The Literature Component

We shall start with the short stories this week. Due to time and space constraints, I could only discuss two stories. Read the short stories again before attempting to answer these questions. I have provided the suggested answers at the end of this article.

THE NECKLACE by Guy de Maupassant

Synopsis
Mathilde is married to M. Loisel, a clerk. She is discontented with her life and yearns for a fancy life among the rich and famous. One day, her husband brings home an invitation to a ball. She is unhappy because she has nothing proper to wear. Her husband gives her money for a gown but she is still unhappy as she has no jewellery. She borrows a diamond necklace from her friend, Madame Forestier. At the ball, she is a great success. However, when she gets home, she realises she has lost the necklace. Loisel searches everywhere but cannot find it. They replace the necklace and spend the next ten years to settle their debts. Mathilde turns into a coarse, common woman. One day, she meets up with Madame Forestier and tells her the truth. To her dismay, she discovers that the necklace that she had borrowed was only an imitation.



1. Read the extracts from the short story The Necklace and answer the questions that follow.

She was one of those pretty and charming young girls who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved and wedded by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.


a. What was Mathilde like when she was young? (1m)
b. What does the phrase ‘..so, she let herself be married to a little clerk..’ suggest about Mathilde’s marriage? (2m)
c. Do you think Mathilde made the right decision about marrying someone from the same social class? Give a reason for your answer. (2m)


2.
Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries. She was distressed at the poverty of her dwelling, at the bareness of the walls, at the shabby chairs, the ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another woman of her rank would not even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry. The sight of the little peasant who did her humble housework aroused in her despairing regrets and bewildering dreams. She thought of silent antechambers hung with Oriental tapestry, illumined by tall bronze candelabra, and of two great footmen in knee breeches who sleep in big armchairs, made drowsy by the oppressive heat of the stove. She thought of long reception halls hung with ancient silk, of the dainty cabinets containing priceless curiosities of little coquettish perfumed reception rooms made for chatting at five o’clock with intimate friends, with men famous and sought after, whom all women envy and whose attention they all desire.


a. Why did Mathilde suffer ceaselessly? (1m)

b. Give two pieces of evidence from this extract that suggests that Mathilde was discontented and unhappy with her life? (2m)

c. Do you think Mathilde was right to feel discontented with her life? Give a reason for your answer.


3.“Yes, I have had a very hard life, since I last saw you and great poverty – and that because of you!”
“Of me! How so?”
“Do you remember that diamond necklace you lent me to wear at the ministerial ball?”
“Yes. Well?”
“Well, I lost it.”
“What do you mean? You brought it back.”
“I brought you back another exactly like it. And it has taken us ten years to pay for it. You can understand that it was not easy for us, for us who had nothing. At last, it is ended and I am very glad.”
Madame Forestier had stopped.
“You say that you bought a necklace of diamonds to replace mine?”
“Yes. You never noticed it, then! They were very similar.”


a. What happened to Mathilde to cause her great poverty?
b. What happened at the end of the story?
c. What do you think is the message of this story?


Answer:
1.a. She was pretty and charming.
b. She forced herself to marry someone from her social class.
c. Yes, because she has no dowry or any title to attract a better offer.

2.a. She felt that she was born to enjoy all the fine things in life.
b. She was distressed at the poverty of her dwellings and she longed for long reception halls hung with ancient silk, and other priceless items.
c. I think she should feel contented with her life as she has a loving husband and even a servant to do her chores.

3a. She lost a necklace which she had borrowed and she had replaced it.
b. She found out that the necklace which she had borrowed was made of paste.
c. One should be contented with one’s life./ If we focus too much on appearances, we may not see the truth of a matter.