Beating the Story

by Robin D. Laws

  17) When they finally do get a cab, even a shabby one, we register that as an up note. These two beats present a procedural obstacle in its most basic form: first the problem, then the resolution of the problem—in this case, successful.

  This travel sequence moves us to a new place but not a new time, making the transition an Outgrowth—as a consequence of the cab ride, the Loisels return to their home.

  It brought them to their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly they walked up to their own apartment. It was the end, for her. As for him, he was thinking that he must be at the office at ten.

  18) This beat shows that a dramatic exchange can occur in prose even when the two characters do not speak to one another. If the writer chooses the voice of an omniscient narrator with permission to tells us what each character is thinking, they can be seen to emotionally oppose one another. Here, Mathilde feels dejected, while her oblivious husband has allowed his thoughts to wander to the preoccupations of his job. It may be unfair to ask her husband to meet an unarticulated petition, but that’s what happens here.

  She took off the garments in which she had wrapped her shoulders, so as to see herself in all her glory before the mirror. But suddenly she uttered a cry. The necklace was no longer round her neck!

  “What’s the matter with you?” asked her husband, already half undressed.

  She turned towards him in the utmost distress.

  “I…I…I’ve no longer got Madame Forestier’s necklace.…”

  He started with astonishment.

  “What!…Impossible!”

  They searched in the folds of her dress, in the folds of the coat, in the pockets, everywhere. They could not find it.

  19) In this beat the full scope of the disaster becomes apparent. It concerns the external obstacle of having lost the necklace, rather than the unstated conflict between the Loisels, and thus classifies as a Procedural beat—pointed down, of course.

  “Are you sure that you still had it on when you came away from the ball?” he asked.

  “Yes, I touched it in the hall at the Ministry.”

  “But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it fall.”

  “Yes. Probably we should. Did you take the number of the cab?”

  “No. You didn’t notice it, did you?”

  “No.”

  They stared at one another, dumbfounded.

  20) The inevitable panicked recrimination that occurs when one half of a couple loses an important object counts as a Dramatic beat. It reinforces the emotional impact of the previous procedural crisis.

  At last Loisel put on his clothes again.

  “I’ll go over all the ground we walked,” he said, “and see if I can’t find it.”

  And he went out.

  21) Looking for the necklace beats fretting about it, so this scene offers some hope. But not a particularly strong one, so we can score this as a crossed emotional note at best. The beat centers on the practical issue of recovering the necklace and thus tracks as Procedural.

  She remained in her evening clothes, lacking strength to get into bed, huddled on a chair, without volition or power of thought.

  22) This inner monologue dramatic moment shows Mathilde pushed beyond disappointed to despair verging on catatonia: another down beat.

  Her husband returned about seven. He had found nothing.

  23) Loisel’s failure to find the necklace himself hits the couple with another Procedural down beat.

  He went to the police station, to the newspapers, to offer a reward, to the cab companies, everywhere that a ray of hope impelled him.

  24) By redoubling his efforts, Loisel keeps the prospect of success alive—or at least postpones the moment of surrender. At any rate, Maupassant invokes hope directly, meaning that this Procedural beat must land as at least something of an up note.

  She waited all day long, in the same state of bewilderment at this fearful catastrophe.

  Loisel came home at night, his face lined and pale; he had discovered nothing.

  25) The expanded procedural effort has failed, leading to another down beat.

  “You must write to your friend,” he said, “and tell her that you’ve broken the clasp of her necklace and are getting it mended. That will give us time to look about us.”

  She wrote at his dictation.

  26) Loisel comes up with another new plan, to stall for time at least. A fresh approach offers at least some hope, and counts as a Procedural up beat.

  The next scene occurs after a gap in time, but shows the consequence of this scene—another Outgrowth transition.

  By the end of a week they had lost all hope.

  Loisel, who had aged five years,[…]

  27) Stalling for time has also led them nowhere. Another Procedural down beat.

  […]declared:

  “We must see about replacing the diamonds.”

  28) Although this is another new plan, this is a last resort that inspires scant hope. Like the Loisels, we presume that they will be difficult and expensive to replace. At best this registers as a lateral arrow.

  Next day they took the box which had held the necklace and went to the jewellers whose name was inside. He consulted his books.

  “It was not I who sold this necklace, Madame; I must have merely supplied the clasp.”

  29) Here Maupassant lays pipe for the ironic reveal that concludes his story. Something is amiss with the necklace, but in their distress the Loisels do not notice it. The reader may be distracted by the difficulty of the task, and accompanying down beat, and likewise fail to spot the plot point.

  Then they went from jeweler to jeweler, searching for another necklace like the first, consulting their memories, both ill with remorse and anguish of mind.

  30) The procedural failure continues to wear on the Loisels—another down beat.

  In a shop at the Palais-Royal they found a string of diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the one they were looking for. It was worth forty thousand francs. They were allowed to have it for thirty-six thousand.

  31) Finally, procedural success—they find a suitable necklace and are able to bargain the price down.

  They begged the jeweler not to sell it for three days. And they arranged matters on the understanding that it would be taken back for thirty-four thousand francs, if the first one were found before the end of February.

  Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs left to him by his father. He intended to borrow the rest.

  32) But then Maupassant reveals that the necklace lies far beyond Loisel’s means. Seeing the price of this apparent success pivots the meaning and emotional direction of the previous beat, now giving us a down arrow.

  He did borrow it, getting a thousand from one man, five hundred from another, five louis here, three louis there.

  33) But whew, at least he succeeds in getting the loans he needs to purchase it. A procedural up beat.

  He gave notes of hand, entered into ruinous agreements, did business with usurers and the whole tribe of money-lenders. He mortgaged the whole remaining years of his existence, risked his signature without even knowing if he could honor it, and, appalled at the agonizing face of the future, at the black misery about to fall upon him, at the prospect of every possible physical privation and moral torture, he went to get the new necklace and put down upon the jeweler’s counter thirty-six thousand francs.

  34) But again, in a second consecutive example of an apparently hopeful up beat undercut by knowledge of its cost, we see that the loans come at ruinous terms. Another procedural down beat.

  This beat ends the scene. The next scene takes place as a direct consequence of this one, for an identifying the transition as an Outgrowth.

  When Madame Loisel took back the necklace to Madame Forestier, the latter said to her in a chilly voice:
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br />   “You ought to have brought it back sooner; I might have needed it.”

  35) Mathilde gains no reassurance from Madame Forestier, whose tart words remind her of her diminished status. Disappointment again wins out over acceptance, as Mathilde loses her implicit petition for Mme. Forestier’s understanding. A Dramatic down beat.

  She did not, as her friend had feared, open the case. If she had noticed the substitution, what would she have thought? What would she have said? Would she not have taken her for a thief?

  36) Worse than the scolding, Mathilde remains in fear of discovery. Here, with this part of the problem seeming solved, Maupassant introduces a new threat: Mme. Forestier might find out that they substituted a different expensive necklace for hers. For Forestier to find this out would require external plot developments, so let’s call this one a Procedural beat.

  You might instead argue that as we’re in Mathilde’s internal monologue we’re still in dramatic territory. Beat classification can be subjective at times, but deciding one way or the other is rarely crucial.

  This scene transitions to the prose equivalent of a montage sequence, quickly describing an extended period in the life of the Loisels. It does not directly follow from Mathilde’s fear of discovery but picks up a previous thread, the cost of the loans required to replace the necklace. Featuring the same character and throughline, this transition functions as a Continuation.

  Madame Loisel came to know the ghastly life of abject poverty. From the very first she played her part heroically. This fearful debt must be paid off. She would pay it. The servant was dismissed. They changed their flat; they took a garret under the roof.

  37) This Dramatic beat traces a change in Mathilde we might respond to ambiguously. Here, determined to pay off the debt, she reaches an acceptance of her lot that previously eluded her. Acceptance, we recall, is the dramatic pole we want her to embrace. But at the same time we see the price she’s had to pay to reach that point. This juxtaposition calls for crossed arrows.

  She came to know the heavy work of the house, the hateful duties of the kitchen. She washed the plates, wearing out her pink nails on the coarse pottery and the bottoms of pans. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts and dish-cloths, and hung them out to dry on a string; every morning she took the dustbin down into the street and carried up the water, stopping on each landing to get her breath. And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money.

  Every month notes had to be paid off, others renewed, time gained.

  Her husband worked in the evenings at putting straight a merchant’s accounts, and often at night he did copying at twopence-halfpenny a page.

  And this life lasted ten years.

  38) Maupassant goes on to emphasize the toughness of the Loisels’ external struggle over the demands with life without money. Ten years go by in one hardscrabble Procedural down beat.

  At the end of ten years everything was paid off, everything, the usurer’s charges and the accumulation of superimposed interest.

  39) Finally, the Loisels have freed themselves from the terrible cost of her fateful mistake. Their crushing external problem lies behind them, giving us a procedural up beat.

  Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households. Her hair was badly done, her skirts were awry, her hands were red. She spoke in a shrill voice, and the water slopped all over the floor when she scrubbed it.

  40) Once more Maupassant follows a victory with a description of its cost that undercuts our momentary sense of satisfaction.

  In other words, he is tightly varying the emotional rhythm.

  If we read this description as Mathilde’s self-assessment (appropriate given the following passage) it works as internal monologue and thus a Dramatic down beat, tempering the Procedural up beat that went before it.

  But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.

  41) In this moment of internal monologue, we see that glimmers of the old Mathilde remain, happily remembering the one night she had the status she craved. She can still aspire in her imagination, if not in grim reality. This fond memory brings on a dramatic up beat.

  What would have happened if she had never lost those jewels. Who knows? Who knows? How strange life is, how fickle! How little is needed to ruin or to save!

  42) But the recollection of triumph inevitably leads to the pain of the downfall that immediately followed it. A Dramatic down beat.

  This shifts to a new dramatic scene, one that happens not as a result of these musings but by happenstance. It still features Mathilde, who as far as we can tell has not shifted to a new goal or desire. That makes this transition a Continuation.

  One Sunday, as she had gone for a walk along the Champs-Elysees to freshen herself after the labors of the week, she caught sight suddenly of a woman who was taking a child out for a walk. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still attractive.

  43) This moment reinforces Mathilde’s previous musings on life’s fickleness. She looks old and haggard, but her wealthy contemporary Madame Forestier still possesses the youth and beauty Mathilde once hoped to parlay into greater status. Any juxtaposition of two characters in which our focus character comes off for the worse counts as a Dramatic down beat.

  Madame Loisel was conscious of some emotion. Should she speak to her?

  44) Maupassant introduces a note of dramatic suspense, inviting us to wonder if Mathilde will approach Mme. Forestier. We share her fear and trepidation—a down note.

  Yes, certainly. And now that she had paid, she would tell her all. Why not?

  She went up to her.

  “Good morning, Jeanne.”

  45) Mathilde gathers her courage, preparing herself to reveal all, which will bring her tale to a resolution. We are glad for both things, making this a dramatic up beat.

  The other did not recognize her, and was surprised at being thus familiarly addressed by a poor woman.

  “But…Madame…” she stammered. “I don’t know…you must be making a mistake.”

  46) As a reward for her courage, Mathilde receives a metaphorical slap in the face. She has aged so much that Mme Forestier doesn’t recognize her—a direct hit on Mathilde’s once-driving quest for status.

  “No…I am Mathilde Loisel.”

  Her friend uttered a cry.

  “Oh!…my poor Mathilde, how you have changed!…”

  47) Even when she does recognize Mathilde, Mme. Forestier pities her—a second Dramatic down beat.

  “Yes, I’ve had some hard times since I saw you last; and many sorrows…and all on your account.”

  48) Presumably stung by Mme. Forestier’s attitude toward her, Mathilde gets ahead of her story, blaming her former friend for her predicament.

  As readers we may be pleased to see Mathilde showing some spine and sticking up for herself, or fearful that she’s about to ruin things for herself again—or both. That complexity of response demands crossed arrows.

  “On my account!…How was that?”

  “You remember the diamond necklace you lent me for the ball at the Ministry?”

  “Yes. Well?”

  “Well, I lost it.”

  “How could you? Why, you brought it back.”

  “I brought you another one just like it. And for the last ten years we have been paying for it. You realize it wasn’t easy for us; we had no money.… Well, it’s paid for at last, and I’m glad indeed.”

  49) With this revelation Mathilde enjoys a moment of victory. She has turned the suffering of her poverty into a mark of superiority over her higher-status friend. She took the diff
icult path of virtue, has finally freed herself from that burden, and now throws it in Mme. Forestier’s face a bit.

  Madame Forestier had halted.

  “You say you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine?”

  “Yes. You hadn’t noticed it? They were very much alike.”

  And she smiled in proud and innocent happiness.

  50) Now Maupassant gives the reader a chance to read the situation faster than our protagonist, to disquieting effect. Mathilde might be happy, but the writer has given us the cue to see that we shouldn’t join her in that. As she revels in her newfound moral status, the reference to her happiness being innocent—that is, without knowledge—prompts us to fear the punishment that literature deals out to the prideful.

  Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her two hands.

  51) Madame Forestier’s gesture of conciliation provides some comfort, and a Dramatic up beat that softens us up for…

  “Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs!…”

  52) …the final hammer blow of Maupassantian irony, and a giant Dramatic down beat. Mathilde’s inner battle between acceptance and disappointment has resolved, confronting her with irrevocable, all-encompassing disappointment: ten years of wretched grubbing that has robbed her forever of the qualities she hoped to parlay into a better position. Without her fear of having her true status revealed, she would never have lost the necklace. Without her prideful insistence on saving face, she might have confessed to Mme. Forestier and learned its true value. Mme. Forestier too stands revealed as having faked her way to status a little bit, but clearly not so obsessively, and not with such disastrous results.