Life can be completely transformed in an instant. "The Necklace" depicts the abrupt life changing event that reshapes Mathilde Loisel's, the lead character's, perspective on the importance of social standing.  The author, Guy de Maupassant, employs repetition, sentence structure, and word choice for clarity and emphasis.  He effectively uses each to ensure his readers have a clear-cut, unambiguous understanding of the characters' motivations and desires.  Repetition accentuates Mathilde's tragic, materialistic obsession.  She desperately wants to be seen as wealthy and to have the possessions and social standing that accompany it.  Maupassant's sentence structure helps readers understand her obsession and lack of appreciation for what she has, and his word choice clearly conveys that she alone is the cause of her misfortune.  Maupassant's approach successfully achieves his intention of leaving readers impatient and unsympathetic toward Mathilde. 

The title immediately divulges the object that the story revolves around.  According to Maupassant, it is not just a necklace, it's "The Necklace" (de Maupassant 33).  It becomes the symbol of the wealth and prestige that Mathilde craves.  Wearing the necklace represents Mathilde's achievement of her dream.  When she loses it, it symbolizes the end of the dream.  Does the necklace represent a foolish, wasteful longing or is it the symbol of an awakening and enlightenment?   In fact, it is both.  Maupassant cleverly makes wearing the necklace the symbol of her problem and the losing of it the solution.  

Repetition is used to dramatize how little she feels she has compared to the wealthy. The author repeats the words "no" and "not" followed by the word "nothing" to provide clarity and emphasis. When her husband presents her an invitation to a fancy ball, her first thought is that "she has no dresses, no jewels, nothing" (de Maupassant 34).  Listing what she does not have and then following immediately with the word "nothing" emphasizes how unfortunate she thinks she is not to have the luxuries of wealthy people.  To convey what she wants, Maupassant again uses repetition by stating "to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after" (de Maupassant 34).  Later, when she finally finds an acceptable dress, she complains, "It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on" (de Maupassant 35). Again, repetition emphasizes her disappointment and lack of appreciation for the things she has. 

Mathilde's self-image is determined by her social standing in the community. The author uses long sentences such as, "When she sat down to dinner, before the round table the oink flesh of a trout or the wings of a quail" (de Maupassant 33) to emphasize her lust for more money. The longer and more repetitive the sentence, the more the reader understands and resents her greediness and lack of appreciation.  Maupassant's long sentences describing her feelings cause readers to become impatient and irritated with her, which is clearly his intention.  When she finally experiences a night where she has all that she's desired, Maupassant includes another long sentence portraying her exhilaration at being at a fancy ball surrounded by wealthy people, "She danced with intoxication, with passion, made drunk of complete victory which is so sweet to a woman's heart" (de Maupassant 36). This sentence reveals the joy she believes wealth brings.  Long, repetitive sentences help the reader understand how badly she wants to be wealthy and how happy she is to experience a night among those that are.

Short sentences are used in the paragraph that describes her experience at the ball, "The day of the ball has arrived was remarked by the minister himself" (de Maupassant 36). It is not normal for Mathilde's dress and appearance to be like that of the wealthy, so when the author uses short sentences to describe how she presents herself at the ball, he is contrasting the structure of this particular paragraph with the other paragraphs that characterize her as feeling inferior. It is intended to catch the reader's attention because the author is using a different technique to contrast her normal lifestyle to the one she fakes at the ball. 

Mathilde and her husband are not poor until she becomes consumed with her social standing.  Her mistake costs them dearly and they spend the next several years working to pay off their debt. After losing the necklace, they struggle constantly to buy her friend a new one and to pay for their daily expenses. Before, they had money saved for the future and enough money pay for necessities. She claims, however, that she feels poor because she does not have the expensive, nice things that the other women have. She says that there is "nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich" (de Maupassant 35). By saying to "look poor" she is admitting that they are not actually poor.  It is made clear that Mathilde is very unappreciative of what she has, although, in the end, she finally becomes proud of the little she has instead of longing for what she does not have.

Maupassant asks readers to think about how Mathilde's life would have been different if she had been appreciative of her husband and their life together.  By asking what could have been, he nudges readers to question what really matters.  Questions such as, "What would've happened if she had not lost that necklace?" (de Maupassant 38) causes readers to think about how everything could have been different if she had not misplaced the necklace or if she and her husband would have just been honest with her friend and admitted that she lost it. They could have paid the small amount for it instead of working so hard over next several years to pay off the debt. The repetition of the two questions, "Who knows? Who knows?" (de Maupassant 38) points out that their biggest mistake was not losing the necklace, but being dishonest.  Their dishonesty made them poor, but the lessons they learned changed their perspectives and enriched their lives more than any material possessions could have.

