The Necklace Summary & Analysis

The opening lines of “The Necklace” introduce Mathilde as an exceptionally beautiful woman with an ordinary social situation. From this starting point, the reader can anticipate the link between beauty and social ambition that will be explored throughout the rest of the story.

By claiming that beautiful women without means can be the “equals of the grandest ladies,” Maupassant suggests wealth and social status can be earned by beauty. Mathilde completely buys into this idea, which leads her to be dissatisfied with her modest life.

Mathilde’s unhappiness stems from a false set of expectations. Because she is beautiful, Mathilde believes she is entitled to the glamorous life of the rich and is driven to despair by her humble surroundings. To escape this reality, Mathilde loses herself in a world of dreams and illusions where she surrounds herself with the trappings of wealth, but of course none of this is real and therefore Mathilde cannot truly be happy. However, the fact that Mathilde has a maid already suggests that her discontent is out of proportion with her not-uncomfortable life.

Mathilde’s unhappiness seems to be a matter of choice since her husband, who lives in the same conditions, is perfectly happy with a good stew. Mathilde focuses on the things she doesn’t own rather than the small comforts of life, suggesting that an insatiable appetite for material possessions is a great source of unhappiness.

M. Loisel cares a great deal about his wife and goes to great lengths to make her happy. Mathilde is unhappy despite her husband’s best efforts, once again showing that her unhappiness is greatly exaggerated.

By knowingly asking for just the right amount of money, Mathilde seems to be taking advantage of her husband’s generosity, revealing some of the negative personality traits that lurk beneath the surface of her outer beauty.

M. Loisel sacrifices his own happiness for the sake of his wife’s, demonstrating his generosity. Unlike Mathilde, M. Loisel does not find happiness in material possessions but rather in the happiness and the company of others.

Mathilde always wants more: her desire for material possessions is never satisfied, once again demonstrating that things are not the key to lasting happiness. Mathilde sees expensive objects as a way to look rich, forgetting that she is not as wealthy as she would like to appear.

By picking the most expensive-looking item in Mme. Forestier’s jewel box, Mathilde reveals her greed and her superficial understanding of value. By looking at herself in the mirror, Mathilde also reveals her vanity. The flatness of the reflection echoes Mathilde’s superficial and illusory appearance of wealth.

Mathilde’s success at the party hinges on her beauty, seeming to give truth to the notion that beautiful women without means can become the equals of ladies in high society. However, by writing that Mathilde is lost in a “cloud of happiness” and “intoxicated…with pleasure” Maupassant anticipates that this night of happiness will not last, and that there is something not-quite-real about her success.

Once covered by the wraps, Mathilde’s appearance of wealth vanishes and she is once again embarrassed to be seen by wealthier women in their “expensive furs,” bringing her night of happiness to an end. This sudden shift in mood demonstrates the power that Mathilde invests in objects, since for her the wraps represent everything that she finds lacking in her life.

Mathilde and her husband’s downcast mood as they search for a carriage further demonstrates that things are back to normal. Like the wraps, for Mathilde the “squalor” of the carriage represents a return to her unsatisfactory reality.

By proclaiming that “is it all over,” Mathilde recognizes that her happiness at the party—gained only through her beauty and her illusory appearance of wealth—was only temporary. The Loisels’ address on the “rue des Martyrs” introduces the theme of martyrdom and foreshadows the suffering that follows.

The reappearance of the mirror once again demonstrates Mathilde’s vanity and her obsession with appearances. This time, however, the mirror reveals the truth, and as if by magic Mathilde’s false appearance of wealth vanishes.

The fact that the box misled the Loisels as to the origin of the necklace is a hint that the necklace might be a fake, and represents the danger of seeking truth in outside appearances.

This price seems right to Mathilde because she primarily liked the necklace for its appearance of being expensive. To her, the value of an object is synonymous with its price.

By giving up his inheritance and making risky deals to pay for the necklace, M. Loisel once again demonstrates his generosity. For M. Loisel, replacing the necklace is a question of honor, and his extreme self-sacrifice makes him something of a martyr.

The fact that Mme. Forestier does not notice the substitution in another hint that the necklace was a fake, since her attitude suggests that the necklace was never particularly important to Mme. Forestier to begin with.

As hinted earlier in the story, the suffering experienced by the Loisels as they struggle to repay their debt is a kind of martyrdom. The complete reversal of fortunes is especially apparent in Mathilde, and her earlier dissatisfaction is thrown into sharp contrast with the true hardship that she now experiences. Her heroism, however, shows that she attributes value to her suffering: for her, one night of wealth is worth ten years of poverty.

The degradation of Mathilde’s physical appearance is a warning that beauty always fades and should therefore not be counted on to achieve social success or lasting happiness. Mathilde’s daydreams have changed—she no longer dreams of escape into a world of illusory wealth, but rather she reflects on her past life, suggesting that the experience has made Mathilde more grounded in her reality.

By contrasting the appearances of Mathilde and Mme. Forestier after ten years, Maupassant reveals that it is in fact beauty that can be bought by wealth and not the other way around, as Mathilde believed. Mme. Forestier’s difficulty in recognizing her friend once again demonstrates the deceptiveness of appearances.

Mathilde’s pride shows that she has been able to find meaning in her suffering based on the expensiveness of the necklace. However, by revealing that the necklace was a fake, Mme. Forestier makes those sacrifices meaningless. The twist ending also exposes the deceptiveness of appearances and the dangers of attributing too much power to material possessions, since their value may be illusory.