We as a society get so caught up in making a living that we forget to actually make a life. We tend to spend high amounts of money to buy glorious things, yet we give away such things that are priceless, such as time and memories. In the piece "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant, Mme. Loisel, known as Mathilde, gets so caught up in the idea of being rich and wealthy that she has a very negative outlook on the current life she lives, believing its almost worthless. She herself does not feel worthy of anything and is constantly comparing her life to one she only wishes to live. Because of this, she gets herself into such a dilemma that it ends up costing her ten years of living a life even worse and more miserable than the one she had originally lived. Maupassant expresses such an important life lesson when stating, "How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!" (Maupassant 35). The necklace shows us that life isn't to be overshadowed by materialistic items. By discovering that the necklace Mme. Loisel borrowed was made of fake diamonds and worth a fraction of what she thought, we can allude to the authors claim that materialistic items, big or small, can easily make someone loose themselves to false ideas and misleading aesthetics, but can potentially find themselves again through insightful reflection.

Within "The Necklace" the author shows how Mathilde feels about her self worth. Her husband gets an invitation to a fancy event held by his work and when he told Mathilde about it, she responds with a snobby remark talking about how she looks too poor in order to attend such a prestigious event, " Nothing. Only I have no dress, and therefore I can't go to this ball. Give your card to some colleague whose wife is better equipped than I." (Maupassant 34). We can recognize here that Mathilde's idea of beauty and worth is determined by the amount of materialistic goods one owns. It is also implied when Maupassant describes her mid-dinner thoughts;

 "..she thought of dainty diners, of shining silverware, of tapestry which peopled the walls with ancient personages and with strange birds flying in the midst of a fairy forest; and she thought of delicious dishes served on  marvelous plates and of the whispered gallantries which you listen to with a sphinx-like smile, while you are eating the pink flesh of a trout or the wings of a quail" (33 Maupassant).

 Even though Mathilde didn't have any extravagant gowns, her husband insisted on taking her to the event. All the money he had saved up, he had given to her to find a dress that she felt worthy in. By fanaticizing and wanting all of these expensive decors, she belittles the things she is lucky enough to already posses. This mindset Mathilde has is definitely an influence within the journey of her loosing herself to the idea of a materialistic and expensive lifestyle she wishes to have.

In a second scene, as if getting a dress worth four hundred francs wasn't enough for Mathilde, she felt the need to show up to the event doused in jewels. Again, mourning to Loisel, Mathilde decides to find someone who can lend her jewels for the night. She ends up borrowing from a friend a string of diamonds that just caught her eye and glistened with beauty. Finally she felt equipped and worthy enough to go to this event with her husband. At this point in the reading, her evaluation of life is where she had aspired it to be, worthy and elegant. Her thoughts about herself and that moment of her life is what she'd been dreaming of being this whole time. They went and she had a wonderful time as her husband expected she would. "All was ended for her. And as to him, he reflected that he must be at the Ministry at ten o'clock." (Maupassant 36). I feel this quote was worded intentionally to refer to Mathilde's one night of wonder, the life she wanted, was over for good. It also acts as foreshadowing for the next scene because this is when her life takes a completely dramatic turn for the worse. As the story proceeds, she ends up loosing the string of diamonds while getting caught up in all the glamour and wealth surrounding her at the event. At this point she has already lost herself to the idea of living a lavish life. She lost herself by pretending to be something she truly isn't, and for this she is deemed to learn a lesson. 

As you could of foreseen, the diamonds were never found, leaving Loisel and Mathilde in major debt to her friend. The replacement necklace cost the couple forty thousand francs, and it wasn't even the same as the original, just a mimic. Due to her regal arrogance, this caused Mathilde ten years of her life dedicated to hard, paid work in order to pay off the newly purchased necklace to return to her friend. "And dressed like a women of the people, she went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, her basket on her arm, bargaining, insulted, defending her money sou by sou." (Maupassant 38). This quote uses imagery to give a detailed image to truly contrast the night she experiences and to give the readers an idea of what her life has turned into. She wanted riches, and ended up being poorer than ever. By Maupassant using the term "dressed like the women of the people" he makes it clear that Mathilde was at this point normal. "Of the people" is a statement that clearly is an identification used to generalize and platform the norm and "the people" represents the common and average person. His choice of wording used here is what makes the imagery of her new life so strong to the reader.

To make this story really have an underlying message, the author ends the reading with satirical news from Mme. Loisel's friend she borrowed the necklace from. After confessing her loss of Mme. Forestier's string of diamonds to her and telling her how she'd been working her tail off for the last ten years to pay off her debt, Mme. Forestier chuckles and admits the string of diamonds truly weren't real diamonds, but rather fakes. The original necklace was only worth five hundred francs. The message Maupassant is trying to purpose here is that true and pure beauty can simply be represented by what meets the eyes. The self-reflection process Mathilde goes through to replace the jewels is what brings Mathilde back to the ground. By her being told the original jewles were seemingly worth nothing in the first place, it shows she obsessed over them for a false reasoning. The jewels to Mathilde looked as if they cost a fortune, in which they didn't. They were realistically a non-expensive item that made her feel like a million dollars. Life is about perspective and attitude. If one believes they're not worthy of something simply based off the price or look or even a rank of status, then they deserve to believe so. People will turn away from a lifetime of happiness by overlooking the small, meaningful and beautiful things in life, to get distracted by the big and stereotypical societal ways and objects. In this story such a little thing as a necklace was responsible for the loss of Mathilde happiness and self worth. Ironically enough the little item that did such harm wasn't even truly what she believed it to be, it was as fake as she was the night of the glorious event. Again Maupassant's expression "How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!" (Maupassant 35) played a role in his story when Mme. Liosel lost herself the night she once dreamed of, but finally found her self ten years down the road once the truth was reveled and the recognition of her self and her life, as is, was made. 

