The Diamond Necklace by Guy de Maupassant: An Easy Summary

    Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) is generally considered the greatest French short story writer. The Diamond Necklace story talks about a poor girl wishing to lead a rich lifestyle, which culminates in her suffering. Mathilde is a poor but very beautiful woman in her looks and appearance.  She is married to a poor clerk in the Ministry of Education, Loisel.  Mathilde always complains about her life and about her social stature.

    One evening her husband comes with an invitation from the ministry of education.  Mathilde is sad because she does not have proper clothes for the occasion.  Four hundred francs are required to buy a good dress.  Later she asks for jewels which they cannot afford to buy. On the suggestion of her husband, Mathilde borrows a diamond necklace from Madam Forestier.

    They both go to the party.  Mathilde looks pretty and beautiful.  Everyone in the party looks at her with an awe. Everymen are also eager to dance with her.  She dances gracefully in the party. It gets late and they return home in a cab.  After reaching home she finds that her necklace is missing.  Loisel goes in search of the necklace but in vain.  They lodge a complain with the police.  Finally, they decide to return the jewel to Forestier after a week. 

    When they fail to get the lost jewel, they decide to replace it by buying a new one. They find an identical necklace in a jeweler shop.  It costs 40,000 francs but after bargaining the shop keeper promises to offer it for 36,000 francs.  They get loan from various sources to buy the necklace. They move their residence to a cheaper place. Mathilde does all the house hold jobs by herself just to save money. Loisel works extra hour to earn more. As a result, there is no peace in their house.  It takes them ten years to pay off the loans to all people.

    One day, Mathilde happens to meet Forestier. She narrates the story how they had replaced the lost necklace with a new one and suffered a lot to pay the dues.  Forestier is shocked to know this and she informs Mathilde that the jewel she lent to Mathilde was an imitation and not original. 

An Easy Summary of the "Values in Life" by Rudyard Kipling

 

Rudyard Kipling was an English poet and novelist. He is known for his children’s books including the ever-popular The Jungle Book and Kim. ‘Values in Life’ appears in A Book of Words a volume of Kipling’s collected speeches. The address was originally delivered in the fall of 1907 to the students of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.  

   

    In "Values in Life" Rudyard Kipling explores the theme of greed, honesty, conflict and acceptance. Kipling talks to the students in attendance that one should not be wealthy for wealth’s sake. In reality an individual should be wary of becoming greedy and to be content with their lot when it comes to the issue of money or wealth. A life is wasted by the constant pursuit of wealth. It is difficult for a man to have balance in life and therefore, there is suffering. Though suffering may not be how the individual feels. Wealth in reality is an illusion that man chases thinking that they will be happy. Yet the poorer man can be happier than the man who is wealthy.

    

    There is no honesty when it comes to being greedy. Wealth is also not everything that will make a person happy. Chasing wealth or money in reality is a waste of time and deflects an individual from their real purpose in life. Kipling may also be suggesting that an individual should use what they have learnt for altruistic purposes. That being in an effort to help others rather than chasing wealth. One of the most natural vices for man is to be greedy. It is better to help an individual through life than witness from a distance their downfall. Thinking of others before yourself. It is still none the less just as rewarding to an individual.

    

    However, there are people upon whom the idea of wealth as mere wealth does not work. Neither the methods of amassing wealth interest them, nor do they have any price tag. Such a person is not considered smart. But after studying the man closely, people would realize that money dominates everybody accept that man who doesn’t want money. He will be fearless and do whatever he wants. On the other hand money minded people would fear him and would be controlled by him.

    

    The end of the speech is interesting as Kipling accepts that there are some (students) who will pursue wealth with great gusto and forgo any link with humanity. A man chasing wealth for wealth’s purpose and forgetting about his fellow man. The students are advised to learn more about life by engaging with the man who does not believe in wealth. It is better to be poor and happy than wealthy and miserable.

HOW WEALTH ACCUMULATES AND MEN DECAY – AN OVERVIEW

    “How Wealth Accumulates and Men Decay” by G.B. Shaw is a comment on the evils of capitalism. This essay centers on the theme of whether wealth is more important or skill. In pursuit of profit, human values are vanished. Shaw gives the example of pins and woolen garments to show that now workers have no control over what they produce.

    There was a time when a pin-maker would do everything from buying the material to shaping it and finally selling it. However, now one worker does only one thing and he is unable to produce a pin. Similarly, in the olden times from sheep shearing to making clothes everything was done by women but now there is separate worker for every step of production. This according to Shaw has turned capable workers into machines who are doing the work without intelligence. 

    Although, the capitalist system promoted speed and cheap production, the human skills have disappeared. It produces universal ignorance of how things are made and done. Books, according to Shaw, fail to convey useful knowledge because it is written by those who do not do the work. Moreover, we neither have time nor want to read. And therefore, we need cinema to take our minds off it and feed our imagination. The Capitalism has helped in the promotion of the cinema and other such modes of entertainment. Shaw has argued that 'savage' communities are most intelligent because they are involved in making everything for themselves. He has concluded the essay by saying that this capitalist system has left us like dangerous lunatics in this real world.

An Easy Summary of "A Cup of Tea" by Katherine Mansfield

    ‘A Cup of Tea’ by Katherine Mansfield deals with an upper-class woman named Rosemary Fell. She spends her day out shopping at some west corners of London. One day she visits an antique dealer’s shop that shows her a beautiful small blue velvet box. But she does not buy it and asks the shopkeeper to save it for her. 

    While getting to her car she is approached by a girl. This girl is wearing tattered clothes and asks her for money for tea. Rosemary finds this an opportunity to show herself as charitable. So, she takes the young girl with her to the house. 

    As they reach the house, Rosemary takes the poor girl to her room and asks her to sit by the fire. She helps her take off her coat and hat and tries to soothe her. The girl seems to be hungry and therefore, the girl is provided with tea and sandwiches. Rosemary tries to inquire more about the girl as she is planning to help her. The conversation is interrupted by her husband Philips. He is surprised to see the stranger in the room and asks his wife to talk to him privately in the library. Rosemary wishes to keep the poor girl with her but her husband disapproves it. Seeming his wife’s determination, Phillip tries the oldest trick in diplomacy i.e. jealousy. He praises the girl on her pretty looks. This gives a rise to insecurities of Rosemary. Rosemary leaves the library and enters the study room from where she picks up some cash. She returns to her room and hands over the money to the poor girl making her leave the house. 

    After the girl leaves the house Rosemary joins Philips back in the library. After a pause, she whispers, “Am I pretty?”

What is One-Act Play?

     A one-act play is a type of play which does not necessarily consist of one act. It is neither an act from full length play. More specifically you can say that the duration of the play may be equal to the time normally required by an act from a full-length play.

    A one-act play is an independent as well as a self-sufficient form of art. It also consists of all the elements that you find in a full-length play such as setting, characters, property, stage, conflict, and point of view, theme etc. It also has an organic form with beginning, middle and an end. Unlike a full-length play, the unity of time, place and action do not function fully.

    You will see that a one-act play does not have episodic subjects; rather it has a visionary and conceptual unity. It normally represents a single situation, action, and atmosphere leading to deep impression. The characters and the experiences are not complex, you can understand easily.

    Since it has a confined canvas, the life experiences it conveys can not be complex and difficult as it happens in a full-length play. The number of characters is bound to be small. Some of the beautiful examples that you will love to read are Donne Byrne’s The Professors, Stanley Houghton’s The Dear Departed, and W. W. Jacobs’s The Monkey’s Paw.

    Though the orchestral representation, multidimensional experience, a throbbing effect may not be there in a one-act play, but it certainly has to offer a slice of life as a piece of literature does.