Like many, Mathilde Loisel was unsatisfied with the life she was living and the way she was perceived by others. Throughout “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, Mathilde is caught daydreaming about what her life could have been if she had not married the man she did. She was never content with her “normal” lifestyle and constantly compared herself to her wealthy colleagues. Within the story the narrator states that “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. All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry” (Maupassant 33). Madame Loisel felt that she had a lesser lifestyle than everyone else around her did, which caused her to become angry at not only herself, but at her husband as well. However, Madame Loisel was unaware of the fact that her life could actually be much worse than she had thought. “The Necklace” demonstrates how comparing yourself to others can blind you from the good you already have in front of you.

Mathilde constantly day dreams of a “better life” and tries to resemble her wealthy colleagues as much as possible. She does this to have something to hope for, since she believes that everyone else around her is superior to her. After her husband acquires an invitation to a high-end ball, which was extremely hard for him to receive, Mathilde does not wish to go simply because she does not have a “nice enough” dress to wear. Mathilde acts this way because she is anxious of seeing everyone at the ball and not fitting in. Mathilde also states “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” (Maupassant 35). Mathilde is jealous of all the other women who have nice accessories and she complains about it until she gets her way. To maintain her materialistic perception, per her husband’s suggestion, Mathilde goes to her old schoolmate Madame Forestier’s house to borrow a necklace fit for this significant occasion. Mathilde searches through all of Madame Forestiers jewelry and chooses what seems to be the most expensive necklace. Mathilde chooses this necklace simply to look superior to her colleagues. Mathilde wants to look superior so she can hide the fact that she has less money than everyone else around her. The night of the ball, Mathilde was “prettier than them all, elegant, gracious, smiling, and crazy with joy,” (Maupassant 36) all due to her wearing the diamond necklace. This quote shows how important wealth and appearance are to Madame Loisel because that was all that mattered to her.

Mathilde’s blinding materialism causes her to be unappreciative of everything her husband has sacrificed for her. In order for Mathilde to buy a nice enough dress to wear to the ball, her husband gave her his money he had saved up to buy a gun. With this gun, Monsieur Loisel planned to shoot larks with his friends in the summer. Monsieur Loisel sacrificed his summer hobby in order to make his wife happy for one night. This sacrifice shows how much love and compassion Monsieur Loisel has for Madame Loisel, but unfortunately it also shows the audience how unappreciative Madame Loisel is towards her husband. After the ball, Mathilde realizes she has lost the precious diamond necklace she had borrowed from her good friend. Her husband spends all night searching on the streets, in the cabs, at the police headquarters, and even the newspaper offices for this necklace, while his wife sits at home “waiting on a chair in her ball dress, without strength to go to bed, overwhelmed, without fire, without a thought” (Maupassant 37). All Mathilde does throughout the story is pity herself. If she does not get her way, then she makes everyone else around her feel sorry for her in order to receive the attention she desires. Madame Loisel’s self-pity blinds her from noticing how much effort her husband has put into finding the necklace, which causes her to be unappreciative and dismissive. After no discovery of the necklace, Monsieur and Madame Loisel search every jeweler for a perfect replacement necklace. The Loisel’s lie and tell Madame Forestier not that they had lost the necklace, but that the clasp had broken and they are having it mended. The Loisel’s lie about the necklace because they do not want Madame Forestier to find out and become angry at them, but more importantly, Madame Loisel does not want anyone else finding out that she had to borrow it in the first place. Madame Loisel is more worried about her reputation rather than the actual loss of the necklace. Monsieur Loisel purchases the replacement necklace with the last bit of money his father had left him. Unfortunately, he has to borrow the rest of the money, therefore, “he compromised all the rest of his life, risked his signature without even knowing if he could meet it” (Maupassant 37).  As a result of Madame Loisel wearing the expensive-looking necklace just to look superior and wealthy, the Loisel’s suffer the severe consequences of poverty.

Subsequently, Monsieur and Madame Loisel were determined to repay their dreadful debt of the necklace to Madame Forestier. Due to their recent money shortage, the Loisel’s let go of their servant and move into housing of much less value than they had before. Due to the Loisel’s loss of their servant, Madame Loisel quickly grasped the dreadful job of housework. With this new responsibility “She washed the dishes, using her rosy nails on the greasy pots and pans. She washed the 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. And, dressed like a woman of the people, she went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, her basket on her arm, bargaining, insulted, defending her miserable money sou by sou” (Maupassant 38). With Monsieur Loisel working overtime and Madame Loisel not constantly spending all of their hard-earned money, the Loisel’s were able to completely pay off their debt in ten years. These long ten years of hard work took a toll on Mathilde’s appearance, and made her question what life would have been like if she had not lost that necklace. It is not until the very end of the story that Madame Forestier reveals to Madame Loisel that the original necklace was a fake. Madame Forestier states “Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!” (Maupassant 39). The Loisel’s paid thirty-six thousand francs in order to buy the replacement necklace. Those ten long and hard years of work to pay off a meaningless debt, all because of Madame Loisel’s strive for materialism. Mathilde’s strive for materialism stems from her jealousy of the lives of her colleagues and this jealousy blinds her from appreciating all the blessings in her life.

Striving to fit in and be like others caused Mathilde and her husband to suffer even worse than they did before. Mathilde did not realize that the life she already had was great. She had a wonderful husband, a roof over her head, a plate full of food on her table, and even a humble servant. All of these great things were not good enough for Mathilde due to her strive to be like her wealthy colleagues. This story is very relatable in the real world, mainly because there are so many different social levels and it is almost guaranteed that someone is not satisfied with where they are at. Everyone must learn to be grateful for what they already have and not to dwell on the fact that they may not have what others do have. Mathilde demonstrates this materialistic perception in “The Necklace” and unfortunately, the Loisel’s had to learn the consequences of materialism the hard way.