'The Necklace' is a short story written by the famous French writer Guy de Maupassant. It is originally written in French but it has been translated into English. It tells the story of a poor girl whose name was Mathilde and she came from a poor family who has suffered much in life she had hopes and ambitions and great. Expectations to be a woman of an important social class but her dreams proved to be futile as she had married a clerk in the ministry of Education. She lived in a rather poor house with her husband who was working very hard to provide his wife with a respectful decent life social life.
However, his wife had never been satisfied with her married life; she has wanted very much to marry a rich man of a good social class and of distinction, someone who could fulfill her dream and ambitions who would raise her above her level and make her a woman of social prestige and social power. Though she was rather poor and struggling hard to survive, she was graceful, charming and beautiful; she was greatly admired by any one wherever she went.
One day, her husband received an invitation from the minister of Education inviting him and his wife to a party at his palace. M. Loisel was very happy to receive such an invitation and he gladly informed his wife about the party but his wife received the news with sadness and grief as she had nothing special to wear for this occasion.
Her husband suggested that she could wear her beautiful dress which she always did on previous occasions. She did not agree and said that it was ugly dress he told her that he could give her an amount of money which he had saved for himself to buy a gun for lark shooting. He was ready to sacrifice the sum of money that he had saved to please his wife.
She was very happy and she bought a beautiful classy dress that looked very chic on her. But she felt that there was something missing for that beautiful dress it needed some jewels to make it look more glamorous. Knowing that jewels were too expensive for them to buy, he proposed that she should pay a visit to her friend Mme Forestier and ask her to borrow some of her jewels. She went to her friend who did not mind to lend her some jewels to wear in the party; she showed her a box of jewels to choose the pieces that she wants to wear.
After spending few minutes the suitable jewels for her dress, Mme Loisel finally decided on a diamond necklace which she felt that it was perfect choice. Mme Forestier gladly accepted to lend her the diamond necklace; Mme Loisel was very happy and excited about the party having the dress and the suitable necklace for it now. She and her husband went to the party and she had greatly enjoyed her time there; laughing, dancing, drinking and eating, and feeling like the queen of the party. Everybody noticed how beautiful and graceful she was.
They left the party at four am in the morning feeling happy but tired. When she reached home, she took off her dress and to her great shock she discovered that the necklace was not around her neck. She screamed out loudly and she informed her husband who almost passed out from the shock and they started looking for the necklace everywhere but they could not find it. They had finally made up their mind to buy another one for Mme Forestier.
They found in one of the distinguished jewelry shops a very similar necklace to the one they had lost. It was greatly expensive and her husband had to borrow a great amount of money from his friends to buy that necklace so as to give it back to Mme Forestier who was waiting for her old necklace not knowing that Mathilde Loisel had lost her necklace and that she was buying a new one for her.
They bought the new necklace which she had given it to Mme Forestier and they had spent ten years of hard labor and much suffering to pay off their debts to their friends. Mme Loisel had greatly changed in those ten years of suffering and hard work. One day, she accidently came across Mme Forestier who failed to recognize Mathilde. Mathilde informed her that they had bought her a new genuine diamond necklace for her old one which she had lost in the party.
Mme Forestier was greatly shocked and felt too sympathetic towards Mathilde and sadly told her that the lost necklace was not genuine diamond but it was imitation!!!
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