Written texts often contain hidden messages and meanings buried within them.  Readers then try to interpret and understand these messages and meanings, ultimately coming up with their own conclusions as to what these messages are using evidence from the text.  Like many other texts, "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant can be interpreted as having its own hidden message.  In the story, events, diction, and syntax that are used can all be used as evidence to support the interpretation that only hard work leads to happiness.

The concept that Mathilde is unhappy with her present social and economic status is made clear very early in the story.  Quotes such as "She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries" use diction such as "suffered ceaselessly," demonstrates this concept (de Maupassant, 33).  Another good example of diction that further reinforces the point can be found in the quote "She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing.  And she loved nothing but that; she felt made for that" which uses both syntax and diction.  The first sentence in the quote uses diction in the form of the word "nothing" and syntax in how the word "no" is repeated, both of which illustrate how Mathilde feels like she owns nothing and is not grateful for what she does have.  The second sentence of the quote uses syntax by using the word "nothing" from the last sentence, diction in how "she loved nothing but that," and even a second example of syntax by adding by joining the sentence to "she felt made for that" to emphasize Mathilde's obsession with appearing wealthy.  Her lack of wealth also made Mathilde miserable and jealous, so much so that she stopped visiting a former friend from school just because the fact her friend was rich and she was not made it so that she "suffered so much when she came back" from visiting her friend, with the choice of the words "suffered so much" providing even further insight into how obsessed Mathilde was with wealth (de Maupassant, 34).  She even thought that she deserved better than the people around her, as shown illustrated by the word choice in the quote " she was as unhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper position "  This shows that she felt she was entitled to more and really should have been born into a higher social class.  The ideas of wealth and how her environment made it clear that she was far from wealthy, such as worn-out chairs and ugly curtains, tortured her despite other women "of her rank" would have never noticed their poverty compared to the rich (de Maupassant, 33).  Basically, she was never content with what she had, despite having a loving husband, a house, and even a servant (de Maupassant, 36).  Despite all this, the only attempt she made in the story to improve her situation was to get her husband to buy her more expensive items in order to look rich, but she was never described as actually working to better her position before she lost the necklace.  Not only was she not content with what she had, she was ungrateful when she received more.  Even when her husband already worked to get her an invitation to a prestigious ball and how he sacrificed the money he was saving for his own source of happiness in order to purchase a new dress for her so she would not be miserable, she was still sad and ungrateful to her husband and was never described sacrificing something for him (de Maupassant, 34).  In fact, not long before the ball she told her husband that "It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on.  I shall look like distress.  I should almost rather not go at all (de Maupassant, 35)."  Her husband had worked to get her an invitation to a upper-class ball and get an elegant dress, but she was still convinced that she would look like "distress" and "almost rather not go at all (de Maupassant, 36)."  This diction displays how she cannot be pleased because she always thinks she does not look affluent enough and how she does not care about what her husband did for her since she is letting the fact she does not have fine jewelry cripple the experience before it even begins.  All of these points show how her reluctance to chase her own desires and how she was never content with anything she had or received, only resulted in unhappiness and misery for her.

The fact that Mathilde only received satisfaction in the story by working towards a goal she set, further supports the interpretation that only hard work leads to happiness.  In order to have something to wear for the ball, Mathilde borrowed a necklace supposedly made of diamonds from a wealthy friend of hers, but then she lost them while returning from the ball.  She honorably decided it was her duty to pay off the debt (de Maupassant, 37).  She then went deeply into debt to purchase a new real diamond necklace to return to her friend and is described by the author as taking her new role to pay off the debt "with heroism," showing that Mathilde believes she is being brave and courageous (de Maupassant, 38).  Although she worked hard and was unhappy while trying to pay off the debt, she did feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment in paying off the debt.  This is demonstrated by how, when Mathilde was telling her friend that she lost what wealth she had by going into to debt to buy the replacement necklace for the one she lost, "she smiled with a joy which was proud and naive at once" (de Maupassant, 39).  While she was not content with what she had before or whenever she was given something new, she was joyful and proud because she believed she and her husband earned their way out of debt.  Since she had finally been forced to work towards a goal, she felt a sense of accomplishment at achieving that goal.  Despite how she was economically better off earlier, she actually experiences happiness due to her hard work, not the luxuries she previously coveted.

Finally, her desire for luxuries is what actually led to the misery she experienced while working to begin with.  She was convinced that "there's nothing more humiliating than look poor among other women who are rich" and needed jewels in order to avoid looking poor at the ball (de Maupassant, 35).  As a result, her belief that she would only be happy if she had the same luxuries and status symbols that the wealthy had led to the debt she believed she owed her friend.  This, in turn, turn led to the miserable kind of work she had to endure, but meant she could still feel a sense of accomplishment if she accomplished her goal (de Maupassant, 38).  If she just worked to accomplish her desires to begin with, she could still have had the sense of accomplishment and the joy that comes with it, without having to take the punishing and upsetting jobs she was forced to in order to pay the debt.  In other words, her greed and dreams of wealth without actively pursuing it led to the difficult and miserable ten years it took to completely repay her perceived debt.  The fact she learns after repaying the supposed debt that the original necklace was fake and the debt never really existed to begin with only adds to the amount of misery her obsession caused her, but does not mean that the sense of accomplishment, which is based on working hard towards a goal and not the goal itself, was responsible for this misery.

In conclusion, "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant is similar to many other stories in how events, diction, syntax, and other formal elements can be interpreted to have a hidden message by the reader.  "The Necklace," like other written texts, can be interpreted and understood in a variety of ways.  One notable interpretation of the events of this story is how only hard work leads to happiness, which is supported by Madame Mathilde's unhappiness before losing the necklace, the joy she finds in paying off the debt she believes she owes, and how her desire for wealth without working for it leads ultimately destroys the what wealth she had to begin with.

