I believe that Mathilde is materialistic and selfish. She took away happiness both from herself and her husband because "she burned with the desire to please, to be envied, to be attractive and sought after." This desire led to her downfall and her husband;s misery. I am in no way able to show compassion for this lady. The story starts out leading us to believe that Mathilde is a simple person without a lot of luxuries in her life. At this point I felt some pity for Mathilde. I thought that she was vasically a poor lady in an unhappy state of mind. But at the same time it was hard to feel