The Necklace

1.0About the Author

Guy De Maupassant

Guy De Maupassant is considered to be one of the best short story writer of the world. He depicts human lives often in pessimistic terms. His 300 short stories were written in the naturalist style and through them he has often described the life of the lower and middle classes.

Central Idea

The story of 'The Necklace' is a satire that gives a strong message on human values. In 'The Necklace', Guy de Maupassant demonstrates that appearances especially the appearance of wealth are often at odds with reality. 'The Necklace' follows the life of a Parisian woman-Matilda-who's solidly a middle-class but always dreams of immense wealth and living a luxurious life. She is very pretty but is dissatisfied in life because of her 'poverty' and does not know how to live within her means. For Matilda, the necklace symbolizes wealth, beauty and shame. She borrows a necklace from her rich friend but when she returns home, she finds that she has lost the necklace and goes into debt to replace it. The great irony of the story is that the necklace was a fake. Matilda spends ten years in debt, effectively ruining her life over nothing.

2.0The Mistake of Destiny

The short story 'The Necklace' by Guy De Maupassant takes place in France several hundred years ago. Matilda Loisel, a middle-class girl, desperately wishes she were wealthy. She's got looks and charm but had the bad luck to be born into a family of clerks, who marry her to another clerk (M. Loisel) working in the Department of Education. Matilda is so convinced she's meant to be rich that she detests her real life and spends all daydreaming and despairing about the fabulous life she's not having. She envisions footmen, feasts, fancy furniture. While her husband expresses his pleasure at the small, modest supper she has prepared for him.

She dreams of an elaborate feast served in fancy silver bowls and eaten in the company of wealthy friends. She possesses no fancy jewels or clothing, yet these are the only things she lives for. Without them, she feels she is not desirable. She has one wealthy friend, Madame Forestier, but she refuses to visit her because of the heartbreak it brings her.

One night, her husband returns home proudly bearing an invitation to a formal party hosted by the Ministry of Education. M. Loisel went through a lot of trouble to get this invitation hoping that Matilda will get thrilled knowing of getting this chance to attend an event of this sort, but Matilda's first reaction is to throw a fit. On knowing about the invitation, she instantly gets angry and begins to cry. Through her tears, she tells him that she has nothing to wear for such a party and he ought to give the invitation to one of his friends whose wife can afford better clothing than hers. Her husband gets upset by her reaction and asks how much a suitable dress would cost. She thinks about it carefully and tells him that 400 francs would be enough. Her husband quietly balks at the sum but agrees that she may have the money.

3.0Consequences of Greed

As the day of the party approaches, Matilda starts behaving oddly. She confesses that the reason for her behaviour is her lack of jewels to wear with the dress. Monsieur Loisel suggests that she could wear flowers, to which she refuses. He implores her to visit Madame Forestier and borrow something from her. Madame Forestier agrees to lend Matilda her jewels, and Matilda selects a diamond necklace.

She is overcome with gratitude at Madame Forestier's generosity. The night of the ball arrives, and Matilda has the time of her life. At the party, Matilda being the most beautiful woman amongst all present, everyone notices her. Everyone's attention and love makes her absolutely thrilled. She is intoxicated by the attention and is overwhelmed with a sense of self-satisfaction. At 4 a.m., she finally looks for Monsieur Loisel, who has been dozing for hours in a deserted room. He cloaks her bare shoulders in a wrap and cautions her to wait inside, away from the cold night air, while he fetches a cab. But she is ashamed at the shabbiness of her wrap and hurries outside. They walk for a while before hailing a cab and head home. Matilda is saddened that the night has ended, after they return home. As she removes her wrap, she discovers that her necklace is no longer around her neck. In a panic, Monsieur Loisel goes outside and retraces their steps. Terrified, she sits and waits for him. He returns home much later in an even greater panic. He could not find the necklace anywhere. He instructs her to write to Madame Forestier and say that she has broken the clasp of the necklace and will return it after getting it mended. They continue to look for the necklace. After a week, Monsieur Loisel says they have to see about replacing it. So, he and Matilda think and decide that they have no choice but to buy Madame Forestier a new necklace. They visit one jewellery store after another until at last they find a necklace that looks just the same as the one they lost. Unfortunately, it's for 40 thousand francs though the jeweller agrees to give in 36 thousand francs, which is exactly twice the amount of all the money M. Loisel has to his name. So, M. Loisel goes massively into debt and buys the necklace, and Matilda returns it to Madame Forestier, who doesn't notice the substitution. Buying the necklace catapults the Loisels into poverty for the next ten years. They lose their house, their maid, their comfortable lifestyle, and on top of it, Matilda loses her good looks. It takes them ten years for all the debts to be finally paid.

4.0Realization

Mrs and Mr Loisel have to undergo a tough and rough life for ten long years to pay for the mishap that results from loss of the necklace. Both husband and wife lose their youth and good looks much before the usual age. Matilda has to do all the domestic work herself. Hard work, the pressure of debt and the shock of heavy loss tell upon their health. However, after ten years they clear the debts, but they clear it at the cost of their youth and ambitions of their bright future.

One Sunday, while she is out for a walk, Matilda spots Madame Forestier, rich and beautiful as ever. Feeling emotional, she approaches her and offers greetings. Madame Forestier does not recognize her, and when Matilda identifies herself, Madame Forestier could not help but exclaims that she looked completely different. Matilda says that the change was on her account and explains to her the long saga of losing the necklace, replacing it, and working for ten years to repay the debts. At the end of her story, Madame Forestier clasps her hands and tells Matilda that the necklace she had lost was just a fake one. It's worth was only five hundred francs.

5.0Let's Recall

  • Matilda Loisel (Mrs. Loisel) was a beautiful young lady who was born in a family of clerks by some error of fate.
  • She felt that she was born for all delicacies and luxuries of the world.
  • She had a rich friend. Madame Forestier, but did not like to visit her because she suffered so much in her ordinary existence.
  • Matilda liked good food served in marvellous dishes, good frocks and jewels.
  • One day, her husband gave her a printed card which was an invitation to a ball party.
  • Instead of being happy, she threw away the card on the table.
  • She thought that she didn't have a proper dress for the ball and didn't want to present her poverty-stricken image amid rich ladies.
  • Mr Loisel had to sacrifice his 400 francs for the dress which he had saved to buy a gun for hunting.
  • The day of the ball came near, but Matilda put forward another demand and wanted to wear a necklace at the ball.
  • Mr Loisel suggested that she could borrow jewels from her rich friend, Madame Forestier.
  • Mrs Forestier placed her box of jewels before Matilda to choose, and she chose a superb diamond necklace.
  • On the day of the ball, Mrs Loisel was a great success and looked very beautiful, elegant and graceful.
  • She attracted the attention of many men who wanted to be introduced to her.
  • Returning from the party, she wanted to have a final view of herself in her glory, in the mirror.
  • Suddenly she uttered a cry as the necklace was not around her neck.
  • Mr Loisel went out in the night in search of the lost necklace. He went to the police, cab offices and put an advertisement in the papers.
  • At the end of the week, they lost all hopes and it was decided to buy a new necklace, similar to the lost one.
  • The similar diamond necklace that could replace the lost one valued 40000 francs but the jeweller agreed to give it in 36000 francs.
  • Mr Loisel had 18000 francs but had to borrow the rest of the money.
  • The new diamond necklace, which was exactly the same as the old one, was given to Madame Forestier.
  • They had to work hard and lead a miserable life to pay off the debts.
  • They sent away the maid and rented some rooms in the attic.
  • Mrs Loisel washed dishes, clothes and lived like an ordinary woman.
  • Mr Loisel worked at some merchants in the evenings and did copying work at five sous a page.
  • It took ten years to pay off the debts completely and the necklace had completely changed their lives.
  • On the day, when Madame Forestier met Mrs Loisel, she couldn't recognise her because she had changed so badly.
  • Mrs Loisel told the whole story and also the fact that her necklace was responsible for their miserable condition.
  • Madame Forestier was touched and said, Oh! My poor Matilda Mine (diamonds) were false. They were not worth over five hundred francs.

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