1. Introduction Author: Guy De Maupassant was a great writer of France.

He is considered to be
one of the best short story writers of the world. He was born on 5 August 1850, in France.
Maupassant was a representative of the naturalist school of writers. He depicts human lives
often in pessimistic tesm. Many of his stories were written during the Franco-Prussian War of
the 1870s. He describes the futility of wars and violence that take thousands of innocent lives.
He wrote more than 300 short stories, 6 novels, travel books and even poetry.

2. Introduction Story: Guy de Maupassant's short story "The Necklace" was first published in the
Paris newspaper in 1884. Like most of Maupassant's short fiction, it was an instant success,
and it has become his most widely read and anthologized story. It showed a story about a
French middle-class couple in the 19th century. The events described in the story reveal the
features of the character, leads her to live a poorer life than she used to lead. An unexpected
and ironic outcome provides a complex moral lesson that the readers are supposed to learn
along with her. The deceptiveness of appearances is the major theme of the story.
3. Historical context: When the story was published in 1884, the roles of Parisian men and women
was clearly defined in social hierarchy. Paris was a class-based society that show a great deal of
inequality. The upper class citizens were incredibly wealthy capitalists and there was a little
money for those in lower classes. The life off a typical French woman was dictated by the
income of her father or husband. Wealthy women were upper class and lived a life of luxury.
 Middle class women took care of fmaily and home. Lower class lived a life of poverty and hard
work.
4. Plot diagram:

Question: Matilda would not have suffered much if she had confessed the loss of necklace. Do you think
our mistakes become more serious if we try to cover them?

Answer: Yes, a small mistake maybe makes our life miserable. People who are open-minded and speak
the truth stay much happier. A little mistake made by Matilda changed her life. If Matilda had confessed
that she had lost the necklace, her life would have been different. She didn't spend much time to work
hard for earn money to compensate the necklace. So I think we should not delay in admitting our
mistake.