Guy de Maupassant begins to discuss the theme of Matilda’s inner oppression (or self-oppression) in the first paragraph of the story, introducing her as “one of those pretty, charming young ladies, born….into a family of clerks” (de Maupassant 31), showing the reader from the start that there is a huge divide between Matilda’s life as it is and Matilda’s life the way she wants it to be.

Both kinds of oppression take their toll are Matilda (though in different ways) and both will be analyzed at length in this paper. The second kind of oppression, more concrete, comes in the second part of the story, where Matilda and her husband both have to give up what comforts they had to begin with in order to pay off the debt that they owe for the necklace. The first kind of oppression, in the first section of the short story, comes from within Matilda herself because of her unrealistic dreams and expectations for her life. The oppression that de Maupassant writes about in this story is two-fold.

Years later, the woman meets her old friend by chance in the park and brags of how much she and her husband went through to replace the necklace, only to be told that the necklace was made only costume jewelry and “were not worth five hundred francs”. She and her husband go into great debt to buy a replacement, living a life of great poverty for a decade to pay off the debt they incurred to do this. Sometime during the night of the ball, the necklace is lost. In it, a middle-class woman, Matilda Loisel, who dreams of a luxurious life, is able to have one, glorious night at a ball, wearing a borrowed necklace of diamonds from her childhood friend.

Oppression plays a large role in the brilliant short story by Guy de Maupassant entitled “The Necklace”. Relation of Global Warming and Extreme Weather Condition Power Point Presentation With Speaker Notes

The necklace by guy