The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant (Summary)

 

The Necklace

by Guy de Maupassant

(Summary)

  

Guy De Maupassant's short story "The Necklace" took place in France several hundred years ago. Mathilde Loisel lives in a flat with her husband, who works as a clerk for the Minister of Education. Their lives are not spectacular, but they are not poor, only simple. Mathilde, however, craves to be rich. She envies her friend Jeanne who has a big house and lots of jewelry.

One day her husband brings home an invitation for a ball. He thinks that his wife would be excited to attend such a fancy party, but instead he is upset. She complains that she has nothing suitable to wear on such an extraordinary occasion. Her kind husband agrees to give her the four hundred francs, he was saving to buy himself a new rifle, to get herself a gown.

The week of the party, Mathilde seems anxious again. When her husband asks her why, she frets that she has no jewelry to wear with her dress. He suggests that perhaps she could borrow something from her friend Jeanne Forestier. Mathilde goes to Jeanne's house and picks out a sparkling diamond necklace to borrow.

She and her husband attend the gala and have a wonderful time. She looks amazing and dances all night. Finally, they come home in the wee hours of the morning. When they arrive home, Mathilde realizes that the necklace is missing. They are surprised that it fell into the carriage that they took home, but neither of them noticed the number. Her husband leaves to search the streets but returns empty-handed. To stall for time, Mathilde writes to her friend that she has broken clasp and is having it repaired. Meanwhile, they find another necklace that coincides with the missing, but it costs thirty-six thousand francs. Her husband luckily inherited eighteen thousand francs from her father, but would need to borrow the rest of the money. In the end, they have enough to buy a replacement necklace and Mathilde gives it to Jeanne who doesn't even see it.

The next ten years Mathilde's life changes dramatically. They move to a smaller apartment where she has to cook and clean for herself. She also does work on the side while her husband works multiple jobs to pay back all the money they borrowed. After the ten years, the money is all paid back, but Mathilde has aged a great deal.

One day she sees Jeanne Forestier on the street. She decides to tell her the truth about the necklace. Jeanne is stunned by the rough look of Mathilde. Mathilde explains that this is indirectly due to Jeanne because she lost the necklace she borrowed from her and had to pay for a replacement. Shocked, Jeanne confesses that the necklace Mathilde borrowed was a fake, made of paste, worth no more than five hundred francs.

Obviously, the lesson of the story is that honesty is the best policy. If Mathilde had been honest with her friend from the beginning, she would have known that the necklace wasn't made of real diamonds and would not have wasted ten years paying for a replacement.