Compare and contrast “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “The Necklace”

Dreams, sacrifice, marital unhappiness and escapism are often themes involving men and women in English Literature. Throughout history, stories have been filled with main characters living out fantasies and dreams, hoping for more out of their own lives, only to find they had what they wanted right in front of them, all along. These aforementioned these are the main focuses of the two stories I am going to write about, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” by James Thurber and “The Necklace,” by Guy de Maupassant. The main characters in these two stories are, Walter Mitty, in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and Mathilde Loisel in “The Necklace.” Both characters are dreamers of a different, fancier or exciting life, which ultimately cause problems for each character. This paper will compare and contrast these two stories by showing, although each was written very differently, both are from different time periods, different languages, different social settings, and each have different outcomes, they are still very much the same. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” it portrays the inner soliloquy of a man’s mind flowing in and out of fantasies as he completes his routine tasks on an otherwise routine day. Walter Mitty is trapped in an unhappy marriage with an overbearing wife, who runs his life in every moment she is present in the story. Walter’s story begins deep in a fantasy battle, operating a Navy aircraft, showing his commanding officer he has no fear in his tasks. He is performing his naval duties and is very much the hero in his own mind. The quotes, “The Old Man’ll get us through” and “The Old Man ain’t afraid of hell!” (Thurber) show Mitty’s belief in his own ability to remain calm and have control of his situation. In his mind this daydream is quite vivid. There is an immense amount of detail poured into the description of events. In reality, Walter was driving a vehicle, taking his wife to the beauty parlor. Mrs. Mitty brings his colorful fantasy to a screeching halt by yelling at him to slow down. Walter’s day dream stops abruptly, as he realizes his wife was yelling “Not so fast!” (Thurber). Walter fantasized in order to justify his hurtling through the streets of Waterbury, Connecticut. Truth be told, Walter was not breaking the law, just merely going faster than his wife would have, had she been driving. Walter’s daydream was one way of tuning out his wife, which shows the current world seems to have no use for him. Similarly in “The Necklace,” Mathilde Loisel is in what she believes to be an unhappy marriage. She married a man with no real wealth and realizes her life will never be one of fashion of high society. This story paints the picture of a women with extreme good looks, who is charming, misunderstood but loved by a man she does not love, mostly due to his low class in society and stature in her eyes. As the story opens, much as Walter’s story, we read of a woman who spends her time dreaming of all the riches and glory she doesn't have, describing of how miserable Mathilde is in her life. She sits dreaming of silent rooms nicely decorated and her own private room, scented with perfume to have intimate "tete-a-tetes" with her closest friends. Then she is awakened, only to realize that she is in her own grim apartment. In her eyes, she lives a tortured and unfair life. de Maupassant describes her as "suffered intensely, feeling herself born for every delicacy and every luxury.” (de Maupassant) yet “She suffered from poverty of her dwelling, from the worn walls, the abraded chairs, the ugliness of the stuffs.” (de Maupassant). She feels herself destined for all delicacies and luxuries and isn’t appreciative of what her husband has done for her. Both Walter and Mathilde dream to escape the life they have, the mundane life they have grown to share with spouses they do not particularly like, and the world that surrounds them. Walter escapes to a life of heroism and bravery, Mathilde to a lavish life of luxury. Another comparison is the fact both stories have overbearing wives. One wife is the secondary character in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and the other wife is the main character in “The Necklace.” In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” Walter is mild manner, quiet, very much a loner and to himself type of man, but his wife is a nag, demeans him, all while pestering him at every moment in the story. When Walter drives fast, she tells him to slow down, when Walter stops the car to let her out, she badgers him with, “Why don’t you wear your gloves? Have you lost your gloves?” “Remember to get those overshoes while I get my hair done” “You’re not a young man any longer.” (Thurber) And later in the story, she was aggravated at him when she couldn’t find him, pestering him to make sure he purchased the right items she specifically told him to buy, questions his motives of how he was carrying around the items, rather than putting them where they belonged, and threatens to take his temperature because Walter finally tells his wife, “does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?” (Thurber). Walter continually puts up with his wife, mostly because he is afraid of her, and possibly because he did love her at one time and has respect for her, but mostly because he doesn’t want to deal with her condescending remarks. He prefers to escape to his dream world to get him through, instead of dealing with her every moment. Likewise, in “The Necklace,” Mathilde is the pestering, overbearing wife, who is constantly harassing her husband for not understanding or listening to her demands. Monsieur Loisel (only referred to as ‘her husband’ – no name), is much the opposite of his wife. He is completely content with his lifestyle. He seems to be a very passive person, who doesn't let status or riches affect him. Of course, if he had the chance to be rich he would, but he doesn't dwell on the fact that he is part of the middle class. He seems to be a hard worker and does his best to provide for his wife. He demonstrates is simplicity the one night at dinner Loisel and Mathilde sit down to eat. When Mathilde’s husband brings home an invite to a lavish party, he hands it to her so proudly and cannot wait for her to open it. He just wants to please his beautiful wife. After opening the envelope, she presses “What do you want me to put on my back to go there?” And with tears in her eyes, yells at her husband, “I have no clothes, and in consequence, I cannot go to the party.” She genuinely makes her husband feel horrible. He then offers her money to buy a dress, money he was saving to buy a gun, but feels it would please his wife. But because Mathilde is not delighted with his idea, she snaps at him he has no jewelry. The husband, only trying to keep peace, offers her to wear roses as an accessory. Again, his idea is shot down. Mathilde is not happy with anything he will offer, because in her eyes, he is not good enough and anything she has is not good enough. According to Dr. Phil McGraw, “A relationship suffers because of control issues, and change must come from trying to understand how your behavior feels to someone else. If you're trying to change your partner, take a look at yourself. You may have your own issues to deal with.” (McGraw). Mathilde had so many issues of trying to become someone she wasn’t; she never even took her husband’s feeling into consideration. She only thought about herself, how she would look and what would benefit her. She is self-centered and get her into trouble. This brings us to the contrast part of the essay. Although both characters fantasize in each of their stories, Walter will daydream to help him out in situations. If he is driving fast, he visualizes himself in a Navy aircraft, so better to handle the bad weather. Another imagined story, Walter has a court room scene scenario, in which he is put on the stand to refresh his memory of an item his wife asked him to pick up while she was at her hair appointment. He envisioned a district attorney cross-examining him about a firearm and how he could be responsible for firing the shot it produced. He calmly, as his heroic character on the stand, demonstrates he could have been the person who fired the shot and was certainly capable. He borrowed this story as a way round-about way to help him remember to pick up “puppy biscuits.” His make-believe stories actually work for him. Nobody else understands, because as he says “Puppy Biscuits” out loud, a woman passing by him, looks at him and laughs and repeats what Walter has just said out loud to her companion with whom she was walking. Regardless of how foolish Walter may have looked at that moment, he remembered what his wife asked of him and was able to fulfill her request of purchasing them. Contrary in “The Necklace,” Mathilde fantasizes about things she cannot have, will never have and made a clear choice not to have. She knew, when marrying her husband she would not have the lifestyle she always dreamed. She could, however, have made the best of her current situation and lived a full life with a man who loves her and wanted only the best for her. Instead, her dreaming got her into trouble. In the story, Mathilde did not have lavish jewelry and was not going to go to the party in which they were invited, so her husband offers her to call a wealthy friend and borrow a piece of her jewelry. Mathilde is thrilled with the idea and does just that. She ends up borrowing a magnificent diamond necklace. She then takes the 400 francs her husband was saving and buys a new dress. Mathilde feels she is the belle of the ball. She flirts and charms every man in the room, and when her husband wants to leave, she tells him to go off to the other room and wait. She is very inconsiderate to him, but feels this is what she was meant to do. Unfortunately, at the end of the night, she has lost the fancy diamond necklace and because to fear it will never be found. Her faithful husband, even though he has to work in the morning, goes out for several hours trying to locate the missing item, but no luck. This is the point in the story where Mathilde realizes her dreams have gotten her into trouble and she will never be the same again. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” Walter shows no sign of stopping his fantasy life. He has several more fantasies before the store is over, ending with the one that proves he is forever stuck with his wife and will forever continue to daydream. As the story begins to come to a close, Mrs. Mitty tells Walter to wait for him outside a drug store while she pops inside for a minute to get an item. Walter, knowing his wife will be more than a minute, decides to light up a cigarette. He then fades into his day dream and visualizes himself in front of a firing squad. “’To hell with the handkerchief’ says Walter scornfully. He took his one last drag on his cigarette and snapped it away. Then with that faint, fleeting smile paying about his lips, he faced the firing squat erect and motionless, prod and disdainful. Walter Mitty, the Undefeated.” (Thurber) This point show us that Walter will continue to be a day dreamer, will continue to obey his wife, but will use his fantasies to get him through his every day mundane. Mathilde, on the other hand, felt she has lost everything with the misplacement of her friend’s necklace. She sets into motion a plan to get it back to her, but at a price she will be paying for years to come. She goes to several jewelers until she finds an exact duplicate of the necklace and buys it for 35000 franc, which was her entire life savings, plus borrowing the rest from many people and banks rather than telling her friend what had happened. Mathilde spends the next ten years paying off the debt she created. The Loisel’s “paid everything back, with rates of usury and all the accumulation of heaped-up interest.” (de Maupassant) Mathilde was much older now, withered, robust, hard and rough, badly combed and her skirts were rags. But the biggest lesson learned Mathilde learned had not even happened yet. She ran into her wealthy friend at a park one day. Her wealthy friend did not even recognize the aged Mathilde. She decided to come clean with her friend and let her know she purchased an exact duplicate to make up for the one she misplaced. Her friend replied, “Oh, my poor Mathilde, But mine were false. At most they were worth five hundred francs.” Dreaming a lavish lifestyle and trying to live beyond her means got Mathilde in trouble. Dreaming fantasies gets Walter away from the life with his overbearing wife. If the two characters in these stories would have enjoyed their spouses, spend time with them, and worked on their relationships, the problems and fantasies would probably not have been needed. According to Dr. Laura, “Step out of yourself and listen to your partner.” Sound advice for day dreaming mates.