Wednesday, April 29, 2009

9A Homework

In your notes, please copy down the rest of The Necklace's summary and the answers to the comprehension questions. I have posted these in the comments section of the post.

You must also read pages 79-95 of The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by next Friday.
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Miss Jones said...

Summary


Madame Loisel, a young woman, was pretty but born into a family that didn’t have much money. She wanted expensive things that she couldn’t really afford, and in general, she wasn’t content with her life. She wanted these things because she wanted praise and admiration from those around her—she wanted them to admire her for her beauty and possessions. She was married to an office worker who worked at the Ministry of Finance—he did not make very much money, so she wasn’t happy with their quality of life. She thought it was too simple.
One day, her husband brought her an invitation which was for a ball. He thought that she would be happy about this, but she cried because she didn’t think that she had anything beautiful or appropriate enough for an event like a ball. So her husband gave her 400 francs that he had been saving for himself so that she could purchase a new dress for the ball. As the day of the ball came near, even though Madame Loisel had her new dress, she felt sad and anxious since she didn’t have any pretty jewelry to wear to the ball. Her husband suggested that she borrow her friend Madame Forestier’s jewels. She goes to Madame Forestier’s house and borrows a lovely diamond necklace. At the ball, she was the most beautiful woman there. She danced the night away and then returned home. She then noticed that her necklace was missing! She searched frantically for it with her husband, but they couldn’t find it, so her husband told her that she should write a letter to Madame Forestier and say that the necklace broke and they want to have it repaired before they return it to her.
Then the Loisels went to see a jeweler to find another necklace to replace the one they lost. They found a similar necklace but it was VERY expensive. They had to pay 34,000 francs for the new necklace and had to borrow 18,000 of those francs from other people. They then returned this new necklace to Madame Forestier. Then, for ten years, both Monsieur and Madame Loisel had to work extremely hard to pay back the money they had borrowed. They also had to move into a cheaper house in order to survive. By the time they had paid off all the money, Madame Loisel had become rough, hard, and didn’t care about her appearance any longer because all her hard toil had broken her. One day, Madame Loisel happened to see Madame Forestier, who didn’t recognize her because of how much she had changed. Madame Loisel, still bitter, blamed Madame Forestier for all her years of suffering as she worked to pay off the debt. Madame Forestier was shocked to hear this and then tells her that the original necklace was not made of real diamonds but an imitation worth only 500 francs.


Comprehension Questions

1. How did Madame Loisel’s pride lead to disaster?

Because Madame Loisel was proud, she did not want to look poor compared to the other ladies. This led her to want to wear fine jewelry instead of flowers when it was time to go out. This leads her to borrow the necklace that causes her downfall. Furthermore, her pride caused financial difficulties because she made her husband spend more money than they had AND most importantly, because she was proud, she didn’t want to admit she lost the necklace, and instead worked until she could replace it.

2. Why did the Loisels lie to Madame Forestier about the necklace? What would have happened if they had honestly admitted that the necklace was lost?

They lied because they needed time to find the necklace and they were hoping they would find it. If they had told the truth, Madame Forestier would probably have told them the necklace was cheap and they would not have spent ten years working like slaves to buy a new necklace.

3. How did Madame Loisel change both mentally and physically during the years that she worked to pay off the debt? Do you think she changed for the better or worse?

As part of the working class poor, Madame Loisel was forced to adjust her perspective on life— what had seemed like poverty before she lost the necklace would have seemed like riches after she began working to pay off the necklace. She became rough, loud, and didn’t care about the way she looked. In some ways, she changed for the better—specifically she had to learn to be content with what she had and had to learn about what true wealth and poverty is. In physical and economic ways, she became worse.

4. Did she ever accept full responsibility for the misfortune that occurred? Explain.

No, she didn’t. She put the blame for the years of struggle on Madame Forestier. She always saw herself as a victim.

5. Explain the story’s surprise ending. What hints had the author previously given regarding the authenticity of the necklace?

The story’s ending is a surprise because the Loisels had struggled for ten years to replace a necklace that had hardly any value. Some hints that suggest the necklace was fake are that it was kept separate from other jewelry and that it was not the work of the jeweler whose box the necklace was in. One other hint could be that even though Madame Forestier made a snide remark on the late return of the necklace, she had not demanded that it be returned quickly. If it was worth a lot of money, she would have wanted it to be given back to her quickly and she might not have even lent it in the first place.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

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