The meaning of love in The necklace and The lady with the dog Essay

The meaning of love in The necklace and The lady with the dog - Essay Example This paper analyzes what love means in both accounts. Both stories portray that love is an eternal fulfillment and happiness; however, these rewards only await those who are willing to sacrifice everything. Dmitri sacrificed his norms and Monsieur sacrificed his own priorities. The middle class families and society of the nineteenth century were rather conservative. People used to stick to rules and liberal thinking was not as much prevalent as it is today. The plot of â€Å"The Necklace† takes place in France somewhere in the 19th century. The important thing to note about this time is people’s values on modesty. Women were kept at homes and according to present day standards, that practice can be deemed as something that deprived women of their rights. Monsieur proved his love for his wife with his actions. The events in â€Å"The lady with the Dog† also take place in the 19th century setting among middle class people in Russia. Dmitri was notorious for having affairs with every woman who was willing to have one despite his marriage. â€Å"The Necklace† Monsieur Loisel (â€Å"The Necklace†) Monsieur is a humble man earning average salary as a clerk. He is not rich; however, he does possess the greatest wealth of all, staying content and happy with what one has. He is highly appreciative of his wife; he loves her and always supports her. His nature is like a blotting paper: he accepts all the harshness of life and his wife with love and contentment. When both husband and wife sit for dinner at the round table, Monsieur’s wife notices that the table cloth has been used three times without washing while Monsieur uncovers the tureen in a happy mood: â€Å"Oh! The good potpie! I know nothing better than that†(10). Monsieur is a man who is accustomed to adjustments if something is not available; on the other hand, his wife gets irritated when she does not get something. When Monsieur brings home the invitation to the party, his wife gets sad as she does not have matching (expensive) jewelry to wear with the dress. He is a little surprised as to the awkwardness in wearing flowers instead of jewelry that match the color of the dress. After all, is not it common sense? But to his wife, it is not. Monsieur accepts things as they are, not what he wishes them to be. If they did not have money to get expensive jewelry, he considered it a fact of life and not something to whine or cry about. In the end, Monsieur is the one that comes up with the plan of buying a similar necklace when Mathilde loses the original one, and arranges the money through loan and mortgages. The money he gives Mathilde for her fancy dress was meant to pay for a gun that he so wanted, but against his wife’s happiness his own wishes meant nothing to him. He quietly gives up his life while paying for the necklace without a word of complaint. Mathilde is very lucky to have such a wonderful husband but she never realizes it. She is so consumed in her self-made misery that she never knows that Monsieur loves her unconditionally. Mathilde Loisel (â€Å"The Necklace†) â€Å"She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born by a blunder of destiny in a family of employees† (7). Mathilde is a charming beautiful woman, born in the family of clerks, and this is where the problem starts. She blames her fate that she is born in a middle class family, which is why she is always at war with herself