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 By Diane Singer|Published Date: August 23, 2010
You shall not covet … anything that is your neighbor’s. Exodus 20:17
“The Necklace”
Before he died of syphilis in 1893, Guy de Maupassant – one of the fathers of the modern short story – penned his own epitaph: “I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing.”
His short story “The Necklace” reflects this sentiment.[1] Its protagonist – a perpetually discontented woman named Mathilde Loisel – covets the wealth, luxury, prestige, and approbation which others possess and which she feels are her rightful due as a beautiful and charming young woman. Though she marries a man with a respectable job – a clerk in the Ministry of Education – who provides her with all she needs, Mathilde is incapable of being satisfied with what he is able to provide: “she suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her.”
Each and every day, Mathilde “imagined” (coveted) what it would be like to live in a luxurious home, to have a staff of servants, to eat gourmet meals off fine china, to throw parties with famous guests – especially famous men “whose homage roused every other woman’s envious longings.” Yet, her imagination only fuels her unhappiness, for “she had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the only things she loved; she felt that she was made for them.”
When her husband surprises her with an invitation to an elegant soiree, Mathilde does not appreciate his gift, which he worked hard to acquire for her. Instead, she petulantly throws the invitation back in his face and complains that she has nothing to wear. When he gives her money to buy a dress (money he had been saving to buy himself a gun), she is still dissatisfied because she has no jewels to wear – a lack, she claims, which will leave her humiliated because she will “[look] poor in the middle of a lot of rich women.” At her husband’s suggestion, however, Mathilde goes to a rich school friend to borrow a diamond necklace.
As she expected, Mathilde is the belle of the ball: “she was the prettiest woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling, and quite above herself with happiness. All the men stared at her, inquired her name, and asked to be introduced to her…. She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart.”
However, the turning point of the story comes as Mathilde and her husband rush out of the party because she doesn’t want to be seen wearing a modest cloak over her elegant dress. When they arrive at home, Mathilde discovers that the necklace has been lost. After frantically looking for the necklace, going to the police, and offering a reward – all to no avail – Mathilde and her husband spend all their savings and borrow a great deal of money in order to have a copy made. They give the replacement necklace to Mathilde’s rich friend, who doesn’t notice the switch, and then spend the next ten years living a “ghastly life of abject poverty” in order to pay off the loans.
By the time they are out of debt, Mathilde is no longer young and pretty: “she had become like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households.” In her debased circumstances, Mathilde proves that her experience has taught her nothing: she clings to the memory of that night when she had been “so beautiful and so much admired” – wondering what would have happened had she not lost the necklace and lamenting about how “strange life is, how fickle! How little is needed to ruin or to save!” [2]
Do not covet
Ironically, though Maupassant was hostile to religion, this particular story amply illustrates the perils of breaking the 10th commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:7). Madame Loisel, it seems, cannot stop coveting what others have; and she and her husband pay a heavy price for her cravings.
Today, we see the same inordinate desire for approbation and material prosperity mirrored in our celebrity-obsessed, consumer-driven culture. We spend hours reading gossip magazines and watching entertainment shows which glamorize, and make us long for, the jet-set lifestyle and notoriety of Angelina, Brad, Jennifer, George, and Paris. At every turn, we are told that must have the “right” type of car, live in the “right” neighborhood, attend the “right” schools, join the “right” organizations, throw the “right” kind of parties, travel to the “right” kinds of places, and wear the “right” brand-name clothing.
Advertisements brainwash us with an “I’m worth it” mindset, which frantically drives us to covet more and more of what others have. This lust may lead us to the point where we are living – like the Loisels – under a crushing burden of debt while our perpetually disappointed souls become incapable of any genuine hope or joy. In the worst cases, we may lie, steal, stalk, and even murder to get what we want (James 4:2); and once we do acquire the object of our desire, we quickly discover that it’s never enough.
While our culture pushes us to envy and crave the “lifestyles of the rich and famous,” Jesus warns against the evil thoughts behind such desires, which result in the defilement of the individual (Mark 7:21-23). James warns that coveting will only lead to fights and quarrels (James 4:2), and Paul links coveting what others have with a failure to love our neighbors as God commands us to (Romans 13:9). Clearly, this is one area where Christians must reject the ungodly values of our culture and resist the temptation to covet.
Be content
The opposite of coveting is, of course, contentment – a virtue which the apostle Paul frequently speaks about. While the 10th commandment taught him that he was a sinner (Romans 7:7), the many trials he endured as Christ’s bond-servant taught him to be content in all circumstances (2 Corinthians 12:10). Paul teaches us that we are to be satisfied when we simply have “food and clothing” (1 Timothy 6:6-8), though he himself learned to be at rest even when those items were lacking. “In whatever situation,” Paul experienced true contentment because he had confidence in a sovereign and loving God who promised to supply all his needs (Philippians 4:11, 19).
“The Necklace” and Guy de Maupassant’s epitaph – “I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing” – should warn Christians not to follow this same destructive path. Coveting turns us into perpetually unhappy, ungrateful, and disappointed people whose lives are poisonous to ourselves and others. If we harbor a spirit of covetousness, we will be incapable of loving the people God places in our lives: worse, we will only exploit them to get what we want, and then blame them when we’re still not happy.
Consequently, we all need to examine ourselves. If we find that we covet money, things, fame, admiration, power, or pleasure., then we need to follow Paul’s example. We must allow the Holy Spirit to use the 10th commandment to turn us away from our sin and toward the “great gain” which comes through “godliness with contentment” (1 Timothy 6:6).
For more insight to this topic, get the book, Pathway to Freedom: How God’s Law Guides Our Lives, by Alistair Begg, from our online store. Or read the article, “Envy and Covetousness,” by Derek Carlsen.
[1] You can find the story at http://www.bartleby.com/195/20.html.
[2] The story ends with an ironic twist; but in order not to spoil it for first time readers, I’ll stop my summary here.
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