Home > The Necklace Summary & Study Guide > The Necklace Group > Discussion Board

In "The Necklace" what points can I make if writing a diary entry from Mathilde's point of view, after she discovers the necklace was paste?

The best way to go about doing this is to try to put yourself insto her shoes.  Imagine that you have spent your entire life working yourself hard, wearing yourself down, scrubbing, cleaning, slaving for other people for hardly any pay, and it was all for nothing.  Imagine how upsetting that would be!  In your diary entry, focus on your frustration and angst in regards to that situation.  Then, I might voice some feelings in regards to Madame Forestier, and how it might have been nice if the woman had related that the necklace was worthless, from the time that she lent it to you.  Lastly, I would jot down any lessons that this entire experience might have taught you, lessons relating to pride, vanity, the worthlessness of material possessions, and anything that you might have learned from your experiences learning to be a hard worker and not complain about your stature in life.

I hope that those thoughts helped a bit; good luck!

Imagine that you borrowed a friend's necklace to go to a dance at school.  You lose the necklace, but you are afraid that if you tell her, she will be angry and the friendship will be ruined.  You borrow money from your parents and buy a replacement necklace.  Your friend cannot tell this is not the original necklace.  For three summers, you babysit or cut lawns every evening, and during the school year, you work after school Monday through Friday. You work hard and have no social life.  All you do is attend school, study, and work. All of your money goes to repaying your debt to your parents, and you cannot buy music or clothes or see any movies.  Your life is really difficult now.  Then, one day, you see your friend and she ask you why you look so tired and are dressed so poorly. You explain about the necklace, and she tell you the necklace was not real gold and the pendant was only a cubic zirconium. 

How would you feel at that moment?  What would you write in your diary?  Mathilde's feelings would be pretty much the same, don't you think? 

Good luck with your diary entry. 

I'm going to take a walk on the wild side, and suggest for the sake of writing something more interesting that you look at what isn't being said, and how Mathilde might respond to that because that would be so much more interesting.

At the end of the story, Madame Forrester is shocked, but she does not volunteer to return the real diamond necklace to Mathilde. We're not told what is going to happen, but we can imagine. What would Mathilde write if she asked her friend to give her the real diamonds back since hers had been fake? What would she think, feel, and write about if Madame Forrester said no. How would that change her life? What would she think, feel, and write if Madame Forrester said yes? How would that change the rest of her life?

Don't feel as if you have to stick with the same sort of journal entry that everyone else is writing. If it's meant to be a creative writing assignment, then be creative:D