Necklace

Author
Guy de Maupassant
Year Published
1884
Type
Short Story
Perspective and Narrator
"The Necklace" is told by a third-person omniscient narrator, primarily commenting on Madame Loisel's
thoughts but sometimes providing insight into Monsieur Loisel's thoughts also.
Tense
"The Necklace" is told in the past tense.
About the Title
"The Necklace" refers to a diamond necklace the main character borrows to wear to an elegant ball. She loses
the necklace, and her life changes forever.

Context
Realism and Naturalism
In the mid-19th century, two artistic movements emerged that opposed the prevailing Romantic style: realism
and naturalism. Where Romantic writers such as Victor Hugo often portrayed doomed or noble characters,
realism focused on the contemporary world and characters familiar to the reader, such as farmers, laborers, and
bureaucrats. Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary is not only a classic example of realist fiction but also was
written to show the tragic failure of Romanticism as a worldview for its main character, Emma Bovary.
Naturalism sharpened the clear-eyed view of realist writers by taking a scientific and journalistic approach to
the collection of materials and presentation of characters. French writer Émile Zola was a naturalist who tried
to describe the world objectively and presented characters whose behavior and identity are shaped by their
environments.

Many writers, including Guy de Maupassant, have been classified as both realists and naturalists.
Maupassant himself worked as a journalist, which gave his writing a steady flood of contemporary material,
and he was proud of having only written about things he had himself seen. In "The Necklace" readers can see
Maupassant's naturalism in his description of the cab after the ball, the social interaction at the ball itself, and
small details such as Monsieur Loisel's plans to buy a gun for recreation. It is most visible, though, in the
descriptions of the 10 years of hard labor the couple put in to pay off their debt and how the struggle
affects Madame Loisel.

Gustave Flaubert and His Circle

Maupassant's maternal uncle, Alfred Le Poittevin, was a friend of French novelist Gustave Flaubert, and his
mother consequently arranged for Flaubert to tutor her son. From 1874 until his death in 1880, Flaubert
mentored Maupassant, reviewed his work, and according to Flaubert himself loved him like a son.

Flaubert also helped shape Maupassant's career by introducing him to major international literary figures
including Émile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, and Henry James. In addition to acquainting Maupassant with some of
the greatest writers of his time, these introductions provided voices who championed his work and increased its
reach. Zola assembled the collection of short stories on the Franco-German War in which Maupassant's first
major story appeared.

Though he also criticized Maupassant, Henry James called him a "lion in the path" of other writers because his
talent loomed so large.

Maupassant and the Short Story

As a literary genre the short story is quite modern, emerging on its own in the 19th century. One driving force
for the popularity of the genre was the explosion of magazine culture. As literacy increased, magazines became
common and popular throughout Europe and the United States, creating a thriving literary culture—and a far
greater market for fiction than ever before. As a result more writers could make a living by writing, and
successful writers like Maupassant could become rich from their stories and novels.

An active magazine culture created a new context for writers. Audiences could now follow favorite writers.
Writers and editors became more actively attuned to the work produced by others in their field; such activity
created a blend of inspiration and competition. Maupassant was in the midst of this phenomenon: people paid
attention to what he published and where. "The Necklace" specifically attracted considerable attention. Indeed
Henry James not only commented on Maupassant's tale but also wrote his own story, "Paste," in response to it.
Maupassant also influenced American short story writers O. Henry and Ambrose Bierce, who borrowed the
technique of the "surprise-inversion" ending used in "The Necklace."

The critic Francis Steegmuller dedicated an entire chapter of his 1949 critical biography Maupassant: A Lion
in the Path to "The Necklace," arguing that because of the story's popularity and subsequent imitations, readers
became tired of such dramatic reversals as endings. Steegmuller also claimed that because "The Necklace" is
so well known, its final twist characterizes Maupassant as a gimmicky writer and causes readers to
underestimate his mastery.

Character Analysis
Madame Loisel
As a young, married woman, Madame Loisel is pretty and charming, but her vanity makes her feel entitled to
more than what she has. In fact, because of her looks, she believes Fate has made a mistake, that she was
destined for more. Envious of what others have and perpetually dissatisfied, she wants to be popular and
admired in society in the ways attractive, rich women are. She thinks of little else but the trappings of wealth
and shows scorn for all she does have in her basic but unadorned life. When her daydreams turn into a reality
—an invitation to a ball given by her husband's superiors—she is noted as the prettiest woman there and
admired as she has always hoped to be. But her dissatisfaction and vanity lead to her downfall, causing her to
lose everything she has, including her youth, beauty, and modest way of life but at the same time causing her to
grow, accept, and respect herself.

Monsieur Loisel
Monsieur Loisel appears easygoing, if not glamorous or charismatic, and eager to please his wife. Realistic
about what he can do within his means, he saves money for special purchases and shows generosity when,
slightly reluctantly at first, he gives that money to his wife for a new dress. He never complains about his
wife's dissatisfaction and seems to do what he can to make her happy. His attempt to do so, however, initiates
the couple's downfall; in obtaining the invitation to the ball he unknowingly stimulates his wife's fantasies into
actions. Monsieur Loisel's depth of character and quiet heroism emerge after Madame Loisel loses the
necklace. He takes control of the situation, does what he can and thinks is right, and ends up losing everything.
Yet he never complains or blames his wife for their great loss.

Madame Forestier
Madame Jeanne Forestier is a rich young woman and lends her school friend, Madame Loisel, the necklace to
wear to the ball.

Jeweler 1
Jeweler 1 is the person whose name appears on the box containing Madame Forestier's expensive necklace.

Jeweler 2
Jeweler 2 is the proprietor of the shop in which the Loisels find the same necklace as Madame Forestier's and
with whom Monsieur Loisel arranges payment.

Plot Summary & Analysis

Summary

An Invitation
In mid-19th-century Paris a pretty girl is born into a family of clerks. With no dowry and no prospects for
marriage to a wealthy man, she marries Monsieur Loisel, a minor clerk in the Ministry of Public Instruction.
Even though she has never known anything better, she is unhappy with her life, feeling her beauty and charm
alone entitle her to wealth and luxury, of which she continually dreams. Her dissatisfaction plagues the early
years of her marriage, as she remains "distressed at the poverty of her dwelling, at the bareness of the walls, at
the shabby chairs, the ugliness of the curtains." Her husband, on the other hand, is content and appreciates
what he has. Madame Loisel has a rich friend from school whom she has stopped visiting because "she felt so
sad when she came home."
One evening Monsieur Loisel brings home an invitation—which he worked hard to obtain, for such events are
above his social and professional circles—to a ball given by the Minister of Public Instruction. Monsieur
Loisel thinks his wife will be delighted, but she is not: rather she is distraught at the idea of not having the
proper clothes: "I have no gown, and, therefore, I can't go to this ball." When he asks what a new dress would
cost—one she could wear again, as Monsieur is thrifty—Madame Loisel calculates and tells him 400 francs.
Taken aback, Monsieur Loisel hesitates momentarily because he was saving that amount to buy himself a gun
so he could go shooting with friends, but after a moment he agrees to give her the money.

As the day of the ball approaches, Madame Loisel becomes anxious, explaining to her husband that even with
a new dress, she is unhappy because she has no jewels to wear. When he suggests flowers instead, she scoffs
and says, "No; there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich."
Monsieur Loisel then suggests she borrow something from her rich friend Madame Forestier. When Madame
Loisel visits her friend the next day, Madame Forestier is happy to help. After going through an assortment of
her friend's jewelry, Madame Loisel chooses a diamond necklace.
A Grand Occasion
At the ball Madame Loisel is the prettiest and most charming woman there. The men wonder at her beauty, and
high-ranking government officials ask who she is. Incredibly happy, she dances all night "with rapture, with
passion, intoxicated by pleasure, forgetting all in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a sort
of cloud of happiness" while her husband and other husbands fall asleep in an adjoining room. At four in the
morning the Loisels leave. Monsieur Loisel asks his wife to wait inside while he hails a cab, but she rushes out
into the street so other guests won't notice she has no fur wrap.

Loss
No cabs stop, and they have to walk until they find a shabby night taxi. When they get home, Madame Loisel,
wanting to admire herself in the mirror once more, sees she isn't wearing the necklace. She panics. The Loisels
look through her clothing but cannot find it. She remembers touching it as they left the party and reasons they
would have heard it land if it had fallen in the street. They conclude it must have fallen in the cab, which they
cannot track down as neither noticed its number.

Monsieur Loisel leaves immediately and retraces their path, looking for the lost necklace. Unsuccessful, the
next day he visits cab companies, the police, and newspapers, offering a reward and hoping for a response.
There is no good news, however. To buy them some time he has Madame Loisel write her friend to say the
necklace's clasp broke and they're having it fixed.

After a week passes with no news of the necklace, they decide they must buy a replacement. When they go to
the jeweler whose name appears on the box, he tells them he never sold such a necklace but perhaps furnished
its case. Eventually they find a jeweler selling the same necklace, who agrees to sell it to them for 36,000
francs. Monsieur Loisel inherited 18,000 francs from his father but must borrow the rest, a little at a time, from
different sources. The Loisels buy the necklace, and Madame Loisel "returns" it to Madame Forestier, who
shows annoyance at the lateness of its return.

A Change of Circumstance
Now deeply in debt, the Loisels are forced to change their lives to pay off their loans. They must dismiss their
servant and give up their apartment, moving into far humbler quarters than they have had until now. Madame
Loisel must do all the hard physical work around the house herself. She must bargain at the markets for every
advantage she can get. Having complained earlier about the barrenness of her middle-class apartment, now
"Madame Loisel knew the horrible existence of the needy. She bore her part, however, with sudden heroism."
In addition to his job at the ministry, Monsieur Loisel takes on extra work in the evening.

They do nothing but work hard and live in deep poverty for 10 years to pay off the debt. The price, however,
includes the loss of Madame Loisel's youth and beauty; she has become a "woman of impoverished households
—strong and hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew and red hands, she talked loud while washing the
floor with great swishes of water." Worn and old beyond her years, shrill and harsh, having lost her only assets
—youth and beauty—she nevertheless remembers on occasion that one perfect night at the ball and wonders
about its aftermath.

Revelation
One Sunday she takes a walk as a break from her week of hard work and encounters Madame Forestier, who
still looks young and beautiful and has a child with her. Madame Loisel is hesitant about approaching her but
does. At first Madame Forestier does not recognize her friend, who has changed beyond recognition, and is
horrified when Madame Loisel tells her who she is. Madame Loisel, revealing the truth, tells her, "I have had a
pretty hard life, since I last saw you, and great poverty—and that because of you!" She blames Madame
Forestier for the lost necklace, but in her newfound strength, Madame Loisel feels proud to have honored her
debt.

Baffled by this revelation, Madame Forestier asks how that could be since Madame Loisel returned the
necklace. Madame Loisel explains they bought a diamond necklace to replace it. Shocked and deeply moved,
Madame Forestier says, "Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste! It was worth at most only five
hundred francs!"

Analysis

A Fairy Tale Gone Wrong

In some ways Guy de Maupassant's story may be considered a fairy tale gone wrong. The story opens by
introducing the protagonist without naming her. Opening with "She was one of those pretty, charming girls" is
as universal an opening as "once upon a time." These few words create a timelessness and universality,
underscored by the mention of fate. However, there is a twist; the girl is born into a family of Parisian civil
servants, not to peasants in a hut in the woods. She is not a princess in a foreign land, nor does she have much
chance of living above the class into which she is born.

In fact, the girl, Mathilde, is the very opposite of a fairy-tale princess. Although she may be pretty and
charming, she is vain and continually dissatisfied—a young woman, perhaps, with Cinderella's good looks and
the stepsisters' chronic discontent and vanity. When she marries Monsieur Loisel, a low-level clerk who tries to
please her, her dissatisfaction with her life continues, and she daydreams of "silent antechambers hung with
Oriental tapestry, illumined by tall bronze candelabra ... of two great footmen in knee breeches ... of long
reception halls hung with ancient silk, of ... dainty cabinets containing priceless curiosities and of the little
coquettish perfumed reception rooms made for chatting at five o'clock with intimate friends, with men famous
and sought after." She believes she deserves fine things, for she loves them. Her love is focused on riches; in a
fantasy world she daydreams of nothing else. Whereas fairy-tale princesses are good, kind, accepting, and
loving, Mathilde Loisel's single-minded dissatisfaction characterizes her as shallow and disagreeable, despite
the charm she may display to nonexistent characters.

When she is invited to a ball, an invitation her husband has tried hard to obtain for her sake, she complains of
having nothing to wear. Monsieur Loisel gives her money for a new dress, but she then complains of having no
jewels to wear. There is no grateful Cinderella or magic fairy godmother: instead a pretentious, dissatisfied
woman already married; a well-meaning but thrifty clerk as her husband; and a rich, obliging friend of whom
she is envious. At the ball Madame Loisel has her moment of glory. "She was prettier than any other woman
present, elegant, graceful, smiling and wild with joy. All the men looked at her, asked her name, sought to be
introduced. All the attaches of the Cabinet wished to waltz with her." She is the most admired woman, the belle
of the ball, but the admiration comes from government bureaucrats, not eligible young princes, while her
husband dozes in another room.

No magic coach appears after the ball; instead they hail a disreputable cab, which the Loisels must find on
their own in the cold. The dress does not disappear or turn into rags. What does disappear is the borrowed
necklace. Madame Loisel has lost it and will pay the price, for it will not be returned by magic or by a prince.
The loss begins a spiral downward into 10 years of hard labor and the loss of all they have.

Readers might expect a touch of grace from fate—a huge reward, an inheritance, a long-lost relative appearing
on the scene—some vindication for the Loisels' sacrifice. However, instead of rewarding duty and honesty, the
ending punishes Madame Loisel yet again for her aspirations and actions, even as she seems to have lost those
aspirations, and her actions consist of cleaning house and pinching pennies. However, by closing with Madame
Forestier's revelation, and not showing how Madam Loisel reacts or what she thinks, Maupassant leaves
readers to question how Madame Loisel, now more mature, responsible, and realistic, responds to this news.
Structural Rhythm
Maupassant establishes a rhythm in the story that guides reader expectations. A good thing happens—Monsieur
Loisel secures the invitation to the ball—and Madame Loisel is disappointed: "I have no gown, and, therefore,
I can't go to this ball." A good thing happens—she buys a dress—and again Madame Loisel is disappointed: "It
annoys me not to have a single piece of jewelry, not a single ornament, nothing to put on. I shall look poverty-
stricken. I would almost rather not go at all." The third time is the charm and indicates once again the onset of
something negative. Thus Maupassant foreshadows unfortunate events following the ball by indicating that
when Madame Loisel attends the ball, she will be unhappy because when she gets what she wants, she is
continually disappointed. This time, however, the result will be catastrophic, far beyond petulant
dissatisfaction.

Realism and Naturalism

Maupassant focuses the first two paragraphs of the story on describing Madame Loisel as a product of her
environment, a typical naturalist approach to characterization. He doesn't name her here but describes her as a
type of woman defined by where and how she was born. His approach explains her relative passivity early in
the story. She cannot reshape her environment but can only adapt to it.

Readers can see Maupassant's use of realism in his choice of characters in "The Necklace." Paris was full of
lower middle-class couples struggling to get by. This story could have happened to thousands of couples like
the Loisels. The scope and scale of the story are also realistic. This is not a story about characters who go on a
quest, or who are seeking greatness or achievement. This is a story about a bureaucrat who wants to make his
wife happy for an evening, and his wife who wants to be admired for being pretty. Maupassant includes many
moments of small-scale realism, such as when the husbands at the party all sit in a separate room and doze
while their wives dance.

Maupassant's highly specific descriptions in the third and fourth paragraphs show a realist's concern with
accuracy and detail. Madame Loisel doesn't just long for riches and beauty: she longs for rooms full of "old
silk." And the tureen on the Loisels' dinner table isn't just covered with a cloth: it is covered with a "three-day-
old cloth."

His most vivid moments of realist writing, though, come after the couple lose the necklace and are working to
pay back the loan they took out to buy the replacement. Maupassant describes their poverty and their labor
with intense specificity. He shows exactly what poverty does to people and what kind of lives the poor lead.
Because there is no single source from which Monsieur Loisel can borrow, he takes up "ruinous obligations,
deal[s] with usurers ... compromise[s] all the rest of his life, risk[s] signing a note without even knowing
whether he could meet it." Madame Loisel's lot, after moving to an attic, is no easier as "she carrie[s] the slops
down to the street every morning and carrie[s] up the water, stopping for breath at every landing." She now
dresses "like a woman of the people" as she goes to "the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, a basket on her arm,
bargaining, meeting with impertinence, defending her miserable money, sou by sou." This painful new
environment reshapes Madame Loisel to the point her old friend cannot recognize her.

The Marriage and the Characters

The Loisels' marriage is neither a great love match nor a financially advantageous union. In fact Madame
Loisel with her daydreams of wealth and luxury likely benefits more than her husband. A petty clerk like the
rest of his wife's family, he has married her without a dowry, the absence of which would further narrow
Mathilde's prospects. On the other hand, her good looks and charm may have greater worth to her husband,
whose monetary ambitions seem limited, despite his frugality. Indeed, he is quite satisfied with a modest life
and with his position. Because he has inherited some money from his father, he feels comfortable. As a
husband he may not understand his wife's character or ambitions, and certainly does not share her dreams. Yet
despite occasional frustration or impatience, he is dutiful and attentive and tries to please, as evident in his
cadging an invitation to the ball, which holds no interest for him.

Madame Loisel, on the other hand, with her sense of entitlement, is as dissatisfied as her husband is satisfied.
Although dutiful and responsible, she resents her circumstances, even though their apartment is reasonably
comfortable—if not richly adorned. A maid does the heavy work, they go to the theater, she has enough money
for necessities, and her husband has some funds put aside. Maupassant depicts Madame Loisel as a woman
who "suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries," showing little affection
for or interest in anything other than luxuries she does not have and feels she deserves. She is vain, shallow,
and foolishly proud—before the inevitable fall.

Husband and wife have in common honesty, pride, and an unwavering sense of duty. What both lack is
imagination, despite Madame Loisel's daydreams, which are based on fantasy. Imagination as applied to reality
would have served them well. Indeed, the Loisels are honest in replacing the necklace, giving up 10 years of
their lives and depleting their assets. Pride and lack of imagination keep them from admitting the loss of the
necklace, or they surely would have learned of its value. In replacing the necklace their sense of duty prevails
over all else.

Readers may speculate on Madame Forestier and the imitation necklace. She may have much less wealth than
her friend believes, she may not want to disappoint her friend by telling her the diamonds are not real, or she
may not want to embarrass herself by such a revelation. Rich as she may be, she shows no hesitation in
wearing fake jewels; she responds to the lateness of the necklace's return, "You should have returned it sooner;
I might have needed it." Regardless, the Loisels' perception of her wealth convinces them of the necklace's
value, even after Madame Loisel discovers the necklace and the box do not belong together, as the first jeweler
reveals.

Situational Irony
"The Necklace" is built on situational irony—the literary term for a discrepancy between what readers expect
to happen and what actually happens. The surprise ending forces readers to see the plot as a series of
contrasting events. Madame Loisel's one evening of glory living out her fantasies is what knocks the couple
down far below what they were before the ball. Having borrowed the necklace to make her appear richer and
more beautiful, she ultimately loses all her money and her looks because of it. Yet, she expresses no
dissatisfaction and behaves heroically in her reduced circumstances, whereas her dissatisfaction was evident
when she had a great deal more.

The ultimate instance of situational irony, of course, is the limited value of the necklace. On one level it shows
rich people's possessions are not always what they appear to be. The Loisels never question the necklace's
authenticity or value, nor does Madame Forestier volunteer the information. And the greatest irony is that the
10 years spent laboring to repay the debt are all for nothing. The Loisels could easily have replaced it with
their savings—and their lives—intact.

Introduction

1The Loisels marry and live a frugal, middle-class life.

Rising Action

2Madame Loisel resents her situation and dreams of luxury.

3Monsieur Loisel brings home an invitation to a ball.
4Monsieur Loisel gives Madame Loisel money for a new gown.
5She borrows a diamond necklace to wear to the ball.
6Madame Loisel is a great hit at the ball.

Climax

7Madame Loisel loses the necklace, which she must replace.

Falling Action

8The Loisels work for 10 years to pay for the lost necklace.

Resolution

9Madame Loisel learns the borrowed necklace was fake.                  

Quotes
1.

  She dressed simply, being unable to afford anything better, but she was every whit as unhappy as any
daughter of a grand family who has come down in the world. 

Narrator

Maupassant came from minor nobility and had opportunity to observe families whose fortunes had fallen,
especially since France had lost the Franco-German War. He knew how bitterly these families resented their
social descent. Madame Loisel's feelings about staying in the same economic class where she was born reveal
her sense of entitlement and dissatisfaction.
2.

  Ah, the good soup! I don't know anything better than that. 

Monsieur Loisel

In contrast to his wife's chronic discontent, Monsieur Loisel shows satisfaction with and appreciation of what
he has, without aspiring to a standard of living far above his station in life. In fact, as he comments on the
soup, Madame Loisel is dreaming of being served elegant fare and using fine silverware
3.

  She would have given anything to be popular, envied, attractive, and in demand. 

Narrator
Vain and shallow, Madame Loisel more than anything else longs to be admired for her looks and glamorous
attire. The statement later turns out to be an example of verbal irony, for when she does get a chance to be
popular and envied for one night, she does in fact have to give up everything to pay for the lost necklace.
This is also one of several sentences early in the story that start with She. The repetition creates a rhythm and
focuses attention on Madame Loisel at the same time as it depersonalizes her. Maupassant does not give her a
name until she marries.

4.

  She had no gowns, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that. She felt made for that. 

Narrator

In these sentences the narrator explains Madame Loisel's situation and mindset. She had no beautiful clothing
or jewelry, yet these are the only things that interest her or that she cares about. Feeling entitled because of her
good looks, Madame Loisel is characterized again as shallow and constantly dissatisfied.
5.

  Instead of being delighted as her husband had hoped, she tossed the invitation peevishly onto the table and
muttered: 'What earthly use is that to me?' 

Madame Loisel

This line efficiently characterizes Madame Loisel and the dynamic between her and her husband. She has
always wanted to attend this kind of event, and her husband has worked hard to obtain the invitation in an
attempt to please her and raise his status in her estimation. However, it is not enough.
6.

  No; there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich. 

Madame Loisel

Madame Loisel is all about appearances. She makes this remark when her husband suggests she wear flowers
instead of jewels to the ball. For Madame Loisel wearing flowers is a sign she has no jewels, and despite her
new and expensive dress she feels the need to adorn herself even more with signs of wealth, which is all-
important to her. She is incapable at this point of satisfaction.
7.

  Suddenly she discovered ... a superb diamond necklace. And her heart throbbed with an immoderate
desire. She fastened it around her throat ... and was lost in ecstasy at her reflection in the mirror. 
Narrator

After going through her friend's jewelry and not finding what she wants amidst the finery, Madame Loisel,
ever dissatisfied, finally finds a diamond necklace she wants to borrow. Believing it valuable and therefore
beautiful, Madame Loisel, vain even without her own jewelry, enjoys looking at herself, adorned with
diamonds, in the mirror. Borrowing the necklace to appease her vanity and present a deceptive image of wealth
is Madame Loisel's undoing.
8.

  Madame Loisel was a success. She was the prettiest woman there, elegant, graceful, radiant, and
wonderfully happy. 

Narrator

This is the moment of Madame Loisel's dreams. She isn't just pretty: she is the prettiest woman there. The
sentences describe a fantasy. And like a perfect moment in a myth, fairy tale, or dream, it is bound to end soon.
9.

  Suddenly she gave a cry. The necklace was no longer round her throat! 

Narrator

At this moment Madame Loisel realizes she has lost the necklace. It occurs just after she has turned to look at
her reflection in a mirror one last time before her magical night is over. Although she does not know it yet, this
is the moment at which her life is about to change forever.
10.

  They lived like this for ten years. 

Narrator

This is one of Maupassant's striking lines. A flat, declarative sentence, it states the simple truth of the Loisels'
life. It is a noteworthy example of compression. Minimalist lines like these reveal Maupassant's influence on
later authors such as Hemingway.
This line is also poignant in its simple summary. This couple had a solid life before they lost the necklace.
Now, though, they have experienced 10 years of endless toil.
11.

  Life is so strange, so fickle! How little is needed to make or break us. 

Narrator
Most of the narration follows Madame Loisel closely, but at key points it pulls back to offer universal
reflections, making her radical reversal of fortune something that might happen to anyone.
Maupassant places this reflection directly after describing Madame Loisel's habit of periodically thinking back
on her one magical night, thus showing that despite what that night cost her, Madame Loisel still values beauty
and appearance over reality.
12.

  Yes, I've been through some hard times since I saw you, very hard times. And it was all on your account. 

Madame Loisel

Madame Loisel says this to her old friend Madame Forestier when they meet again, 10 years after Madame
Loisel "returned" the necklace she had borrowed and lost by replacing it with another one. The quotation
shows how much Madame Loisel has changed from her 10 years of hard work. On one hand, she is more direct
and willing to admit what she did, even taking pride in it, since she and her husband have paid off a massive
debt.
On the other hand, despite her growth and maturity, there is still a passive-aggressive element to Madame
Loisel. Madame Loisel borrowed the necklace by choice and lost it in part because she was unwilling to wait
for a cab at the ball because other women would see her cheap coat. However, she still blames her friend for
her fate.
13.

  Oh, my poor Mathilde! But it was only an imitation necklace. It couldn't have been worth much more than
500 francs! 

Madame Forestier

By revealing the shocking truth of the necklace and then immediately ending the story, Maupassant pulls the
reader into the story to complete it. Readers can only imagine Madame Loisel's reaction to one of literature's
most famous examples of situational irony and can only ask why neither friend was direct enough to tell the
truth.                     

Symbols
Necklace
The necklace represents two of the story's themes: the link between beauty and entitlement and the painful
clash of fantasy and reality. It appears to be a beautiful, shining piece of jewelry in a satin case.
When Madame Loisel borrows it, she thinks it is beautiful and valuable; it validates her sense of self-
importance and makes her feel at ease in a grand setting. For the first time she feels a sense of rightness in her
life; her entitlement is on display.
The ball is indeed the single most important event of her life, but not in the way Madame Loisel expects as she
works the next 10 years to pay off the price of the replacement necklace. And the necklace itself is worth little;
like her aspirations, it is a sham, made of paste and glass.
Cab
Roads, paths, and vehicles that travel over them often appear in fiction as symbols for life and change as they
carry characters from one point to another. The cab in "The Necklace" is not a regular cab, for the Loisels
cannot find one to bring them home. They must walk in the cold to find transportation as regular cabs pass
them by.
They end up in an old, shabby night cab, one that is "ashamed to show [its] shabbiness during the day." It is
almost as though the Loisels board a ghost cab: it seems to appear out of nowhere, cannot show itself in
daylight, and vanishes after they leave it. The cab symbolizes the Loisels' descent into shabby and dark
circumstances. No trace of it, or the glittering piece of jewelry presumably left inside, exists after it completes
its ominous mission.

Rue des Martyrs

The "ghost cab" brings the Loisels home to their apartment on Rue des Martyrs, French for "street of the
martyrs." The name symbolizes the situation in which the Loisels find themselves. They become martyrs to
duty. Like the religious martyrs for whom the street is named, the Loisels suffer the death of their former life
because of the loss of the necklace. Madame Loisel is a martyr to her own beliefs, and her old self
symbolically dies for them as she loses her youth and beauty.
Her "sudden heroism" in accepting her fate may be seen as another interpretation of her martyrdom. She gains
depth of character by renouncing her own comfort and laboring for years to do what she believes she must.     

Themes
Beauty and Entitlement
Much of what happens in "The Necklace" happens because of beauty, or the appearance of it, and because of
the way in which individuals value it. Madame Loisel is unhappy with the life into which she is born, and
then with her marriage, because she values beauty and wealth—that is, the beautiful things money can buy.
Madame Loisel is pretty, but to a family without money her beauty means little. Her lack of status and
possessions makes her unhappy early in the story as she dreams of beautiful clothes, expensive jewels, elegant
balls, and large homes with many servants.
Madame Loisel believes that life owes her more because of her own beauty. She feels she deserves social
recognition, admiration, and special attention. She sees no worth in anything natural or inexpensive, as
evidenced in her reaction to her husband's suggestion she wear flowers to the ball. To her beauty is something
expensive, a commodity.

Fantasy versus Reality

Fantasy and reality clash throughout this story, and the main character seems to have trouble distinguishing one
from the other. Madame Loisel's beauty creates a sense of entitlement that she perceives as a reality, and her
fantasies of wealth and admiration are more important to her than her actual surroundings. Her husband is
more in touch with reality, so that before the ball the Loisels seem to inhabit parallel lives that barely touch.
While he enjoys the meal before him on the table, she is dreaming about grand feasts. Instead of the "good
soup" on the table, Madame Loisel is fantasizing about "dainty dinners, of shining silverware," and delicacies
like "the pink meat of a trout or the wings of a quail." Madame Loisel's visions of "strange birds" and "fairy
forests" give an aspect of fantasy to the story itself, with Mathilde Loisel as the implicit princess. But the
reality is soup, served on a tablecloth used three times, much to her distaste.
The necklace is itself a fantasy. Madame Loisel delights in its glitter while believing it is real. But at the end of
the story it is revealed to be a fake, unworthy of the brutal 10 years the couple has spent trying to replace it.
Class
The theme of class consciousness and the difficulty of upward mobility contributes to the tensions in the
story. Madame Loisel is unhappy with her life in part because she was born, "as if by a slip of fate, into a
family of clerks." Thus "with no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married
by any rich and distinguished man," she must accept her situation.
She is not poor at the start of the story; although she and her thrifty husband live very modestly, they do go to
the theater and have a servant, but they are far outside the class to which Madame Loisel thinks she should
belong on the basis of her beauty. Her vanity colors her outlook on life and makes her feel she deserves more.
She wants what her rich friend has, and visits to Madame Forestier's home arouse Madame Loisel's deep
envy.
When Madame Loisel loses the necklace, she and her husband behave like respectable middle-class people.
They have lived within their means and avoided debt. Their failure to question the value of the necklace
demonstrates how far away they are from the upper classes to which Madame Loisel aspires, as does their
seriousness about the debt they must pay. They are not casual in their attitudes toward money, as those who
have it might tend to be. Their failure to see a red flag when the jeweler tells the Loisels the necklace and the
case do not match underscores their naiveté.

After the necklace is replaced, Guy de Maupassant paints a vivid portrait of a couple struggling, with little
success, against poverty, but the rapid descent is unavoidable. Upward mobility may be difficult, if not
impossible, but downward mobility is easy.

Duty
The theme of doing one's duty drives the plot both before and after the loss of the necklace. For all that she
yearns for something else, Madame Loisel accepts as her duty her marriage to Monsieur Loisel when her
family arranges it. When she wants an expensive new dress so she can attend the ball in style, Monsieur Loisel
winces at the cost but surrenders his planned pleasures so she can have what she wants. He believes his duty is
to please his wife, and he does it without much reluctance.
After Madame Loisel loses the necklace, Monsieur Loisel fully accepts responsibility for the situation. Despite
Madame Loisel's vanity and desire for wealth, she never shirks responsibility: "She was determined to pay."
Equally dutiful and responsible, Monsieur Loisel surrenders his inheritance to pay half the cost of the
replacement necklace, and both Loisels work day and night for 10 years to repay their debt. Duty transforms
Madame Loisel from the "paste" of shallow, youthful beauty to maturity. At the beginning of the story, though
she longs for wealth, Madame Loisel shows no determination to do anything. Duty transforms her physically
and emotionally.

Dissatisfaction
The story shows that dissatisfaction with one's lot can make a situation disagreeable at best, disastrous at
worst. As "The Necklace" opens, Madame Loisel wishes her life were different and has no way to improve
it. When her husband offers an invitation to a grand ball, the kind of event she dreams of, she rejects his offer
—and in fact snaps at him—because she lacks the proper clothes to attend. When he sacrifices the money he
was saving for a gun so that she can have a new dress, she becomes dissatisfied again because she lacks
jewelry.
However, her situation changes after she loses the necklace, and along with the necklace, she loses her earlier
motivation; her dissatisfaction is no longer a driving force. In fact, during her time of deprivation she acts
"with sudden heroism" to pay the "dreadful debt."
Biography
Guy de Maupassant was born Henry-René-Albert-Guy de Maupassant on August 5, 1850, to Gustave and
Laure de Maupassant. He had one brother, Hervé, six years younger. Gustave de Maupassant came from a
minor aristocratic line, and he and his wife were both from Norman French families. That shared heritage
didn't save their marriage, though, as the couple had traits that pulled them apart. Maupassant's mother was
emotionally sensitive and highly protective of her offspring. His father was known to have affairs. The couple
separated when Guy was 11.

During much of his adolescence, Maupassant lived with his mother in Etretat, a coastal town that was both an
active fishing village and a vacation resort. Etretat gave Maupassant the chance to observe people from many
different classes: local fishermen and peasant farmers but also artists and the rich. When Maupassant was a
teenager, he helped rescue a drowning man who subsequently invited Maupassant to lunch to thank him. This
rescued man was the English poet Charles Swinburne, who showed the young Maupassant a range of
interesting things at their lunch, including a withered human hand and a pet monkey.

Though his family was not particularly religious, Maupassant attended a seminary for the first stages of his
education. Unhappy with seminary life, he managed to get himself expelled in 1868, after which he attended a
secular lycée (secondary school) at Le Havre. After passing his baccalaureate in 1869, Maupassant started
studying law in Paris in the fall of that year. When the Franco-German War broke out in 1870, Maupassant
volunteered to serve; he would draw on his war experiences for several stories. Although these experiences do
not directly relate to "The Necklace," the war did provide context for it. The French loss in the war ruined
Maupassant's father's tobacco business, causing the family anxiety over lost position and income like the
Loisels' experience in "The Necklace."

In 1871 after leaving the military, Maupassant resumed his legal studies. His father helped Maupassant obtain
government positions, first in the Ministry of the Marine (Navy) and then in the Ministry of Public Instruction.

While Maupassant published some minor pieces in the 1870s, his popularity as a writer began in April 1880
when he published "Boule de Suif" (Ball of Fat) in a multiauthor collection about the Franco-German War.
From then on Maupassant was in great demand and became intensely productive and rich. He published more
than 300 short stories, six novels, three travel accounts, two plays, and a poetry collection. His intense
productivity established Maupassant as one of France's most influential writers.
In 1884 Maupassant published what became his most famous story, "La Parure," in the newspaper Le Gaulois,
a publication with notable contributors such as Gaston Laroux, who decades later would serialize The
Phantom of the Opera in its pages. "La Parure" has been translated as "The Diamond Necklace" as well as
"The Necklace."
Maupassant had been active and athletic when he was young, sometimes rowing up to 50 miles in a single day.
However, he was promiscuous and developed syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease, when still in his 20s. His
brother Hervé died of the same disease after a breakdown. As Maupassant grew older, he worried about both
his physical and mental conditions. With his brother's death preying on his mind, Maupassant attempted
suicide in January 1892, after which his mother had him committed to a mental hospital. Maupassant died on
July 6, 1893. Naturalist French writer Émile Zola delivered Maupassant's funeral oration.