What is the charm of a diamond necklace? It neither provides warmth like a scarf on a windy winter day nor supports the neck like a pillow. In contrast, the chance of catching a cold while wearing a diamond necklace in the winter is quite high; or, the weight of a luxurious diamond necklace can cause neck pain. However, many people use diamonds to show off their material life, like Madame Loisel the text "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant. In his short story, Guy de Maupassant illustrates the main character's greediness and its destruction through characterization, symbolism, and irony.

Throughout the story, the author uses rich diction to describe Mathilde Loisel's characteristics. Maupassant sets a cynical tone to show Loisel's dissatisfaction by using negative words to describe how Mathilde Loisel is unhappy about her life: 

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. All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry. (Maupassant 33)

The author uses words such as "suffered," "poverty," "wretched," "worn-out," "ugliness" and "tortured" to imply that the life that Mathilde lives in is dull and hideous. At a glance, these words suggest to the reader that the main character is living a miserable life which she is treated badly. Contradictory, the only thing that she suffers is the thought of her life does not have luxury possessions that she dreams of, "She thought of dainty dinners, 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 severed on marvelous plates ... " (Maupassant 33)

 Maupassant uses positive alliterations such as "dainty dinner," "shining silverware," "fairy forest," and "delicious dishes" to describe Mathilde's fantasies. These attractive alliterations give the readers the feeling of an airy and bright life, which is associated with the upper-class society. The main character daydreams about such luxury life because she comes from a middle-class family and assumes that she deserves more than what she is having at the moment. Her materialism is also shown when she finds her rich friend, Madame Forestier, to borrow jewelry for the ball that she is coming. The author describes Mathilde's joy when she sees the diamond necklace with impressive words to indicate her greediness such as "superb necklace," "immoderate desire," "trembled," "fastened" and "ecstasy" (Maupassant 35). These words suggest how excited the main character is when she sees a luxurious jewelry. It can be interpreted that Madame Loisel is a greedy woman, who does not appreciate what she is currently having. The author imparts the main character's personality by using exquisite vocabularies. 

Guy de Maupassant draws the reader's attention by creating irony situations to show the destructive of greed. The first situational irony is when Madame Loisel comes back home from the ball. After a remarkable night, Mathilde finds out that she has lost the borrowed jewelry. At the beginning, she thought that the diamond necklace would change her life. Ironically, it changes her life but in a negative way. Instead of confessing to her friend that the necklace is lost, her husband and she try to hide the truth and buy a new diamond necklace to replace the lost one. To pay off the debt from buying a new diamond necklace, she starts to work to help her husband. She gives up her leisurely life to become "the woman of impoverished households" and "dressed like a woman of the people" (Maupassant 38). These details imply that Mathilde finally realizes that she has to work just like other people in order to settle her life. Her fantasies of a luxurious life seem to be out of her reach more. After ten years, now that her life has changed completely opposite to what she thought, the author creates another twist, revealing the diamond necklace that she lost was just a paste. The irony is that the Loisel's had to work so hard to earn money to pay for the necklace, but in reality, it is worth nothing. Mathilde has lost all her natural beauty as a result of doing labor for the necklace. The Loisel's lose much more than money in their struggle to return the necklace.

In the text, the most significant symbol is the diamond necklace that the main character borrow from her friend and has multiple meanings. First, it is the symbol of wealth. Not everyone can buy a diamond jewelry due to its rareness and price tag. Most of the owners are rich people, those who live in the upper-class society that can afford expensive hobbies. Besides, for years, the society has been considering diamond as a valuable and majestic object, so people usually relate diamond as the symbol of preciousness. The next symbol of the necklace is Mathilde's mad desire. She dreams of a fancy life that she is unable to have and despites her own background. She believes that the diamond necklace and a night at the ball would brighten her life, "She danced with intoxication, with passion, made drunk by pleasure, forgetting all, in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a sort of cloud of happiness composed of all this homage..." (Maupassant 36). The readers can see that the main character is extremely thrilled at the ball; she seems to be a lady from the high-class family and gets to live in her fantasies. Through the symbol of the necklace, Maupassant implies that the value does not lie within the objects but within our mind.

In the text "The Necklace", the descriptive language that Maupassant uses is remarkable because it makes the scenes in the story full of life. By using alliteration and symbolism to describe the characters' personalities, Guy de Maupassant has successfully imparted that the value is justified by one's prospect, not the world that everyone lives in. People should appreciate what is given rather than chasing for cliche materials.

