When her husband handed her the invitation, Madame Loisel, “Instead of being delighted, as
her husband had hoped, she threw the invitation spitefully upon the table…”
Do you think the invitation made Madam Loisel unhappy or was she constantly unhappy?
Why? Elaborate with the help of examples from the text.
Answers
Madam Loisel was someone who was perpetually (always) unhappy. It was not the invitation that triggered her sadness. Unhappiness was a part of her personality even before she received the invitation.
In the first paragraph of the story, the author tells us her background and also tells us that "she was simple but she was unhappy". She led a miserable life and "suffered incessantly" because of her "poverty" and low standard of living. Thinking about her life "angered and tortured her".
Even at the dining table, when Madam Loisel's husband would appreciate the potpie, she would be unhappy. She thought only of expensive dishes served in "shining silver". Her thoughts focussed on expensive items like food, clothing and jewellery, and because she did not have access to any of these things, she was always miserable.