Greed

English

September 25, 2005

Greed

Greed can be any person's eventual downfall. Greed does not discriminate between race, wealth, age or sex. According to Webster's Dictionary, Greed means "excessive desire, especially for wealth". The identified characters will have their lives evaluated, and how greed has caused them to suffer a great downfall. The stories I have derived the characters from are "A Rose for Emily", "Good Country People", "Story of An Hour", "The Necklace" and "Godfather Grimm".

In "A Rose for Emily" Miss Emily Grierson grows to be extremely selfish and covetous after her father dies. Her greed begins to surface when she denies her fathers death, and refuses that he be buried for three days for fear of losing him. Emily has soon fallen in love with a "Yankee" by the name of Homer Barron, and fears that he may someday leave her. Due to her insecurity, she poison's her love interest so he that he will never have the opportunity to part from her. Miss Emily's' desire for him to always be with her has driven her to be somewhat insane, as the townspeople described. After Emily dies, her servant lets her friends and family in to her home to pay their respects. To their surprise, they find the body of her lover rotting away in her bedroom. The room in which he laid was decorated like a honeymoon suite. Next to his head were a few of Emily's hairs on the pillow. Miss Emily only cared for her own happiness, not what anyone else thought, including Homer. Emily's greed causes her take her lover's life just to satisfy her own. Not only is this insane, it is also cruel to just leave Homers family wondering what happened to him. Emily poisoned someone, just to calm her insecurities.

Greed has consumed the lives of not only one, but two of the characters in "Good Country People". Joy Hulga Hopewell is an extremely selfish, egotistical and of course greedy character. She is crude to her mother in an extremely personal way; a good example is that she renames herself to Hulga from joy simply to spite her. Until Hulga meets Manly Pointer, she couldn't care for anyone other than herself. Manly Pointer appears to be a simple Christian man and Hulga's mission is to strip away his Christian beliefs to prove that she has power over others. Hulga desires to pursue Manly Pointer by seducing him, and wiping away all of his beliefs. Unfortunately, this bible selling Christian turns out to be something completely opposite. Hulga is too used to being the one in control, however Pointer quickly puts her in her place and makes her realize that she is not so smart. Manly Pointer is a con-artist in that he keeps his whiskey inside a bible, and carrys around a box of contraceptives. But looking at Manly Pointer, he is also greedy in that he seduces women to take away their most prized possessions, like Hulga's leg. Manly Pointer tells us that he uses a different name at each home that he steals his prized possessions from. This is way he cannot be tracked, therefore leaving women behind to suffer and feel stupid for falling into his trap. Hulga's craving led her into a dangerous situation, which in turn gives Manly Pointers greed the chance to take her leg, not caring what happens to Hulga. In a way Manly and Hulga are too much alike, they are similar to savages; she embezzles people's intellect and confidence, and he pockets prosthetics. If it was not for Hulga's greed, she would not have lost her leg in the first place, which she describes as being her soul.

Mathilde Loisel is another example of a woman whose voracity has caused her a great downfall. She is very egotistical and snobby, yet miserable at the same time. "Mathilde feels trapped in a provincially dull existence, made worse by the solid mediocracy of her husband" says Bruce L. Edwards(1597). Mme Loisel dreams of wearing beautiful dresses and becoming friends with the rich and beautiful. When she finally has the opportunity to go to a ball, she throws a fit because she believes she has nothing to wear. As she said herself, "It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress. I should almost rather not go at all.". Her selfishness and whining causes her husband to give her some of his savings for a dress. When she finds the perfect dress to wear, she decides she needs some jewelry to match. Mathilde borrows a beautiful necklace, which she thinks is made of real jewels, and somehow loses the necklace by the end of the evening at the ball. Mathilde and Henry (her husband) haven't the nerve to tell her friend that they have lost this piece of jewelry. Had the characters not been so self involved and just admitted to their incident, then they could have avoided a life of misery. Henry and Mathilde spent ten years paying off the replacement necklace that was mad of real jewels, only to soon find out that the original cost a mere few hundred francs. I believe this is the price Mathilde and Henry must pay due to their pride and greed. The saying "honesty is the best policy" would have been a life saving opportunity for this couple. Mathilde despises living in poverty, and anyone else who lives in poverty. Her high society taste, without the budget to fulfill her desire for material thing's, has left her dreaming about that one night of glamour.

Mrs. Mallard is a woman who believes she deserves more than being a simple housewife with children. Mrs. Mallard is somewhat different from the other characters', she is desperate for freedom from her marriage. Mrs. Mallard has a very serious heart condition, and her husband Brentley travels a lot. One day her sister and a good friend read in the news paper that there has been a train accident, and Brentley's name was on the list of deaths. Mrs. Mallard is shocked at first, however soon after the tears begin to dry up, she realizes that she will never have to live for anyone but herself again. While she is sitting in her room staring out the window, she begins to feel like the trees, free to move in the wind. She does not know what she will do with her life without Brentley, but she realizes that she will be free and live for herself for the rest of her life. After she has calmed down, and found strength and happiness she returns downstairs to be with her sister and friend. However, her husband comes through the front door as though nothing has ever happened, and the shock of him being alive kills Mrs. Mallard. Her heart didn't seem to be strong enough to take that kind of sudden surprise,