The Necklace: The Necklace Summary and Tragedy with Matilda Character.
The Necklace is a short story written by Guy De Maupassant. This summary is written from the view of tragic aspects of life and how chance rules our lives.
Let us discuss the “The Necklace Summary and Tragedy: This ironic story reveals how little errors, combined with chance, make human life a tragedy. Matilda, a beautiful youthful wife, is proud, vain and unrealistic lady. Her eyes reflect dreams of pomp and show off which never came true. Being a wife of a clerk, she could not enjoy luxury which she was extremely desirous of. Luckily, her husband is caring and does his best to console her.
He wanted to divert her attention from the boring household chores his wife was unhappy with. In one such effort, her husband brought an invitation for a ball at a minister’s residence. She refused to go because she had no “nice dress”. She had other excuses for jewellery too. Her husband spent all his saving and bought her a nicer dress. But Matilda was still unhappy. When asked, she revealed the reason of her gloom. She wanted to wear jewellery and she had none.
Her husband allowed her to borrow a necklace from her friend, Mrs. Loisel. However, our poor Matilda was never aware of the fact that the jewellery of Mrs. Loisel was artificial. She went to the party and enjoyed it. She appeared like a princess. Everyone praised her. Matilda’s joys were boundless. She thought it was the happiest day of her life but who knew that chance would intervene and prey upon Matilda’s fatal error. Soon the party was over and it was really over for Matilda and her husband.
Unfortunately, she lost the necklace. They searched it everywhere. They looked for it in the party hall. Both of them searched all carriage she came home in. They wandered on the road all night to look for the lost necklace but it was not to be found. Matilda had no option but to return the necklace but how the thing was to take place. They went to market and got estimate of a similar necklace.
Then they borrowed money to buy a gold necklace for the artificial one they had lost. Though they managed to return the necklace to the friend of Matilda but it took them ten years to repay. During this time, they led a life of pain, misery and drudgery. Matilda became coarse. She lost all her beauty; she lost the gold of her complexion for the gold necklace she paid to her friend.
The irony of fate mocked her when she met Mrs. Loisel. Poor Matilda was told that the necklace she lost was artificial. This was the most horrific of facts of her tragic life when they came to know that the necklace was artificial! The story does bear the moral that an artificial life often makes you pay!