The Necklace

society at the level to which she aspires, and she believes that anything less than that level is unworthy and leaves her missing out on much of life. Mme. Forestier's thoughts on the matter are not recorded in this story, but she understands the needs of her friend sufficiently to help her when the need arises and the other woman requires a piece of jewelry for the party to which she and her husband have been invited. Mme. Loisel fails to see what is right and to follow through on it, and as a result she is always unhappy and convinced that she has been cheated out of all in life that is really her due, since she is "pretty and charming," as the author says. Maupassant is known for his ability to bring such character to life, as Donald Adamson notes:

He excels in the description of lowranking civil servants, having been one himself for eight years. No writer has known better than he did how such men struggle to keep up appearances while living on the breadline. It is a prospect that seems to have no end until death. In his emphasis upon shabby gentility and dreary routine, no writer has known better how to describe such lives (Adamson).

The technique de Maupassant uses is seen as naturalistic, as in his habit of observing his characters from the outside and not from the inside: "The characters in 'The Necklace,' and there are only three, are viewed externally, being as it were characters in a drama rather than a prose fiction" (Adamson).