, on the other hand, is an example of how illusion might give a person a willingness to exist in this world. However, the major issue with such an attitude is the easiness with which these illusions tend to fade once the truth is unavoidable. Mathilde consistently tries to deny the fact that her life is not bound to be replete with luxurious garments and soirees in the neighboring mansions. Hence, she tries her best to become a part of the world she does not belong even for a split second, pretending to be the one she was not meant to become. One of such desperate attempts leads to the familys ten-year-long crisis caused by the loss of an obscurely expensive piece of jewelry. If previously Mathilde was not able to do the easiest house chores, she is now motivated to work hard by the price of a necklace, subconsciously hoping to remain a part of this world. Once she finds out the actual price of the jewelry, her deepest hopes of reaching desirable heights were shattered by reality.
However, while being wrapped in illusion and lies, Mathilde, in fact, does not have the slightest idea of what it is like to be a part of this world, living up exclusively to her expectations of such a lifestyle. The author notes that all those things, of which another woman of her rank world never ever have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry (de Maupassant 1). Thus, the woman drags herself down with thoughts that might as well have never even crossed her mind if not for her surroundings (Nnyagu and Mbah). As a result, Mathilde lets this illusion destroy everything she has for the sake of an unreachable height. What makes it even more unreachable is the scope of luxury she imagines just from the thought of richness.
Considering the cases of both female characters, it might be concluded that both of them made a conscious choice to detach themselves from the struggles of reality in pursuit of emotional safety. However, in both situations, despite the fact that one of them leads to a cruel murder, some slight corrections in the imaginary setting crash womens lives in a completely unpredictable way. The major difference between these characters lies in the fact that Mary Maloney had practically no other choice but to lock herself up in the shell of happy yet deceptive married life. Mathilde, on the other hand, was not isolated from the outside world, letting herself struggle even more every time she had to deal with it. These images, however different or alike, show the reader the painfulness and consequences of taking illusion for genuine truth instead of giving real life the benefit of the doubt.
Works Cited
Dahl, Roald. Lamb to the Slaughter. Penguin, 2012.
De Maupassant, Guy. The Necklace. Dramatic Publishing, 1969.
Nnyagu, Uche, and Victor C. Mbah. Maupassants The Necklace as a Fictional Means of Assuaging the Illusions of Life: The Womans Perspective. Global Journal of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, vol. 6, no. 9, 2018, pp. 86-94.
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