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"All of a sudden she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb necklace of diamonds, and her heart began to beat with an immoderate desire. Her hands trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, outside her high necked dress, and remained lost in ecstasy at the sight of herself."
Mathilde's reaction to Madame Forestier's diamond necklace reveals her deep-rooted obsession with material objects. She gives these objects an inordinate amount of power, believing that owning fine dresses and jewels will bring her happiness and fulfillment. She equates her sense of happiness with physical items, such as the diamond necklace, and rejects the notion of finding contentment without them. Ironically, despite her infatuation with the necklace, it is this very object that leads to her downfall and ultimately destroys her chance at true happiness.
"Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!"
Madame Forestier's surprising revelation that the diamond necklace was a fake gives the story a twist ending. Suddenly, the reader must acknowledge that it was Mathilde's misguided perception of the diamond necklace's importance that ultimately destroyed her life. The discovery about the necklace's worth ties into larges themes about the human tendency to infuse material items with excessive significance. It is us who determines their value; they are only as powerful as we allow them to be.
