Page 36 - DENG105_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_II

Unit 2: The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

rushes to a mirror to see herself all decked-out one last time. But the diamond necklace Notes
is missing. She screams.
• M. Loisel wants to know what the matter is, and Mathilde tells him. They search
frantically through her dress and coat for the necklace, but it’s nowhere to be found.
The Loisels review all the places they’ve been to figure out where the necklace could
have been lost, and M. Loisel decides it must have been left in the cab. But unfortunately,
neither of them has the cab number.
• M. Loisel goes back out in search of the necklace, and returns at 7 am with nothing. He
spends all of the next day searching, visiting the police HQ, the cab company, and still
has nothing. Mathilde, meanwhile, spends the day stuck in a chair, too traumatized to
do anything. When he returns, M. Loisel tells Mathilde to write to Mme. Forestier to
say that they broke the clasp of the necklace and are having it fixed. They need to buy
more time.

• A week passes, and still no sign of the necklace. M. Loisel, who already looks five years
older, decides they have no choice but to replace it. He and Mathilde go to see the
jeweller whose name was on the necklace box to see about a replacement. The jeweller
says that he did not sell the necklace, just the case. M. and Mme. Loisel start going from
jeweler to jeweller, hoping to find a necklace just like the one they remember.
• At last they find one in a jewellery store at the Palais Royale. There is just one problem:
It’s forty thousand francs (thirty-six thousand after bargaining), which is a ton of money.
M. Loisel asks the jeweller to hold the necklace for them a few days. It turns out that
M. Loisel has only 18,000 francs to his name, in the form of his inheritance from his
father. All the rest of the money to buy the necklace he has to get by taking out loans.
• So he takes out enough loans to pay for the necklace—and to ensure that his life will
be ruined forever—and then goes back to the jeweller’s to buy it. Mathilde takes the
replacement necklace to Mme. Forestier, who’s miffed that she didn’t return her necklace
sooner. Mathilde’s worried she’ll notice the substitution. Mme. Forestier does not open
the box, and does not see the substitution.
• Now Mathilde and M. Loisel are poor. They have to dismiss the maid and move into
an attic. Mathilde starts to do the housework, and run the errands, haggling at stores
over every cent. M. Loisel works two night jobs. This goes on for ten years, until all the
interest on the Loisels’ loans is paid. Mathilde is now a rough, hard woman, and her
looks are ruined. She occasionally thinks of how her life might have been different if
she hadn’t lost the necklace…
• One Sunday, Mathilde goes for a stroll on the Champs Elysées (main street of Paris that
you see in all the movies), and notices a beautiful young-looking woman walking with
her child. It’s Mme. Forestier, who hasn’t aged one day. Mathilde decides it’s time to
tell her everything that happened. When Mathilde greets Mme. Forestier by her first
name, Mme. Forestier does not recognize her former friend, because she looks so different.
She gives a cry of surprise when Mathilde reveals who she is. Mathilde tells Mme.
Forestier that her life’s been hard, and all on account of her. Mme. Forestier doesn’t
understand. Mathilde explains that she’d lost the diamond necklace, but replaced it,
and has spent the last ten years paying for the replacement. (Mme. Forestier apparently
hadn’t noticed the difference). Mme. Forestier grabs Mathilde by the hands, shaken.
Her diamond necklace, she tells Mathilde, was a fake. It was worth at most five hundred
francs.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 31