A summary of "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant.

"The Necklace" is a short story that gives

an important moral. You should always be grateful for what you have, as things can always be
worse. Matilda Loisel and her husband are an average middle class couple. Matilda longs to be
above this, and dreams of the life of luxury and is miserable with the life she has. In an attempt
to make his wife
happy, Mr. Loisel get an invitation to a social party of important stature. His wife is upset
because she has nothing to wear. He gives her the money he was saving to buy himself a gun, so
she can buy herself a dress. She then becomes upset because she has no jewelry to wear. She
borrows a beautiful diamond necklace from a friend. She loses the necklace at the party. After
searching for a week, they realize they must replace the necklace. They use their entire savings,
and even take out loans to pay for the replacement diamond necklace. Now they have no money
and must both work tirelessly to pay off their debts. Years later, Matilda is withered and worn
from working so hard. She runs into her friend on the street one day and confesses to her that
they replaced the necklace, and the means by which they did it. In return her friend explained
that the necklace was not real diamonds, and was only worth 500 francs and not the 36,000
francs they had paid to replace it. You can find more information here: