"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 more than likely she didn't know that he was saving that money to use to buy a gun, he was being dishonest as well. Both her and her husband are guilty of lying in this story although at first glance it appears only as if the woman is the one lying. …