The painting shows the married couple Mme. Loisel and her husband a clerk getting ready for work. What is amazingly amusing about it is the how Mme. Loisel is dressed in a fancy long dress, her hair nicely tied on her head ,and the expression she makes by looking at the mirror, wondering about the life she could have had. It is obvious from the picture that she lives among the middle class people because there are not so many jewels on and the room that she is actually considered to be small compared with a higher-class people's room. And then comes her the man sitting behind her who is her husband getting prepared to go to work outfitted with his work clothes tying up he's shoes ready to leave. 

This visual text was the cover of Gil Blas Illustre Short story of The Necklace written by Guy de Maupassant, which was published by Derby City Prints back in 1893. Made for the readers of the short story. The painting implies some of the struggles that Mathilde was going through in the story from poverty and her consistent determination to be like her friends from higher-class people. The painting shows a total prospective of the Mathilde's lifestyle, by the way she looks at her appeal in the mirror, admiring her own self in the pursuit of being wealthy in order to get whatever she desires to have from jewels, fancy dresses, shoes and whatever a woman could ask for so she becomes the one that is the center of attention. These demands of hers can be reasoned by her looking at the mirror. Because when someone is anxious about his/her looks will probably look at the mirror in order to make him/her-self look better. On the other side, there is her husband the clerk tying his shoes and getting ready to go to work who seems to be at the far side of the image, not paying attention about his wife.

The design and making of the painting somehow gives precise idea of the daily routine of Mme. Loisel and her husbands as well. The picture is set to the as if the spectator is standing at the back of the room looking straight at the same height of his eye-level. This angle makes the readers of The Necklace understand the suffering of Mathilde, because with her beauty and charm she could have been living in a castle if she wanted by getting married to a rich man. However, it seems from the picture that her husband is satisfied with what he has as if he doesn't care about whether he is rich or not. The over-view of the picture also shows that they are in a small that is very simple and ordinary.

The painting makes its viewer curious about who the identity of the woman who is staring at the mirror and who is the man sitting behind her. Whether he is relative of hers, or just a friend that she might know. Still, most importantly, why isn't there any kind of interaction between them. I believe that there should visual or verbal contact between them if they are at the same room. Moreover, if I know that they are married I would be thinking that they were not getting along with each other at all due to the complete lack of any kind of communication.

As you start noticing the little details in the painting from both the characters and the setting of the picture, some symbols come to your mind such as appreciation of what god has given you and making the best out of it because there is no way that everybody can be born rich, there must be differences in peoples wealth so human life could go on. Also comes empathy which can be shown to Mathilde who doesn't get any kind of attention from her husband, and that is very sad because she appears not o be enjoying her marriage. Satisfaction, which is shown by Mathilde's husband which is a total human character, because he doesn't push himself over the limits and he knows what he wants in his life.

The way Mme. Loisel is standing in front of the mirror brings some kind of attraction to the readers it makes you also show empathy to the way her life turned out and she could do nothing about it which is just miserable. It makes the readers remember to be thankful with what they have and see the beauty of what they have. It also makes us careful to not take what we have for granted because we might lose it and not get back again.

Some unrevealed things in the painting may not be understood unless the story is read such as what the man is getting ready for or why is the woman looking so deep in the mirror. Although, this piece of art has a lot of things to do with life and how bittersweet life can be to a lot of people as we hear a lot of different stories in our lives.
