The Necklace | NCERT Solution
Updated: Apr 23, 2022
Lesson Architecture
Theme:
The lesson highlights that we should be happy with what we have and not aspire for something that is beyond our reach.
We should keep our expectations and wants in alignment with our financial limit.
In case we fail to restrict our wants within our means, we come to grief and repentance.
We should learn to come to terms with grief consequent upon our actions.
Lesson-At-A-Glance
The story is about Matilda Loisel, a young & pretty woman who was born in a poor family and married to a poor clerk.
She was very unhappy as she felt that she was meant for finer things of life.
She could neither extend invitation to others for dinners nor could afford herself lavish gowns and jewels.
One day her husband came with an invitation to a party at the minister's residence.
Instead of being happy, Matilda threw the invitation card on the table as she was not having elegant dress as well as jewellery.
Her husband gave up his saved money which he kept aside for buying a gun and bought a suitable dress for her.
As the day of the ball approached Matilda was still sad as she had not ornament to wear.
Her husband's suggestion to wear fresh flowers did not please her.
He then suggested her to borrow a suitable ornament from her rich friend, Madame Forestier.
Madame Forestier generously offers her jewels and asked Matilda to choose the she liked.
Matilda chose a superb diamond necklace. She became extremely happy to get such a posh necklace.
Matilda being the prettiest of all the ladies, men started noticing her and wanted to be introduced to her.
Matilda danced and enjoyed till four o' clock in the morning.
On their return from the party, Monsieur Loisel puts around her the modest wrap she had brought.
But the shabby wrap clashed with the finery of the gown and Matilda did not wait for her husband to call the cab, but left hurriedly so that no one could see it.
At home when Matilda stood in front of the mirror to have one finally looked herself in her finery, she was shocked to realize that the necklace was missing.
Loisel enquires at the cab offices and puts an advertisement in the papers, but received no lead.
He instructed Matilda to write to Madame Forestier that the clasp of the necklace had broken and that they would have it repaired.
In a shop they found a diamond necklace which seemed exactly like the one they had lost.
They borrowed money from usurers and lenders to pay for the necklace and spent the next ten years of their life in terrible hardship to repay the loans they had taken.
Matilda washed clothes, brought water adn went to the grocer's and the butcher's like a common woman haggling to the last penny.
Her husband, on the other hand, worked evenings and nights to bring in some extra money.
The life of hardships took its toll on Matilda. She looked old and haggard.
One day while walking in the Champs-Elysees, Matilda saw her friend Madame Forestier walking with a child, still looking pretty and young.
When Madame Forestier heard the story of Matilda , she was shocked beyond all measure to hear that Matilda worked all these crucial years to pay for her imitation necklace.
She informed Matilda that her necklace was false and did not cost her more than five hundred francs.
NCERT Textbook Questions:
Read and Find Out ( Page 39)
1.What kind of a person is Mme Loisel-Why is she always unhappy?
Ans: Mme Loisel is a pretty young lady who is born in to a family of clerks and is married to a poor clerk.
She always dreams of living a life of luxury with fine food on the table, and fine clothes and expensive jewellery. She is very unhappy as she feels that she is meant for finer things of life.
2. What kind of a person is her husband?
Ans Monseiur Loisel is a poor clerk who is hardworking and economical in nature. He loves his wife and sacrifices his saved money so that she could buy herself a dress for the dinner.
Read and Find Out ( Page 41)
What fresh problem now disturbs Mme Loisel?
She has no jewellery to wear for the dinner. She would look poor and deprived among the gathering of rich people. So she feels disturbed to think of this fact.
How is the problem solved?
Ans: The problem is solved by her husband who suggests that she borrows jewels from her rich friend, Mme Forestier.
Read and Find Out ( Page 44)
What do M. and Mme Loisel do next?
Ans: M Loisel toes to the police and to the cab offices, puts an advertisement in the newspapers with an offer of a reward. He returns home with no trace of the necklace. He suggests to her wife that she should write to Mme Forestier that she has broken the clasp of the necklace and that she will have it repaired.
How do they replace the necklace?
In a shop of the Palais-Royal, they find a chaplet of diamonds, which seem to them exactly like the one they had lost. It is worth forty thousand francs, but they manage to buy it for thirty-six-thousand. Loisel had eighteen thousand francs and the rest he borrowed from usurers and moneylenders at high interest so that he could buy a replacement necklace to Mme Forestier.
Think About It
The course of the Loisel's life changed due to the necklace. Comment.
Ans: Mrs & Mr. Loisel took ten years to repay eighteen thousands francs that they borrowed from moneylenders. They worked very hard and lived a beggar's life in order to repay the loan. They did the following things to get rid of a staggering loan.
They sent away the maid, changed their lodgings, rented some rooms in an attic.
She learned the odious work of a kitchen. She washed the dishes.
She washed the soiled linen, their clothes and dishcloths, which she hung on the line to dry.
She took down the refuse to the street each morning and brought up the water.
she went to the grocer’s, the butcher’s and the fruiterer’s, with her basket on her arm, shopping, haggling to the last sou of her miserable money.
The husband worked evenings, putting the books of some merchants in order.
He often did copying at five sous a page.
2. What was the cause of Matilda's ruin? How could she have avoided it?
Ans: The cause for her ruin was her ambitious desire to borrow a necklace from Mme Forestier.
If she could manage with the flowers that her husband suggested her to wear in place of jewellery, she could have avoided having met such a miserable life.
All their hard work for ten years was a waste as the necklace they borrowed was a imitation necklace and not a diamond one as both thought it to be.
If Matilda could learn to live her life within her means, she would not aspire to borrow a necklace and fall into a trap of worldly possessions.
Moreover, when she returned the necklace to Mme Forestier, she could tell the truth to Mme Forestier about the lost necklace. In that way she could have surely avoided being in such a great trouble for ten long years.
3. What would have happened to Matilda if she had confessed to her friend that she had lost her necklace?
Ans: In my opinion, her friend would have informed her that the necklace was an imitation of a diamond necklace, which cost her only five hundred francs. Matilda could have immediately returned the diamond necklace or sold it to the same shop and got the money back. This disclosure by her friend would have helped Matilda and her husband to avoid ten long years of miserable lifestyle.
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