Short Story Review:The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant

*Summary

A girl named Mathilde Loisel is born pretty and charming and was born in a poor family. She imagines herself having a wealthy life. She is married to a clerk in the Ministry of Education. She had no good clothes and jewellery’s. She had a rich friend, Madame Forestier whom she didn’t want to visit because it brings her a heartbreak. One night her husband came home with an invitation to a formal party that the Minister of Education and her, Mathilde Loisel is invited. Her husband thought that Mathilde would be delighted but instead she became angry and cried because she has nothing to wear and told his husband to give the invitation to his other friends. Then her husband told her to buy a dress for the party. And her husband asked her how many francs would a dress cost and she replied but not really sure about it, she said it might be 400 francs. Her husband got pale but agrees and told Mathilde to buy a nice dress. As the day of the party approaches, Mathilde acted so odd and her husband then asked her what’s the matter then she told her husband that she does not have any jewels to wear and her husband suggested for her to wear flowers instead of stones or other jewels but she thinks that if she wears flowers she will look like no one and would rather not go to the party. Her husband then told her to go to her friend Madame Forestier to barrow some jewels. She then went to Madame Forestier the next day, Madame Forestier agrees to lend Mathilde her jewel and told her to choose from her jewellery box. Mathilde chose a diamond necklace. At the party Mathilde is the most beautiful woman that is there and every one notices her and she enjoyed the night until four o’ clock in the morning and her husband then found her in a deserted room and her husband lifted her up and took her outside to go home, they took a cab. When they got home, Mathilde took all of the garments and realized that the necklace is not on her neck anymore. They searched on her dress, coat and everything but they couldn’t find it. Her husband came back on where they walked to find the necklace. Her husband did not find the necklace, her husband then instructs her to write a letter telling Madame Forestier and say that the necklace’s clasp broke and they are getting it fixed. They still continue to look for the necklace after a week Mathilde then had the idea to replace it and they visit many jewellery shops to find a similar looking necklace, and they finally find one and it costs 40,000 francs. Mathilde and her husband spend a week finding and working for money just to purchase the necklace, after three days Mathilde purchased the necklace and gave it to Madame Forestier, when she got it back she didn’t even look at the case and Mathilde was relived. The Loisel’s began to live a poorer life and they moved into a smaller apartment. Mathilde’s husband has 3 jobs and Mathilde does the house work because they got rid of their maid, they do that to pay their financial debts. One Sunday Mathilde is out for a walk and saw Madame Forestier, she walked toward her and greeted her but Madame Forestier didn’t recognize her and Mathilde introduced herself once again then she told Madame Forestier the truth about the necklace. Madame Forestier then told Mathilde that the necklace the she barrowed is fake.

 

*Review

I had to be honest that at first, it’s hard to understand but when I read it again and again it gets more interesting but the ending is very unexpected and the effort that the main character did just to replace the necklace would be nothing!? The story turns out to be nothing because of the ending.

 

 

*Reflection

The story is interesting and the author, Guy De Maupassant did a great job. I can relate to Mathilde just a little bit because we are not the poor and we are definitely not rich but I do imagine myself having a wealthy life just like Mathilde. The lesson of the story I think is… you should be contented of what life you have and just dream and work hard to get what you want or what life you want. I really hate the effort of the character just to replace the necklace and it turns out to be fake.