The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant was written in the late 1800's. The story discusses the life and struggles of the main character, Mathilde. She felt she belonged to a higher class than the one she was born into and because of this her husband sacrificed everything he had to make her happy. She has a chance to attend a high class ball but didn't have the proper clothing so she forces her husband to spend his money on a new dress for the night. She also borrows very expensive looking jewels from a friend for the night to look wealthy like the other guests. By the end of the night she loses the borrowed jewels and sends her husband to look for them without any success. She replaced the lost necklace with a similar one which turned out to be a lot more expensive than the original. The debt she gains from replacing the necklace forces her to live in actual poverty and work endlessly for ten years. Maupassant expresses the themes of vanity and suffering through several literary devices such as irony, setting and symbolism. 

Maupassant uses irony to express one of his main themes, which is suffering. Mathilde is born into an average life but wants more than she has, her desperate want for wealth leads to even more poverty. One example of her want for more leading to her distress is found on page thirty-three, "She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains." (Maupassant 33). Mathilde is disgusted by her average life and having to stay home all day is a torture for her. She is constantly reminded of her class just by looking around her house. Towards the end of the story, after she buys a replacement necklace; she has an incredible amount of debt to pay off. This forces her to move to a smaller house and learn what hard work truly was, "She came to know what heavy housework meant and the odious cares of the kitchen. She washed the dishes, using her rosy nails on the greasy pots and pans. She washed 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 breath at every landing." (Maupassant 38). Mathilde was a stay at home wife before she lost the necklace, she didn't appreciate what she had and that led to more suffering. She thought she was miserable and poor before she lost the necklace and she learned her lesson the hard way, and that is ironic. 

The setting of the story is very important because it feeds into Mathilde's materialistic and vain personality. The story is set in Paris, France which is a very rich and glitzy city. At the time this story was written, money made nobility She was a woman of the lower-middle class who was surrounded by the rich and this made her envy swell. The emphasis on the setting and her vanity are shown on page thirty-three, "She thought of the long salons fatted up with ancient silk, of the delicate furniture carrying priceless curiosities, and of the coquettish perfumed boudoirs made for talks at five o'clock with intimate friends, with men famous and sought after, whom all women envy and whose attention they all desire." (Maupassant 33). All she wanted were things she couldn't afford, things of the upper class. It all had to do with her surroundings, she wanted the pretty and expensive things that only the wealthiest people of France could afford. She didn't only want it for herself but she wanted it to be envied by the less fortunate. She was surrounded by the nicest, most expensive things in the country and that drove her mad with desire. Maupassant shows another example of the influence of setting on Mathilde on page thirty-five, "No; there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among women who are rich." (Maupassant 35). Her reference to being surrounded rich women and it's influence on her decision is a clear influence of setting on the theme of vanity. She doesn't only want to look pretty for herself but she wants to look pretty to fit in with the rich and to feel proud around them. 

The third and final literary device Maupassant uses to express his themes of suffering and vanity is symbolism. The two symbols used in the story are the necklace and the black satin box it was held in. The necklace is symbolizes Mathilde's vanity and her desire for things better than what she has. The necklace turned out to be fake which is what she is. She was pretending to be wealthy at the ball and wore the fake necklace to look the part. This influences the theme because at the end of the story Maupassant shows how her pride and vanity drove the conflict of the story, "Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs." (Maupassant 39). Mathilde was embarrassed about losing the necklace so rather than swallowing her pride and telling the truth, she lied and made her life exponentially worse. The second symbolic item in the story is the black satin box the necklace was held in. When Mathilde saw the box she was immediately intrigued,"All of a sudden she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb necklace of diamonds, and her heart began to beat with an immoderate desire." (Maupassant 35). Maupassant is pulling from Greek mythology with the box; the box represents Pandora's box. Once Mathilde opens the box only chaos ensues, she loses the necklace and works away ten years of her life because she saw that box and wanted to borrow that necklace. 

The main themes of The Necklace are suffering and vanity. Maupassant reveals that through three literary devices, irony, setting and symbolism. The use of these devices help Maupassant express his themes throughout the story and with many different examples. 

