In Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace," Mathilde Loisel is the main character. Her husband gets an invitation to a ball, which gives her an opportunity to live her ultimate dream. Therefore, she gets a new dress and borrows a necklace. She ends up losing the necklace, which takes her ten years to repay. This circumstance causes Mathilde to undergo some changes through the ten years, and she is force to repay the loans back. Mathilde fantasies over a better life, but this fantasy leads her only to more of a lower class than she was.

Mathilde only lets herself suffer because she thinks she deserves more in life than what she has, and her relationships with her peers contribute to this. Her husband is a clerk in the Ministry of Education, and he enjoys his life. However, Mathilde feels that she was not born in the right class...