In Guy de Maupassant's work "The Necklace," the reader explores a work about a woman who yearns to live a life that is unlike her own. The main character engages in the night of her dreams, only to lose the necklace she borrowed from her friend, and thus has to endure ten years of misfortune. The reader can interpret "The Necklace" due to Maupassant's use of diction, characterization, and the themes of pride and fate. With these devices in mind, the reader then can understand the work as a lesson that being honest in all aspects can prevent hardships and struggles in life. 

In the short story, Mathilde Loisel is shown to be an envious woman with a list of things that could surely make her happy, but due to the cards that life has dealt her at birth, she is subjected to a middle class life with a clerk. The diction that describes Mathilde's life in the beginning of the short story should instantly cue to the reader that she is prideful and materialistic. Diction such as "plainly," "suffered," "longing," and "disdain," in addition to an entire paragraph describing her beauty, tell the reader that not only is she unhappy with her lifestyle, but she thinks she is too good for it (Maupassant 33). Additionally, Maupassant's diction describing her husband creates an image of a man that does not have much, but aims to please. On page 33 Maupassant introduces Monsieur Loisel as "a little clerk at the Minister of Public Instruction." The author using the word "little" gives the reader the impression that Mathilde's husband is modest and insignificant on the social ladder, the opposite of what Mathilde wants. Furthermore, when Monsieur Loisel speaks in one of his first appearances he stammers, and upon the discontentment of his wife, saying "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" he sacrifices his money for a new gun, and his own hunting trip in Nanterre with his friends to make her happy (Maupassant 34-35). The diction that Maupassant provides in the dialogue exchange between the two develop the characterization, which in turn allows the reader to interpret the story by building the sympathy, or lack thereof for the character's outcome. 

The characterization brought forth through the diction influences the reader to form an opinion on Mathilde almost immediately. Maupassant characterizes Mathilde as greedy and prideful, two traits that lead to her downfall. In describing Mathilde's outlook on life, he says, "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). In addition to her pity party, Maupassant also shows Mathilde's anger at her life situation, stating  " ... All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry" (Maupassant 33). This quote demonstrates how Mathilde thinks about life, giving the reader a clear picture of greed and pride. Loisel thinks that her life is unbearable and torturous, and when she compares herself to any other woman of her rank, the reader also find that she believes herself to be above others through these remarks as well. Mathilde thinks that she is above other people, simply because she is good looking even though her life is comfortable without the luxuries. This can also be found in another quote in which Maupassant states that "she dressed plainly because she could not dress well, bit she was as unhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank; and beauty an grace, and charm act instead of family and birth"(Maupassant 33). From this, the reader can gather the impression that looks and charms determine value from a societal standpoint, which then shape Mathilde's opinions on what she deserves in life as well. This statement is also ironic when it states that she was unhappy as if she had fallen from her proper station because that actually happens to her as a result of her arrogance. The tone of the quote and the diction used void the reader of any pity he/she has of her leading up to that point due to her excessive arrogance.

Had Madame Loisel swallowed her pride and admitted that she lost Madame Forestier's necklace, she may have avoided the ten years of financial insecurities. The author uses Madame Loisel's reluctance to let go of her excessive pride to emphasize this harsh outcome. In the end, Madame Loisel loses her good looks which she valued, but carries the memory of the beautiful night before everything went wrong. The arduous years she spent paying back her debts were seemingly bearable because she remembered what she was doing it for saying " But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down near the window, and she thought of that gay evening of long ago, of that ball where she had been so beautiful and feted" (Maupassant 38).  However, though Mathilde expressed some regret, she still valued that night above everything and still clung to what pride she had left, showing that she had not learned anything from the experience. When Forestier tells her that the necklace was costume jewelry, the shock of having worked for ten years for something that she could have paid off in a few months leaves her looking highly foolish, Maupassant showing this through word choice when he says "And she smiled with a joy which was proud and naive at once" (Maupassant 39). 

Maupassant could also have used Mathilde's punishment in this story to help develop the theme of the fates of women within the patriarchy during the late 1800's. This theme can be interpreted through the diction describing Mathilde Loisel's life. Maupassant first describes her circumstance as a "mistake of destiny" (Maupassant 33).  Instead of saying that she married her husband, Maupassant says that "she let herself be married to a little clerk," which implies that their union was a marriage of convenience. She was born into her fate, but her choosing to marry her husband eliminated the chance of a wealthier man coming into her life.  Madame Loisel desires the glamour that lacks within the life she leads within this patriarchal society. Immediately the reader learns that Mathilde had no prospects to fulfill her dreams of being wealthy. As a woman, her future is not in her own hands, but in the hands of her family or husband. As Maupassant said in the beginning, "She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded, by any rich and distinguished man" (Maupassant 33). If she had been born into a higher social class, she would have achieved male attention by being marriage material for someone within that status. When Mathilde dresses up for the ball she is a subject of conversation because she is so beautiful (Maupassant 36). In mentioning this, Maupassant also makes it seem almost unusual for such a beautiful woman to be middle class, thus highlighting her unhappy fate from birth. Though this fate is inescapable, Mathilde still does not deserve the reader's pity because she is ungrateful for the things she does have. She has a stable home, a husband who clearly loves her, and is well off enough to afford housekeeping services. Her poor choices, pride, and lack of regret or remorse make her undeserving.  

Although Madame Loisel did not grow up rich, she still witnessed the impressive life of her friend Madame Forestier, but did not see the facade that the rich put up to keep their reputations. Mathilde, the unlikable character that she is, did not fully learn from her mistakes until it cost both her livelihood and pride. Maupassant displays Madam Loisel's misfortunes through diction, characterization and the themes of pride and fate in order to show that being honest in all aspects can prevent struggles. In going through such tribulations, the reader learns through Mathilde that the glamorous life is not all that it is cracked up to be and that it is better to be true to oneself rather than being a fake, for these fronts will always be revealed. 

