“The Necklace” is a tale of a woman who has all she needs, but is not satisfied.  It is the story of a young French woman named Mathilde Loisel who was born beautiful, but not born rich.

Mathilde is very materialistic.

Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries. She was distressed at the poverty of her dwelling, at the bareness of the walls, at the shabby chairs, the ugliness of the curtains. (p. 1)

One day, her husband (who is not named) comes home with an invitation to a fancy ball.  He thought she would be thrilled, because it is a very important social event and it is hard to get tickets, especially for a clerk.  He is surprised by her reaction.  She is angry, and then sad.  She tells him she has nothing to wear, and he offers to give her the money he has saved for a hunting trip.  Then she says she was no jewels, and he again offers a suggestion.

"Go look up your friend, Madame Forestier, and ask her to lend you some jewels. You're intimate enough with her to do that." (p. 3)

They go to the ball, and Mathilde is wonderful.  She looks stunning, and she is very happy.  As they are leaving, she realizes that she lost the necklace she borrowed from her rich friend.

Her husband once again swoops in to save the day.  He tells her to write that the clasp is broken, and takes out a loan to replace the necklace.  Then he and Mathilde labor on for ten years to repay the debt.

Thereafter Madame Loisel knew the horrible existence of the needy. She bore her part, however, with sudden heroism. That dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it. (p. 6)

In the end, Mathilde runs into her friend Madame Forestier.  She does not recognize how old and ragged Mathilde looks.  Mathilde tells her only then that she had to replace the necklace, and it took her ten years.  Madame Forestier is surprised, and tells her the necklace was a fake.

The great irony of the story is that Mathilde’s pride literally was her downfall.  She refused to tell Madame Forestier that she lost the necklace, and so she lost her beauty and what little comfort she had to replace it.  She spent ten years destroying herself to replace a fake necklace with a real one.

Please give the main details of the story "The Necklace."

This great short story by Guy de Maupassant is well worth reading for yourself as it contains a moment of almost perfect situational irony. However, I will outline the main events for you and hopefully this will interest you in the story as a whole.

As the story opens, we are introduced to Mathilde Loisel, who is a character who appears doomed to live a live where she feels constantly dissatisfied. Although she is middle-class, she constantly yearns and daydreams for a better quality of life, spending more of her time daydreaming than anything else. Finally, when she and her husband are invited to a ball, she feels she has her chance. She goes to an old friend who has had much more success in life and borrows a diamond necklace from her. With this necklace, the ball passes wonderfully, and all her dreams are fulfilled. However, the next day, she realises she has lost the necklace. Filled with shame, Mathilde and her husband commit themselves to a life of poverty in order to repay the loan they have to take out to buy a new necklace so her friend doesn't realise it was lost. finally, years later, after Mathilde has been completely transformed by a life of drudgery, she stumbles across her old friend and tells her about the necklace, only to receive the news that the necklace was actually a fake.