Short stories are well known for having a big take-away or moral of the story. As children, I think we can all recall either hearing or reading the short story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." While the boy thought he was just telling a comical lie during the story, by the end he faces harsh repercussions for his dishonesty. As a reader, we tend to take away these lessons and hopefully use them in our lives in the future. "The Necklace" is very similar to other short stories, given the fact that at the very end of the story, the author gives the reader an important moral. By using a lower-class couple and specifically a lower class woman, the author gives the reader reason to be honest, and consequences for being dishonest.  The author introduces the reader to Mathilde, a vulnerable character who makes the immoral mistake of being dishonest and has to pay for it, in turn enforcing the author's intended theme of honesty.

From the beginning of the story, we can see that Mathilde is upset about the fact that she was born into poverty and a lower class. Unlike many others in lower class society, Mathilde has not grown accustom to the lifestyle, and is bitter about her situation every day, making her extremely vulnerable. That author takes note of this, saying, "She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all of the luxuries" (Maupassant 22). The word choice used by the author of "ceaselessly" was much different than saying "she often suffered." By using the word "ceaselessly," the author suggests that Mathilde suffers continuously and always, she will always be bitter that she was born into a lower class and has to deal with never being able to leave it. We also find out that Mathilde is unique in lower class society, because the other members have come to accept this. The author says "From the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains. All of those things, of which another woman of her rank would never have been conscious, tortured her..." (Maupassant 22). With the word choice of "conscious," the author depicts how other women in the same lower class don't think twice about their invaluable possessions, and their inability to sought after a better life. It has become such a big part of their daily lives that they don't even bat an eye to these occurrences. However, Mathilde has not. She suffers ceaselessly, never ending, and will forever think of how her life would have been had she been born a different rank. The author introduces this vulnerable character that can't afford to be immoral in decision-making, but does so anyways. When borrowing a seemingly exquisite necklace from her friend Mme. Forestier, she loses it while at a ball. Instead of confronting her and being honest, Mathilde decides to pay for a new necklace to replace the old one, paying with life savings and borrowed money. When she decides to make this dishonest decision, it turns her life from bad to worse.

Despite Mathilde not being able to bear her current status as a lower class woman, she still decides to be dishonest, making her life even more unbearable. The author's main theme of the passage is of course honestly, but more specifically to show the repercussions and consequences of being dishonest.  The author makes this very clear in the passage. After loosing the necklace and deciding the replace it instead of confronting the lender, the couple take on an even more laborious and uncomfortable lifestyle. Mathilde is of course already miserable in her current lifestyle, and she will be absolutely miserable in her new, even more impoverished lifestyle. The author depicts her new lifestyle via amplification. After stating how she will be involved in heavy house work her servant used to embody, he goes on to amplify his statement, "She washed the dishes, using her rosy nails on the greasy pots and pans. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts, and the dish-cloths, which she dried upon a line; she carried the slops down to the street every morning, and carried up the water, stopping for a breath at every landing" (Maupassant 27). The author could have simply stated that after her decision to pursue dishonesty, she had to embody undesirable and difficult tasks. Instead, he goes on to amplify his description of heavy housework to give the reader actual examples of this grueling housework. This makes the theme much more powerful with amplification, and doesn't just tell a reader that there will be repercussions to dishonesty, but expands into listing some possible undesirable repercussions.  This not only enforces the authors theme of always being honest, but enhances it as well. Shortly after in the passage, the author describes how Mathilde has now had to save more than ever. He gives us the description with a use of another literary device, a hyperbole, "And, dressed like a woman of the people, she went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, her basket on her arm, bargaining, insulted, defending her miserable money sou by sou" (Maupassant 27). With use of a hyperbole, calling the money miserable, the author depicts how pity her life has become. The author gives us reason to believe that her old problems of materialism and embarrassment of her socio-economic status have now transformed into backbreaking labor and near-inability to come home with food. This all ties back to the passage's overall theme of honesty, and with close reading it becomes apparent the author introduces the vulnerable woman Mathilde and her dishonest decision to champion the theme.

After displaying the hardships the couple must first go through when deciding to be dishonest, the author touches how the decision of being dishonest has taken a toll on the couple years later. After not seeing Mme. Forestier, her lender, many years, she finally sees her in public. Right away, she recognizes her beauty and her bit of youth, "It was Mme. Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still charming" (Maupassant 27). After all of these years Mme. Forestier looks like she practically hasn't even aged, which we can assume is because of her elegant lifestyle. Meanwhile, this isn't the case for Mathilde, "'Good day, Jeanne...' 'But-madame!-I do not know-You must have mistaken' 'No. I am Mathilde Loisel.' Her friend uttered a cry. 'Oh my poor Mathilde! How you are changed!'" (Maupassant 27). After all of these years of labor for a petty dishonest decision, the author shows how the consequence of this mistake his impacted her entire life, embodying the theme of honesty. With close reading, we can determine that the author used the literary device of juxtaposition with pairing these two descriptions side by side in order to draw a parallel. Through earlier descriptions in the passage, the reader is aware of the fact that Mathilde is a good-looking lady. By use of juxtaposition, the author gives the reader a glimpse of what the Mathilde could still look like had she just been honest and told Mme. Forestier about the necklace. However, since she is dishonest, it is obvious that the consequences have taken a toll on her body and her identity as a whole. Here, the author reminds us that consequences to being dishonest are not just temporary, but permanent.

With the introduction of the vulnerable Mathilde, a poor decision, and an overlying theme of honesty, the reader can pick away with close reading specifically how Mathilde champions the story's theme. Although the story may be an over-exaggeration, this is often the case for stories with an intended message; otherwise the point wouldn't always get across. With close reading, it is becomes much easier to look at the text and determine not just what is written on the page, but what the author has intended the text to reveal. In this story, the use of close reading can reveal how Mathilde is vulnerable and can't afford to make an immoral mistake. Close reading reveals that not only are there consequences to being immoral, but they are extremely unpleasant, altering a lifestyle and changing one's identity. And lastly, close reading can reveal that these are not simply temporary consequence for dishonesty, but permanent ones. 
