The most important symbol in the short story "The Necklace" is the necklace
itself. The entire story revolves around it. As we move through the story the necklace
takes on different meanings as circumstances change.
This is a story about a beautiful woman and a low-class man that sacrifice ten
long hard years of their lives for a special night for his spoiled wife.
Mr. and Mrs. Loisel were invited to an annual ball held by the Minister of
Education. Mrs. Loisel had nothing to wear to this special occasion so she asked for
money to buy a dress. Of course Mr. Loisel would sacrifice the 400 hundred francs he
was saving for a gun to make his wife happy. Mrs. Loisel however, was still not satisfied
because she needed some kind of jewelry, so she borrowed a "brilliant" diamond
necklace that made her look magnificent. She walked into of the minister's house and
everybody stared in awe.
While having the best time of her life at the ball she realizes
that the diamond is missing from her neck. She goes into hysterics and demands her
husband to go and look for it.
Mr. and Mrs. Loisel go out and look for it and have no luck. They decide that they
must gather up money and buy the same looking diamond that they found at an expensive
jewelry store. They got as many loans as they could from anyone who would give them
money and for whatever the interest was, they were desperate. They managed to gather
36,000 francs for the necklace. Her husband brings it to her friend and gives it to her, to
his surprise she does not open the case and look at it and that took a weight off his
shoulders.
For the next ten years...