“The Necklace” Literary Analysis
In the short story “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant uses literary devices such as situational irony and symbolism in order to effectively convey the theme of deceptiveness of appearances. Mathlide Loisel, who was born in a family of clerks and desires to be a member of the elite class, blames the mistake of destiny for her place in society. She longs to live a life of leisure and luxury, but this urge to appear wealthy ultimately makes her and her husband worse of financially than they were before. With the use of irony, Maupassant illustrates how excessive pride can mangle and deteriorate the lives of people who obsess over wealth and physical appearances. Guy de Maupassant uses symbolism to describe a deeper meaning behind the fake necklace, which would be the division between appearance and reality.
In “The Necklace,” it is clear to the readers that Mathilde cannot come to terms with her place in the middle class. She’s the wife to a clerk, who can provide her with a modest lifestyle. Although she is aware that she cannot escape this position, she refuses to accept it. The first instance of irony is when Mathilde begins to daydream and fanaticize. She is a “pretty and charming” girl who thinks that she is “born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries.” Destiny however placed her in the middle class, where she cannot afford these materialistic items. The only way she can be a part of a more elite class was through her own imagination. She dreams of “the silent antechambers hung with Oriental tapestry, lit by tall bronze candelabra” (Maupassant 554) and of “long salons fitted up with ancient silk.” (Maupassant 554) However, Mathilde fails to recognize that her thoughts make her more displeased with her current social status in real life. This forces her to obsess more on what she doesn’t have instead of what she does have.
Additionally, irony is present in the situation with the necklace Mathilde borrowed from Madame Forestier. Mathilde’s husband brings a dinner invitation home addressed to Mathilde, but instead of being thankful, she “threw the invitation on the table with disdain” saying “And what do you want me to put on my back?” (Maupassant 555) She complains to her husband that she has nothing fancy to wear and that she needs a dress. Her husband gives her four hundred francs, the amount of money he was saving to buy himself a gun, so that she could feel pretty and wealthy for one night. The fancy dress is not enough for Mathilde though. Since she does not “have a single jewel” to wear, she thinks that she will “look like distress” and she would rather just not go to the ball. She decides to ask her wealthy friend Madame Forestier if she could borrow some jewelry. She ends up wearing a beautiful diamond necklace to the ball where she was “prettier than them all, elegant, gracious, smiling and crazy with joy.” (Maupassant 556)
Unfortunately, the necklace gets lost at the ball, forcing Mathilde and her husband to replace it for thirty six thousand francs. Mathilde and Loisel work to pay off their debt for ten years, unaware to the fact the necklace is fake. They “dismissed their servant; they changed their lodgings; they rented a garret under the roof.”(Maupassant 558) Consequently, Mathilde and her husband slaved for ten years just to pay off the debt for one night of beauty. One evening, Mathilde runs into Madame Forestier while taking a walk. She confesses to Madame Forestier that she had lost the original diamond necklace and had bought an identical one to replace it. In response, Madame Forestier says “Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!” (Maupassant 559) This is ironic, because Mathilde hoped that borrowing the necklace would aid her into the elite class she coveted, but instead it sent her into the life of poverty and misery.
This situation is also ironic for the fact that the only asset Mathilde valued about herself was her beauty, which she has lost while working to pay back the debt from the necklace. Mathilde borrowed the necklace in order to be seen as beautiful and fancy, but that same necklace causes her to look old and “strong and hard and rough.” The harsh life that Mathilde and her husband assume after losing the necklace makes her previous social status seem luxurious.
In “The Necklace,” Madame Forestier’s fake diamond necklace is a symbol between appearance and reality. The necklace, gorgeous, but worthless in monetary value, symbolizes wealth itself- beautiful, but fake. Mathlide borrows the diamond necklace from Madame Forestier so she can convey this false appearance of wealth at the ball. The falseness of the diamond necklace could parallel the falseness of Loisels’s desire for wealth and luxury. Building upon the idea that the necklace is a direct representation of wealth, it represents appearance as well. Wealth and appearance go hand-in-hand, since a person usually can’t have luxury and beauty without wealth. Mathlide is so unsatisfied with the poor appearance of her home, such as “the wretched look of the walls” and the “ugliness of the curtains” that she jumps at the opportunity to look wealthy. The necklace is flashy and beautiful, which gives her a temporary opportunity to be flashy and beautiful as well. Underneath this outer lining of wealth and beauty, though, the necklace is worthless. This representation fits Mathilde’s appearance at the ball: though she convinces everyone there that she is wealthy, she’s really not. She is still a middle class woman with a borrowed necklace.
The fake necklace could also be a representation of the power of perception. Madame Forestier does not disclose to Mathilde that the necklace is fake at any point while she is trying it on, perhaps because she wants to convey this illusion of having more money than she really does, just as Mathilde Loisel does at the ball. Since Mathilde is so jealous of Madame Forestier’s social status and believes she is rich, she does not hesitate to question whether the necklace is real or not. In conclusion, the necklace plays critical role when describing iron and symbolism in this short story. Mathilde’s longing to belong in a higher social class causes her to lose touch with reality. We see that she would do anything to give this perceived appearance of wealth and beauty. She wears the diamond necklace so people think she has wealth and beauty, to consequently lose what she actually does have in life. As a result, not only does she lose everything she owns, but she also loses her beauty in the process of paying off her debts, for a necklace that was worthless from the beginning.
In the short story “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant uses literary devices such as situational irony and symbolism in order to effectively convey the theme of deceptiveness of appearances. Mathlide Loisel, who was born in a family of clerks and desires to be a member of the elite class, blames the mistake of destiny for her place in society. She longs to live a life of leisure and luxury, but this urge to appear wealthy ultimately makes her and her husband worse of financially than they were before. With the use of irony, Maupassant illustrates how excessive pride can mangle and deteriorate the lives of people who obsess over wealth and physical appearances. Guy de Maupassant uses symbolism to describe a deeper meaning behind the fake necklace, which would be the division between appearance and reality.

Works Cited
Charters, Ann. "The Necklace." The Story and Its Writer. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2011. 554-59. Print.
Delahoyde, Michael. "Marxist Criticism." Introduction to Literature. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2014.
Liukkonen, Petri. "Guy De Maupassant." Guy De Maupassant. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.