The Necklace

Ans. Loisel’s got the invitation to attend a ball at the minister’s residence, but Mme. Loisel was sad and irritated reading the invitation instead of becoming delighted. The reason of her being irritated and sad was that she did not have a good dress and jewellery to wear for the occasion. Mme. Loisel was able to get a new dress for four hundred francs. Now, as Mme. Loisel had no jewellery to adorn herself so she borrowed a diamond necklace from her friend Mme. Forestier. On the day of the ball, Mme. Loisel was a great success. She looked the prettiest of all, elegant, gracious, smiling and full of joy.

All the men noticed her, asked her name and wanted to be presented. She danced with enthusiasm intoxicated with pleasure, thinking of nothing but all this admiration. All the compliments that Mme. Loisel received at the party were because of Mme. Forestier lending her the necklace. She was so generous that she offered all her jeweller without any hesitation. She did not even check the necklace returned by Mme. Loisel. Thus, Matilda was a success at the party due to Mme Forestier lending her the necklace.

Ans. Matilda Loisel lost the necklace that she borrowed from Mme. Forestier. She had to buy a new necklace to replace the lost necklace of Mme. Forestier for thirty-six thousand francs. Mr. Loisel had only eighteen thousand francs with him. He raised a loan of eighteen thousand francs for purchasing the necklace. To the debt Loisel’s had to save every penny and cut their expenses. So, the Loisel’s changed their lifestyle. They changed their lodgings, shifted to a small room and removed the maid.

Mme. Loisel had to do all odd jobs like washing. Cleaning and shopping the grocery and bargained for small amounts. While M. Loisel had to do extra work of copying after his office time. He did extra work in the evenings. Mme. Loisel lost her charm and beauty. She had become an ordinary woman in a poor house. She realized and that one little act of negligence can lead to total ruin. If Loisel’s would have honestly confessed to Mme. Forestier about the loss of necklace, they would have not suffered a lot for ten years.

Ans. Mrs Loisel was pretty and charming. She was born in a family of clerks and also married to a clerk. She was not happy with her life. She always wanted to lead a luxurious life. She wanted to be born in a rich family. She wanted to lead a life of luxury and comfort. She dreamed of a big house in which there was very good furniture. She dreamed of beautiful and costly curtains. When she sat down to dinner, she disliked her simple meals. She dreamed of delicious dinners served in shining silver crockery. She dreamed of having a number of attractive dresses and beautiful ornaments.

Material value possessions and social status are very important according to Mrs. Loisel and she always wanted it in her life. Thus, as Mrs. Loisel is not rich and cannot live a luxurious life that she dreams of, she is dissatisfied from her life.

Ans. When the necklace was lost, Loisel’s decided to buy another necklace that looked the same as the necklace of Mme. Forestier. As a result, they face a lot of trouble for ten years in order to pay for the loans they took for the necklace. If Matilda would have told the truth to Mme. Forestier she could have saved herself and her husband a great deal of trouble. If Matilda had honestly confessed the loss of necklace to Mme Forestier, she could have known from her that the necklace was of false diamonds. But Matilda had not the courage to speak the truth which cost her family full ten years.

Matilda could easily have avoided a great deal of trouble in her life by her confession. But she tried to hide the truth from her friend and so she and her husband had to face a lot of hardships and to lead a horrible life for ten years.

Ans. Mrs. Matilda Loisel was beautiful young lady. By virtue of her good looks, she felt that she was born for all delicacies and luxuries. Some error of fortune gave her birth in a family of petty clerks. She wished to be admired and to be married to some rich or renowned person. But as she had no dowry, she agreed to marry a petty clerk. She was always annoyed and sad thinking about her ordinary life. She dreamt of lavish parties and rich dresses and jewels. She had to suffer a lot for her impractical dreams and desires. She paid a heavy price for her foolish desires. She borrowed a necklace from a friend to wear at a party. Everybody praised her beauty. But she lost the necklace.

The loss of the necklace changed her life. Her husband borrowed a lot of money to replace it. She and her husband worked hard for ten years to repay the debt. That changed her from a beauty queen to a crude, hard shabby woman of a poor family. But she was brave and honest. She worked hard ungrudgingly to pay off her loan. In the end, she came to know that the necklace was made of artificial diamonds. She must have gone and confessed before Madam Forestier that she had lost her necklace. She should have avoided unnecessary suffering to herself and to her husband. Much was done about nothing. Had she done so, she could have maintained her beauty and youth as Madam Forestier did.

Ans. Mr. Loisel was a petty’ clerk in the Ministry of Education. He was a gentleman. He was caring husband. He had a better understanding of people and things than his ambitious wife. He was satisfied with his life and never dreamt of unnecessary materialistic things. He always stood for his wife. He realised that he was a husband of beautiful and young, but ambitious wife. He gave four hundred francs for the dress that he saved for the gun. So he made every effort within his means to make her happy. He didn’t believe in showing off like Matilda.

He suggested wearing the same dress which Matilda wore when she went to the theatre. He always gave suggestions to his wife to help her in any situation. He was very hard working man. To pay the debts he worked for extra hours. Mr. Loisel was a very nice person and a loving husband.

Ans. Madam Forestier plays an important role in the story “The Necklace”. She was a schoolmate of Matilda at the convent. She was a rich woman. Madam Forestier was not arrogant or rude lady although she was rich. When Matilda told her that she needed jewels to adorn herself for the ball, she at once said yes to help her. She opened her jewel box and asked her to make her choice. She happily gave her diamond necklace to Matilda. When Matilda returns the necklace to Madam Forestier she never opened the box to check whether the necklace was in good condition or not.

This shows that she was a very kind lady. When Madam Forestier saw Matilda after ten years she showed her sympathy after she came to know of all miseries that Matilda suffered because of the necklace. Madam Forestier was an honest lady as she could have hide the fact that her necklace was a false one but she told the truth to Matilda.

Ans. It is rightly said that a single mistake can change the course of one’s life. A small mistake can result into serious consequences. This is very clearly seen in case of Matilda. When Matilda was able to fulfil her desire of wearing a suitable costume and adorning herself with borrowed jewels that didn’t bring any reversal of fortunes for Madam Loisel. But hiding the fact that she had lost Madam Forestier’s necklace and not taking her into confidence was indeed a big mistake. It was a single but greatest mistake that Matilda had ever made in her life. She unnecessarily brought suffering to them for nothing.

They had to pay 36000 francs to buy a replacement of Madam Forestier’s necklace. For ten long years, Matilda had to work like an ordinary maid doing all her household work herself Mr Loisel had to do extra works in the evenings and nights to save money. This situation could have been avoided by Loisel’s if they had confessed the truth to Madam Forestier. Madam Forestier was rich but not arrogant. She would have easily forgiven Matilda for losing her necklace. After all, the jewels were false. And much was done and suffered just for nothing. Thus, a small mistake of not confessing the truth made Loisels to suffer a lot.

Ans. The story “The Necklace: teaches many lessons. We get to learn the importance of the need to be content in life. Matilda, though born into a family of clerks and married to a petty clerk with the Board of Education, keeps thinking about luxurious life and comforts. She is never able to stay happy as she keeps comparing her life with rich people life. She suffers from the feeling that she is born for all delicacies and luxuries, but has to live miserably in ‘poverty’. So, when she has to attend the office party with her husband, she asks him for money to get a new dress. Her husband sacrifices the money he has saved to buy a gun to get her the dress. Then also she is not content.

She feels that she could look still more beautiful with a jewel. She thus borrows a necklace from her friend, thinking that it is made of diamonds. At the party, she remains elegant, gracious, smiling and absolutely happy. But this happiness was short-lived and is the beginning of all troubles in her life. Compliments and praise for a small moment makes Matilda very happy. She loses the necklace but didn’t confess the truth to Madam Forestier and gets a new diamond necklace as its replacement by borrowing heavily. Subsequently, she is pushed to live in poverty as she struggles for ten years to save money to pay back the huge debt.

Then the horrible reality frightens her. She realizes how her false pride has taken away her otherwise happy contented life. The story thus discusses the negative effects of pride and stresses the importance of being satisfied with what one has honesty, love and sacrifice. The story also teaches us that one should be honest in any situation as honesty is the best policy.

Ans. It is true that vanity is evil. An excessive pride in or admiration of one’s own appearance always proves to be evil. It gives happiness for a short period of time but leads to big consequences. Matilda, to get a little pleasure and to show her vanity, borrowed a diamond necklace to wear at the minister’s party. She lost it. Loisel’s had to take a big loan to replace it. For ten years both of them worked hard to repay the loan. Matilda had to sacrifice her comfort, beauty and grace. She became a crude, hard, poor lady with rough hair and hands.

Madam Forestier later told her that it was a false diamond necklace only for 500 francs. Thus, Matilda’s desire to look good for new hours in the party leads her to borrow the necklace which is lost and leads to a miserable situation. Thus, Vanity is evil.