Chapter 7 The Necklace

Answer:

Mme Loisel was a pretty
young lady born in a family of clerks. She felt that she was born for
all the delicacies and luxuries. Instead, she had to live a simple
and economical life. She completely disliked her circumstances. This
made her angry and unhappy.

Answer:

Her husband was a clerk
in the office of the Board of Education. Unlike Mme Loisel, he was
content with his life. While Mme Loisel used to suffer thinking about
luxuries and delicacies, he could derive great sense of satisfaction
even from a humble ‘potpie’. He was also a loving
husband, as is seen from his behavior towards his wife. He readily
parted with the four hundred francs that he had saved to buy a gun,
so that Mme Loisel would be able to wear a nice dress to the
Minister’s ball. This shows that his wife’s happiness was
more important to him.

Answer:

After buying a pretty
dress, Mme Loisel was bothered by yet another problem. She had no
jewel to adorn herself with. She said she would have a
poverty-stricken look. Her husband suggested that she should wear
some natural flowers. However, she refused and said that there was
nothing more humiliating than to have a shabby air in the midst of
rich women.

Answer:

Mme Loisel’s
husband solved this problem. He told his wife to request her friend,
Mme Forestier to lend her some jewels. When she went to Mme
Forestier, the latter brought a jewel case, so that Mme Loisel could
choose whichever jewels she liked.

Answer:

When M. and Mme Loisel
realized that the necklace was missing, they tried finding out where
she could have lost it. They concluded that it could have been
dropped in the cab. They did not know its number. Therefore, Loisel
went over the track where they had walked. When he found nothing, he
went to the police and to the cab offices. He even put an
advertisement in the newspapers, offering a reward. He then asked
Matilda to write a letter to Mme Forestier, explaining that she had
broken the clasp of the necklace and would get it repaired. This gave
them time to find the necklace. However, they eventually decided to
replace the necklace with a new one.

Answer:

Loisel asked Matilda to
write a letter to Mme Forestier, explaining that she had broken the
clasp of the necklace and would get it repaired. They found a chaplet
of diamonds in a shop of the Palais-Royal. This necklace seemed to be
exactly like the one that had been lost. They could buy it for
thirty-six thousand francs. Loisel had eighteen thousand francs,
which his father had left him. He borrowed the rest from various
sources. Finally, he bought the necklace and gave it to Matilda for
her to take it back to Mme Forestier.

Answer:

The course of the
Loisel’s life changed due to the necklace. After replacing the
lost necklace with a new one, they had to replay all the money that
they had borrowed to buy the new necklace. They sent away the maid
and changed their lodgings. They rented some rooms in an attic.
Matilda learnt the odious work of a kitchen. She washed the dishes,
soiled linen, their clothes and dishcloths. She took down the refuse
to the street each morning and brought up the water, stopping at each
landing to catch her breath. She went to the grocer’s, the
butcher’s, and the fruiter’s, with her basket on her arm,
shopping, haggling to save her money. Loisel worked in the evenings,
putting the books of some merchants in order. At night, he did
copying at five sous a page. This lasted for ten years, and at the
end of the said period, they were able to repay their lenders.

Answer:

The
cause of Matilda’s ruin was her dissatisfaction with whatever
life offered her. She was always unhappy. She felt that she was born
for all the delicacies and luxuries. She disliked her circumstances.

She
could have avoided the ruin by being content with what she had.

Answer:

If Matilda would have
confessed to her friend that she had lost her necklace, she might
have been in lesser trouble than what she faced after having replaced
the necklace. Her friend would definitely have been angry with her.
Most probably, she would have asked Matilda to replace it. She would
have given her the details from where she had bought the necklace and
how much it had cost her. Matilda would thus have known that the
jewels in the necklace were not real diamonds. It would have cost her
a far lesser amount to replace it. Matilda would thus have saved
herself and her husband all the trouble they went through.

Answer:

This question requires you to use your own perspective as well as your analytical skills. The answer to the question would vary from one person to another. It is suggested that you read the text carefully and try attempting it on your own.