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 Mr. and Mrs. Loisel had very hard lives. Working non-stop
to pay off their loans, they are totally changed people.
Mrs. Loisel was now free from all of her misery. She was walking down the road
one day and met with her old friend. Mrs. Loisel and her started talking and she found out
that the past ten years of her life were a waste. The "brilliant" necklace that she had
borrowed was a cheap imitation!!
And so indeed the necklace is the dominant symbol in this story; everything in it
is connected to it in some way. And as we may have seen, as the story changes so too
does the meaning of the necklace. It is by times a symbol of misery, desperation, and
brilliance.
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