Lesson 4:
“The Necklace”
by Guy de Maupassant
Learning Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the learners are expected to:
• Read and analyze the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant;
• Summarize the short story using a Story Map;
• Identify the importance of summarizing; and
• Explain the value of contentment.
Lesson Essential Questions
1. Are the elements of a short story present in the selection, “The
Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant?
2. How do these elements help you understand the short story better?
3. How does unlocking of difficult terms help you to understand the
text in a meaningful way?
4. What is the importance of summarizing?
5. What are the ways to summarize texts?
Does money provide
happiness?
Are material possessions
necessary for complete
happiness?
What factors determine a
person’s place (class) in
society?
Do you think it’s
important to consider a
person’s social class when
considering marriage?
artisan
aghast
inscrutable
stupefied
francs
bewilderment
frock
coquettish
frock
___________1. It is a woman's or girl's dress.
francs
___________2.
The standard unit of money used in France.
aghast
___________3.
Filled with horror or shock.
bewilderment
___________4. It is a feeling of being perplexed and confused.
stupefied
___________5.
To make (someone) unable to think or feel properly.
inscrutable Impossible to understand or interpret.
___________6.
artisan
___________7.
A person who does skilled works with hands.
coquettish
___________8.
Behaving in such a way as to suggest a playful sexual attraction; flirtatious.
Guy de Maupassant
(1850–1893)
French Author
About the Author
He is considered by many to be the greatest French short
story writer. He created his characters with remarkable
precision, focusing on the exact gesture, feeling, or word that
defined each character. As a result, his stories seem to be, in
his words, “pieces of human existence torn from reality.”
Although Maupassant was born into an upper-middle-class
family in France, the family fortune ran out early. He was forced to
work for a time as a government clerk, the position that the main
character’s husband holds in “The Necklace.” Eventually, though,
Maupassant turned to writing and managed to achieve some wealth
and fame through his hundreds of stories. Sadly, his success was
short-lived. After suffering from mental illness, Maupassant died in
a Paris asylum at age 42.
Background of the Story
This story takes place in Paris in the second half of the
19th century. At the time Maupassant wrote “The
Necklace,” European societies were divided into upper,
middle, and lower classes. Birth usually determined a
person’s class. Sometimes a man could buy his way into a
higher class by acquiring wealth. A woman could improve
her status by marrying into a higher class. One obstacle
for women was the tradition of the dowry— money or
property that a bride’s family was expected to give her
new husband, but that poorer families could not provide.
“The Necklace”
by Guy de Maupassant
Elements of a Short Story:
SETTING
CHARACTER
CONFLICT
PLOT
MORAL
POINT OF VIEW
THEME
Review and React!
1.
2.
3.
4.
At the beginning of the story, why is Madame Loisel unhappy with her life?
Why does Mathilde envy the social class and wealth of others?
What is the theme of “The Necklace”?
Do you feel sorry for Mathilde Loisel at the end of the story? Explain. Do you feel
sorry for Monsieur Loisel at the end of the story? Explain.
5. Mark Twain once said, “Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a
symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the
moment”. What does it mean?
“Jealousy is an inner consciousness
of one’s own inferiority. It is a
mental cancer.”
“Happiness is not about collecting material
things or beautiful memories. It’s about
having a deep feeling of contentment and
knowing that life is a blessing.
Summarizing
Summarizing
❑ It is reducing a long text into a shorter version that still
contains the most important points of the text.
❑ It is a useful study technique and reading skill.
❑ It will help you focus on the main point of the article.
Summarizing is usually needed in some types of writing
and academic papers.
❑ It is necessary when integrating gathered information in
a research paper. It is also important in an
argumentative essay when you include research findings
that strengthen your thesis.
What is a summary?
❑ A summary offers a condensed but still accurate sense of
the original text.
❑ It is a restatement of the author’s thesis statement or
attitude, purpose, and main point in your own words.
❑ This means that you briefly rewrite in your own words
the most essential information of a paragraph or a
passage.
❑ These essential details are important for clarifying or
proving the main idea. In this sense, a summary is usually
shorter in length than the original text.
❑ For instance, a paragraph can be summarized into a
sentence or two while a novel can be summarized in a
page or two.
Why is summarizing important?
❑ It is because summarizing requires you to focus on the
essential points of the writer, mastering this study
technique and reading tool would enable you to
understand the original text more comprehensively.
❑ You will be able to look for points that support your
argument, identify elements that can be analyzed,
discriminate items when writing a critique, and
incorporate other researches into your own.
❑ For these reasons, summarizing is an advantage when
completing and writing academic requirements.
How to summarize?
1. Read the entire text and then identify the
major point or the topic sentence or thesis
statement.
2.Take note of the most important points which
prove or clarify the topic sentence or the thesis
statement.
3.Restate or repeat original ideas included in the
source in your own words and phrases
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