1. Introduction
The story "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant was a story that focused on a woman named Mathilde. Mathilde is a very attractive woman who is embarrassed about her social and economic status. She feels that she is very high above the class that she was placed in. She was actually born into a family of clerks, and her discontent with her status always afflicts her. She is always dreaming of a life that is different from the one that she knows, where she is living the high life, with servants and all the nice things that she can stand. Her husband is a lowly clerk in the Ministry of Education and he is content with his position in the middle class. He gets an invitation to a very fancy party, that he thinks will make Mathilde happy but instead it deepens her sorrow because she has no nice clothes or any jewelry to wear to such an occasion. He suggests that she wear some flowers but she gets upset and dashes out of the room. She does not want to be seen as the inferior person that she knows she is, she wants to look high class, and feel high class. Then as she is digging through the closet, and crying she finds an invitation and suggests that she ask her friend Mme. Forestier for some jewelry to wear to the party.
1.1. Overview of "The Necklace"
The story’s protagonist, Mathilde Loisel, has always desired to live a life of luxury, feeling that she was "born for every delicacy and luxury." However, she is married to a man who is a clerk in the Ministry of Education and his income, while enough to get by, is not sufficient to live life on the scale that she would have wanted. This is the basis for the theme of appearance and reality. Mathilde is not content with her current place in society and often dwells on how she can elevate herself to a higher status. Her obsession with wealth and status creates an inner conflict that Mathilde deals with throughout the story. This is evident in Mathilde’s daydreaming and constant dissatisfaction in her current "…small, pale rooms, in the... drab anteroom." (2) compared with the life of her friend Madame Forestier. The necklace comes into the story when borrowing items to fulfill her material desires, Mathilde attains a beautifully crafted necklace from Madame Forestier. Then finally, at the end of the tale, we have the reality of Mathilde’s life compared to her past. After losing and replacing the necklace, Mathilde learns that the years of hard work that she and her husband have endured were to pay back expensive debts used to produce the replacement of the necklace that only cost a few hundred francs. Mathilde has become a coarse old woman and her beauty is only a memory. This is shown when Mathilde has a chance meeting with Madame Forestier and instead of addressing her former friend, Mathilde is mistaken for a common peasant. Mathilde has at last reached the high social status that she always sought, although in doing so she lost her looks and more importantly she lost the charming appearance and secure reality of her early years. This drastic switch from their original state affects Mathilde in different ways and there is an ironic twist when Mathilde learns that the necklace that felt so real was actually a fake.
1.2. Significance of Appearance & Reality
This theme is particularly important as Maupassant develops the story of Madame Loisel. From the beginning, the author describes Madame Loisel as a discontent person who is obsessed with material wealth and appearance. When Madame Loisel is finally given the opportunity to attend the exclusive party, her appearance becomes of the utmost importance. She tells her husband, "What do you want me to do with that? ... he hadn't any more" (pg. 3) in reference to flowers she wished to be given money to buy a new dress. When her husband gives her the money to buy a new dress, she is still not satisfied. "She fastened upon her, her some jewels and went to see Mme. Forestier, and then ask to lend her some more" (pg. 4). Madame Loisel believes that her appearance cannot be too good as the party she will be attending is with the most distinguished people.
2. Appearance vs. Reality
The necklace which Madame Forestier lends to Madame Loisel is the central symbol of appearance versus reality. This is an instance in which the appearance of the necklace, and the social class it represents, conflicts with the reality of Madame Loisel's life. When Madame Loisel comes across the invitation to the Minister's party, she is deeply upset as she feels that the new dress she has bought is not enough. All at once, she knew that the finest clothes of all, the most wonderful of all, suitable for that big occasion, was the dress. She is not concerned with her appearance, but rather the appearance of wealth and high social class. Madame Loisel then goes to visit her friend Madame Forestier, who possesses the social standing that she aspires to. Madame Forestier allows Madame Loisel to choose any piece of jewelry to accompany her dress to the party. Madame Loisel spares no expense and chooses the most beautiful diamond necklace. This act is a depiction of her desire to be accepted in the wealthier social class. At the party, Madame Loisel receives much attention and is said to be the prettiest woman there. This is despite the fact that the guests viewed her very simply for her natural prettiness. Madame Loisel's fleeting moment of triumphant glory abruptly ends when she discovers that she has lost the necklace. She covers up the loss of the necklace by convincing her husband to say that he was buying some trout for the following day, and would then ask to see the friend he borrowed the gun from. Her plan was to replace the necklace with another one. This confidence that she will be able to replace the necklace and the lack of regret reinforces the fact that she has never intended on being her true self. She speaks aloud or tells the truth to only herself, confiding in the quiet and soothing lies of the false reality. In doing so, Madame Loisel convinces her husband to compromise his dreams of buying a new gun and possibly moving up in class, just so that she can further live in the illusion of high social class by buying a new necklace.
2.1. Madame Loisel's Desire for Wealth
Mathilde Loisel is a character who is obsessed with the social position to which she feels she is entitled. The narrator describes her living situation as, "She was unhappy all the time and kept complaining... because she was not living the life she had been born to" (175). She had a satisfying life until she delved into her own sense of appearance and attempted to become of a higher reality. This urge to break free of the middle class is the catalyst for the entire sequence of events in the story. When her husband brings home an invitation to a ball at the Ministerial Mansion, Mathilde had a difficult time accepting the premise due to the fact she had no extravagant dress, "nothing to wear on it, nothing to wear to the ball. She will feel she is dressed in poverty compared to other women when in the presence of other wealth at the ball. She tells her husband that he should give the invitation to someone else who he works with. She thought this would be the end of it, but little did she know that this would be a stepping stone to a more luxurious life that she always desired. She wanted to feel equal to other women at this ball as well as the wives of the high-ranking men who attended this event. She makes her husband spend money that they had been saving so he could go get a new gun to go hunting, on a dress for herself. She needed to look beautiful and sophisticated, something she felt would make her feel more equal to the lifestyle she felt she should be living compared to her birth lifestyle. This dress would only be a façade for her real life, but that mattered not to her because it was a step up in her social class.
2.2. The Illusion of the Necklace
When Madame Loisel loses the necklace, she and her husband go deeply into debt to replace it. They then give up their way of life and must spend the next ten years working hard and long hours to pay off the debts they incurred. This ten-year period represents the length of time it takes for the necklace to release its hold on the Loisels' lives. At the end of ten years, Madame Loisel spots Madame Forestier and recounts the whole story of the lost necklace. At this point, Madame Forestier tells Madame Loisel that the original necklace was only a fake. Madame Loisel is stunned and enraged to learn that all her suffering was for nothing. In one sense, Madame Loisel's willingness to deceive others, to live in a world of appearances, is punished by the deception of the necklace that has taken ten years from her life. This story displays the double layers of appearance and reality that Maupassant often uses in his craft. Using the necklace as the central object is a clever play on words since the term in French also means a set of chains. Madame Loisel is chained not by the necklace, but by her refusal to live in a lower class than she believes she deserves. She is also caught in the illusion of appearances, unwilling to admit to Madame Forestier that she has lost the original necklace. In the ultimate irony, Madame Loisel must use her good looks and charm to move from house to house in search of a better life. This life is only temporary, and the reader can note the strong contrast in the way Madame Loisel returns to her old friend after losing the necklace. Ultimately, Madame Loisel must face the fact that she has been the victim of deception, both of her own cunning and of others.
2.3. The Consequences of Deception
Although the task of borrowing the necklace was a form of appearance versus reality involving both Mme. Loisel and Mme. Forestier, the real involvement of appearance and reality came when the necklace was lost. This incident began a downward spiral into poverty and debt that would haunt the Loisels for the next ten years. Mme. Loisel went on believing that the necklace she borrowed was authentic, and therefore assumed that replacement of the necklace would not be noticed by her friend. When in fact she bought a replica of the necklace in order to not raise suspicions with Mme. Forestier, she failed to notice the difference in the cost between the fake and real necklace. She and her husband paid eighteen thousand francs, and they bartered loans, deficit, and the inheritance of dead relatives to try and reclaim the money owed. In truth, the real price of the original necklace was a mere five hundred francs. With this event Mme. Loisel was forced to take odd jobs, guard her virtue by fighting off the advances of men who considered her as being from a lower class, and the general loss of her looks and her pride. This fact is the real appearance versus reality; a woman who was once high in society now then scraping against middle class life. At the end of ten years the Loisels moved into lesser known community, where Mme. Loisel had chanced upon Mme. Forestier once again. It was then that Mme. Loisel revealed to her friend the events which had transpired of the necklace. After all was said and done, the five hundred francs necklace had cost the Loisels thirty six thousand francs in order to replace.
3. The Irony of Appearance & Reality
Ultimately, it is the mote in Madame Loisel's eye that destroys her. It is the work of fifteen minutes to replace a lost necklace, which is the ruin of long years, the sentence which condemns a lady of a hundred thousand francs to the menial work of the scullery. No punishment could be better devised, since it keeps the social standing of the victim an open secret to all the world, and hidden from none, least of all from the victim herself. A harsh penalty, but not undeserved. Madame Loisel had no right to marry Monsieur Loisel. She should have married some rich potentate, a man of rank and wealth far above that of her present husband. That was her proper place in life. She let it slip (and perhaps she has been the happier for her choice, though I doubt it) and takes every opportunity to be reminded of what might have been. She feels she was born for all the elegances and luxuries, and she is sensitive for herself and for others in less fortunate circumstances. It is from Madame Forestier's necklace that brings home to her all that she is missing. The necklace is an important symbol of the story, representing the difference between appearance and reality in various ways. When Mathilde first sees the necklace, she believes that it is a manifestation of everything she deserves in life, and nothing less will satisfy her. Her desire for the necklace represents her desire to be in a different social class. When she is given the opportunity to mingle with the upper class by borrowing the necklace for the party, she foolishly pretends to be a part of that class by dressing the part. Unfortunately, the necklace becomes more than a status symbol, and Mathilde actually becomes a member of the class she so desired. After losing the necklace and being forced to pay for a replacement, Mathilde must go through years of hard labor to repay her debts, thus living the life of the lower class that she sought to avoid. At the end of the story, the reality of the necklace's worth is revealed, and it is not as valuable as the life that the Loisels eventually lived. Mathilde encounters Madame Forestier and tells her of the hard work she has gone through to pay for the replacement of the lost necklace. At this, Madame Forestier is surprised and tells Mathilde that the original necklace was only costume jewelry and was worth at most five hundred francs. This is ironic because the necklace the Loisels replaced was real, and it took them years of work and a change in social class to pay it off. However, it is through this experience that the Loisels have truly gained the life of the upper class that they desired. This is another manifestation of the difference between appearance and reality because the necklace was a fleeting glimpse into the life the Loisels desired, and it was lost in an instant as they were forced back into their former class. This is another irony because the life that Mathilde so desperately wanted was the cause of much suffering on her part in an attempt to retain it.
The Necklace" is rife with irony from the dramatic beginning to the stunning last line. There are several clear situations in which appearance and reality are very different. This is the case with Mathilde Loisel. She was born into a lower-middle class family and married a little clerk. To the day she visited with the rich, she was never satisfied with her life. When she is finally given the opportunity to live her dream life, she ironically loses the chance for it. Throughout this ordeal Mathilde changes in a way that when it is all over, she discovers what is truly important in her life. When Mathilde Loisel was picking out a dress to wear to the reception, she was thinking of practicality and comfort. After several moments, she discovers a beautiful dress that she felt would be perfect. Her husband then suggests that she ask her friend Madame Forestier if she could borrow some jewelry. Mathilde agrees and goes to her friend's house. Her friend allows Mathilde to pick out any piece that she wished. Mathilde digs around in a chest and then discovers a beautiful diamond necklace. Once she puts on the necklace mixed with the dress, it changes her entire appearance. She now looks like the vision of what she believes to be her true self. This is the start of the ironic situations that this couple faces.
3.2. The Necklace's True Value
Ironically, the true value of the necklace at the time it is lost is the same as that at which it is replaced. The Loisels' final ten years of toil, penury and hard work is its real cost. Had they been honest with Mme. Forestier right from the beginning, explained the mistake immediately, and offered to find some compromise to pay for the loss, the problem would have been resolved very quickly and easily. Instead they let minor deceptions foster upon minor deceptions, with the result that they became enslaved by their own lie in an increasingly vicious circle of self-delusion. The necklace can be said to symbolize the materialism and the shallowness of the Loisels. It seems to be their one-way ticket to the life of luxury which they have always imagined for themselves. Yet this is merely farcical, for in truth it brings them nothing but prolonged hardship and suffering. Throughout the terror of the ten years, Mme. Loisel constantly believed that an occasion for rising from her social class was just around the corner, that only a stroke of good luck was needed for her dreams to come true. Yet, when she meets Mme. Forestier at the end of the story, we learn that the two women have quite different recollections of those past events, and that for the proud Mme. Loisel, there was no happy ending.
3.3. The Unexpected Twist
The foregoing of appearance and reality is further practical to the situation as a whole in the unanticipated turn at the end of "The Necklace". Mathilde's desirable front at the do would never have been potential save for the deceit of borrowing jewelry from her compeer Mme. Forestier. The identify of these adornments is the simple proffer it takes to the Lyfe Is a Chiar which says in essence "destroy beyond the guides of society and one should take his discover into the dangers that the absolve of class ground toived". For Mathilde and many others this has picked the interpretation of flat reach into wealth and echelon from sharp class background. The Forester situation has Mathilde sceptical as to what is congruous with her organize in society and by adopting articles of wealth she is venture to cater the world her notion of a elite caste. The dropping of the necklace in the theme which Mathilde does not heed accustoms has a sense of utility in displaying the inadvertent slipping between classes back to the original position in society. To further set the topic of appearance versus reality Maupassant has Mathilde become used to a life of rich cultural foundations and opulence subsequent to the party. All of this is a phase further from their existent position and needing funds to repay the cost of buying a replacing necklace they sidestep into poor living conditions spending the 10 succeeding years in run down apartments scrounging money and duel anyplace to move bequething a visage of their former lives. This all comes to a finish when one day while taking a walk in the Champs Elysees Mathilde spots Mme. Forestier and after current up to recount her whole situation from how unfortunate they have been how laborious the elapsed ten years have been etc Mme. Forestier does not heed Mathilde nor ask of the situation since her own life has been so steeped in wealth and opulence she yet considers Mathilde someone from her old maid employ and is shocked the next day when Mathilde accosts her again and describes the work she'd been doing to remunerate the sum for the rested necklace. This move erases all possible doubt to Mathilde's real condition what Mme. Forestier saw and heard was too much compared to her own present life and after playing a game of twenty questions as it were she gives Mathilde the release that she didn't know and it would be better if she just bought a new necklace.
4. Lessons Learned
The message in Maupassant's story "The Necklace" is that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. Mathilde Loisel lived her whole life telling lies. She told her friend whom she lost the necklace to that she lost it the first night that she had borrowed it, when in reality it took her several nights to lose it. This led to the Loisels buying a necklace to replace the one that was lost, at the cost of their inheritance and ten years of hard work. Mathilde never told her friend that she had lost the necklace and instead replaced it without her knowing. This led to a downward spiral in the Loisels economic status. Matilde's husband obtained an invitation for a distinguished party, which Mathilde believed she was too "poor" to attend. Wanting to look the part, Mathilde went to her friend Mme. Forestier to borrow some jewelry. Not wanting Mme. Forestier to know that she lost the necklace, Mathilde lied and told her that it had just been in the shop to be repaired. This prompted Mme. Forestier to tell Mathilde how much the necklace had cost. This led to Mathilde lying again and telling Mme. Forestier that the necklace costed only 400 francs, and it was Mme. Forestier who quickly corrected her, saying it was worth 500 francs. In the end, the truth is what relieved the Loisels of their agony lived over the past years, when Mathilde found Mme. Forestier and told her the whole story. It was also the truth that brought more grief to the Loisels, because when they replaced the lost necklace, it was a cost of 36,000 francs.
4.1. The Dangers of Obsession
Madame Loisel becomes obsessed with the deceptiveness of appearance and the power of dreams. After she and her husband live in poverty for ten long years, losing their youthful beauty and the comfort of youth, in order to replace a diamond necklace which turned out to be fake. The irony in the story is that the very thing they were trying to replace was genuine. This entire time, all of the suffering was endured simply because she longed to be envied by other women. The internal conflict of Mathilde Loisel in "The Necklace" represents the theme of appearances being deceptive. Mathilde is an attractive woman who is unhappy with her social standing throughout the entire story. She is a proud woman and insists on being the best she can be, despite her middle-class status. She believes that the solution to her problems is a higher social standing and more wealth. She wants to be envied by her friends and other women, and this desire eventually causes her to be delusional and sometimes greedy. Madame Loisel's obsession for social standing is what eventually led to the loss of her comfortable lifestyle and her beauty. When her husband brings home an invitation to a formal dinner party, instead of being excited like her husband, she is saddened because she does not have anything nice to wear. Mathilde states, "There is nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich" (211). This shows how much Madame Loisel really cares about what other people think. Her obsession to be envied by other women is so strong that, on the night before the party, she borrows a diamond necklace from her friend Madame Forestier. Then and only then does she feel beautiful on the outside. The necklace was the illusion that Mathilde used to change her appearance. She felt that the necklace was her ticket to the high society life she had desired. Unfortunately, the loss of the necklace would lead to something she did not desire.
4.2. The Importance of Honesty
It is apparent that Madam Loisel learns a number of lessons throughout this trying ordeal. Firstly, she realizes the dangers of obsessive envy and greed. These emotions seem to have caused the loss of her comfortable lifestyle. It was not enough for her to be admired by the men and women who envied her. She had to be envied more than anyone else; which is why she could not go to the ball in any of the modest dresses she already had because the other partygoers would be wearing much finer apparel. This is why she is able to borrow the necklace from her friend when she and her husband receive the invitation, and it is this necklace that ultimately is the cause of all her grief. She becomes obsessed with appearing to be of the same social stature as her friend for one evening; however, this one night leads to an entire week of deception and falsity and a decade of penury for her and her husband. The crippling effects of the obsession are made brutally apparent in the closing dialogue of the story as Madam Loisel is able to track down her wealthy ex-friend and explain everything that has transpired in hopes of easing her conscience. Her friend is stunned, not even remembering the necklace in question, "You must be mistaken," she said. "We never possessed any such thing at all." This illustrates the extent of the Loisel's immersion into the lives of the social elite. They had been so preoccupied with their desire to be like others in social status that they actually became immersed in a transient reality, and the definitive loss of the necklace serves as a symbol of their descent to a lower class.
4.3. The Futility of Chasing Illusions
As a result of replacing the ornament, Mathilde had lost her innocence. She turned very old. Nothing countervails the hurt of human self-respect. The poverty of symbol and pocket, which occasionally hedges off the respectable citizen from unrespectability, bears with it miseries, if not disgrace, out of all proportion to the consolatory safety. The early deprivation and late sparing of hard-earned savings is a piece with the bitter time coming and the dreary shift to save out of the dismal pittance of workmen's wages, ending in the forlorn penury which had seemed a halting place only to undeceived ambition, mirage faced folly. It has been set forth that the necklace was a sham and that rich Mathilde had worn sham jewels many years. But this is a figure of speech. Youth is the necklace of age. And Maupassant's suggestion in that pungent ending is that the marks of that ten years of toil and saving, anxious desires and tight pinchings, had better have adorned the self-esteem of the working woman as the symbols of honest retail and as endurable misfortune. Said of your own depression, things would be easier to bear were it not for the illusory dreams that they might have been otherwise.
