Ego truly does get to peoples heads. It is never known when ones ego will take over and destroy their lives. This happens to Madame Loisel in The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant. Because her ego is so large, Loisel causes much unnecessary stress to both herself and her husband by lying. She loses one of her closest friend's, Madame Forestier's, necklace, which she thinks is worth 40,000 francs. Instead of coming clean to Madame Forestier, Loisel chooses to buy a new necklace, and as a result is in debt for ten years. At the end of these ten years, Loisel has ages a tremendous amount because of the stress she has put on herself to work off this enormous debt. If she could have just admitted the truth to her friend from the beginning, she would have learned the necklace was only worth 500 francs, and therefore could have saved her many years of strife and hardship. De Maupassant uses word choice, long sentences, and contrasting diction to prove that Madame Loisels' ego, vanity, and conceitedness is the reason for her ultimate downfall. 

In the beginning of the short story, Loisel is described as very jealous of those who have money and luxurious things in their lives. In each instance where Loisel desires what she does not poses, de Maupassant contrasts by showing precisely what she does have. Guy de Maupassant writes, "She was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if by mistake of destiny, born into a family of clerks " (page 33). This phrase is significant because it shows how out of place Loisel is, even within her own family. She neither fits into the world in which she holds herself to belong in, nor into the family that she was born into. Her ego and materialism hold her back from the reality that she cannot have everything, material or otherwise, that she wants. In this short story there is a stigma that looks alone could have catapulted Loisel into a higher class with the right conditions. Loisel believes herself to be much better than her 'lowly merchant family' because of her looks and 'charm'. De Maupassant shows that the vanity and conceitedness displayed by Loisel ultimately leads to her inherent downfall.

The character of Madame Loisel is neither loving nor caring. In fact, the only thing that she does love is the idea that people 'love' her and want her because of her looks and apparent charm." She loved nothing but that; she felt made for that . She would so have liked to please, to be envied  to be sought over" (Guy de Maupassant 34). Loisel not only believes that it is her destiny to be loved by all, but also to have money and luxury in her life. Precisely because of this belief, de Maupassant shows that Loisel does not only end up unloved, but also poor, old, and without physical beauty. De Maupassant writes, "she felt made for that" and "to be envied" (34). Through these phrases, de Maupassant shows that Loisel is oblivious to the fact that her ego is what is making her unappealing and unenvied.

Madame Loisels' true downfall begins when she buys a real diamond necklace instead of letting her friend Madame Forestier know that she lost it. She gives a similar necklace consisting of expensive diamonds to Madame Forestier and now has to pay back the entire amount of the necklace. Before buying a new necklace, Loisel and her husband were much better off than they realized. Guy de Maupassant writes, "Mme. Loisel now knew the horrible existence of the needy  The dreadful debt must be paid  They dismissed their servant  they rented a garret under the roof" (38).  After all this time of being unappreciative for what she had, Madame Loisel is forced to acknowledge the reality of the truly needy. They have to sell their house and fire their helpers. The words "horrible existence" and "dreadful debt" describe Loisel's life after losing the necklace and buying Madame Forestier a newer, much more expensive one because of her decision to not tell the truth. In this respect, her ego and pride are the catalysts for her downfall. Her inability to admit to losing the necklace ultimately ends up ruining her entire life. 

Ten years after the necklace fiasco occurs, Madame Loisel and her husband finish paying off debt. For ten long years they both work so hard and barely make ends meet. Guy de Maupassant uses descriptive words to amplify how much Loisel is affected by her work. He writes, "She had become the woman of impoverished households  frowsy hair, skirts askew  she thought  of that ball where she had been so beautiful and so feted" (38).  Loisel realizes how good her life actually was just ten years ago. Her ego, pride, and vanity ultimately destroyed all of her dreams for a brighter future for herself. The words "impoverished", "frowsy", "beautiful", and "feted" contrast each other. Loisel now believes that she was so great before, but ten years ago she really thought that she had nothing. Although Loisel's large ego was constantly prominent in the short story, she can now clearly see just how hard her life could have been before and how much beauty she has lost because of it.

At the end of the short story, Madame Forestier runs into Loisel and does not even recognize her. Loisel blames her past ten years on Madame Forestier but it was never really Forestier's fault. If Loisel would have come clean from the start nothing as stressful would have

 happened for an entire decade. As Loisel says that she bought a new diamond necklace and worked an extreme amount for ten years, Madam Forestier says, "'Oh my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs"' (Guy de Maupassant 39). The entire time Loisel could have been living here life debt free if she just let Madame Forestier know what had happened. It is ironic that Madam Forestier says "poor Mathilde", because Loisel is actually poor, so the word is being used in both ways. Ten years of constant working and stressing ages Loisel a lot. Now that she knows the necklace was not real she realizes how egotistical and untruthful she was being by not telling Madame Forestier.

Guy de Maupassant does a great job in The Necklace of using words and phrases to portray the idea that Loisel's downfall is her ego, vanity, and conceitedness. If only Madame Loisel and her husband had confessed to losing Madame Forestier's fake diamond necklace. Ten years of living in hard situations and ten years of paying of thousands of francs would not have had to happen. Loisel's ego gets to her and ultimately leads to her downfall.

