The Necklace

• The Unhappy Protagonist: Matilda Loisel is a beautiful and charming young woman born into a family of clerks. She feels she was born for a life of luxury and suffers constantly because of her modest lifestyle and shabby surroundings.
• A Rare Opportunity: Her husband, a petty clerk at the Board of Education, manages to secure an exclusive invitation to a grand ball hosted by the Minister of Public Instruction.
• The Struggle for Appearance: Instead of being happy, Matilda weeps because she has no suitable dress. Her husband gives her 400 francs—money he had saved to buy a gun for hunting—to purchase a beautiful gown.
• Borrowing the Jewelry: Still feeling "humiliated" by her lack of jewels, Matilda visits her wealthy friend, Mme Forestier, and borrows a superb diamond necklace to complete her look.
• A Night of Triumph: At the ball, Matilda is a grand success. She is the prettiest woman there—elegant, gracious, and intoxicated with the admiration she receives from everyone.
• The Frightful Discovery: Upon returning home at four in the morning, Matilda looks in the mirror for a final view of her glory and discovers that the diamond necklace is missing from her neck.
• The Desperate Search: M. Loisel searches the streets, contacts the police, and offers rewards, but the necklace is nowhere to be found. To buy time, they tell Mme Forestier that the clasp is being repaired.
• The Cost of Pride: Deciding to replace the jewel, they find a similar diamond necklace priced at 36,000 francs. M. Loisel uses his 18,000-franc inheritance and borrows the rest from usurers at ruinous interest rates.
• A Decade of Hardship: For ten long years, the Loisels live a life of extreme poverty to pay off the debt. They dismiss their maid, move to an attic, and Matilda performs heavy manual labor, losing her beauty and youth in the process.
• The Shocking Revelation: After the debt is finally paid, Matilda meets Mme Forestier and confesses the truth. To her horror, Mme Forestier reveals that the original necklace was actually a fake, worth no more than five hundred francs.