The Necklace | CBSE Class 10 English Notes
On this page
Who wrote "The Necklace" and what is it about?
Guy de Maupassant wrote "The Necklace", a short story about a clerk's wife, Mme Loisel, who borrows a diamond necklace from her rich friend Mme Forestier for a grand party, loses it, and spends ten years of hard labour helping her husband repay for a replacement.
The chapter opens with two guiding questions printed before the story itself: what kind of person Mme Loisel is and why she is always unhappy, and what kind of person her husband is. A short preview line also tells readers that Matilda "is invited to a grand party," has "a beautiful dress but no jewellery," borrows a necklace from a friend "and loses it," before asking "What happens then?"
These framing questions guide the whole plot, since Matilda's discontent with her modest life as a clerk's wife sets every later event in motion, from the borrowed dress money to the borrowed necklace itself.
The story is told in the third person, and its characters use French titles such as "M." and "Mme", French place names such as the "Palais-Royal" and the "Champs-Elysees", and French currency in "francs" and "sou", all clues that the real language of the characters is French, even though the text itself is printed in English.
The tale ends with a sharp twist: the original necklace Matilda borrowed was false, worth only five hundred francs, not the fortune the Loisels believed they had spent ten years repaying.
What happens in the story, part by part?
Matilda's unhappy marriage
Matilda was "one of those pretty, young ladies, born as if through an error of destiny, into a family of clerks." With no dowry and no means of marrying a rich man, she married "a petty clerk in the office of the Board of Education." She was "simple, but she was unhappy," suffering from "the poverty of her apartment, the shabby walls and the worn chairs."
While her husband enjoyed simple pleasures like "the good potpie", Matilda dreamed of "elegant dinners, of shining silver" and "exquisite food served in marvellous dishes." She had a rich schoolfriend she avoided visiting because she "suffered so much when she returned," weeping "for whole days from despair and disappointment."
The invitation and the dress
One evening her husband brought home an invitation card to a ball given by the Minister of Public Instruction. Instead of joy, Matilda threw it down spitefully, and only after her husband tried to explain its importance did she ask what she would wear.
Her husband, "grieved" but patient, asked how much a suitable dress would cost. She hesitantly asked for "four hundred francs," the exact sum he had saved for a gun.
He agreed anyway, asking only that she "try to have a pretty dress."
The borrowed necklace
As the ball approached, Matilda grew "sad, disturbed, anxious" again, this time because she had "no jewel, nothing to adorn myself with." Her husband suggested natural flowers, but she refused, fearing "a shabby air in the midst of rich women." He then suggested she borrow jewels from her friend Mme Forestier.
At Mme Forestier's house, Matilda tried bracelets, a pearl collar and a cross before discovering "a superb necklace of diamonds" in a black satin box. Her "hands trembled" as she tried it on, and she asked anxiously, "Could you lend me this? Only this?" Mme Forestier agreed readily.
The triumph at the ball
At the party, Matilda was "a great success," "the prettiest of all, elegant, gracious, smiling and full of joy." She danced "intoxicated with pleasure," thinking only of her "complete and sweet" victory — while her husband dozed in a side room with other bored husbands.
The loss of the necklace
Leaving at four in the morning, Matilda hurried away in her shabby wraps to avoid being noticed by richer women, refusing to wait for her husband to call a cab.
They walked in the cold until they found an old carriage. At home, removing her wraps for a last look at her glory, she found the necklace gone from her neck.
The desperate search
Both searched every fold of clothing in vain. Loisel retraced their route on foot, then checked the police, cab offices and newspapers with a reward notice, but found nothing.
Matilda waited all day "in a state of bewilderment." They wrote to Mme Forestier claiming the clasp had broken and was being repaired, buying themselves time.
Replacing the necklace
After a week of lost hope, Loisel, "older by five years," declared they must replace the jewel. They found an identical chaplet of diamonds worth forty thousand francs, priced at thirty-six thousand.
Loisel used his inherited eighteen thousand francs and borrowed the rest from usurers "with ruinous promises." When Matilda returned the case, Mme Forestier, not opening it, said coldly she "should have returned them sooner."
Ten years of hardship
The Loisels dismissed their maid, moved to an attic, and lived in poverty to repay the debt. Matilda did all the household's "odious work": washing dishes and linen, carrying water and refuse, haggling over every sou at the market.
Her husband worked evenings and copied documents at nights for extra money. "This life lasted for ten years," at the end of which "they had restored all." Matilda had become "a strong, hard woman... Her hair badly dressed, her skirts awry, her hands red."
The final meeting and revelation
Years later, on a Sunday walk in the Champs-Elysees, Matilda saw Mme Forestier, "still young, still pretty, still attractive." She approached and, now that the debt was paid, told her the whole truth about losing the necklace and replacing it with an identical one over ten years.
Mme Forestier, deeply moved, took her hands and revealed the devastating truth: "Mine were false. They were not worth over five hundred francs!"
Who are the characters?
Mme Matilda Loisel
Matilda is the protagonist, a pretty woman born into a clerk's family who feels she deserves luxury. She is driven by vanity and discontent, shown when she weeps over having "no dress" and no jewels.
Her single reckless choice, hurrying away without waiting for a cab, costs her the necklace. Yet after the loss she shows real courage and endurance, doing "heroically" the "odious work" of poverty for ten years until the debt was cleared.
M. Loisel
Matilda's husband is a modest, practical clerk, content with simple pleasures like "the good potpie." He is affectionate and accommodating, giving up his saved money for a gun so Matilda can have a dress, and working himself exhausted at night to help repay the debt.
His calmer, more sensible nature contrasts with his wife's romantic dissatisfaction, though he too grows "older by five years" from the strain of the loss.
Mme Forestier
Matilda's rich schoolfriend, who lends her the necklace without hesitation, saying simply "Choose, my dear." Her cold remark on receiving the jewel case back is only about the delay in returning it — she never opens the box to check it, so she notices nothing wrong.
The final twist reveals she valued her own necklace so lightly that she never even checked the returned box, exposing the irony beneath the whole story.
What themes run through the story?
The danger of vanity and false appearances
Matilda's suffering stems entirely from wanting to appear richer than she really is. Feeling "born for all delicacies and luxuries," she suffers from "the poverty of her apartment" and dreams of "elegant dinners" and "shining silver" far beyond a clerk's means.
This longing drives every major decision in the story: her refusal of the invitation until she has a new dress, her refusal of "natural flowers" because they would give her "a shabby air in the midst of rich women," and her insistence on borrowing a diamond necklace rather than appearing plain. Each choice, taken to preserve appearances, ultimately leads to her ruin.
Irony and the unpredictability of fate
The story turns on a crushing irony: the necklace that cost the Loisels ten years of poverty was itself false, "not worth over five hundred francs." Matilda herself reflects on this unpredictability, asking, "How would it have been if she had not lost the necklace?" and concluding, "How singular is life, and how full of changes! How small a thing will ruin or save one!"
Honesty versus deception
The Loisels choose to hide the loss rather than confess it. Loisel tells Matilda to "write to your friend that you have broken the clasp of the necklace," buying them time while they secretly search and later replace the jewel with an identical one. This single act of concealment, taken to avoid shame and embarrassment, locks them into a decade of hardship that an honest confession might have avoided entirely, since Mme Forestier would then have revealed the necklace was false.
Endurance and transformation through hardship
Despite her earlier vanity, Matilda endures her punishment with real dignity. The narrator notes she "did her part, however, completely, heroically," taking on "the odious work of a kitchen," washing dishes and linen, and haggling "to the last sou." Over ten years she is transformed from a delicate dreamer into "a strong, hard woman, the crude woman of the poor household," with "hair badly dressed," "skirts awry" and "hands red."
What are the key quotations from the story?
The following lines mark the turning points of the plot, from Matilda's early discontent to the final, devastating revelation about the necklace's true value.
"She was simple, but she was unhappy."
This early line sums up Matilda's character: a modest woman whose unhappiness comes not from any real hardship but from wanting a life she was never born into.
"What do you suppose I have to wear to such a thing as that?", Mme Loisel, asking what she would wear.
Her sharp reply to her husband's gift of an invitation shows how quickly her vanity turns a joyful occasion into a source of distress.
"Her necklace was not around her neck.", the moment the loss is discovered.
This blunt sentence marks the story's central crisis, the instant the whole decade of hardship that follows is set in motion.
"We must replace this jewel.", M. Loisel, after a week of fruitless searching.
Spoken after Loisel has aged "by five years" from worry, this line shows the couple choosing concealment over confession.
"This life lasted for ten years. At the end of ten years, they had restored all."
This records the full cost of the single lost necklace: a decade of poverty and labour before the debt was finally cleared.
"How small a thing will ruin or save one!", Matilda's reflection on her fate.
Matilda's own words capture the story's theme of fate's unpredictability, looking back on how one lost necklace changed her whole life.
"Mine were false. They were not worth over five hundred francs!", Mme Forestier, at the story's close.
This final line delivers the story's crushing irony, revealing that ten years of suffering were spent repaying a worthless imitation.
What are the answers to the textbook questions?
How did the course of the Loisels' life change due to the necklace?
Before the ball, the Loisels led a modest but stable clerk's life. After Matilda lost the borrowed necklace, they were forced to buy an identical replacement for thirty-six thousand francs, using Loisel's inheritance and ruinous loans from usurers.
They dismissed their maid, moved to an attic, and Matilda took up all the hard domestic work herself while her husband took extra copying jobs at night.
This poverty and labour lasted ten full years, transforming Matilda from an elegant, dreaming young woman into a "strong, hard woman" with "red" hands, until the irony emerged at the end that the original necklace had been nearly worthless.
What was the cause of Matilda's ruin? How could she have avoided it?
Matilda's ruin was caused by her own vanity and her refusal to accept her modest station.
Instead of wearing natural flowers as her husband suggested, she insisted on borrowing a diamond necklace to look as fine as the rich women at the ball.
She further worsened matters by hurrying away from the party without waiting for a proper cab, in her eagerness not to be noticed in her shabby wraps.
Had she been content with simpler ornaments, or been more careful leaving the ball, the necklace would never have been lost at all.
What would have happened if Matilda had confessed the loss to her friend?
Had Matilda told Mme Forestier honestly that she had lost the necklace, the friend would very likely have told her, as she finally did years later, that the necklace was false and worth only five hundred francs.
This would have spared the Loisels the enormous debt, the ten years of poverty, and the physical toll on Matilda, who grew prematurely old and hardened from the unnecessary labour she endured only because the truth was hidden.
How would one deal with a similar situation?
In a comparable situation, the wiser course shown by the story is to confess the loss immediately rather than conceal it with excuses, since concealment can lead to far greater and unnecessary suffering, as it did for the Loisels.
Admitting a mistake honestly, even at the cost of embarrassment, is shown to be a smaller price than years of hidden hardship.
Do the characters speak English, and what clues suggest their real language?
The characters are clearly not meant to be speaking English in reality, since the story is set in France, with French titles such as "M." (Monsieur) and "Mme" (Madame), French currency ("francs" and "sou"), and French place names such as "Palais-Royal" and "Champs-Elysees." These details signal that the characters are actually speaking French, and the English text is a translation.
What is the setting of the story and why does it matter?
The story is set in Paris, in the home of a minor government clerk and his wife. Loisel works "in the office of the Board of Education," and the grand party they attend is given by "the Minister of Public Instruction," signalling the gap between the Loisels' modest rank and the official world Matilda longs to join.
French details run through the whole story even though it is printed in English: the title cards read "M." and "Mme," money is counted in "francs" and "sou," and real Paris locations are named, including the "Palais-Royal," where the replacement necklace is bought, and the "Champs-Elysees," where Matilda meets Mme Forestier again years later.
The couple's changing homes mark their changing fortunes. Before the loss, they live in a plain but respectable apartment with "shabby walls and worn chairs," together with a maid. After the loss, they dismiss the maid and move to "rooms in an attic," a visible sign of the poverty that ten years of debt forces upon them.
This contrast between the glittering ballroom at the Minister's residence and the cramped attic room makes Matilda's fall from imagined luxury to real hardship concrete and visible to the reader, reinforcing the story's warning against valuing appearances over contentment.
What literary techniques does Maupassant use in the story?
Maupassant tells the story in the third person, following Matilda's thoughts and feelings closely while keeping some facts, such as the necklace's true value, hidden from both Matilda and the reader until the very end.
The chapter itself builds in foreshadowing through short "Read and find out" questions placed before each stage of the plot, asking what kind of person Mme Loisel is, what fresh problem disturbs her, and how the Loisels will replace the necklace. These questions quietly prepare the reader for each twist without revealing it.
Maupassant also uses contrast throughout: Matilda's dreams of "shining silver" and "marvellous dishes" against her husband's simple pleasure in "the good potpie," and the brilliance of the ball against the "modest wraps" and old carriage that follow it. These contrasts sharpen the reader's sense of Matilda's discontent and its cost.
Direct speech carries much of the plot. Short exchanges, such as Matilda's demand "Could you lend me this? Only this?" or Loisel's declaration "We must replace this jewel," drive the action forward quickly and reveal character through what each person chooses to say.
Finally, the surprise ending itself is a deliberate technique: Mme Forestier's final words recast everything the reader has just read, turning a story about losing a treasure into a story about chasing a false one.
How does irony shape the story's ending?
The whole story is built around a single situational irony: the necklace the Loisels spend ten years of poverty repaying turns out to be worth almost nothing. Mme Forestier's closing words, "Mine were false. They were not worth over five hundred francs!", overturn everything the reader has believed about the plot.
This irony works because Maupassant keeps the detail hidden until the final lines. Earlier in the story, Matilda's "hands trembled" with excitement when she found the "superb necklace of diamonds," and both she and her husband treat it, and its replacement, as a genuine and costly jewel throughout the search, the replacement and the decade of repayment.
A second, quieter irony lies in Mme Forestier's own carelessness: she never opens the returned jewel-box to check it, so she does not notice the substitution, and only learns of it years later when Matilda, "now that she had paid," decides to tell her the truth.
The irony also deepens the story's warning about vanity. Matilda ruins her youth and her looks chasing the appearance of wealth represented by a necklace that, all along, was itself only an appearance of wealth rather than the real thing.
This double irony, the lost jewel and the false jewel, is what makes the ending of "The Necklace" so memorable, since it punishes both Matilda's pride and Mme Forestier's casual trust in equal measure.
Glossary
- Incessantly — continuously and without stopping, used in the story to describe how constantly Matilda suffered from feeling poor.
- Tureen — a large, covered dish from which soup or stew is served at the table, mentioned when Loisel praises the potpie.
- M. — an abbreviation for "Monsieur," the French form of address used for a man, showing the story's French setting.
- Mme — an abbreviation for "Madame," the French form of address used for a married woman, used throughout for both wives.
- Vexation — a state of being distressed, irritated or troubled, the feeling Matilda controls before answering her husband calmly.
- Ruinous — extremely disastrous or harmful, used to describe the costly promises Loisel makes to borrow money for the replacement necklace.
- Usurers — money-lenders, especially those who charge a very high rate of interest, from whom Loisel is forced to borrow.
- Sou — a former French coin of very low value, used to show how closely Matilda has to haggle while shopping.
- Awry — not in the correct position or shape, twisted or crooked, used to describe Matilda's skirts after years of hard work.
- Dowry — money or property that a bride's family traditionally brings to her marriage, which Matilda is said to have had none of.
- Chaplet — a string or strand of jewels or beads, the word used for the replacement necklace the Loisels find in the Palais-Royal.
- Elated — filled with great happiness and excitement, the mood in which Loisel returns home bearing the ball invitation.
- Stupefied — astonished and shocked into silence, Loisel's reaction on seeing his wife weep over the invitation he thought would please her.
- Frigid — coldly distant or unfriendly, the tone Mme Forestier uses when she tells Matilda she should have returned the necklace sooner.
Common errors and misconceptions
- Misconception: The necklace Matilda borrowed was genuine diamond and worth a fortune. Correct: It was false, worth only "five hundred francs", as Mme Forestier reveals at the end.
- Misconception: Matilda lost the necklace because of carelessness alone. Correct: The story links the loss to her vanity and hurry to leave the ball unnoticed, not mere accident.
- Misconception: The Loisels told Mme Forestier the truth immediately. Correct: They lied, claiming the clasp was "broken" and being repaired, to buy time.
- Misconception: Loisel paid for the replacement entirely from savings. Correct: He used his inherited "eighteen thousand francs" and borrowed the rest "from usurers".
- Misconception: The couple recovered their fortune quickly. Correct: Repaying the debt took a gruelling "ten years" of hard labour.
- Misconception: Matilda recognised Mme Forestier easily during their final meeting. Correct: It was Mme Forestier who did not recognise the changed Matilda at first.
Exam-style questions with model answers
Q1. What did Matilda ask her husband to give her for a dress, and why did this sum matter to him? [2 marks]
- Matilda asked for four hundred francs for the dress.
- This was the exact amount Loisel had saved to buy a gun for hunting trips with friends, so giving it up was a real sacrifice for him.
Q2. Where did the ball take place, and who gave it? [2 marks]
- The ball was held at the Minister's residence.
- It was given jointly by the Minister of Public Instruction and Madame George Ramponneau.
Q3. Describe what happened on the night of the ball, from Matilda's success to the discovery of the loss. [3 marks]
- Matilda was the "prettiest of all" at the ball, dancing joyfully and receiving great admiration.
- Leaving at four in the morning, she hurried away in her shabby wraps rather than wait for her husband to call a proper cab, and they eventually found only an old carriage.
- On reaching home and removing her wraps for a last look at herself, she discovered the necklace was no longer around her neck.
Q4. Why did Matilda refuse to wear natural flowers to the ball, and what did she do instead? [3 marks]
- Matilda refused flowers because she felt there was "nothing more humiliating than to have a shabby air in the midst of rich women."
- Her husband then suggested she ask her rich friend Mme Forestier to lend her some jewels.
- Matilda chose and borrowed a "superb necklace of diamonds" from Mme Forestier's jewel case.
Q5. How could Matilda's ruin have been avoided, in your view? [4 marks]
- Matilda's ruin began with her insistence on looking as fine as the rich women rather than accepting her own means, so being content with simpler ornaments like flowers would have avoided the whole crisis.
- Her hurried departure from the ball, without waiting for her husband to find a proper cab, likely caused the actual loss of the necklace.
- Once the necklace was lost, confessing immediately to Mme Forestier, rather than concealing the loss, would have revealed sooner that the necklace was false.
- Honesty at that point would have spared the Loisels the ten years of debt and hard labour that followed from their concealment.
Q6. What does Mme Forestier's behaviour, both when lending the necklace and when it is returned, reveal about her character? [4 marks]
- She lends the necklace readily, simply saying "Choose, my dear," showing she is generous and does not suspect any risk in trusting her friend.
- When the necklace is returned, she does not open the jewel-box to check it, so she fails to notice that it has been secretly substituted.
- Her cold remark that Matilda "should have returned them to me sooner" shows mild irritation rather than any real suspicion of what has happened.
- Only years later, moved by Matilda's honesty, does she reveal that her own necklace had been false all along, showing she never placed great value on the piece herself.
Q7. Trace the course of the Loisels' life from the night of the ball to their final meeting with Mme Forestier, explaining how the necklace changed their fortunes. [6 marks]
- On the night of the ball, Matilda enjoyed a triumphant evening but lost the borrowed diamond necklace on the way home.
- Despite a desperate search involving the police, cab offices and newspaper advertisements, the necklace was never found.
- Unable to confess, the Loisels bought an identical replacement for thirty-six thousand francs, using Loisel's inheritance of eighteen thousand francs and loans from usurers at ruinous terms.
- They dismissed their maid, moved into a poor attic, and Matilda took on all the harsh domestic chores herself while Loisel worked extra jobs at night.
- This hardship lasted ten years, by the end of which the debt was fully repaid, but Matilda had become prematurely aged and hardened by the labour.
- Years later, meeting Mme Forestier by chance, Matilda finally told the truth about the replacement, only to learn that the original necklace had been false and worth a mere five hundred francs, making their decade of suffering tragically unnecessary.
Key takeaways
- Matilda's dissatisfaction with her modest clerk's life drives her to borrow a diamond necklace she cannot afford to lose.
- She loses the necklace while hurrying away from the ball to avoid being seen in shabby wraps.
- The Loisels conceal the loss and secretly buy an identical replacement for thirty-six thousand francs.
- They endure ten years of hard labour and poverty to repay the debt this caused.
- Matilda is transformed from an elegant dreamer into a hardened, prematurely aged woman.
- The story ends with the devastating irony that the original necklace was false, worth only five hundred francs.
- Honesty, concealment and the unpredictability of fate are the story's central concerns.
- The English dialogue stands in for French, shown by titles like "M." and "Mme" and currency in "francs".
Test yourself
What sum did Matilda ask for to buy her dress?
She asked for four hundred francs, which was the exact amount her husband had saved to buy a gun.
Whose necklace did Matilda borrow for the ball?
She borrowed a diamond necklace from her rich friend, Mme Forestier.
What excuse did the Loisels give Mme Forestier for the delay in returning the necklace?
They wrote that the clasp of the necklace had broken and was being repaired.
How much did the replacement necklace cost, and how was it paid for?
It cost thirty-six thousand francs, paid using Loisel's inheritance of eighteen thousand francs plus loans from usurers.
How long did it take the Loisels to repay their debt?
It took ten years of hard labour and frugal living to repay the debt in full.
What was the final twist revealed by Mme Forestier?
She revealed that the original necklace was false, worth no more than five hundred francs.
How did Matilda change physically by the end of the story?
She became a strong, hard woman with badly dressed hair, awry skirts and red hands, looking much older than her years.