"The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant is a story of a relatively poor French couple in the 19th century. At the beginning of the story, M. Loisel, the husband, works as a clerk and the wife, Mathilde Loisel, does not seem to do anything other than be distressed about things she does not have. One night when the couple sat down for dinner, she told her husband, "Ah, the good pot-au-feu! I don't know anything better than that" (Maupassant 33). She constantly complained about things such as the food they could not afford. The theme of this story is that in order to enjoy your life, you must be yourself. The characters actions, the background of the author and the conclusion of the story all contribute to this theme. 

At the beginning of the story, Mathilde is desperately trying to be someone she is not; a wealthy woman who is admired by everyone. Maupassant wrote about her, "She would so have liked to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after" (Maupassant 34). She brings a lot of distress upon herself because she always focuses on things she cannot have. This idea is very obvious when she spends all of her husband's extra money on a dress and then borrows a necklace from her friend for the ball. After she lost the necklace, she and her husband had to work very hard for ten years to pay for a new one. Had she not tried to pretend to be someone she was not, a wealthy woman with lots of money to spend on expensive necklaces, she and her husband would have never been in that terrible situation. 

An interesting aspect of this story is that Mathilde got everything she wanted in life at the ball. She had a beautiful dress, jewelry, and admiration from everyone. At the ball, "She was prettier than them all, elegant, gracious, smiling, and crazy with joy. All the men looked at her, asked her name, endeavored to be introduced" (Mauassant 36). However, that night never improved her life, it actually made her life a lot harder because she had to work for ten years to pay off the necklace she lost that night. Maupassant used this to prove his point that Mathilde was focusing on the wrong things and trying to be someone that she was not.

The surprise ending of the story also shows how silly Mathilde was for focusing on such materialistic things at the beginning. She and her husband spent ten years working for a necklace which turned out to only be worth five hundred francs. She just assumed it was diamond because she was so materialistic. Maupassant used that as a symbol that all the materialistic things she focused on were actually worth exponentially less than she thought, although not necessarily monetarily. In order to understand where and why Maupassant wrote this story, it is important to look at his life. 

Maupassant was born into a wealthy family, but his family their fortune when he was still young. As a child, he saw both sides of life, wealthy and poor. He is attempting to teach the reader what he learned through that experience of going from a rich child to a poor child with this story. Evidence of this is that Maupassant's mother was most likely in the same situation as Mathilde after his family became poor. Maupasssant wrote about Mathilde, "she was as unhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper station" (Maupassant 33). There is a strong resemblance in Mathilde and Maupassant's mother in the fact that even though Mathilde was never wealthy, she acts like she was. So, he must have learned through his mother's attempt to act wealthy after she was not anymore that in order to enjoy your life, you have to accept the situation you are in. Although his mother probably never lost a 40,000 franc necklace, she focused on things she could no longer have. He saw that and learned from it. He wrote this story for anyone trying to be someone they are not and people who blame their disparity on their circumstance in life. 

Maupassant was attempting to communicate that you must be yourself in order to enjoy your life through this story. He used Mathilde as an example to get his point across. It is clear that Mathilde prevented herself from enjoying her life throughout the story because she tried to be someone she was not. In the end, her trying to show everyone she was wealthy only made her life worse and worse. There are a lot of similarities in this story and Maupassant's real life, specifically the similarities in Maupassant's mother and Mathilde. That is why there is strong reason to believe that Maupassant learned this lesson from his mother and possibly even described her through Mathilde. He is attempting to tell the reader that they do not need to try to be someone they are not. 

