First off,
see the links below for other very good discussions about this same question.
I would say there is very littlein this story. To use foreshadowing would eliminate the
sense of shock which comes over the reader after the final lines of the story, when Madame
Forestier reveals the necklace was really a fake. De Maupassant does, however, hint at the
reason for the necklace's loss immediately after Madame Loisel leaves the ball. She has had an
incredible time and has been the most popular woman there, invited to dance throughout the
nightso much so that her husband ends up sleeping in a sitting room until the ball is
finished.
When Monsieur Loisel goes to place the "modest garments of
everyday life" around her shoulders, she recoils and rushes away from him. She is so
narcissistic that she doesn't want the other women to see her "shabby" coat. De
Maupassant writes,
He threw over her shoulders the wraps
he had brought for going home, modest garments of everyday life whose shabbiness clashed with
the stylishness of her evening clothes. She felt this and longed to escape, unseen by the other
women who were draped in expensive furs.Loisel held her back.
Hold on! Youll catch cold outside.
Ill call a cab.
But she wouldnt listen to him and went rapidly down the
stairs.
More than
likely, Madame Loisel loses the necklace in her haste to leave the ball and not be revealed as
middle class. The same conceit which made her long to be wealthy and admired eventually plunges
her into poverty as the necklace is lost in her speedy retreat.
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