I would classify the overall conflict as character vs. society, because Mathilde’s issue is that she is not wealthy. She wants to be upper class. She wants to be what she feels she was born to be. She has an innate feeling that she was designed to be better than she is.
She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction …
Mathilde sees her birth as an accident of fate, but this is because she was born into a class-conscious society. She has been told by society that she is worth less because of her low birth. She wants to be valued, so she wants to be rich.
If Mathilde had not desired to rise above her class, if just for one night, she never would have been in that situation.
"I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear," she replied. "I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party.
She borrowed the necklace so she would look wealthy. She was too embarrassed to admit she lost it, because her friend was of a higher social class. That caused her to end up in debt.
The irony is that Mathilde's social climbing caused her to end up at an even lower status than she started. She also lost the only thing of value she possessed. Years of a hard life paying off the debt eradicated her beauty, and it was all for nothing.
If she had not insisted on being treated like a wealthy person, her husband would not have worked so hard to get the invitation. If she had not borrowed the jewel and refused to be honest about it, she never would have lost her looks and the lifestyle she had. She was again a victim of society as well as her own ambitions.
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