The Necklace is a story about a young woman named Mathilde Loisel, who is married to a clerk. She is unhappy with her life and longs for more, but she does not know how to achieve her dream of wealth and happiness.
Mathilde and her husband are invited to a ball by a wealthy friend, but they do not have suitable dresses to wear. Mathilde borrows a diamond necklace from her friend and loses it at the ball. She and her husband cannot afford to replace the necklace, so they must find a way to pay for it.
Mathilde sells all of her possessions—including her wedding ring—and takes out a loan in order to replace the lost necklace. The necklace is eventually found by Mathilde’s husband’s employer, who sends it back to him as an anonymous gift. By this time, however, Mathilde has lost everything: she has no money, no possessions except for an old dress which she wears until it disintegrates into rags, and no friends or family members who will help her out of financial difficulty because she has alienated them all with her brash behavior toward them throughout much of this story’s narrative structure up til now!
