The Necklace

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1884

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Themes

The Harm of Dissatisfaction

At the outset of the story, Mathilde’s material desires establish the focus maintained throughout the narrative. De Maupassant first describes Mathilde based on her appearance and her desire to be “appreciated, understood, loved, and married by a rich and distinguished man” (Paragraph 1). Further, Mathilde’s “beauty, grace, and charm replace [her] pride of birth” (Paragraph 2). Yet these traits cannot hide the truth: she is a woman born into the working class and of no notable social rank. Mathilde’s shallow personality leads her to suffering and covetousness, as she ignores the advantages around her and pines for the life she thinks she wants and deserves. She is dissatisfied with the same lifestyle that Loisel is content with, illustrating that the fault lies in her preoccupation with being part of a social class she cannot be a part of. This dissatisfaction leads her to borrow the necklace that will cause her to struggle in poverty for a decade. Had she been satisfied with her class and life, she would have avoided poverty.

Mathilde’s obsession with being part of the upper class ultimately causes her misery. De Maupassant uses negative words such as “suffered,” “ugly,” “pain,” “tormented,” “angry,” and “rueful” to illustrate her feelings toward her lifestyle (Paragraphs 3-4). She ignores the fact that she is married to a good man and lives in a decent apartment, focusing only on the furnishings and meals she cannot afford but which she believes should be hers by right. She is never described as willing to work toward this lofty goal; her desire to have that lifestyle implies that she expects it will be handed to her. She also makes decisions that harm herself, such as choosing a necklace that she thinks is highly valuable. Once she loses the necklace and resolves to pay back the debt, Mathilde shows that she is capable of hard work and determination. Had she used this determination to improve her initial living situation, she would have been able to live in greater luxury. Instead, she is forced into poverty, working to pay back a debt when she could be saving toward financial security.

Pride Versus Humility

Mathilde’s preoccupation with wealth and social class stems from having too much pride to accept the class into which she was born. Mathilde’s obsession with wealth and luxury leads to a destructive sense of pride. For example, instead of being content with the simple yet hearty meal she and Loisel share, she dreams of far grander food and furnishings. These daydreams turn to reality when presented with the opportunity to attend the minister of education’s ball. Mathilde’s vanity gets the best of her when she selects a necklace she thinks is very valuable and will attract the attention she craves. Had she been humbler, Mathilde might have selected a piece of jewelry that was less ostentatious but also less valuable and less of a financial burden should it be lost. Mathilde’s pride pushes her to choose the seemingly expensive necklace, setting her up for financial ruin.

Once Mathilde and Loisel obtain the money to buy the replacement necklace and return it to Madame Forestier, Mathilde “[resigns] herself to it with unexpected fortitude” (Paragraph 100). She has evolved from pride to humility. Mathilde sought only wealth and admiration. But once she accepts the need to repay the debt, she finds strength she did not know she had, and she is able to work hard for over a decade to repay her loans. Mathilde might no longer be young, beautiful, or charming, but she is strong and focused on what is in front of her rather than daydreaming of what could be.

At the end of the story, pride returns to Mathilde when she decides to confront Madame Forestier for the first time since she returned the necklace. As she does, Mathilde is filled with “a proud, simple joy” (Paragraph 127), and she confesses that she lost the necklace and replaced it with another. Of course, this feeling of pride is immediately replaced by the shock of learning that Madame Forestier’s necklace was fake and worth a fraction of the necklace that replaced it. Again, Mathilde’s pride does not serve Mathilde well.

The Value of Hard Work

Despite the frequent references to Mathilde’s shallow and vain character, de Maupassant eventually shows that she has a strong sense of determination and resolve. The Loisels dismiss their maid and move from their apartment to an attic. They also take multiple jobs and live frugally to ensure they can repay all the money they borrowed. These changes illustrate the shift beginning to occur in the couple, especially Mathilde. Up to this point, she has set her heart only upon things that are expensive and coveted, yet now she turns her attention to things that matter more than outward appearance and monetary value. Mathilde is forced to perform manual labor she has likely not experienced before, yet she does so with a zeal quite unexpected in a woman who formerly placed great value in upholstery, dishes, and jewelry. Instead of being pained by the “poverty of her rooms—the shabby walls, the worn furniture, the ugly upholstery” (Paragraph 3), she is now “[d]isheveled, her skirts askew, with reddened hands, [speaking] in a loud voice, slopping water over the floors as she washed them” (Paragraph 106). This once pretty, charming woman, the belle of the minister of education’s ball, now finds value in hard work. She cares less about her appearance and more about overcoming the trial placed before her.

Mathilde’s transformation is so complete that instead of desiring to live a shallow and wasteful life, she has learned the value of money and the benefit of fighting to save every coin she possesses. This diligence and determination save the Loisels from total ruin. But had this hard work occurred in their previous living situation, things would have turned out differently for them. They could have likely lived a nice lifestyle, saving where they could and spending on what they valued most. On the other hand, had the couple not experienced this great hardship, Mathilde likely would not have experienced the great shift in her character, which perhaps serves her more than lavish dinner parties and extravagant sitting rooms ever would.