The Necklace

 The narrator introduces us to a girl. We don't know her name yet, but apparently she's
charming, attractive, and, believes that she should have been born into a rich family.
 Instead she wound up in a family of "employees" and ended up marrying a "little clerk"
in Department of Education (1).
 Our ordinary girl is convinced that she's meant for the extraordinary life of a fabulously
rich girl.
 She hates her own humble surroundings and spends her time dreaming about fancy
tapestries and tall footmen. While her husband slurps his stew she imagines grand
banquets.
 A life of luxury is all the girl wants – it's what she's made for. But sadly, she doesn't lead
the luxurious life of which she dreams.
 Consequently, she spends all her days weeping and feeling sorry for herself.
 One evening, the girl's husband comes in with a large envelope.
 She tears it open to find that she and her husband – M. and Mme. ("Monsieur and
Madame) Loisel – have been invited to a fancy party at the Minister of Education's
palace. Her husband can't wait to see her reaction.
 Mme. Loisel is not happy about this. She's got nothing to wear. This is enough to send
her into tears.
 M. Loisel feels awful, and asks his wife, Mathilde, how much a simple, pretty dress for
the ball would cost.
 Mathilde stops to think it over – how much can she ask for before her husband flips out –
and at last tells him four hundred francs would probably do it.
 M Loisel agrees to give Mathilde four hundred francs. There goes that new gun he'd been
saving for.
 The date of the party approaches, and Mathilde is in a bad mood again.
 This time it's jewels: she doesn't have any to wear over her dress.
 M. Loisel suggests she wear flowers, but Mathilde will have none of that.
 M. Loisel suggests that Mathilde borrow some jewels from her rich friend Mme.
Forestier. Now there's an idea.
 The next day, Mathilde visits Mme. Forestier and tells her about her situation. Mme.
Forestier brings out a big box of jewels and tells Mathilde to pick whatever she wants.
 Mathilde isn't satisfied with anything she sees, but then Mme. Forestier brings her
another box containing a spectacular diamond necklace.
 Mathilde is beside herself. It's the only thing she wants! Mme. Forestier agrees to let her
borrow it.
 The evening of the party arrives, and Mathilde is a smash hit. All the men – including the
Minister – notice her. She's in heaven. Her husband, meanwhile, has also been having a
great time: he's been off dozing in a corner since midnight.
 When it's four o'clock and at last time to go, M. Loisel brings the coats. But Mathilde is
self-conscious: her coat is so shabby compared to the rest of her appearance. So she
dashes off into the street to avoid being seen.
 M. Loisel follows Mathilde into the streets, and they spend a long time wandering
around, shivering, and looking for a carriage.
 At last they find one and head back home, glumly. Mathilde doesn't want to go back to
her ordinary life, and M. Loisel doesn't want to get up for work at 10am.
 As soon as they enter the house, Mathilde rushes to a mirror to see herself all decked-out
one last time. But the diamond necklace 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 7am 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 has Mathilde 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 jeweler whose name was on the necklace box to see about
a replacement. The jeweler says that he did not sell the necklace, just the case.
 M. and Mme. Loisel start going from jeweler to jeweler, hoping to find a necklace just
like the one they remember.
 At last they find one in a jewelry 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 jeweler 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 jeweler'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.

The Necklace
(La Parure)
A Short Story by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)
Study Guide
Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2006
.......Even though Mathilde is pretty and quite charming, she has none of the advantages of

upper-class girls: a dowry, a distinguished family name, an entree into society, and all the little
fineries that women covet. Consequently, she accepts a match made for her with a clerk,
Monsieur Loisel, in the Department of Education.

.......Her home is common and plain, with well-worn furniture. The young girl from Brittany who

does the housework is a constant reminder to Mathilde of her own commoner status. But she
dreams of having more: tapestries, bronze lamps, footmen to serve her, parlors with silk fabrics,
perfumed rooms, silver dinnerware, exotic food, jewelry, the latest fashions.

.......One evening, her husband presents her an envelope containing a special surprise. He is

sure it will please her. Inside the envelope she finds a card inviting her and her husband to a social affair as guests of the Minister of
Education, Georges Rampouneau, and his wife at the palace of the Ministry of Education.

.......But Mathilde is not at all pleased, for she has nothing to wear. When her husband asks her

what it would cost to buy her suitable attire, she says 400 francs–the exact amount he has set
aside to buy a gun to shoot larks at Nanterre with friends. However, he agrees to provide the
money, and she buys a gown. When the day of the fête draws near, Loisel notices that Mathilde is
downcast and inquires into the cause of her low spirits. She tells him she has no jewels to wear.
As a result, others at the party will look down on her as a commoner. But her spirits brighten
when Monsieur Loisel suggest that she borrow jewels from her friend, Madame Jeanne Forestier.
.......Wasting no time, Mathilde visits her friend the following day. Madame Forestier, only too
willing to cooperate, opens a box and tells Mathilde to choose. Inside are glittering jewels. She
chooses a diamond necklace so beautiful that it quickens her heartbeat.
.......At the party, Mathilde is the center of attention. Handsome men of high station ask who she

is and line up to dance with her. Not until 4 a.m. do the Loisels leave the palace. On their way out,
Mathilde’s husband puts a wrap on her shoulders–an article of clothing from her common,
everyday wardrobe. To avoid being seen in it, she hurries out against her husband’s wishes. He
wants to wait for a cab to arrive. Out in the cold, they search for transportation, wandering toward
the Seine. In time, they find a cab, and it takes them to their home on Rue des Martyrs. In her
bedroom, Mathilde stands before a mirror and removes her wrap to gaze upon the woman who
has enchanted so many men. Then she notices to her horror that the necklace is missing. She
and her husband search through their belongings but cannot find it. After they conclude that the
necklace must have come off in the cab, Monsieur Loisel goes out to search for the cab . He
returns at 7 a.m. after failing to find it. Visits to the police and the cab company, as well as other
measures, also leave them empty-handed.

.......At her husband’s suggestion, Mathilde writes to Madame Forestier, telling her that the

necklace clasp has broken and that it is being repaired. This ploy will buy time. Next, they decide
that their only recourse is to replace the necklace. Going from jeweler to jeweler, they search for a
facsimile. They find one in a shop in the Palais Royal. The price: 36,000 francs. To raise the
money, Loisel uses all of his savings and borrows the rest, writing promissory notes and signing
his name on numerous documents. Then the Loisels buy the replacement, and Mathilde takes it
in a case to Madame Forestier. The latter expresses annoyance that it was returned late, then
takes the case without opening it to check its contents.

.......Thereafter, the Loisels scrimp and save to pay their debt. After they dismiss their housemaid,
Mathilde does the work herself, washing dishes and linen, taking out the garbage, and performing

other menial labors. She also wears common clothes and haggles at the market. Monsieur Loisel
moonlights as a bookkeeper and copyist.
.......Ten years later, they are out of debt. They have paid back every borrowed franc and sou. By

this time, Mathilde is fully a commoner, with rough hands, plain clothes, and disheveled hair. And
she looks older than her years. Occasionally, she thinks back to the day when she wore the
necklace and when so many men admired her. What would have happened if she had never lost
the necklace?

.......One day Sunday on the Champs Elysées, she encounters Madame Forestier walking with a

child. When Mathilde addresses her, her friend does not recognize her–so haggard does Mathilde
look. After Mathilde identifies herself, she decides to tell Madame Forestier everything. What
could be the harm? After all, she has paid for the necklace, working ten long years at honest,
humble labor to fulfill her obligation. Madame Forestier then holds Mathilde’s hands and says,
“Oh, my poor Mathilde. But mine was false. At most, it was worth five hundred francs!”
. Setting

The action takes place in Paris, France, in the second half of the 19th Century. Specific locales include the residence of the Loisels, the
home of Madame Jeanne Forestier, the palace of the Ministry of Education, Paris shops, and the streets of Paris, including the Rue des
Martyrs and the Champs Elysées.

Characters
Mathilde: Pretty young woman born into a common, middle-class family. She yearns for
the wealth, privileges, and fashions of highborn young ladies.
Monsieur Loisel: Government clerk whom Mathilde marries.
Madame Jeanne Forestier: Friend of Mathilde. She allows Mathilde to borrow a
necklace to wear to a gala social event.
Housemaid: Girl from Brittany who does the Loisels' housework. Her presence reminds
Mathilde of her own commoner status.
Jeweler: Dealer who provides a replacement necklace.
Monsieur and Madame Georges Rampouneau: Minister of Education and his wife,
who invite the Loisels to a party.
Child With Madame Forestier: See Number 5 under "Unanswered Questions" for
information about this character