The Diamond Necklace

Mathilde Loisel was a pretty and charming girl but had no money or riches, married to a little
clerk in the Ministry of Education. She wished for vast saloons hung with antique silks, exquisite
pieces of furniture with priceless ornaments, perfumed rooms, men who were famous that sought
after her, and whose home made every other woman envious and jealous. She hated her worn
chairs and ugly curtains and torn clothes.

One night her husband brought her an invitation to a party of rich people but of course she
refused to go because she had nothing to wear. She had tears in her eyes when she said this and it
broke her husband’s heart. The only money he had been accumulating was for a gun he planned
to buy but his wife was more important. He gave her the 400 francs and she bought a pretty
dress.

When the day of the party drew near, Mathilde grew anxious for she had no jewelry to wear.
“Wear flowers.” Her husband told her but she didn’t want to look plain. Then, her husband gave
her an idea to go ask her friend Madame Forestier. She cried with delight and went to her close
friend. She couldn’t find anything at first but on beautiful diamond necklace caught her eye and
took that.

The party was all her wildest dreams. All the women were envious of her beauty and attention
while the men’s head turned and asked for her name. She danced ecstatically, drunk with
pleasure, her feminine heart complete with victory.

He husband said it was time to leave and because it was cold he flung his jacket over her
shoulders. And trying not to me seen, Mathilde rushed him and they both went home only to
discover the necklace had gone lost. They looked furiously everywhere for it but could not find
it. Now they had to buy one just like it and so looked around every jewelry store and found one
that cost 36,000 francs. Her husband possessed the 18,000 francs inherited from his father and
borrowed the left; risking his signature on every paper he saw and unsure if he would be able to
pay it all back. They bought the necklace and gave it to the lender.

They both worked day and night and at the end of ten years, all was paid back. Now Mathilde
was ugly and her face looked old. One day as she was passing through a road she met Madame
Forestier on the way and decided to tell her the whole story and be honest. After she did Madame
Forestier, deeply moved, said “Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at
the very most five hundred francs! . . . "

The end

Her husband is one of the kindest characters ever. He fought so hard to make his unsatisfied wife
happy and lost so much money for her sake. Then when the necklace got lost he didn’t complain,
but did everything he could to pay back that money. I learned to be as sympathetic and caring as
him for if he wasn’t, she would have never to pay back the debts.

I was inspired to

The thing I have decided to do differently is the one important thing the characters in the story
didn’t do, communicate. If Mathilde had told her friend that she had lost it and talked with her
for a solution, both she and her husband wouldn’t have lost ten years of their lives for nothing.
And ten years is not an easy price for just a conversation of five minutes, no matter how
awkward and embarrassing.

This short story literally broke my heart. If I was the one that wrote it, this is how I would have
finished it;

Mathilde couldn’t believe her ears. “I am so sorry for making you waste 10 years for nothing.”
Her friend apologized. Mathilde couldn’t stop the tears. “But it is fine I will give you the
diamond necklace and you can sell it, oh poor Mathilde.”

Madame Forestier gave her the necklace and she brought it home. Mathilde told her husband the
story sobbing and crying with regret full in her eyes. He too couldn’t believe what he was
hearing. But his wife was so miserable that he didn’t get mad at her. He wrapped his arms around
her and they both cried together. The next day, they both went to a jewelry store and sold it for
40,000 francs and they were rich. He put aside half of it to save and with the rest, he gave his
wife a beautiful and happy life. Not of antique ornaments and fancy clothes, but a life love and
peace and one of no miseries or regrets.

Now this is a happy ending. But even though it was sad, I liked this story of Guy de Maupassant.