THE NECKLACE"

BY GUY DE MAUPASSANT

"The Necklace" is a short story that gives an important moral. You should always be grateful for what you have, as things can always be worse. Matilda Loisel and her husband are an average middle class couple. Matilda longs to be above this, and dreams of the life of luxury and is miserable with the life she has. In an attempt to make his wife happy, Mr. Loisel get an invitation to a social party of important stature. His wife is upset because she has nothing to wear. He gives her the money he was saving to buy himself a gun, so she can buy herself a dress. She then becomes upset because she has no jewelry to wear. She borrows a beautiful diamond necklace from a friend. She loses the necklace at the party. After searching for a week, they realize they must replace the necklace. They use their entire savings, and even take out loans to pay for the replacement diamond necklace. Now they have no money and must both work tirelessly to pay off their debts. Years later, Matilda is withered and worn from working so hard. She runs into her friend on the street one day and confesses to her that they replaced the necklace, and the means by which they did it. In return her friend explained that the necklace was not real diamonds, and was only worth 500 francs and not the 36,000 francs they had paid to replace it.

LIST OF CHARACTERS:
1. MATHILDE LOISEL --The protagonist of the story. Mathilde has been blessed with physical beauty but not with the affluent lifestyle she yearns for, and she feels deeply discontented with her lot in life. When she prepares to attend a fancy party, she borrows a diamond necklace from her friend Madame Forestier, then loses the necklace and must work for ten years to pay off a replacement. Her one night of radiance cost her and Monsieur Loisel any chance for future happiness.
2. MONSIEUR LOISEL --Mathildes husband. Monsieur Loisel is content with the small pleasures of his life but does his best to appease Mathildes demands and assuage her complaints. He loves Mathilde immensely but does not truly understand her, and he seems to underestimate the depth of her unhappiness. When Mathilde loses the necklace, Monsieur Loisel sacrifices his own future to help her repay the debt. He pays dearly for something he had never wanted in the first place.

3. MADAME FORESTIER --Mathildes wealthy friend. Madame Forestier treats Mathilde kindly, but Mathilde is bitterly jealous of Madame Forestiers wealth, and the kindness pains her. Madame Forestier lends Mathilde the necklace for the party and does not inspect it when Mathilde returns it. She is horrified to realize that Mathilde has wasted her life trying to pay for a replacement necklace, when the original necklace had actually been worth nothing.