Quote 13
Then, one Sunday, as she was taking a turn in the Champs Elysées, as a recreation after the labors of the week, she perceived suddenly a woman walking with a child. It was Mme. Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still seductive. (107)
Unlike Mathilde, who's lost her looks and "womanly charms" to poverty, Mme. Forestier still looks good. All of that even after becoming a mother (another sign of womanhood). This makes us wonder why Mathilde doesn't have a child?
Quote 14
She suffered intensely, feeling herself born for every delicacy and every luxury. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the worn walls, the abraded chairs, the ugliness of the stuffs. All these things, which another woman of her caste would not even have noticed, tortured her and made her indignant. (3)
Mathilde feels herself to be better than her circumstances. She deserves more than she has, and is angry at the universe because she isn't getting it. Her dissatisfaction seems intimately connected to pride.
Quote 15
"Nothing. Only I have no clothes, and in consequence I cannot go to this party. Give your card to some colleague whose wife has a better outfit than I." (21)
Instead of being happy with the invitation her husband has worked so hard to get, Mathilde's first reaction is to be angry about it. If she's going to go, she just has to look the best, and she doesn't have any clothes that are nice enough Is she ever happy? Then again, would you want to go to the one nice party you've been invited to looking shabby? It's hard to tell whether Mathilde's vanity, or greed, is making her overreact, or whether she does have nothing nice to wear.