The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

September 17, 2016

The story of 'The Necklace' by Guy de Maupassant is about a woman, Mathilde, who belongs to the lower social class level, when she believes that she should be in a higher class. Mathilde's husband, who is a clerk at the Ministry of Education was invited to an event at the Ministry and to bring his wife along with him. When Mathilde was given the envelope that contains the invitation she began to cry because she knew that they would look out of place if they attended. Her husband was so concerned about making his wife happy that he gave her money so she was able to purchase a new dress for the important event. A few days before the ball Mathilde was back to believing that she is unable to attend because she didn't own any jewelry, and if she wasn't wearing any they would look poor. Mathilde's husband had the idea of borrowing a necklace from a higher class friend and returning it after the ball. The night of the ball came, Mathilde was the star of the shoe in her dazzling dress with her diamond necklace. When Mathilde and her husband got home from the ball, she noticed that the diamond necklace was missing. For weeks the couple searched for the necklace with no appearance of it. Mathilde and her husband decided that they would replace the necklace to give back to the friend. The couple picked up extra jobs to be able to pay for the necklace and loans they had to take out. A few weeks after Mathilde returned her friend’s replaced necklace, she ran into her friend down town. Her friend recognized the struggle that Mathilde and her husband have been faced with lately, and Mathilde explained the whole story of losing the necklace to her friend and how they replaced it with a new diamond necklace. Later on in the conversation, Mathilde was told that the necklace was a fake diamond, and cost only one tenth of the price of a real diamond.

I answered a few questions at the end of the reading of ‘The Necklace’ this week:

1)      Why does Mathilde borrow her friend’s diamond necklace for the ball? What do her motivations reveal about her character?

Mathilde borrows her friend’s necklace for the ball, because she believes that if she doesn’t wear something that makes her look like she’s from the upper class than she is a failure in her mind. Her motivations prove that she is a very selfish person that didn’t work hard to be the best that she can be, and get the best outcome in her life.

2)      Why does the protagonist not admit to her friend that she has lost the necklace?

I think that Mathilde does not admit to her friend that she lost her necklace, because she would have had to let her know that her and her husband would not be able to afford to repay her. If Mathilde would have told her friend that they lost the necklace, they wouldn’t have had to go through the financial struggle they faced when attempting to pay for the real diamond necklace.

3)      What is ironic about the story’s conclusion?

The conclusion is ironic because Mathilde’s friend tells Mathilde that she the necklace is not a real diamond that she lost the night of the ball. It is ironic also because Mathilde thought that her friend was so rich that everything she owns would be real.