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She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born - as though fate had failed her - into a family of artisans. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of becoming known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Education. Her tastes were simple, because she had never been able to afford any other, but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her. For women have no caste or class; their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth and family. Their natural delicacy, instinctive elegance, and their nimbleness of wit are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land.
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Why does the narrator mention fate? How does fate play a role in one's birth?
What is a dowry? What does it mean for a woman to let herself be married off? This story was published in 1884 about 19th century France. What does this paragraph suggest about how women achieved power? |
Why does the sight of the little Breton girl make the woman feel regret and hopelessness? When the woman imagines life in a more ornate setting, is her fantasy drawn from personal experience? |
She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and faded curtains. All these things, which other women of her class would not even have noticed, tormented and insulted her. The sight of the little Breton girl, who came to do the work in her little house, aroused heartbroken regrets and hopeless dreams in her mind. She imagined quiet antechambers heavy with Oriental tapestries, lit by torches in lofty bronze sockets, with two tall footmen in knee-breeches sleeping in the large armchairs, overcome by the heavy warmth of the stove. She imagined vast saloons hung with antique silks, exquisite pieces of furniture bearing priceless ornaments, and small, charming, perfumed rooms, created just for little parties of intimate friends, men who were famous and sought-after, whose homage roused every other woman's envious longings.
When she sat down for dinner at the round table covered with three-days-old cloth, opposite her husband, who took the cover off the soup tureen, exclaimed delightedly - "Ah! Scotch broth! There's nothing better!" - she imagined delicate meals, gleaming silver, tapestries peopling the walls with folk of a past age, and strange birds in faerie forests. She imagined delicate foods served in marvelous dishes, murmured gallantries, listened to with an inscrutable smile as one trifled with the rosy flesh of trout or wings of asparagus chicken. |
She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the only things she loved. She felt that she was made for them. She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.
She had a rich friend, an old school friend whom she refused to visit, because she suffered so keenly when she returned home. She would weep whole days with grief, regret, despair, and misery. One evening her husband came home with an exultant air, holding a large envelope in his hand. "Here's something for you," he said. Swiftly she broke the seal and drew out a printed card, on which were these words: |
Based on the opening narration, what does she want in life?
Why does she refuse to see her old friend? |
Note the belated introduction of the couple's names. Why does the author exclude names from the opening narration? |
"The Minister of Education and Madame Ramponneau request the pleasure of the company of
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Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she flung the invitation petulantly upon the table, murmuring: "What do you want me to do with this?"
"Why, darling - I thought you'd be pleased. You never go out, and this is a great occasion! I had marvelous trouble to get it. Everyone wants one; it's very select, and very few go to the clerks. You'll see all the really big people there." She looked at him with furious eyes and said impatiently, "And what do you suppose I am to wear at such an affair?" |
Petulantly is a translation of avec depit - literally with spite, wrath, or irritation.
Why is the wife so upset? Why did the husband go to great lengths to obtain an invitation? |
The wife is furious, impatient, violently vexed and aggrieved. Why? |
He hadn't thought about it; he stammered, "Why, the dress you go to the theatre in. It looks very nice ...to me."
He stopped, stupefied and utterly at a loss when he saw that his wife was beginning to cry. Two large tears ran slowly down from the corners of her eyes towards the corners of her mouth. "What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you?" he faltered. But with a violent effort she overcame her grief and replied in a calm voice, wiping her wet cheeks, "Nothing. Only I haven't a dress, and so I can't go to this party. Give your invitation to some friend of yours whose wife will be turned out better than I shall." |
He was heartbroken.
"Look here, Mathilde," he persisted. "Look, what would be the cost of a suitable dress, which you could use on other occasions as well, something... something very simple?" She thought for several seconds, reckoning up prices and also wondering for how large a sum she could ask without bringing upon herself an immediate refusal and an exclamation of horror from the careful-minded clerk. At last she replied with some hesitation, "I don't know exactly, but I think I could do it on four hundred francs." He grew slightly pale, for this was exactly the amount he had been saving for a gun, intending to get a little shooting next summer on the plain of Nanterre with some friends who went lark-shooting there on Sundays. Nevertheless he said, "Very well. I'll give you four hundred francs. But try and get a really nice dress with the money." |
Based on this exchange:
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What was the source of her humiliation?
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The day of the party drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy and anxious. Her dress was ready, however. One evening her husband said to her:
"What's the matter with you? You've been very odd for the last three days." "I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone to wear," she replied. "I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party." "Wear flowers," he said. "Wear flowers! They're very smart at this time of the year. For ten francs you could get two or three gorgeous roses." She was not convinced. "No... there's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the midst of a lot of rich women." "How stupid you are!" exclaimed her husband. "Go and see Madame Forestier and ask her to lend you some jewels. You know her quite well enough for that." She uttered a cry of delight. "That's true. I never thought of it!" |
Next day she went to see her friend and told her her trouble.
Madame Forestier went to her dressing-table, took up a large box, brought it to Madame Loisel, opened it, and said: "Choose, my dear." First she saw some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian cross in gold and gems, of exquisite workmanship. She tried the effect of the jewels before the mirror, hesitating, unable to make up her mind to leave them, to give them up. She kept on asking: "Haven't you anything else?" "Yes. Look for yourself. I don't know what you would like best." Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously. Her hands trembled as she lifted it. She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at the sight of herself. Then, with hesitation, she asked in anguish: "Could you lend me this, just... just this alone?" "Yes, of course!" She flung herself on her friend's breast, embraced her frenziedly, and went away with her treasure. |
Does any part of this exchange seem unusual? |
The narrator declares the woman a success. How so? What did she achieve?
Why does the narrator speak of victory? What or whom did the woman overcome? |
The day of the party arrived. Madame Loisel was a success. She was the prettiest woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling, and quite above herself with happiness. All the men stared at her, inquired her name, and asked to be introduced to her. All the Under-Secretaries of State were eager to waltz with her. The Minister noticed her.
She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart. |
She left about four o'clock in the morning. Since midnight her husband had been dozing in a deserted little room, in company with three other men whose wives were having a good time. He threw over her shoulders the garments he had brought for them to go home in, modest everyday clothes, whose poorness clashed with the beauty of the ballgown. She was conscious of this and was anxious to hurry away, so that she should not be noticed by the other women putting on their costly furs.
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How does the wife relate to other women at the ball?
In contrast, how does she relate to the men? |
Why personify the carriage? What effect was the author aiming for? Why was it the end for her? Did he feel the same? |
Loisel restrained her.
"Wait a little! You'll catch cold in the open. I'm going to fetch a cab." But she did not listen to him and rapidly descended the staircase. When they were out in the street, they could not find a cab. They began to look for one, shouting at the drivers whom they saw passing in the distance. They walked down towards the Seine, desperate and shivering. At last they found on the quay one of those old night-prowling carriages which are only to be seen in Paris after dark, as though they were ashamed of their shabbiness in the daylight. It brought them to their door in Rue des Martyrs, and sadly they walked up to their own apartment. It was the end for her. As for him, he was thinking that he must be at the office at ten. |
She took off the garments in which she had wrapped her shoulders, so as to set herself in all her glory before the mirror. But suddenly she uttered a cry. The necklace was no longer around her neck!
"What's the matter with you?" asked her husband, already half undressed. She turned towards him in the utmost distress. "I... I've no longer got Madame Forestier's necklace!" He stared with astonishment. "What?!... Impossible!" They searched in the folds of her dress, in the folds of the coat, in the pockets, everywhere. They could not find it. |
"Are you sure that you still had it on when you came away from the ball?" he asked.
"Yes, I touched it in the hall at the Ministry." "But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it fall!" "Yes. Probably we should. Did you take the number of the cab?" "No. You didn't notice it, did you?" "No." They stared at one another, dumbfounded. At last Loisel put on his clothes again. "I'll go over all the ground we walked," he said, "and see if I can find it." And he went out. She remained in her evening clothes, lacking strength to get into bed, huddled on a chair, without volition or power of thought. |
Based on the description, this lack of volition was out of character for her. What then was her typical ambition? |
How would you describe the couple's interactions under stress? |
Her husband returned about seven. He had found nothing.
He went to the police station, to the newspapers, to offer a reward to the cab companies, everywhere that a ray of hope impelled him. She waited all day long, in the same state of bewilderment at this fearful catastrophe. Loisel came home at night, his face lined and pale; he had discovered nothing. "You must write to your friend," he said, "and tell her that you've broken the clasp of her necklace and are getting it mended. That will give us time to look about us." She wrote at his dictation. By the end of a week they had lost all hope. Loisel, who had aged five years, declared, "We must see about replacing the diamonds." |
Next day they took the box which had held the necklace and went to the jewelers whose name was inside. He consulted his books.
"It was not I who sold this necklace, Madame; I must have merely supplied the clasp." Then they went from jeweler to jeweler, searching for another necklace like the first, consulting their memories, both ill with remorse and anguish of mind. In a shop at the Palais-Royal, they found a string of diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the one they were looking for. It was worth forty thousand francs. They were allowed to have it for thirty-six thousand. They begged the jeweler not to sell it for three days. And they arranged matters on the understanding that it would be taken back for thirty-four thousand francs, if the first one were found before the end of February. |
Why might a notable jeweler furnish the box but not the jewels? |
Based on context, what is the meaning of usurers?
Likewise, what is the meaning of privation? Did the couple choose the best course of action? What other choices were open to them? Why were alternatives not chosen? |
Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs left to him by his father. He intended to borrow the rest.
He did borrow it, getting a thousand from one man, five hundred from another, five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes of hand, entered into ruinous agreements, did business with usurers and the whole race of money-lenders. He mortgaged the whole remaining years of his existence, risked his signature without even knowing if he could honor it, and, appalled at the agonizing face of the future, at the black misery about to fall upon him, at the prospect of every possible physical privation and mortal torture, he went to get the new necklace and put down upon the jeweler's counter thirty-six thousand francs. When Madame Loisel took back the necklace to Madame Forestier, the latter said to her in a chilly voice, "You ought to have brought it back sooner; I might have needed it." She did not, as her friend had feared, open the case. If she had noticed the substitution, what would she have thought? What would she have said? Would she not have taken her for a thief? |
Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households. Her hair was badly done, her skirts were awry, her hands were red. She spoke in a shrill voice, and the water slopped all over the floor when she scrubbed it. But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.
What would have happened if she had never lost those jewels? Who knows? Who knows? How strange life is, how fickle! How little is needed to ruin, or to save! |
Who was reflecting here: the character or the narrator? |
What does the friend's initial shock upon the woman's approach suggest about expected interactions between members of different social classes in 19th century France?
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She went up to her.
"Good morning, Jeanne." The other did not recognize her, and was surprised at being thus familiarly addressed by a poor woman. "But... But, Madame..." she stammered. "I... I don't know you... you must be making a mistake." "No... I am Mathilde Loisel." Her friend uttered a cry. "Oh!... My poor Mathilde, how you have changed!..." |
"Yes, I've had some hard times since I saw you last; and many sorrows... and all on your account."
"On my account!... How was that?" "You remember the diamond necklace you lent me for the ball at the Ministry?" "Yes. Well?" "Well, I lost it." "How could you? Why, you brought it back." "I brought you back another one just like it. And for the last ten years we have been paying for it. You realize it wasn't easy for us; we had no money. ...Well, it's paid for at last, and I'm glad indeed." Madame Forestier had halted. "You say you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine?" "Yes. You hadn't noticed it? They were very much alike." And she smiled in proud and innocent happiness. Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her two hands. "Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most only five hundred francs!" |
Is the wife blaming the friend for her years of destitution?
Why does the wife feel proud and joyous? On what other occasions has she felt such emotions? Did the wife have an eye for genuine fine jewelry? How might the story have continued? |
Infer (rotate)
2. Was the lady content with her life before the necklace? How do you know? 3. How did the lady react to news of her chance to attend the ministerial ball? What does this reveal about her values and priorities? 4. Why had the husband been saving 400 francs? What does this reveal about his values and financial habits? 5. Was the lady able to enjoy the ball after all? Why was she anxious to leave quickly? What was her chief concern? 6. What was the friend's reaction when the necklace was finally returned? What was her chief concern? |
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Create (choose one)
12. Consider this story from a feminist perspective. What does it say about women? Could you write a different story that says the same thing about men? Create an alternate ending or a related story that alters the principles or points-of-view that this story illustrates. Write as if you were contributing to a short story cycle, with "a tension created between the ideas of the individual stories... highlighting the conflict between two opposing concepts or thoughts... [with] an awareness of what the other stories accomplish." |