The Price of Vanity In the story “The Necklace,” by Guy de Maupassant, Mathilde Loisel suffered intense hardship for many years because of her vanity and misplaced sense of pride. The definition of the word “vain” according to the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary is, “of no real value… proud of one’s looks or abilities” (“Vain”). Her thoughts of being born in the wrong social class and her desire to appear above her station in life …showed first 75 words of 930 total…

…showed last 75 words of 930 total…is strange and changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!” (Maupassant 166) If she had not cared so much about her looks and the opinions of others, their life would have been different in a good way for those past ten years. In the end, all she was left with was the loathing of what she had become because of her misplaced sense of vanity and pride.