Quote 1
When she sat down to dine, before a tablecloth three days old, in front of her husband, who lifted the cover of the tureen, declaring with an air of satisfaction, "Ah, the good pot-au-feu. I don't know anything better than that," she was thinking of delicate repasts, with glittering silver, with tapestries peopling the walls with ancient figures and with strange birds in a fairy-like forest. (4)
Mathilde's husband is the opposite of Mathilde: he's happy with what he has. So far as he's concerned, there's nothing better than the good old stew his wife puts on the table every evening. All Mathilde can think of at the same moment is how much better things could be, and how she'd rather be elsewhere. It all seems too low to her.
Quote 2
At the end of a week they had lost all hope. And Loisel, aged by five years, declared: –
"We must see how we can replace those jewels." (86-87)
Why does it never occur to Mathilde or M. Loisel to tell Mme. Forestier they've lost the necklace? Instead, once they lose hope of finding it, M. Loisel decides the only solution is to buy a new one. Is he too proud to admit that it's been lost? Or is it something else? (See M. Loisel's "Character Analysis" for more of our thoughts on this.)
Quote 3
It brought them to their door, rue des Martyrs; and they went up their own stairs sadly. For her it was finished. And he was thinking that he would have to be at the Ministry at ten o'clock. (61)
And just like that, the fabulous night at the ball is over. The happiness was fleeting, and is replaced by the dull unhappiness of daily life.