In "The Necklace" Madame Loisel's appearance is greatly altered as, in her pride, she refuses to tell her friend that she has lost the borrowed necklace. Instead she and her husband repay the "frightful debt" by M. Loisel's working nights. For ten years they work; doing all the housework, Mme. Loisel becomes "heavy, rough, harsh, like one of the poor. Her hair untended, her skirts askew, her hands red, her voice shrill...." No longer is there any trace of the "pretty and charming girl."
However, Madame Loisel has not changed in her attitude; she is still proud and values material things over spiritual ones. For, she does not demonstrate any gratitude to her husband for his sacrifices on her behalf. Just as she is ungrateful for his using the money he has saved for a rifle to buy the gown for the reception in the beginning of the story, she demonstrates no gratitude for his years of labor and sacrifice. It is only important to have the gown, or to earn the money to repay their debt on the diamond necklace.
When Mme. Loisel encounters her former friend from whom she has borrowed the fateful necklace, she approaches the lady, telling her proudly how she has replaced the borrowed necklace and paid for it:
Mme. Forestier stopped short. 'You mean to say you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine?'
'Yes.You never noticed, then? They were quite alike.'
And she [Mme. Loisel] smiled with proud and simple joy.
To the end Mme. Loisel tragically retains the perverse pride she has in valuing the wrong things, one of which is "only paste."
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