Supplementary Chapter 7 Class 10 NCERT: 'The Necklace'

Summary of 'The Necklace'

Mathilde Loisel is a pretty young woman born into a family of clerks. She feels she was born for a life of luxury and is deeply unhappy with her modest lifestyle. Her husband, M. Loisel, is a simple clerk who loves her and tries his best to make her happy. One day, he brings home an invitation to a grand party at the Minister's residence, hoping to delight her. However, Mathilde is upset because she has no suitable dress or jewelry. Her husband gives her the money he had saved for a hunting gun to buy a dress. For jewelry, she borrows a beautiful diamond necklace from her wealthy friend, Mme. Forestier. At the party, Mathilde is a huge success, feeling ecstatic and admired by all. But her joy is short-lived. Upon returning home, she discovers that the necklace is gone. After a frantic, unsuccessful search, the Loisels decide to replace it without telling Mme. Forestier. They find a similar necklace costing 36,000 francs, a fortune for them. They use M. Loisel's inheritance and borrow the rest, plunging themselves into massive debt. For the next ten years, they live a life of poverty and hard labor to pay it off. The ordeal drastically changes Mathilde, making her old and coarse. One day, she meets Mme. Forestier, who barely recognizes her. Mathilde confesses the whole story, only to learn the shocking truth: the necklace she had borrowed was a fake, worth at most 500 francs.

Character Analysis

Mathilde Loisel

The protagonist of the story. Mathilde is characterized by her vanity and dissatisfaction with her social standing. Her desire to appear wealthy leads to her downfall, but she also shows resilience and a sense of honor by working for a decade to repay her debt.

M. Loisel

Mathilde's husband. He is a content, caring, and practical man who is devoted to his wife. He sacrifices his own savings and desires for her happiness and shares the burden of the debt without complaint, showcasing his loyalty and love.

Mme. Forestier

Mathilde's wealthy friend. She is kind and generous, lending her jewelry to Mathilde without hesitation. She serves as a catalyst for the plot and her final revelation provides the story's ironic and tragic twist.

Themes and Irony in 'The Necklace'

This story is rich with themes that are crucial for your exams.

1. Appearance vs. Reality: The central theme. Mathilde wants to appear wealthy, and the necklace, which appears to be made of diamonds, is the symbol of this deception. The reality is that both her status and the necklace are false. This leads to a life of real poverty, a stark contrast to the imagined poverty she initially lamented.

2. The Dangers of Vanity and Greed: Mathilde's unhappiness stems from her pride and her constant desire for more than she has. Her belief that material possessions equal happiness is her fatal flaw. The story warns against letting vanity dictate one's actions.

3. The Irony of Fate: The story is built on a foundation of situational irony. The Loisels ruin their lives to replace a valuable necklace that was never valuable in the first place. The very object that gave Mathilde one night of happiness becomes the cause of ten years of misery. The final line is one of the most famous ironic twists in literature.

How to Score Full Marks on 'The Necklace' Questions

For your board exams, examiners look for more than just a plot summary. To write a high-scoring answer, focus on the 'why' and 'how'.

• Use the PEEL Method: Point (make your main argument), Evidence (quote or describe a specific part of the text), Explanation (explain how your evidence supports your point), and Link (link back to the question or the broader theme).
• Analyze Character Motivation: Don't just say 'Mathilde was unhappy'. Explain why. She was unhappy because of the gap between her reality and her aspirations, fueled by societal pressure and her own vanity.
• Discuss the Irony: Always mention the situational irony in your answers, especially for long-answer questions. Explain how the Loisels' sacrifice was ultimately pointless and tragic. This demonstrates a deeper understanding of the story's message.

Practice Questions with Solutions

• Q: What was the cause of Mathilde’s ruin? How could she have avoided it? A: Step 1: Identify the primary cause of Mathilde's ruin. It was not just losing the necklace, but her pride and dishonesty that followed. Step 2: Explain her character flaw. Mathilde's ruin was caused by her deep-seated dissatisfaction with her life and her overwhelming desire to appear as a member of high society. This vanity led her to borrow the necklace in the first place. Step 3: Pinpoint the critical mistake. The immediate cause of her ten-year hardship was her decision not to tell Mme. Forestier the truth about losing the necklace. Her pride prevented her from admitting the loss to her wealthy friend. Step 4: Suggest the alternative path. She could have avoided her ruin by being honest with Mme. Forestier. Had she confessed, she would have learned that the necklace was a fake and could have replaced it for a minimal cost, thus avoiding the crushing debt and a decade of poverty. Final answer: The cause of Mathilde's ruin was her vanity and her pride, which led her to borrow a necklace to live out a fantasy and then lie about losing it. She could have easily avoided this tragic fate by mustering the courage to be honest with her friend, Mme. Forestier, about the loss. This simple act of communication would have revealed the necklace's true, low value and prevented a decade of needless suffering.
• Q: M. Loisel was a loving husband. Support this statement with examples from the story. A: Step 1: State the main argument. M. Loisel was indeed a patient, caring, and loving husband who consistently prioritized his wife's happiness over his own. Step 2: Provide the first piece of evidence. He joyfully brought the invitation to the party, thinking it would make Mathilde happy, even though such events were not his preference. Step 3: Provide the second piece of evidence. When Mathilde was upset about not having a dress, he selflessly gave her the 400 francs he had been saving to buy a gun for a hunting trip with his friends. Step 4: Provide the third and most significant piece of evidence. After the necklace was lost, he did not blame her. Instead, he spent his inheritance, borrowed heavily, and worked tirelessly for ten years alongside her to repay the enormous debt. He sacrificed his comfort, his future, and his youth for a mistake that was not his. Final answer: M. Loisel demonstrated his love for Mathilde through numerous sacrifices. He gave up his savings for her dress, spent days searching for the lost necklace, and then dedicated ten years of his life to hard labor to clear the debt, all without blaming her. His actions show him to be an exceptionally loyal and loving husband.
• Q: The story ends with a twist. What is the irony in the ending of 'The Necklace'? A: Step 1: Define situational irony. Situational irony occurs when the outcome of a situation is the opposite of what one would expect. Step 2: Describe the Loisels' actions and expectations. The Loisels expect that by replacing the supposedly priceless diamond necklace, they are restoring their honor and paying for a genuine item of immense value. They sacrifice ten years of their lives, their youth, and their comfort to achieve this. Step 3: Reveal the actual situation. The twist at the end reveals that their entire sacrifice was based on a false premise. The original necklace was an imitation, worth only 500 francs at most. Step 4: Explain the ironic contrast. The irony lies in the tragic and pointless nature of their sacrifice. They endured a decade of genuine, harsh poverty to replace a fake symbol of wealth. The very thing they worked so hard to pay for was as false as the life Mathilde desired for one night. Final answer: The irony in the ending is that the Loisels' decade-long struggle and financial ruin were completely unnecessary. They gave up everything to replace what they believed was a fortune in diamonds, only to find out the original necklace was a cheap imitation. They suffered real hardship for a false object, which is a classic example of cruel situational irony.
• Q: How did the ordeal of repaying the debt change Mathilde Loisel's character? A: Step 1: Describe Mathilde's character at the beginning of the story. Initially, Mathilde was a discontented, vain dreamer who despised her middle-class life and longed for riches and admiration. Step 2: Detail the changes brought about by the hardship. The ten years of hard labor transformed her completely. She had to dismiss her servant, move to a smaller apartment, and perform all the heavy household chores herself. This life of poverty made her strong, hard, and crude. Step 3: Contrast her physical and mental state before and after. The story describes her becoming 'the woman of impoverished households'. Her soft hands became rough, her voice loud, and her looks faded. She lost her charm and beauty, the very things she had prized so highly. Step 4: Analyze the positive aspect of this change. While she lost her physical grace, she gained a sense of responsibility and resilience. She 'played her part, however, with heroism'. She learned the value of hard work and faced her grim reality without running away. In a way, the hardship forced her to become a stronger, though less pleasant, person. Final answer: The ordeal of repaying the debt stripped Mathilde of her vanity and dreaminess, replacing them with the harsh realities of poverty. She transformed from a pretty, charming but dissatisfied woman into a strong, hard, and coarse person who understood the brutal nature of toil. While she lost her external beauty, she gained a grim resilience and a sense of heroic responsibility she lacked before.

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