Madame Loisel's envy of the upper class and of things that she doesn't have leads to her ruin in "The Necklace." Why do you think that is?

As the author of "The Necklace," Guy de Maupassant studied
the rising bourgeosie in his country of France, he noticed its concern with the
acquisition of material possessions and in the inordinate value that this class put upon
these possessions. In his opening paragraphs, Maupassant conveys this materialistic
attitude of the bourgeosie:

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She was one of those pretty and charming girls,
born, as if by an accident of fate, into a family of clerks....She dressed plainly
because she could not afford fine clothes, but was an unhappy as a woman who has come
down in the world...She grieved incessantly, feeling that she had been born for all the
little niceties and luxuries of living.  She grieved over the shabbiness of her
apartment,...and the ugliness of the draperies.  All these things, which
another woman of her class would not even have noticed, gnawed at her and made her
furious.

Madame
Loisel's character flaw of placing the value of material possessions above all others is
her nemesis.  The diamond necklace is more important than her school-girl friendship
with her friend, more important than making her husband's life worthwhile, more
important than even her own happiness.  Because she places the value of the necklace
above all else, she "replaces" it so that what she believes in her grievous mistake can
be concealed.  In truth, however, she sacrifices the most valuable possessions a person
can have--friendship, a happy marriage, a contented
life.