Social Class In The Necklace Literary Analysis Essay Example

In the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, the protagonist of the story Mathilde Loisel has a want and desire to gain social status and present herself as rich and high class. She also feels that without social status that she will be ridiculed and thus gets upset at the thought of not having certain high class and expensive things. This therefore leaves the questions as to why people feel pressured to gain social status. According to John Harasani (2009) apart from economic payoffs, social status seems to be the most important incentive and motivating force of social behavior so therefore there must be many reasons as to why people feel such desire and pressure to attain it. A few of these reasons include the sense of belonging and also the negative link between people who don't have social status and illnesses and negative behaviors.

Firstly, one of the main reasons as to why people feel pressured to achieve social status is that it provides people in society with a sense of belonging. Research shows that a sense of belonging is more than simply being put around other people. It is centered on gaining acceptance, attention, and support from members of society  as well as providing the same attention to other members(Kendra Cherry,2021) therefore if majority of people have social status then the rest of society is going to feel like they need to be like those people in order to have a sense of acceptance and support. In social psychology, the need and desire to belong is an intrinsic motivation to affiliate with others and be socially accepted. This need and desire  plays a role in a number of social phenomena such as self-presentation and social comparison(Kendra Cherry,2021). People often feel the need to present themselves in a certain way in order to feel like they belong when it comes to their social status. People also spend a lot of time comparing themselves to other people, probably of higher social status and class, in order to determine how well they fit in. This comparison could lead to them adapting some of the behaviors in order to feel that sense of belonging.  In the short story “The Necklace”, our protagonist Mathilde Loisel longs for that sense of belonging when it comes to social status. Mathilde suffered because she was poor and desired luxury and delicacy and also felt the need to be like everyone around her that was rich and that had social status. When there was a party with these rich people, she adapted some of their qualities and behaviors and wore an expensive dress along with expensive jewels. With these things, at the party she finally felt a sense of belonging and acceptance.

Secondly, another reason people feel pressured to gain social status is because there is a clear link between people who don't have social status and negative illnesses and behaviors such as depression, anxiety and more. According to a recent study on sceincedaily.com  Not everyone may care about having an impressive job title or a big, fancy house but all human beings desire a high level of social status. Studies have shown that social status contributes to a person's well being and health, it drives goal-oriented behavior aimed at attaining and maintaining status and it creates motivation(Science Daily,2015). It has also been proven that people who had low social status suffer more from depression, chronic anxiety, and even cardiovascular disease. This is because these people feel less respected , less valued and more ignored by others(Science Daily,2015). Another negative effect of low social status is that psychologist PJ Henry discovered that people with low social status have higher tendencies toward violent behavior. Aswell, a  2020 study in college students found a positive link between a sense of belonging and greater happiness and overall well-being, as well as an overall reduction in the mental health outcomes including anxiety, depression, hopelessness, social anxiety and suicidal thoughts , and as mentioned before one of the reasons people strive for higher social status is for that sense of belonging(Kendra Cherry, 2021). In the short story, Mathilde Loisel faces many struggles and suffers with her longing for luxury and social status. We see her struggle with this in the story first when she starts to cry about the fact that she does not have an expensive dress to wear to a party with her rich friends. She starts to cry for many reasons, the main one being that without this expensive dress she feels she won't look as though she belongs. She also then later realizes she does not have any luxurious jewels to wear so she is very sad, uneasy and anxious. She eventually gets both of these things and attends the party with a sense of belonging and acceptance. With this perception of social status Mathilde felt successful, elegant, graceful, happy, accepted and most importantly, belonging. 

To conclude, it is evident that there are many things that drive the pressure that people feel to gain social status. In relation to the protagonist in the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, two of the reasons people feel pressured to gain social status is to feel a sense of belonging and also because there is a clear link between people who do not have social status and negative illnesses and behaviors.