The Necklace Summary Class 10 English

Introduction

The main message of this story is to avoid being as greedy as Matilda in this story. We can see that Madrid has a desire for a better life. Her husband tries to impress her by buying tickets to an event for which Matilda leads to buy a dress they can't afford and borrow the necklace she thinks is worth 1000s of dollars. In this article, we will discuss the whole summary of the chapter of English literature, The Necklace, written by De Maupassant.

Theme of the Story

The Necklace story revolves around a selfish lady named Matilda. This story indicates her character as being unsatisfied with her life as she wants a rich husband but, because she belongs to a family who do a job of a clerk and the family is unable to give luxury as she is married to a clerk.

One day, both of them, the husband and the wife are invited to the party at the minister's house. But the wife shows some tantrums as and says she does not have good clothes and jewels to attend such an exclusive party.

Due to her wishes, her husband suggests her to buy a dress and asks her to borrow an expensive jewellery from an old friend. She then borrows a necklace from her friend and attends the party.

What happened next proves to be a lesson for the unhappy lady.

The Necklace Summary

The Necklace was written by Guy De Mopassant who was a famous 19th-century author who was known for his short stories based on real-life incidences. This fictional short story is about a pretty lady who is known by the name of Matilda, who lives in a small flat with her husband.

The husband has a job as a clerk in the office of the Board of Education and has a very strong, lovely feeling for his wife. The family is not very well off to live a luxurious life. They have a simple life, but the wife, was unhappy about her conditions and always wishes to be rich.

She is usually seen as a disappointed character and always complained about her financial conditions for not having a colossal mansion to live in and always had the desire to live a wealthy lifestyle. She always wished to wear beautiful dresses with matching jewelry but needed more money to purchase such luxurious lifestyle items.

One day, MME Loisel's husband invited her to a grand Ball party at the ministers' residence. The husband expected his wife to be excited upon seeing the invitation, but the opposite happened when the wife saw the invite; she expressed her anger over it, and threw the letter and started crying over her condition.

When her husband asked the reason for her anger, she complained about not having a pretty dress to wear at such a big party. She always wanted to look beautiful and well-groomed at such parties, such that everyone should admire her and have a look at her. Feeling pity for her, her lovely husband gave her all her savings of 400 francs to buy a beautiful dress.

He had saved that amount to buy a rifle for himself, but he eventually gave all the money to his wife to make her happy and let her buy a beautiful dress from his savings. Soon, the week of the grand party came near. But Matilda seemed to be anxious once again. This time she felt she didn't have any matching jewelry to pair with her new, lovely dress, which she purchased from her husband's savings.

To this, her husband suggested that she could request her friend for a beautiful necklace, that will indeed match her dress. Matilda immediately took his suggestion, and went to her friend's house immediately and borrowed a sparkling diamond necklace which looked almost brand new.

Loisel went to the ball party with her husband and was happy about her look. She wore her new dress and a beautiful necklace. She was adored by the attendees for her beautiful dress and jewellery. She managed to garner the attention of all the attendees at the party.

They enjoyed a gala time at the party. Soon they we're ready to head back home in the early morning hours. When they reached home, Matilda realized that the necklace was not around her neck. Seeing this, she and her husband got a panic stroke. Initially they thought it might have fallen in the cab which they had boarded while returning from the party in the morning hours.

The husband immediately ran towards the street to have a look around the streets for the missing necklace. They thought it might have fallen there but, they couldn't find it around.

After this the husband approached the police and put up an advertisement in the newspaper stating that whoever finds the necklace will gain a reward, but even this strategy didn't work and all of this went into the drain.

With no option left, the husband asked her to inform the friend that the necklace had broken and she will return it once it has been entirely repaired. In the meantime, they had a successful plan to buy a replica of the necklace.

However, the new necklace was very, very expensive and costed nearly around 36,000 Franks. So, to arrange this payment, they decided to use their savings.

Matilda's father-in-law had left 18,000 Franks for his son, the couple decided to use that but they were still falling short of money. So, both, the husband and wife decided to borrow the rest of the money to buy the expensive necklace. They were finally able to buy the necklace with the money that was left by her father-in-law, and the money they borrowed.

In this story, next what we see was a lesson for life.

In the next few years, Matilda and her husband's condition worsened as they were in the burden of a huge loan. To pay their loan, they moved to a smaller place, and Matilda did all the household chores by herself and her husband, had no choice but was compelled to work at odd hours in multiple jobs to repay the loan. In this process ten years passed, and with that their health also deteriorated as they had the extreme workload and pressure of re-paying the loan.

One day, Matilda met her friend, who could not identify her as she looked quite aged due to all the stress and the work that she had to do to repay the loan. Loisel then revealed the truth to her friend about how she and her husband were left in ruins to repay the loan of the expensive necklace that she had borrowed from her. Hearing this, Forestier was stunned and told her that the necklace that she gave for the ball party was a fake necklace that was worth not more than 5000 francs.

Conclusion

The story Necklace, tells us that one should focus on the current happiness they have and must be satisfied with all that they have and not crave for an expensive item that is not suitable to their pocket. As, extreme desire to live a lavish lifestyle, can lead to unhappiness and loss of Peace of Mind.

Question-Answer Session

1. What Kind of Person Is Loisel? Why Is She Always Unhappy?

Loisel is a pretty young lady born into a clerks family. She felt that she was born for all the delicacies and luxuries and wanted to enjoy a lavish lifestyle. Instead due to her economic conditions, she had to live a simple life and focus on her simple lifestyle. She completely disliked all her circumstances, like living in a small home, this made her angry and unhappy, and we can also say that she was unsatisfied with her situation.

2. What Kind of Person Is Loisel's Husband?

Loisel's Husband has a job of a clerk in the office of The Board of Education. He was content in his life and was satisfied with their lifestyle. Loisel used to suffer thinking about the luxuries and delicacies which she has always craved for, where as her husband had a great sense of satisfaction even from a humble pot pie. He was also loving husband as depicted in the story.

He used to love his wife immensely so when the situation demanded, he even gave 400 Franks that he had saved to buy a gun so that Loisel could wear a new and nice dress to the ministers' ball party. This shows that his wife's happiness was more important to him as compared to his dreams.

3. What Fresh Problem Now Disturbed Loisel After Purchasing The Dress?

After buying a pretty dress, Loisel was bothered by another problem as we can see in the story. She had bought a beautiful dress for herself to wear at the ball party, but she later on realized that she has no matching jewels and this situation disturbed her. She said she would have a poverty-stricken look.

Her husband suggested that she should wear some natural flowers in which she will look beautiful, but she denied this and said that there was nothing more humiliating than to have a shabby appearance in the midst of rich woman.

4. How Is the Problem Resolved?

Loisel's husband solved her problem. He told his wife to borrow some jewels from her. When she requested Forestier the same, the latter brought a jewel case so that the Matilda could choose whichever jewels she liked the most and that will match her dress as well.

5. What Do M And Loisel Do When They Found That The Necklace Was Missing?

When M and Loisel realize that the necklace was missing, they tried finding out where she has lost it. They realized that it could have been dropped in the cab, but the problem arises as they didn't remember its number.

Loisel went over the roads/ streets where they had booked, but unfortunately there he was not able to find anything. He then went to the police and to the cab offices as well, but didn't got anything in hand. He even put an advertisement in the newspaper, which also stated that the person who will find the jewel will receive a reward.

He then ask Matilda to write a letter to Forestier stating that she had broken the necklace and would return the necklace as soon as it gets repaired. Through this they were able to get some time to find the necklace, however, they eventually decided to replace the necklace with the new one.

6. How Do They Replace The Necklace?

Loisel wrote a letter to her friend stating that the necklace has been broken and she will return it as soon as it gets repaired. They found a chaplet of diamonds in his shop of Palais royal. This necklace seemed exactly the same one as she has borrowed from her friend, that she had lost. The cost of the necklace was 36,000 Francs but they had only 18,000 Francs which she had got from her father-in-law. Her husband borrowed the rest from the various sources as a form of a loan.

Finally, he bought a new necklace which was exactly the replica of the original one and gave that necklace to Matilda for her to take it back to Forestier.

7. Matilda's Life Changed Due to The Necklace. Comment.

Matilda's life changed completely due to a necklace, which she wanted to wear to show her royalty. After replacing the missing necklace with a new one, the artificial one, they had to repay all the money that they had borrowed from various sources as a form of a loan to buy the new artificial necklace. They sent away the maid and changed their lodgings, they rented some room.

Matilda learned to do various work in the kitchen. She learned all the household chores like washing dishes, washing clothes etc. She even went down the street each morning to get the water; she even went to the grocers, the butlers, and the fruit sellers, with her basket on her arm, shopping trying to save the money to repay the loan. At the same time his husband worked in the evening did 2 jobs all together, putting the books of some merchants at night and numerous other jobs to save money to repay the loan.

All this lasted for 10 years, and add the end of the seat., they were able to repay the loan that they have collected from various sources. But their overall condition did not change.

8. What Was The Cause Of Matilda's Ruin? How Could She Have Avoided It?

The cause of Matilda's ruin was her dissatisfaction with the lifestyle that she was living with her husband. She always wanted to enjoy a luxurious life, she was always unhappy with whatever circumstances that they were facing in the house.

She felt that she was born for all the delicacies and luxuries, but she disliked all her present circumstances. She could have avoided all these disturbances in their life and there by avoided the ruin/ damage by being content with what she had. She should have been satisfied with her conditions, and could easily have escaped the later on circumstances that both the husband and wife faced due to unsatisfaction of Matilda's lifestyle.

9. What Would Have Happened To Matilda If She Had Confessed To Her Friend That She Had Lost Her Necklace?

If Matilda would have confessed to her friend that she has lost her jewelry, she might have been in less trouble than what she had faced after replacing the necklace by taking up the loan. Her friend would definitely understand her circumstances. Most probably, she would have asked Matilda to replace it or pay a particular amount for it. She would have given her the details from where she had brought the necklace and how much it had actually cost her.

Matilda would thus would have known that the jewels in the necklace were actually not the real diamond, which she actually purchased in real to replace the artificial diamond. It would have caused her a far lesser amount to replace it. Matilda would thus would have saved herself and her husband from all the trouble that they had to face for 10 years after taking the loan.

10. If You Were Caught In A Situation Like This How Would Have You Dealt With It?

If someone is caught in such a situation, the person should definitely confess this situation to their loved ones like their friend in Matilda's case. The person should have taken the path of truth and confess to her friend what all situations are they facing.

11. The Character in The Story Speaks in English. Do You Think Is the Language? What Clues Are There in The Story About the Language Its Character Must Be Speaking In?

The character in the story depicts their dialogues in English only but it seems that its it is not actually their language.

We believe that their language might be French. There are certain clues that are depicted in the chapter at the same, for example their title or the abbreviations like MM stands for monsieur and Madam currency such as saw also depicts that the language used is French. All the aforementioned terms belong to the French language itself, and mention of the old carriages and one locates in Paris after nightfall confirms that their language is actually French.

12. Honesty Is the Best Politics Policy. Comment

I believe that this statement is appropriate as this where the person has to focus on, and what elders actually taught us. It is easy to be honest than to cook up the stories and repay for it. It is always said that the lie doesn't last longer, and the person might have to face certain circumstances of lying when a person doesn't say or do things honestly.

The consequences of being honest can be undesirable but they will definitely give you the contentment and satisfaction that you were honest, and you do not have to face the circumstances for a long period of time but the circumstances that you will face after lying will last longer.

And in Matilda's case we can definitely see that honesty is the best policy honest. Being honest would have saved her from ruining her and her husband's life. Had she told her friend about the lost necklace she would have definitely suffered less as she would have to just pay the actual amount of the artificial diamonds, instead of paying the amount of the real diamonds that cost lakhs of rupees.

13. We Should Be Content with What Life Gives Us. Comment.

It is ideal to say this here that we should be content with what life gives us, but it does not actually happen with most of the people that we can see in today's time.

Different individuals have different lifestyle, needs, requirements and goals. If everyone believes and lives their life with this ideology no one will be ever unhappy or dissatisfied.

Moreover, they will not struggle much to achieve what their desire is, but at the same times, the desire of an individual should never overlook honesty many people end up opting unfair means to achieve their desires and live a luxurious life. An example of this can be seen in Matilda's case, it is for this reason that our elders always teach us that you should be satisfied with whatever you get in your life, which actually depicts the statement that we should be content in what life gives us.

One may not really be content with what he or she has, they should definitely do hard work for it, but should not take the path of lie or dishonest that can lead you to a wrong way in the future.