''The Necklace'' by Guy de Maupassant

Contributor: Suzanne Riordan. Lesson ID: 13982

Meet a lady who longed for fancy clothes and a life of luxury, and see how a mistake turned her life completely around. You'll also learn to distinguish between stated facts and inferences in a text.

1To2Hour
categories

Comprehension, English / Language Arts

subject
English / Language Arts
learning style
Auditory, Visual
personality style
Beaver, Golden Retriever
Grade Level
Middle School (6-8)
Lesson Type
Dig Deeper

Lesson Plan - Get It!

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  • Can you tell the difference between real and fake diamonds?

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  • It's hard to tell the difference, isn't it?

Diamonds play an important role in Guy de Maupassant's short story "The Necklace."

It's about a woman who longs for the finer things in life. She borrows a gorgeous necklace from a rich friend and goes to a fancy dress ball. But something happens afterward that turns her life upside down.

Before reading the story, review some of the ways that authors communicate their ideas to their readers.

In every piece of literature, there are both explicit ideas and inferences.

  • What is an explicit idea, and what is an inference?

An explicit idea is something that the author states clearly.

An inference is something the author wants you to figure out for yourself.

Read the following passage and think about the explicit ideas and inferences in it.

farmer looking at sunrise

Jeremy woke up early before the alarm clock rang. The old rooster was letting him know it was time to get up and finish his chores. He pulled on his overalls and walked outside. As he watched the sun beginning to rise, he thought about all he needed to do that day. So much work, every day, with no one to help him!

He knew he only had himself to blame, of course. He could have married Sophie years ago. Then he would have had a wife, probably sons and daughters, to fill his empty home. But he had found it hard to forgive her at first and was too proud to go to her afterward. He had regretted it for years, but what could he do now? He could still see the scene in his mind: Sophie was laughing as his brother Tom had mocked Jeremy's stuttering speech. She didn't mean to hurt him. She was laughing at Tom's ability to imitate others so perfectly. And now, after all these years, Jeremy realized what a fool he had been. But, he said to himself: "Better late than never!"


Think about what is stated explicitly in the passage.

  1. Jeremy woke up early and thought about all he had to do that day.
  1. Jeremy could have married Sophie.
  1. Jeremy was hurt when Sophie laughed as his brother imitated him.
  1. Jeremy now realizes he acted foolishly.

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Notice that the explicit ideas are the things that are clearly stated in the passage, while the inferences are assumptions we can make from the facts we are given.

In this lesson, you will read a short story called "The Necklace," broken into three segments.

Read the first segment now.

Get a piece of paper and, while you're reading, write down three explicit ideas the author shares.

Also, write down two inferences that you can make from the passage.

"The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant

The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures 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, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.

She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth. Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant, a supple mind are their sole hierarchy, and often make of women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.

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 never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry. The sight of the little Breton 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 the 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 and of the 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.

When she sat down to dinner, before the round table covered with a tablecloth in use three days, opposite her husband, who uncovered the soup tureen and declared with a delighted air, "Ah, the good soup! I don't know anything better than that," she thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestry that peopled the walls with ancient personages and with strange birds flying in the midst of a fairy forest; and she thought of delicious dishes served on marvelous plates and of the whispered gallantries to which you listen with a sphinxlike smile while you are eating the pink meat of a trout or the wings of a quail.

She had no gowns, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that. She felt made for that. She would have liked so much to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after.

She had a friend, a former schoolmate at the convent, who was rich, and whom she did not like to go to see any more because she felt so sad when she came home.

But one evening her husband reached home with a triumphant air and holding a large envelope in his hand.

"There," said he, "there is something for you."

She tore the paper quickly and drew out a printed card which bore these words:

The Minister of Public Instruction and Madame Georges Ramponneau request the honor of M. and Madame Loisel's company at the palace of the Ministry on Monday evening, January 18th.

Instead of being delighted, as her husband had hoped, she threw the invitation on the table crossly, muttering:

"What do you wish me to do with that?"

"Why, my dear, I thought you would be glad. You never go out, and this is such a fine opportunity. I had great trouble to get it. Everyone wants to go; it is very select, and they are not giving many invitations to clerks. The whole official world will be there."

She looked at him with an irritated glance and said impatiently,"And what do you wish me to put on my back?"

He had not thought of that. He stammered, "Why, the gown you go to the theatre in. It looks very well to me."

He stopped, distracted, seeing that his wife was weeping. Two great tears ran slowly from the corners of her eyes toward the corners of her mouth.

"What's the matter? What's the matter?" he asked.

By a violent effort she conquered her grief and replied in a calm voice, while she wiped her wet cheeks, "Nothing. Only I have no gown, and, therefore, I can't go to this ball. Give your card to some colleague whose wife is better equipped than I am."

He was in despair. He resumed: "Come, let us see, Mathilde. How much would it cost, a suitable gown, which you could use on other occasions--something very simple?"

She reflected several seconds, making her calculations and wondering also what sum she could ask without drawing on herself an immediate refusal and a frightened exclamation from the economical clerk.

Finally she replied, hesitating, "I don't know exactly, but I think I could manage it with four hundred francs."

He grew a little pale, because he was laying aside just that amount to buy a gun and treat himself to a little shooting next summer on the plain of Nanterre, with several friends who went to shoot larks there of a Sunday.

But he said, "Very well. I will give you four hundred francs. And try to have a pretty gown."

woman in a ball gown watercolor


  • Did you write down the explicit ideas and inferences you found?

Move to the Got It? section to read more about "The Necklace" and to practice identifying explicit ideas and inferences.

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