Some readers believe that the ten years of hard work changed Mathilde’s spoiled nature and made her a better person. Give two pieces of evidence from the story that support this position.

One surprisingly uplifting theme of this short story is the fact that it seems happiness comes from being content with whatever one has. When Mme. Loisel has a middling social status but desires to be higher in society, she spends her days yearning and weeping. However, once she and her husband have been driven to toil for ten years, she seems content and sometimes nostalgic, happier than she was before. In fact, when she tells Mme. Forestier of the work she has done for ten years to pay off the replacement necklace, Maupassant writes that she "smiled with a proud and simple joy"(p.38).