"The Diamond Necklace," by Guy de Maupassant, is a tragic short story about the importance of being able to distinguish genuine value from false worth.
1. The Price of Happiness
The story follows the life of Mathilde Loisel, the middle-class wife of a minor clerk who nonetheless dreams of a more prosperous life. She feels she was born for luxury, and constantly daydreams about eating fine food, wearing elegant clothing, and sharing in the pastimes of high society. When her husband secures a coveted ball invitation, he believes her desires will be at least temporarily satisfied.
With a new dress and a borrowed necklace, Mathilde sets out to enjoy an unforgettable evening. She feels beautiful and elegant, and because her concept of happiness had always revolved around her (lack of) social status and wealth, she is now at the peak of contentment. She feels at home among the wealthy crowd, and is ashamed when she has to put on her shabby wrap and hail a cab home with her husband. When she discovers she has lost the necklace, her magical experience becomes the start of a harsh life lesson.
2. True Value
The conflict in this story -the loss of the necklace- is based on Mathilde's false assumptions about value. Mathilde had chosen the piece of jewelry that had looked most impressive: the velvet box, the shiny stones... everything had led her to believe it contained real diamonds. After all, why would her wealthy friend wear anything but the best? Her own fantasies had been filled with the objects she couldn't have, the gemstones and silks she would unquestionably own if she had enough money. This hasty assumption leads to ten years of misery and hard labor for the Loisels, as they struggle to pay off the (real) diamond necklace they had bought to replace Madame Forestier's.
At this point, we can see an interesting pattern in the story. "The Diamond Necklace" started with Mathilde in her middle-class trappings, but dreaming of better things; she reaches a high point during the ball, where she is dressed as richly as the other guests; following the loss of the necklace, she begins a descent into the lower strata as she turns to heavy chores and much poorer clothing. These external transformations are echoed in Mathilde's spirit: she goes from unsatisfied, to ecstatic, to utterly defeated by her circumstances. However, by the time she confronts Madame Forestier at the end of the story, and learns the terrible truth about the necklace, she has acquired a sense of pride in her accomplishments.
3. What Is There to Learn?
What, then, are we to take away from this reading? There seem to be clear messages about placing all our hopes on material wealth, and misjudging the value of people and objects. We might think that Mathilde deserved her fate for being greedy and thoughtless; or we might blame Madame Forestier for not having told Mathilde that the necklace was worthless when she borrowed it (or not told her when Mathilde reveals the switch). We can also read the story as a commentary on the damage caused by social distinctions.
Maupassant's story is based on a simple concept: the conflict that often exists between a person's external and internal lives, and how it is not always possible to bring both worlds together. Mathilde, for all her dreams of a high society life, does not know enough to realize that not all that shines is a diamond, and her naive judgment distances her forever from her desired status.
