Teacher Guide and Lesson Plans for "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant

Use this "Necklace" lesson plan, which involves writing a review. Have each student do the following after reading the story:

1. Write a brief "The Necklace" summary, 100-200 words.
2. Write a brief "The Necklace" analysis, extolling its literary merit, 150-200 words. Be sure to include "The Necklace" theme.
   
3. List lesson plans for "The Necklace," 3-4 ideas in a bulleted list.
4. Give each section a rating of 1-5 stars.

Madame Loisel is miserable. She wants to be high class, but she's married to a clerk. Her husband, the clerk, comes home one afternoon, after a hard days work, no doubt, with an invitation to a party at the Minister of Education's house. Madame Loisel is unhappy for she has no dress to wear. Her husband, who has worked hard, no doubt, to save up money for a gun, uses the money to buy Madame Loisel a dress. She's still not happy, for what use is a really nice dress if you have no necklace for it?

That's where Madame Forestier comes in. She has lots of jewels, including a beautiful necklace she reluctantly loans to Madame Loisel for the party. Now, Madame Loisel's happy...until she loses the necklace. They must borrow money to replace the necklace and spend the next 10 years of their life, working hard, no doubt, earning enough to pay back the money they borrowed. One day while "strolling along the Champs Elysees," Madame Loisel runs into Madame Forestiere and tells her what happened. Forestiere, taken aback by Madame Loisel's sorry plight, informs her that the neclace she lent her that day ten years ago was a fake.

Class discussions and lesson plans for "The Necklace" could center around the following subjects:

1. Vanity and Pride - An important "Necklace" theme is the danger of vanity and pride. It is Madame Loisel's vanity that causes her to want to live beyond her means and her pride that prevents her from telling Madame Forestiere the truth.
2. The Dangers of Debt - "The Necklace" theme of the dangers of debt is as timely today as it was when the story was written.
3. Irony - Madame Loisel labors for that which is of no worth.
4. Theme - Because of its obvious message, "The Necklace" makes a great short story for teaching theme.

You're more than welcome to come up with your own "Necklace" lesson plans, or you could use these lesson plans for "The Necklace" that have delighted audiences for centuries.

1. Write a found poem. Not only will your students recognize the cleverness of writing a found poem about a lost necklace, they'll practice using details from a story, analyzing evidence, and discovering a theme. A found poem is created by using exact quotes from the story to make a poem. Here's my example:
   • Unable to afford jewelry, she dressed simply.
   • She suffered constantly
   • She tossed the invitation on the table and muttered,
   • "We'll have to replace the necklace."
   • Her husband worked in the evenings
   • and often at night as well.
   • Madame Loisel looked old now
   • And she smiled, full of proud, simple joy.
   • "And it took us ten years to pay for it."
   • "Oh my poor Mathilde! Mine was false!"
2. Teach financial literacy. Maupassant records that Loisel paid back the loan along with the interest. Adapt these financial literacy discussion ideas I created for "The Devil and Tom Walker" and teach students about the dangers of credit card debt, pay day loans, and slick salespeople.
3. Draw conclusions about characters. This "Necklace" lesson plan takes the place of two lesson plans for "The Necklace": teaching characterization and drawing conclusions. Make a box, two for each character. Below the character box, draw two smaller boxes, one for actions and one for traits. Connect the top box to the two lower boxes with arrows. Underneath the two smaller boxes, draw another large box and draw a conclusion about the character based on the details you wrote in the two smaller boxes. This activity works best after the students write a "Necklace" summary and understand "The Necklace" themes.