The Loisels: from desire to fall from grace The rigid class hierarchy was one of the factors that generated the turbulence of France in 1800, the tumultuous era in which Guy de Maupassant wrote his short story, "The Necklace". The Loisels, the main couple of the story, demonstrate dissatisfaction with their social structure and insatiable desire for a higher social position. By dehumanizing and humiliating her husband to gain a façade of wealth, but ultimately achieving nothing more than the loss of social and economic status, Mathilde Loisel embodies the superficial mentality that de Maupassant vilifies. Depicting Mathilde as a superficial woman who loses everything - while mindlessly striving for more - and contrasting her with her seemingly Mathilde Loisel symbolizes an obsession with wealth, serving as a physical representation of an overwhelming desire that is ultimately self-destructive and would lead to a loss of his identity. In describing the appearance of her home, Mathilde “suffered incessantly, feeling born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries [...] The sight of the little Breton peasant doing her humble housework aroused in her desperate regrets, and dreams distracted” (de Maupassant 34). She sees herself as if she were some sort of noblewoman forced to endure abject poverty and constantly insulted, leading her to feel entitled to a nicer house and better clothes. Yet he was already an upper-class person. Monsieur Loisel subjected his happiness to his obsession - fueling his wife's obsession - just as Mathilde nullified her own chance at happiness with what she had by rejecting it in the hope of achieving something better. Their individual selves were oppressed to the point that they merely served as vessels to achieve an end goal, regardless of the vessel's happiness. Instead of weighing the benefits and disadvantages of fulfilling their desires, they nurtured them to the point of ruining them. This same phenomenon is also found in modern society, where competition leads to the race for greater material goods at the expense of individual happiness. Being so determined to accumulate maximum profit leads to an unsatisfactory void that can never be reached, something de Maupassant warns against. Chasing this unattainable goal would only lead the person to lose their identity, to be replaced by a senseless struggle to