The Necklace – Guy de Maupassant 10

 The Necklace – Guy de Maupassant

Word Meanings (Simple English)

• Prospects – chances of success in future

• Elegant – stylish, graceful

• Wretched – very unhappy

• Despair – sadness without hope

• Frugal – simple, without wasting money

• Exquisite – extremely beautiful

• Adorned – decorated, made beautiful

• Ecstasy – extreme happiness

• Stammered – spoke with difficulty

• Distress – suffering, pain

• Haggling – arguing over price

• Clerks – office workers

• Awful – very bad

• Disastrous – bringing great harm, failure

• Curiosity – eagerness to know something

• Horrible – very bad, unpleasant

• Frightful – terrible, shocking

Summary (Simple English)

Mathilde Loisel was a beautiful young woman, but she was born into a poor family and married a simple clerk. She always felt unhappy because she wanted a luxurious life.

One day, her husband brought home an invitation to a grand ball. She was upset because she had no nice dress or jewellery to wear. Her husband bought her a new dress, and she borrowed a diamond necklace from her rich friend, Madame Forestier.

At the party, Mathilde looked very beautiful and was admired by all. But when she returned home, she discovered that the necklace was lost.

She and her husband borrowed money and bought another necklace to replace it. They worked very hard for 10 years, living a life of poverty, to repay the debt.

Finally, Mathilde met Madame Forestier after 10 years and told her the truth. Shockingly, Madame Forestier revealed that the necklace Mathilde had borrowed was a fake, worth almost nothing.

Textbook Question Answers

Thinking about the Text

Q1. What kind of a person is Mme Loisel — why is she always unhappy?
Answer: Mme Loisel is a beautiful but discontented woman. She feels she was born for luxury and riches. She is always unhappy because she is married to a simple clerk and lives a modest life.

Q2. What kind of a person is her husband?
Answer: Her husband is a simple, caring, and loving man. He works hard as a clerk and tries his best to make his wife happy. He sacrifices his own desires to please her, for example, buying her a new dress for the ball.

Q3. What fresh problem now disturbs Mme Loisel?
Answer: After arranging a beautiful dress, Mme Loisel feels unhappy again because she has no jewellery to wear with it.

Q4. How is the problem solved?
Answer: The problem is solved when her husband suggests she borrow jewellery. She borrows a beautiful diamond necklace from her rich friend, Madame Forestier.

Q5. What do M. and Mme Loisel do next?
Answer: After losing the necklace, they search everywhere but fail. Then they buy another necklace like it for 36,000 francs. They borrow money and spend the next 10 years working hard to repay the debt.

Q6. How do they replace the necklace?
Answer: They buy a new diamond necklace from a jeweller to replace the lost one. They borrow money from lenders, making them live in poverty for 10 years to pay back the loans.

Q7. What was the cause of Matilda’s ruin? How could she have avoided it?
Answer: The cause of Matilda’s ruin was her pride and desire for a luxurious life. She borrowed the necklace without checking its value. She could have avoided it by telling her friend the truth immediately after losing it.

Q8. What would have happened if she had confessed to her friend that she had lost her necklace?
Answer: If Matilda had confessed, Madame Forestier would have told her that the necklace was fake and worth nothing. Then she would not have wasted 10 years of her life in poverty.

Q9. If you were caught in a situation like this, how would you have dealt with it?
Answer: (Sample Answer) If I were in Matilda’s place, I would have told my friend the truth immediately instead of hiding it. Honesty could have saved me from years of suffering.