The Necklace

This study guide will help you analyze the short story “The Necklace” (1889) by Guy de Maupassant. You can also find a summary of the text, as well as inspiration for interpreting it and putting it into perspective.

Here, you can read an extract from our study guide:

After Mathilde buys a dress and borrows a diamond necklace from her friend, she attends the ball, where she “made a great success”. The story reaches its climax when Mathilde realizes that her necklace is missing: “She removed the wraps, which covered her shoulders, before the glass, so as once more to see herself in all her glory. But suddenly she uttered a cry. She had no longer the necklace around her neck!”.

The Loisels become indebted when they borrow money to buy a similar necklace and spend the next decade working hard. A foreshadowing element suggests that the Loisels have been ruined by a small thing: “How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!”.

The narrative ends with a plot twist: upon meeting Mme. Forestier, Mathilde finds out that the necklace she borrowed was an imitation: “Mme. Forestier, strongly moved, took her two hands. ‘Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!’”. The plot twist confirms that the Loisels have been ruined by a small thing, as Mme. Forestier’s necklace was not worth their sacrifice and hard work.