The entire story is a symbol of the pettiness and amoral materialism of old-age France and is about a middle-class woman who is very greedy and ambitious and has a desire to get into the upper-class society. The necklace itself is a symbol of luxury, extravagance and wealth and high social status. Madame Loisel struggle to pay for it is symbolic of the idea that ambition, ceaseless and pointless social climbing. The middle class woman was prone to money-grubbing. She spends ten years trying to pay for a necklace that is worth nothing.