This beautiful story The Necklace from class 10th book footprints without feet is based on morality and revolves around a pretty charming lady Matilda. She remains unsatisfied with her standard of living as she always desires a rich husband and a luxurious lifestyle. As her family could not give gifts and dowry at her wedding, she was married to a clerk.
One day, Matilda and her husband were invited to a party at a minister’s house. Matilda cried as she was not having a pretty dress and jewelry to wear at the minister’s party. Her husband suggested she buy a beautiful dress and borrow jewelry from an old friend of hers. She manages to get the piece of jewelry from her friend and goes to the party.
The Necklace: Author’s Introduction
This chapter The Necklace is written by Henry Rene Albert Guy Maupassant, who was remembered as the master of the short stories. He very beautifully depicted the natural human lives in very pessimistic ways to instill the concept of morality. He was a French writer and has written more than 250 short stories, three travel books, and one volume of verse.
The Necklace: Summary
The protagonist of the story Madame Loisel lived in an apartment with her clerk husband and remains unhappy with her life. She was unhappy with the outlook of her house and the old furniture. She was also not satisfied with the reaction of her husband to homecooked food. She always dreamt of royal dinners served in silver dishes.
They belong to middle-class families and Matilda had to marry a clerk because her family could not arrange dowry. She also never likes to visit her old friend Madamme Frostier as she was rich. One day, when her husband comes home, he showed an invitation to Matilda. There was a party at the minister’s house. He was expecting that she would jump out of joy. But on the other hand, Matilda cried.
She threw that invitation card away. She was unhappy as she did not have anything lavish to wear at the party. Her husband was saving money to buy a gun for hunting with his friends. He at once gave that 400 francs to her to buy a dress. But after buying a dress she was unhappy as she did not have a nice of jewelry to wear.
At her husband’s suggestion, she borrowed the jewelry from her old friend Madame Frostier. Now she is all set to look attractive and appealing at the party. At the minister’s party, all the men admired her as she was looking very pretty and charming. They returned at 4 early mornings. Finally, they decided to leave and couldn’t find a carriage to go. After walking to a distance they find a carriage that dropped them at their doors.
Suddenly, Matilda realized she did not have the necklace. Her husband went to look for her near the railway tracks. Madame Loisel also went to the police station and gave an advertisement for the necklace. Meanwhile, she suggested her wife tell her friend that the clasp of the necklace has got broken and they had given it for repair.
When the necklace could not be found, they decided to replace it with the similar one. They found a similar necklace worth 36000 Francs at a jewelry shop and decided to replace the lost one. Out of 36000 francs, the husband got 18000 Francs from his father and the rest of the money he borrowed.
To pay off the debt of 36000 francs, took 10 years and their life was completely changed now. Now, Matilda has to do all the household chores by herself. They remove the maid and shifted to a smaller apartment. Even her husband has to do various jobs to meet the needs and pay off the debt.
One day she met her friend and told the whole story of how she took the necklace and how she lost it and now they are repenting for the loss. On hearing her story, her friend told that the necklace just cost 500 francs as it was artificial jewelry.
The Necklace: NCERT Solutions
Q1. What kind of a person is Mme Loisel and why is she always unhappy?
Madame Loisel is a beautiful girl born into a family of clerks. She is simple but always unhappy. Her unhappiness is because of her desire to afford the world’s riches and be adorned by the same. She is unhappy with her lifestyle and keeps daydreaming of the finest days of luxury.
Q2. What kind of a person is her husband?
Her husband is the pretty contented clerk who works in the office of the board of education. He is a simple man who loves and cares about his wife. He tries to keep her happy as possible. He is economical with not many desires in life but faces problems because of his wife’s unreal desires.
Q3. What fresh problems now disturb Mme Loisel?
Mr. Loisel got an invitation from the ministry to attend an evening at the Minister’s residence. Mme Loisel was perturbed by the fact that she didn’t have a new and proper dress to wear. She wanted to wear a pretty, luxurious dress so that she can impress everyone at the ball. She was also disturbed because she didn’t have any jewelry to adorn.
Q4. The course of Loisel’s life changed due to the necklace. Comment.
The latter half of the story makes it evident that the course of Loisel’s life changed due to the necklace. They were unable to find the lost necklace anywhere so they decided to purchase a similar one for Madamme Frostier. However, the necklace cost them 36000 francs and they had only 18000 francs. The rest of the amount they borrowed. To pay the borrowed amount, they have to cut their expenses, remove the maid, and shift to a smaller apartment. Madame Loisel washed the dishes, soiled linen, and their clothes. Poverty and the changed lifestyle made her a crude woman. Her beauty faded away and age took over her looks.
Q5. What was the cause of Matilda’s ruin? How could she have avoided it?
The cause of Matilda’s misery was her greed for a luxurious lifestyle. She was never contented with what she had. She was a daydreamer and never behaved like a mature woman. Despite her economic status, she dreamt of new dresses, jewelry, fine crockery, and linens she was unable to accept her husband’s economic conditions and was always upset with her life.
The entire mess could have been avoided had she listened to her husband. He had advised her to adorn natural flowers as jewelry.
Conclusion
We have shared the summary of The Necklace from class 10th book footprints without feet along with the author’s bio and ncert solutions to help the students. the chapter is based on the morality of the individual and also teaches us to be happy with what we have in our life. it is not like we should not dream of becoming or achieving big in our life but the dreams should not eat away our real
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