STORY: THE DIAMOND NECKLACE

The Diamond Necklace

The Diamond Necklace

Introduction

"The Diamond Necklace" is a story of the French bourgeoisie couple of the nineteenth century, a gentleman Monsieur Loisel and her wife Madame Loisel. She is not happy with his middle-class circumstances, and is secretly upset by not having the materialistic luxuries of life. She spends much of her time in the dreaming about rich luxury life and attending high class society gatherings. Mr. Loisel is a clerk in the Ministry of Education. He manages to get an invitation to a dance party of the ministry official. Madame Loisel is distraught because she has no jewelry and appropriate dress for party. The clerk sacrifices his savings to buy her a dress, and she borrows a beautiful diamond necklace from her old friend, Madame Jeanne Forestier.

Q1. How does losing the Diamond Necklace change Loisel and Mathilde's relationship? Using evidence from the text, compare and contrast the way they interact with each other before and after the loss of the necklace.

The relationship between Mr. Loisel and his wife Mathilde Loisel changed greatly after the loss of the diamond necklace borrowed by her friend Madame Forestier to wear in the ball party. Mathilde Loisel is not happy with his middle-class conditions, and is felt insulted by not having the material luxuries of life. She always hates her lifestyles, the home and the belongings. She is never satisfied with what she have and instead of thanking God and his husband for the simple peaceful life she always act rude with him. On the other hand, Mr. Loisel is totally satisfied with his lifestyle. He seems to be a very passive person, who does not let status or materialistic possessions affect him. Of course, if he had the chance to be rich he would, but he does not dwell on the fact that he is part of the middle class.  In addition to this, he is a very caring and loving husband. He works hard to keep her wife happy. He has provided her a furnished apartment, better food and a servant too but his wife is too blind to see his struggles.

With great efforts, he was able to get invitation card for the ball party at palace of ministry. But the attitude of his wife was not as he expected. With tears on her cheeks, she told her that she has not good clothes to wear on the evening. Mr. Loisel manages to give her 400 francs to buy new gown sacrificing his plan to buy a gun and going to shooting with friends, but still in the state of deprived, she cried for jewelry, which she borrowed from her friend later. She enjoyed very much dancing with rich men at the ball while his husband waited sleeping in the room for hours. Then he also showed care for her by putting wrap on his shoulder but she responded with very discourteous attitude and hurried away from ...