Class 10 English Footprints without Feet Chapter 7, The Necklace by French short-story master Guy de Maupassant, is the classic tale of Matilda Loisel, a pretty young woman married to a petty clerk in the Board of Education whose discontent with her modest life and desire to shine at the Minister’s ball with a borrowed diamond necklace cost her and her husband ten years of grinding poverty—followed by a devastating twist ending.
What Class 10 English (Footprints without Feet) Chapter 7 Covers
Story Summary: The Necklace (Guy de Maupassant) Matilda Loisel, born into a family of clerks with no dowry, marries a kind, devoted petty clerk in the Board of Education (who delights in simple potpie), yet suffers incessantly because she feels born for all delicacies, tapestries, silver and luxuries. When her husband proudly brings home a printed invitation to an evening ball at the Minister of Public Instruction’s residence, Matilda throws it down in tears because she has no evening dress and no jewels. Her husband sacrifices the 400 francs he had saved to buy a hunting gun so she can buy a dress, and suggests she borrow jewels from her wealthy school friend Mme Jeanne Forestier, who lets Matilda choose a superb diamond necklace in a black satin box. At the ball, Matilda is the prettiest, most elegant and admired woman in the room, dancing until 4 a.m.—only to discover in front of the mirror back home in the Rue des Martyrs that the necklace is gone. Unable to find it in the cab or streets, the Loisels buy an identical diamond necklace at the Palais-Royal for 36,000 francs (using her husband’s 18,000-franc inheritance and borrowing the rest from usurers at ruinous interest). For ten terrible years, they dismiss their maid, move to an attic, and work day and night until every cent is repaid and Matilda looks like a hard, crude old woman of poor households—until one Sunday on the Champs-Élysées she confesses the truth to Mme Forestier, who clasps her hands in shock: ‘Oh, my poor Matilda! Mine were false. They were not worth over five hundred francs!’.
Exercises in Chapter 7
- Read and Find Out & Think about It ask what kind of a person Mme Loisel is and why she is always unhappy, what kind of a person her husband is, what fresh problem disturbs Mme Loisel after buying a pretty dress, how they replace the necklace, how the course of the Loisels’ life changes due to the necklace, and what would have happened if Matilda had confessed the loss to Mme Forestier immediately.
Read Class 10 English (Footprints without Feet) Chapter 7 Online
More Chapters
- Previous: Chapter 6: The Making of a Scientist
- Next: Chapter 8: Bholi
- All English (Footprints without Feet) chapters and the other Class 10 books: Class 10 NCERT books 2026-27
- All Class 1 to 12 NCERT Textbooks: NCERT Books PDF (Class 1–12)
- Every book chapter by chapter: NCERT chapter wise PDF
FAQ
What was the cause of Matilda Loisel’s ruin, and how could she have avoided it?
The root cause of Matilda’s ruin was her vanity, discontent with her modest circumstances, and false pride. She could have avoided her ruin first by being content with living within her means (or wearing fresh natural flowers as her husband suggested), and second by having the honesty and courage to confess the loss of the necklace immediately to her friend Mme Forestier, who would have told her the diamonds were paste (imitation) worth at most 500 francs.
How did the loss of the necklace change the course of the Loisels’ life for ten years?
To pay off the 36,000-franc replacement necklace and the usurious loans, the Loisels sent away their maid, gave up their lodgings and rented a cheap attic room. M. Loisel worked evenings putting books of some merchants in order and nights copying at five sou a page, while Matilda did all the heavy housework, washing dishes, carrying down refuse and haggling over every sou, aging into a rough, red-handed woman of poor households over ten exhausting years.