In The Necklace, Eveline, and A Soldier’s Home we find one overarching lesson: live fully and honestly to be happy. In The Necklace Mathilde ruins her life by coveting the lives of those she believes have it better than her. In Eveline, Eveline is so wracked by guilt and fear that she loses her chance for true love and happiness. In A Soldier’s Home, Harold Krebs believes in nothing and seeks the courage to live honestly rather than live a lie. All three main characters have a hard life; Mathilde is mired in poverty, Eveline is poor and suffers the abuses of her father, and Harold has been disillusioned by the realities of war. Despite these conditions, personal choices made by each of the characters prevent them from living a full and happy existence.
The story of Mathilde is a classic case of thinking the grass is always greener on the other side. When her husband finally gets her invited to a “swank” affair, instead of being happy she becomes depressed she will look poor to the others there. Mathilde does not appreciate the fact that she has a loving and devoted husband and a roof over her head. Instead she refuses to visit wealthy friends because “she suffered so much when she came back to her own house” (31). Mathilde’s covetous nature ruins the life she could have appreciated, because she and her husband toil to pay for the lost diamond necklace she borrows from a friend. Years later Mathilde finds out the necklace was fake and she ruined her life over nothing more than her own desires for wealth.
Eveline is about to depart for Buenos Aires with a man who loves her. However, despite the abusive life she leads she begins to doubt her decision. She is wracked by fear and guilt over leaving all that is familiar to her, and because of a promise she made to her dying mother to keep things in order as long as possible. She is afraid if she stays she will repeat her mother’
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