The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant || Summary and Question-Answer || B.Ed. First Year Compulsory English

 About the Author:

•Guy de Maupassant(1850-1893) was a  popular French short-story writer, poet and novelist of the 19th century.
•His stories are characterized by their economy of style and their efficient effortless conclusion.

About this Story:
•This story is a fictional short story about a woman who faces a very hard time as a result of her desires and ambition.
•Setting(place and time): France, several years ago
•Moral lesson: We should not crave for luxuries. We must be satisfied and contented with what we have. Desires lead to unhappiness. Moreover, we should never hide the truth.

Characters:
1. Mathilda Loisel- an ambitious woman
2. Mr. Loisel- Mathilda's husband who worked as a clerk in the office of Board of Education
3.  Jeanne Forestier- Mathilda's friend, she gave her necklace to Mathilda to attend a fancy party

Summary:
A lady, Mathilde Loisel lived in a flat with her husband. He worked as a clerk for the Ministry of Education. They were not able to live a luxurious life. However, they were not poor, merely simple. However, Mathilde’s desire was to be rich. She felt irritated, disappointed and sad of not having a large house. Moreover, she desired to have good dresses, lots of jewelry which made her sad.

One day her husband brought her an invitation to a fancy party. He thought his wife would be very excited about seeing the invitation letter. However, his wife, instead of being happy, threw away the invitation letter and started crying. She complained about not having a pretty dress to wear on such a great occasion. She wanted to seek admiration for everyone. Also, she wanted to be a success at the party. Her gentle husband gave her four hundred francs to buy a pretty dress. He had saved the money to buy a rifle.

The week of the party approached. His wife seemed to be anxious again. She was upset as she felt that she didn’t have any jewelry to wear with the dress. Her husband suggested her asking the same from her friend Jeanne Forestier. Mathilde went to her house and borrowed a sparkling necklace.

Mathilde, along with her husband enjoyed a lot at the party. She was successful in seeking everyone’s attention to her. Then, they headed for home during the odd hours of the morning. On reaching home, Mathilde was surprised on not finding a necklace around her neck. They both felt that it might have fallen down in the cab which they took to reach home. Also, she searched on the streets they have come through.

Moreover, she approached the police, gave advertisement but all in vain. Her husband asked her to write a letter to her friend. She wrote that she had the clasp broken and is getting it repaired. Meanwhile, they were successful in searching for a similar necklace. However, it cost thirty-six thousand francs. Her husband had inherited eighteen thousand francs from his father. However, they had to borrow the remaining money. They managed to buy the necklace through inherited and borrowed money.

But it took them a period of ten years to repay the borrowed amount. In these years, their lives had drastically changed. They moved to a smaller apartment, cleaned and cooked herself. Moreover, her husband did multiple jobs to repay the amount. Also, she looked like a strong woman of a poor household. She looked very aged. One day she saw Miss Jeanne Forestier on the street. She decided to tell her the truth about the necklace. The latter was stunned by the rough appearance of the former. Moreover, on learning the truth of the necklace, Jeanne Forestier told that it was a fake one. The worth of the same was no more than five hundred francs.

Question-Answers:

a)What does the expression ‘error of destiny ‘ mean in the story ?

Ans. ‘ Error of destiny ‘ means bad luck of the lady Mathilde. She was pretty, charming young lady but born into a poor family of clerks, who marries her to another poor clerk. She detests her life. Being very beautiful but getting birth in a poor family is her bad luck.

b)Why does Matilda weep whole day ?
Ans. Matilda weeps whole day from chagrin, regret, despair, and disappointment seeing her rich friends and school mates whom she did not like to visit due to her poverty.

c)Why does she refuse to go to the party?
Ans. She is poor. She has no dress and jewels to wear although she is very beautiful. So she refuses to go to the party where very rich people attend to.

d)How much money did her husband give her to buy cloths and why ?
Ans. Her husband gave her four hundred francs only because he had saved just this sum to buy a gun.

e)How did the husband suggest to his wife to have the jewelers for the party?
Ans. The husband first suggests to his wife to wear some natural flowers. But later he suggests to her to go and ask her friend Mme to lend her jewels.

f)What did Mme. Loisel borrow from her friend ?
And. Mme. Loisel borrowed a superb necklace of diamonds from her friend.

g) What did Loisel loose when she returned from the party ?
Ans. Loisel lost a diamond necklace when she returned from the party.

h)Describe the places Loisel went to search the lost necklace?
Ans. He went over the track where they had gone on foot.

i)How did they replace the necklace?
Ans. They took the box which has enclosed the necklace, to the jeweler whose name was on the inside. But he had not sold the necklace but only furnished the casket. So they went from jeweler to jeweler seeking a necklace like the other one. In a shop of the Palaic Royal, they found a chaplet of diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the one they had lost. They agreed to by in thirty-six thousand francs. They begged the jeweler not to sell it for three days . Collecting money with a great hardship, they bought the necklace and returned to Mme. Forestier.

j)How long did it take to compensate the loss of the necklace?
Ans. It took ten years to compensate the loss of the necklace.

k) Why didn’t Mme. Forestier recognize Mme. Loisel?
Ans. Mme. Loisel worked very hard. She had to spend all her time doing the heavy housework to repair their financial debts. Her extraordinary beauty went. She was quite different because of ten years’ hardship. She looked very poor. So Mme. Forestier didn’t recognize her.

l) Someone stole your mobile phone. Write a short note to the police reporting the detail of the incident and describing the model of your mobile phone.