"The Necklace" By Shirley Jackson.

Two main themes in "The Necklace" are honesty and materialism. The entire conflict arises out of the lack of honesty and materialistic needs of both characters. The first honesty conflict occurs when Mathilde is asks for money for a dress. She doesn't simply ask for the money to buy for an adequate dress, she asks for the maximum amount of money that she knows her husband could possibly afford as a clerk. Since it is …

…subtle in the husband but it is unmistakably there. It is unwarranted to feel sorry for the characters because they caused their own troubles out of their pride and out of dishonesty. This story is very moral and it shows the consequences of not being honest and having goals that only include being wealthy. Instead of becoming more wealthy and popular as Mathilde planned, she became a commoner forced into the hard realities of life.