The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassant, is about a poor French lady who wants to be the prettiest lady at a ball. She borrowed a beautiful necklace from her friend, but lost it at the end of the ball. She bought another one to return to her friend despite the huge debt. Later, she found out that the necklace was actually a fake. In the story, the necklace is very similar to Madame Loisel and represented her character, her greed and her thoughts.

The necklace represents Madame Loisel’s character as both of them only look good on the outside. Madame Loisel felt “herself born for every delicacy and luxury” and wore a very beautiful ball dress when she was actually a poor woman. Similarly, the “superb diamond necklace” found “in a black satin case” was actually nothing more than a fake “worth at the very most five hundred francs”. Both Madame Loisel and the necklace has nothing more than a pretty face. Thus Madame Loisel, who only wants to look good on the outside and be admired by all, is represented by the necklace.

Besides her character, the necklace also symbolizes her greed. She took the four hundred francs, which her husband had saved up to buy a rifle, and bought a ball dress with it. While choosing for a jewellery to wear, she was so meticulous on finding the most expensive looking necklace Madame Forestier had. This can be seen as she kept on asking, “Haven’t you anything else?” When she found the supposedly most expensive necklace, she “remained in ecstasy at sight of herself” and asked her friend for it. If she had not been so greedy and had brought clothes and accessories that she could afford, she would not need to go through so much to pay for the fake necklace. However, she had always wanted to be the best, and she will try to obtain the best at whatever cost. Thus, the necklace symbolized her greed in wanting the best for herself.

The necklace also symbolized Madame Loisel’s thoughts and mentality. She had always hoped “to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after”. The necklace helped her achieve that, and she was “the prettiest woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling, and quite above herself with happiness”. However, that came with a huge price and she spent the next ten years in poverty. Even so, she would still think of “the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired”. This shows that she does not feel remorseful for causing she and her husband to go into poverty and is willing to take the sufferings just to be greatly admired and become envied for one night.

In conclusion, we can see a lot of similarities between Madame Loisel and the necklace, in terms of their appearance or their character. In the story, the necklace represents Madame Loisel in a negative way and symbolizes her thoughts. It is ironic that Madame Loisel had the fake necklace and Madame Forestier got the real one eventually, stressing the fact that Madame Loisel is nothing but a fake.