They say you can’t beat the classics and in this episode of The Shorttales Club, Oz & friends find themselves in one that sends them to Paris, France. It is the close of the 19th century and Mathilde Loisel is desperate to attend a grand ball, but only if she can bedazzle all in attendance like a diamond.
The crew is joined by Peter and Fresh, spicing things up quite nicely. Hanan takes things personal and Habiba disagrees with him wholeheartedly, while Oz is left speechless with Cryptte ever cackling in the background. It’s a wild one.
Enjoy the show!
[Transcript]
The Necklace by Guy de Mapaussant
[00:00:00]
Oz: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on this podcast are solely those of the speakers and by no means, represent that of Ayamba LitCast
Oz: Hello story lovers. Welcome to The Shorttales Club, a place where I and my friends read, think and discuss short stories that we find fun and interesting. Please know that this is a spoiler filled show as we cannot be held accountable for our frenzied excitement. Seriously, we really can’t help ourselves. Other than that, enjoy the show!
Oz: Welcome to another episode of The Shorttales Club. My guests for today are
Cryptte: Cryptte
Habiba: Habiba
Hanan: Hannah,
Peter: Peter
Fresh: Fresh.
Oz: Okay. Today we’ll be discussing the story, The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant, but then the French people that own the name said it is pronounced Guy de Maupassant
Oz: Anyway, The Necklace was published in [00:01:00] 1884. And because it’s been over a hundred years with several translations, we’re reading a translation by Ernest Boyd. The Necklace, what do we think about this story?
Cryptte: No sound review? I wanted to do sound review.
Hanan: I was waiting for that. I almost forgot.
Oz: Okay. Okay. Okay. Let’s, let’s, let’s take sound reviews first before we move on to the story proper. Sound reviews. What do we think about The Necklace in sounds?
Hanan: You go first.
Cryptte: Oh, okay.
Cryptte: Choi!
Cryptte: Oh,
Oz: [00:02:00] So that’s the sound review. The Necklace, I would go immediately into a summary of the story, the Necklace is a story about a woman who wanted more than life had to offer her and spent the few years she had chasing dreams and sad reality. She learned her lesson very late in life at a time when there was little she could do with that lesson except maybe gist her grandchildren not to make the same mistakes that she has made.
Oz: Okay, so that’s The Necklace in summary. What do we think about it?
Cryptte: Guess I go first. The Necklace is a sad story, not in the normal sense, like you hear a sad story and you’re thinking holocausts and tragedies and the rest. But The Necklace is sad in the sense that in order to keep up an [00:03:00] illusion of her bloated self, she put herself and her family through a lot of trouble that actually turned out unnecessary. And I think I like the stories that we’ve been covering so far because just like the last one, this is something that any of us could do and we’ve probably done at one point in time or the other. I know I have done it, but yeah. That’s The Necklace for me.
Habiba: I think what I loved the most about it was we didn’t see a lot into the character. Like she’s this woman. We were just given like the basic explanation of her. We don’t know where she came from, how she lived only that she was not content. She was discontent with her lot in life. She wanted more. She hungered for more, but [00:04:00] like we said, life came in. Life got in the way. She got what was coming to her, but I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that. It made it seem like God made you like this. God made you poor. Stay poor. Don’t try to look for anything else.
Oz: You can be poorer, but you cannot be less poor.
Cryptte: You cannot talk for God.
Habiba: It was like, stay in your place. Don’t try to go beyond what God has given you. Let her dream. Let her want for more. She didn’t have to suffer for wanting more than what God gave her.
Cryptte: I think it’s less about God and more about you. Like figuring out what your limits are and sticking to them. Be realistic.
Habiba: It’s about God and society.
Hanan: Oh God. Oh God.
Hanan: Alright Habiba. It’s about not taking responsibility. She wanted more? There’s nothing wrong. You’ making this sound like the writer is trying to follow this [00:05:00] Chinese philosophy that says if your father is a carpenter, don’t dream to be the governor .
Hanan: That’s not it. From the beginning of the book to the end of the story, she never took responsibility. She found normal chores as if she was poor. Now there’s nothing wrong with dreaming. We all want to be higher than where we are now. But then, Don’t make other people suffer for your own dream? Because the husband to me is carrying her cross while she’s wearing the diamond with the beautiful gown. Thank you.
Oz: But no, you are saying …,
Hanan: That’s my opinion.
Habiba: Are you saying she didn’t take responsibility?
Hanan: She never took responsibility because they were still paying, painstakingly paying the debt while she was still thinking, Oh God, how beautiful I was that day.
Oz: So your problem is with the fact that she daydreamed, like in order to …,
Hanan: My problem is that she never, the writer never told us how [00:06:00] remorseful she was.
Fresh: She was.
Hanan: Thank you.
Cryptte: No,
Fresh: She wasn’t remorseful
Hanan: thank you.
Habiba: But did she do something to be remorseful over?
Oz: It’s not like she went out of her way to misplace this necklace.
Habiba: It was an accident
Hanan: No,
Oz: You’re saying it was not an accident?
Hanan: We were not. We are not talking about how she misplaced the diamond. We’re talking about how
Cryptte: her reaction?
Hanan: Not reaction, how she made the husband suffer. Why would they borrow in the first place? If you don’t have, you don’t have. Well let’s get into the story
Fresh: Okay, okay. Calm down Hanan. Calm down. You’re getting too emotional.
Hanan: Yes,
Cryptte: Like it’s his necklace.
Fresh: I think it’s the husband for me because, he literally made it happen. He made it possible because he said “Go to your friend. Go check if she has something you can use.” he gave her the idea. It was his idea.
Cryptte: Friends help out friends?[00:07:00]
Habiba: I didn’t even think of that. You’re right!
Fresh: So whatever happens, it’s all his fault at the end of the day. He made it happen.
Hanan: Next time, gimme another mic.
Fresh: You made it happen.
Habiba: So he had to take the responsibility, because it was his fault. She took responsibility too, and then..
Fresh: And then at that very moment when they were giving up their things,
Hanan: Do you know how you would, your eyes would be like, and I’ll be like. Are you hungry? You say No, but your eyes are saying something different and I’ll…
Cryptte: Wait, hold on. For the record, he made his face look really scary and ugly at the same time.
Hanan: No, I made my very sympathetic face, like you say, “Oh, I’m dying.” then you say no. Then I’ll be obliged to do the things that ordinarily, I wouldn’t want to do.
Hanan: Because he didn’t want to.
Hanan: He was saying
Fresh: what she wanted to hear.
Cryptte: No, he was being supportive. He was being there for her. He knew how much it meant to [00:08:00] her. So he wanted to provide.
Hanan: Under duress.
Oz: Okay, but we are forgetting. We’re forgetting one point here. We’ve moved, we’ve jumped from the man, introduced the idea to her. The man encouraged her. He enabled all of her… whatever it is that she was doing. But you forget that despite this, the moment that the necklace, like as soon as it set. The moment the necklace got missing and she realized that they would have to borrow heavily to pay for this necklace, she behaved.
Hanan: Behaved how?
Oz: She started to do the house chores by herself. She started, there’s no mic. She started to do the house chore by herself. She aged. She worked really hard. She managed the little…
Cryptte: You say she aged like…
Hanan: Excuse me. Excuse me.
Cryptte: You said she aged, like she decided to age, so that the ageing, the ageing process would bring more money.
Hanan: Omo, this was written a hundred years ago. A woman will take house chores. [00:09:00] Oz alright, will take house chores as if they’ll be part of being a woman. We don’t, We don’t have the feminists, we don’t have…
Oz: we live in a society…
Habiba: this story was set in the Victorian era.
Cryptte: They had house helps
Habiba: at that time…
Cryptte: they called them maids.
Habiba: It was unbecoming at that time for a woman to do the chores. The husband is supposed to bring a maid. No matter how…
Oz: Or a number or a number of maids.
Habiba: Like if you are poor…
Hanan: You guys are forgetting that. Forgetting. Forgetting that she married a clerk. And she was confronted with the fact that she married a clerk, which was like us, several steps ahead of her. So she was okay before…
Oz: she was, she was from a family of… She settled for
Fresh: She settled for him because she didn’t have any other option at that time.
Cryptte: No, I think she had options. That was why her family was pissed. Like she could have married somebody better than him
Habiba: from the beginning, it [00:10:00] said she was one of those pretty and charming girls born as though fate had blundered over her into a family of artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction.
Habiba: And she let herself be married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Education. So she let herself…
Fresh: Emphasis on a little.
Oz: She could have chosen somebody else.
Habiba: She could have chosen somebody else.
Oz: And it’s, it’s surprising that we didn’t talk about love. We didn’t talk about love because if it was that, oh, she, it is because she fell in love the romance of it, and that was why she married this man. It’s different. There was no point in time where there was. The writer did not explore that. He just gave us that line. She let herself be married.
Hanan: Okay.
Oz: To a clerk.
Hanan: Okay, that just described…
Cryptte: Who could afford a maid.
Hanan: Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Oz: And he could afford a maid. So part of her paying back, part of her remorse, was that she let go of the maid. Because [00:11:00] she could have continued to say, Guy, go and borrow more money. Borrow less. Why is it only thirty six thousand? Let’s make it a hundred thousand that we owe. I want to continue to have a maid. Do you understand? It could have been worse.
Hanan: It’s the fact that, it was not just me going to Omar and saying, borrow me thirty-six thousand Franc or Francs. Because it’s not as if the money is just lying around. She borrowed from several people.
Cryptte: Yeah, they borrowed from several people.
Hanan: They borrow from several people.
Cryptte: I think they also … I think there was also their savings.
Hanan: I think this…
Habiba: All of their things.
Cryptte: maybe sold some things.
Hanan: Yes! They sold some things. I think this line that Habiba just read now, describes her behavior later. That you think you let yourself marry someone because he’s not worthy. You are going to have that. You cannot modify reality, the universe. You are going to get what you want. So instead of you to [00:12:00] enjoy 10 years of your marriage, you might as well decide to be beautiful just for one night and pay for it. Why are we not talking about actions and consequences. Okay, so the consequence of her being so beautiful that night is what?
Oz: 10 years of their lives.
Hanan: And she caused it. Please, let’s not forget that.
Cryptte: Well, I don’t know how true the stories were, but Homers, The Odyssey, the War of Troy I think, was caused because of a woman’s beauty.
Hanan: Of a woman, yes.
Cryptte: And till today, that’s like hundreds of years ago. And till today, We still talk about it. So, the 10 worth that you’re talking about is actually small if today, like…
Oz: We’re not recalling….
Hanan: Let’s go back to that troy. I think the father or the prince or something said something about – we, we blame war so much, but it is love that cause s the most war in life. So you cannot, escape loving, You cannot escape fighting for love. But there are [00:13:00] some desires that you can just make…
Cryptte: We keep it in your imagination and don’t pursue it.
Oz: But it’s the samething. We’re talking about her love for luxury. It is still love. Who says love has to be for another human being.
Hanan: Let’s take it again.
Cryptte: He’s saying, leave the love for your fantasy.
Hanan: Let’s love for humans and not inanimate things. Yes.
Cryptte: She has a good memory. So her imagination should be really good. Like, 10 years in, she was still imagining how she looked on that night.
Oz: One night.
Cryptte: So that means that she could conjure up all sorts of imagery in her head.
Hanan: Let’s get serious. I’m thinking of reoccurrence. now that they have paid after 10 years, what makes you believe that she’ll not do it again? If the director had told…
Oz: Don’t go and borrow another necklace.
Hanan: Yes. See ba, if the writer told us that any time she remembers all of this, she,
Oz: She starts crying.
Hanan: Not cry, she feels like, okay, it was a dumb decision. But she [00:14:00] feels, wow,
Cryptte: but was worth it.
Hanan: I was so beautiful that night. If not that I’m paying this now, let’s come and borrow another, you know. It’s not nice.
Oz: Okay.
Cryptte: No. But then if, at some point at the end where she finds out that, okay, the necklace was a fake, and one of the things that I’ll be rushing through her mind first is to probably be that I went through all this for 10 years for a fake. Then after that, I think the next thing, the only thing that come to our mind is, ‘oya, give it back to me now.’ like, give me my money back, or give me the,
Hanan: mm-hmm.
Cryptte: That should be the second that comes to mind. And if they were, I don’t think they mention
Hanan: Not her decision now ba. I’m thinking about how the universe is trying to teach her lesson.
Habiba: But Hanan,
Hanan: Yes.
Habiba: Why is it that, like you talk about Troy and whatever, but it’s been over a thousand years [00:15:00] since Troy.
Hanan: Mm-hmm.
Habiba: And all those time we are still punishing women for being beautiful in every story. A beautiful woman always has something happen to her and we are told like, Yeah, that happened.
Oz: It is because she was beautiful.
Habiba: She was so beautiful and she felt she was arrogant. She felt…
Cryptte: in a world full of ugly people. It’s, it’s only natural
Oz: It’s a crime.
Hanan: Now, wait, let’s even get serious. That the Troy yeah, Troy, it’s based on a true life story. We are reading complete fiction right. About a year ago, a very. The English people said, when somebody is too , when a man is too handsome, they call him beautiful right. Now a very beautiful man was sent on exile in saudi Arabia. Banished. Banished from Saudi Arabia. We’ve never heard that for women. Wait, wait. I now, I’m not blaming her for liking all of these things. You know, when I was telling Fresh that if you, like your husband is providing the necessity for you. [00:16:00] Yes? Now shelter, you feed you and all of them and you still like necklace, which he cannot afford. If he can afford it, that’s cool. But if he cannot afford it. Walk, it’s an option. Walk.
Habiba: Was it an option for her?
Oz: At the time in that time
Peter: a problem? No, no.
Cryptte: Wait, wait. Okay. I agree with you. But that she should have worked to buy her own jewelry or whatever.
Cryptte: How many years would I have taken her to buy that necklace
Oz: and the invitation was only a few days away.
Peter: Fine. That was the point. But that was the point. How many years We did have taken her to buy a real diamond, but the person she was even envy had lots. Fake.
Oz: No. Now we only knew that one was fake. No, not, What did I tell you?
Oz: Let’s talk about not all that litter is good, right? Mm. Yes. Yeah. I’m just, I like that part. I like the ending because it’s, [00:17:00] because, you know, we talk about this in our, in our era, like, in our era, the social media people. You have lots of people living
Cryptte: food. Why you say social media people? Sorry? Do you mean like other people or you included just
Oz: Oh, okay.
Oz: The education, real lifestyle. That’s part of about where you get people brewing, designers to put on just to show for the gram and all that. Yes. And then you probably go to your house and they have nothing to even sit. . So her friend supposedly had a diamond necklace. Is it Diamond? Yes. Diamond, Yeah. And then she went to Buru and then lit her.
Oz: Got find out that it was a fake, like it was not even, I think she was like, it was five. I found France and they bots that What, what did you, six 36,000
Cryptte: to make animat to. An
Oz: original No, they found one like that. [00:18:00] They just bought, like, okay. They bought it. He looked like it. So it’s a, it’s a beautiful lesson for Yes.
Peter: Beautiful lesson. Thank you. Yes.
Cryptte: Not just for the woman.
Oz: So I think we read that part. Hanan was of the opinion that probably every other, every other day, all the other juries were fake. And, you know, that was like most, that was the, that was the one that looked most. Took and she saw her and it’s fake, so probably every other fake.
Oz: So that woman is usually living a fake life.
Cryptte: What? But then yes, she’s living in fake life. But then they had already been stated that her family, they family, whether she married into it, whether she didn’t, but then the family was still well to do so she might have been wearing fake. The jewelry, but they still lived in a really fancy house on a really fancy street with probably their own courage and plenty slaves or well maids and servants and butlers.
Cryptte: At this point,
Peter: I have a question for the ladies in the house. Yes. I have a [00:19:00] question for all the ladies. Now, there is moral to every story, right? What would be the moral of this story?
Oz: Okay. For me? , we’ve been going on and on and on about her decision. We’ve been going on and on and on about her decision, her desires and all of that.
Oz: And none of us has stopped to ask the question, why didn’t they just tell the friend that this necklace is lost? No, none of them. Not her, not her, but even when there were taking up all of their savings, even when they were taking, borrowing from everybody. None of them sat down to say, What’s the worst that could happen if we went to tell your friend who’ve lost the necklace, Jill?
Oz: Or she could have,
Cryptte: You said worst, you said
Oz: worst thing told them it was 500 France. Yeah. And would pay that five. So it was a [00:20:00] miscommunication. No, but there was, There was fear involved? No, I think there was a lot of fear because she was like, Okay, yes, this is like probably was expensive necklace that is there and then now it’s missing.
Oz: How can she face her to say this then? Probably. How can she get to parole? Another one, some. Oh, okay. So you have, Yeah. You agree with her that she would have loved to go back and if not happen, because at some point the writer was saying, Yes, if this thing happen, If you didn’t get missing, If you didn’t get missing, if she just went and had this beautiful night and then she came back and everything went fine, yes, it probably would’ve
Oz: So telling the friend about the missing. Yeah, even if they did it, but the friend will have fun and told her all the other print. It’s about pride. My necklace is not ever necklace. She’s careless. No.
Peter: One thing, one thing I, I thought about her, like she should have gone to the friend, like, I love just necklace, but I’m going to remind you because you find that they, they return the negative invoice, so I’m [00:21:00] going to return.
Peter: Just give me time and, and I think the husband was I don’t want to use the word W word. I think that’s what he’s Right. Cause he was the one. That advised his wife to go over, she lost it. He was the one that advised the wife to say one of the, something is broken and there to
Oz: we’re going to fix it.
Oz: The class
Peter: was broken. Give your more time to do so. It’s, I think at some point the lesson for me, as in man though as a husband is you should have a policy . I mean, does paint what you cannot afford. He had about 400 round or something literally used in buying the dress and just send up and any gown would go with jewelry.
Peter: When he advised, suggested that she should use Rose and everything. She, it’s just leave there.
Oz: Don’t tell her to go. Even if she has this sympathetic look on her face, [00:22:00] she’ll, she’ll
Peter: learn to adjust .
Cryptte: Okay. Okay. If, if I could take your, the, a picture of your face as you said that about. We’ll put her the cover, the no that really capture, learn to adjust
Peter: What was seriously, what? Serious paper. Ali, Emma, you agree with me that what you are putting on has the most expensive version of it? Are you complaining? No. What, what she’s wearing has the most, So the thing is even the danu. , they, they’re own. They’re also allowed to dream, but don’t let it affect your future because you must.
Oz: It’s not like she knew it was going to get me
Peter: exactly, but she know that there are actions and consequences. What
Oz: is the consequence of having phone on one night? Every single time you’re going to do something, Do you sit down [00:23:00] and think this might happen? This might happen, was just, and then you think, Okay, I’m
Peter: not, do ok wait.
Peter: Good. She would, she would show the be. Mm-hmm. . First of all, I don’t like borrowing. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I don’t really like borrowing, especially when it has to do with
Cryptte: many. I think everybody doesn’t like borrowing when
Peter: it comes to pi back. That’s one. But it is market. But it is, it is it is it is very, very hard for me when I have borrow things like ga you know, all these juries or something because anything can happen unless it has either become some kind of a.
Peter: I don’t know. She was not going to be sent away from the party. She wasn’t wearing any,
Oz: She’s not gonna to stand out either. She needed to down. Humiliating being poor in a party. Woman. Thank you. Thank
Peter: you, Thank you. Now after, after hundred years. After hundred years, [00:24:00] I think the lesson now, eh, still me that
Peter: You can’t borrow posts. ,
Cryptte: you can. So long as you get quotes.
Peter: No, wait, wait. You can’t borrow, You don’t, don’t get caught. You don’t wait. Now don’t get caught. I’m going back to what we said earlier, like you can’t borrow, pose and still have your pride.[00:25:00]
Peter: After a hundred years, over a hundred years now, I think the lesson is if you think you have pride to not. the same pride that deprived them of telling the woman that ye who’ve lost your diamond. Okay. Now, I don’t think, I think, I don’t know which, which is worse for the woman to go around neighborhood saying, Oh, that Nicola, that she walk, that she was looking so beautiful was mine, or that she wore just a plain rose.
Peter: I [00:26:00] don’t know which, which is worse for women. I, I’m very much against, I mean, brewing unless it has become necessary necessarily. So now
Oz: the thing, it was necessary to her, it was very, very, was her necessary
Peter: for me to be the governor of cutting estate
Oz: out three. But I’m not from, That’s point what you see, we can make fake in letter.
Oz: Start with
Peter: that catch to be more than 10 years. What I’m saying consequences.
Oz: What you did it, you at
Peter: least maybe you got to be That’s cause I’m not, before
Oz: I’m For a month before they catch
Cryptte: you. Yeah. And you have pictures and videos to show on So media that I, you
Oz: won’t even have to dream about grandchildren will.
Oz: They
Cryptte: can’t, They can never remove it from the internet
Peter: a month. So really harsh
Cryptte: politics. Yes, . Kadu politics.
Cryptte: But then you say pride ba, for me, I think it’s more of embarrassment. I think, and this is me talking from a personal place. I can’t remember what it was exactly, but I know that something like this has happened to me before, but I don’t think I borrowed it. It was that the thing was left in my care and then it was damaged. And I couldn’t tell the person that it was damaged. I made sure I fixed it or got a new one or something, and then gave it to them.
Cryptte: When I was giving it to them I told them what had happened, and then the person heard the whole story and was like, but you didn’t have to go through all that stress and then you know what? Take it. But that was just one situation that could have turned. It could have gone in so many different directions.
Cryptte: But I understand. Like once I read it, I just understood exactly what she was going through, or at least that’s what I would like to believe. So I think it was more of, she revered this person so much that she didn’t want this person’s opinion of her to drop in anyway.
Cryptte: And so that’s why she had to make sure that she replaced this thing so that even if they’re broke, if they’ve lost everything, they can still maintain, she can still maintain her relationship with this person.
Cryptte: And I also agree with you that the husband enabled her. He didn’t have to be the one to pay the bills. He didn’t have to be the one to let go of certain luxuries. His wife could have done all of that instead. But because he was being a loyal husband, he decided to take the fall with her. And together they worked to pay off this loan and well pay off everything. I think it’s a necessary experience that they had to go through for their marriage. If this hadn’t happened, she would have probably just made some other silly mistakes and they probably wouldn’t be married.
Hanan: Now this is my point. Now this is my point, Cryptte. The writer is not telling you that they learned. That is my problem. Maybe I’m not seeing something. The writer is not telling us that the woman learned from her mistake.
Cryptte: Immediately after she discovered that it was a fake. Did the story continue?
Hanan: No.
Cryptte: Exactly. So it’s left to your interpretation.
Hanan: The writer left us to start having this argument, but from my own experience, he ended it for us when he tells us that the woman will have a flashback of that night. Right. So my point is I think it’s a beautiful story and somehow in different versions we would make this same mistake.
Hanan: Okay. We have, I come from a family of bullies. Yeah. Now my elder brother would, you know, lend me a shirt or a shoe then we will go out maybe to a cousin’s or to a friend’s, and they’ll be like, looking at you when they, you know, this awkward silence when nobody has anything to say, then they will say, omo Hannah, this my shirt fit you o.
Hanan: How do you react to that?
Oz: Next time you will not borrow?
Cryptte: N o, I’ll be like, don’t worry, the next one will look even better on me.
Hanan: Another one is, a friend bought a car while we were in university and he didn’t want the family to know. He was looking for, you know, a perfect moment to actually bring it bring it up that, yes, I’ve gotten a car.
Hanan: He parked it in my house, told me that, I mean, you could use it, you cannot leave it like that, you know. It’s a new car from Cotonou, Nigeria’s equation of new.
Hanan: You know this rush hour when you are going to Barnawa in the evening, somebody bashed me. I fixed the car, you know. I fixed the car and everything. I’m not pained because of the money I spent. I’m pained because the paint they used does not rhyme with the original paint. So there was a patch. He got to know that. Yes. Even though he told me, you know, when they say, oh it’s okay, but it’s not okay. Or when a woman tells you,
Cryptte: I’m fine, I’m fine.
Hanan: When a woman tells you I’m okay, that ‘it’s okay’ was, you know, very tormenting. I think everybody should be contented with what they have. And if you have to do something very expensive, I’m not blaming the woman for dreaming and all of that. If you have to use an iPhone 14 that is out, you are allowed to let go of some kind of luxuries, some of your luxuries or something.
Cryptte: You could fast.
Hanan: Food is not luxury. You have scale of preference. So whatever is most important for you, you should actually save for it and get it. And when you get it, I promise you, you’re going to be even more beautiful. And I think the reaction of people to her, was her own idea in the head. She would have put the rose around her neck and she would still look beautiful.
Cryptte: I think if this hadn’t happened, they wouldn’t be married 10 years later.
Hanan: And what tells you, what is telling you that after the debt has been paid off and everything is back to normal, she’ll still not repeat the same thing and the man will now say, ‘No, you did this before, and I suffered it. I’m not going to do it’ and they would divorce.
Cryptte: I don’t think she’ll do it again. I think the experience taught her humility. Did the writer tell you?
Cryptte: No, he didn’t.
Oz: The writer is dead, let’s leave him alone.
Cryptte: But then that’s it. You have chosen your own ending and I’ve chosen mine. And the reason why I say she has learned humility is because yes, she still thinks back to that day. Cryptte: The thing is, you can’t change the past, and it’s better to embrace all your decisions in the past than for you to live forever resenting yourself and regretting the decisions you made. So for her, I think remembering that day is like, ‘I went through all this wahala for this thing,’ remember it savour the memory and then that gingers her to actually continue the work.
Habiba: And I think if she had done it again, he wouldn’t have left her because you see in that time period it is as much a humiliating thing for him as it is for her, to go out with just a rose. He might have said it, but when they went to that party, some of the men would have told him, ‘hmm, see how you cannot afford diamond for your wife.’
Oz: Or they would not want to dance with his wife.
Habiba: Yes.
Hanan: Why would anybody want to dance with my wife in the first place?
Habiba: That is what they do at those parties?
Hanan: My problem is that,
Cryptte: Your problem is that you’re in the wrong society.
Hanan: Maybe, I don’t know. I don’t know if we’re understanding this on the same page. I’m reflecting on this now based on this period. Okay. You people are still talking about then. When I said the man will not take it again, I was talking about this contemporary life.
Habiba: No. A man now will not even tell her to go and borrow. He will tell her, ha ahn, you did not even bring it from your father’s house. Why would I be buying it for you?
Hanan: Are we making, excuse me, sorry. Sorry. Are we making ways, are we making this this basis to teach them hundreds years ago or, are we making this to actually educate this contemporary people.
Oz: Yeah, that’s a relevant question. If we take this story and put it right now in our present time, how relevant is it to, would we still learn the same lessons? What would be different?
Fresh: What I have to say has nothing to do with this. I’m waiting for those that are going to…,
Oz: Answer the question.
Cryptte: Lessons from this story,
Oz: If the story was in modern day.
Cryptte: Okay. Yeah. I don’t think it should happen present times,
Hanan: It does,
Cryptte: I know it does. But then the excuses that we can make for her, we can’t make them today.
Cryptte: She would have been, in her mind, alienated from her social circles in one way or the other by not attending that party. So she had to attend. And then by attending, she needed to represent or present an image, a certain image, which, okay, she didn’t need a diamond necklace to do it. She could have found something else that would just make her not look like a pauper. She chose to go for a diamond necklace, whatever.
Cryptte: But then she still had to attend that wedding, ah, sorry, party and she still had to look good for it. So even that sef, I can understand in modern times. There are lots of, we have weddings, we have naming ceremonies, we have second weddings, third weddings. We have parties, we have graduations, we have promotions, we have retirements.
Cryptte: Like there are just so many things to attend. And then you, you will think thatall that’s expected of us is to just attend, but I know they would say, You have to buy anko. Everybody needs to wear the same material. Or they wear the same t-shirts or something. If not, you’re not showing solidarity to the person. They would also expect you to contribute money because the person cannot afford to hold this party that you didn’t ask them to hold for themselves.
Cryptte: Because, if you can’t afford to hold the party, then why are you asking people to contribute money for it? Like all of these things. And even those people are doing it because of what they perceive society expects from them.
Hanan: From them, Yeah.
Cryptte: I was rich, or I held a really big position in so and so company. I cannot retire without having a retirement party. No. Everybody would think I’m poor. And the thing is he’s retiring. Is he going to see his gratuity? Is he going to see his pension? If he doesn’t, isn’t it these same people that he’s going to now come to and give them or pitch them his business idea that would actually keep him and his family afloat
Cryptte: So I think it’s still relevant in today. Yes, you have to consider your social status. Try to make sure that you do not piss off the right people and present yourself appropriately, but you should know where your limits are. Diamond necklaces, no, iPhones, like a lot of people that would kill themselves for an iPhone, probably don’t even know how to use an iPhone properly.
Hanan: Mm-hmm.
Cryptte: So what do you call it?
It’s cut your coats according to your clothes,
Hanan: According to your material.
Cryptte: Yeah whatever.
Hanan: like she should speak to you when, even when she’s not talking. Now, your wife cannot be criticiz. I mean diamonds, juries, and, and clothes. And you now bring,
Oz: it doesn’t make
Peter: sense. [00:38:00] And you are bringing this invitation card to, this is an invitation to actually show off wealth. And she has rag for.
Oz: No, she didn’t have rags for clothes. They’re just not new. Do you know that? You can’t. That’s how
Peter: she perceived like Rag. Now you have 400 friends for gone. You has been saving it.
Peter: He has been saving it. Yeah, She has it then. And you are not bringing this invitation like You know this is invitation and I, I brought this dress so that we can, there are so many things that we can do that would, I dunno, why he was surprised that the girl was not happy to, maybe, was not happy about it.
Peter: And again, you know, your wife and of co you should know your wife. You, you’re going to bring these things. Why don’t you look for one critical defect and look for. How, what’s name of the friend? What’s the [00:39:00] friend, What’s the friend’s name again? I’ve forgotten.
Oz: Madam
Peter: Forrester. Forrester. For,
Cryptte: For her song.
Cryptte: For,
Oz: for He.
Peter: You know, maybe use two friends to buy one defect diamond or something and present it to her as to same lies necessary for the married man, so that it would make her
Oz: happy. I think. I think the reason why demand did not do this too, one, he knows his wife, he knows whatever he buys, she’ll just be like, How much did you buy this thing?
Oz: Then you. I, I, It’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not the guy. Oh, wait, did you just say. Lying makes you smart. I want that to be on record. Cause you said you said you should, If he doesn’t lie, he dog,
Peter: I’m saying, should be the fancy one for being creative. Really.
Peter: Sorry. I [00:40:00] was.
Oz: I think it’s a beautiful thing. Love is a beautiful thing because, Oh, first, first. This smile literally hustled for his implication because he said Lots, don’t go to plaques and stuff. He loves his wife. He wants to show up his wife, regardless of how her or she behaves like or if she’s. Picco. He loves her.
Oz: He wants, I think he, he was like you don’t go out anymore. You’re always in the house. I want to make you happy. That why he got your, And then of course, he knew his wife did not want a new dream. So you know you have options. Don’t worry. How much would it take you to buy a new dress? She asked for the exact amount that he was saving up.
Oz: She knew how much was in his pocket. Okay. She calculated. Oh,[00:41:00]
Oz: woman used to nobody. There’s a saying that evil woman can just look at him and calculate how much. To de to deco in his pockets. So it’s no, it’s not making suggest she goes to my for, for, for.
Oz: So I think what it is for me is the beautiful thing that shared because not at any point. Yes. Was he like, Ah, look, how will you date? I didn’t know the writer. No. I think if he, if he ever regretted it, he would have, he would, He didn’t. He didn’t. He was happy. Pain as in boring.
Cryptte: He gave his wife a, a memory that she will never forget.
Peter: And you agree that is one thing. [00:42:00] Knowing how to do so is a whole lot. You understand? No, excuse me. The fact. She wants maybe a Samsung and I bought her, I that him, because it’s my own idea of what she would like. I still have a problem. The fact that she, he doesn’t know that invitation to a board like this requires.
Peter: It wasn’t that he didn’t know. No, he, him
Oz: possibly. He said that. They said that he, for forgot he had forgotten in this excitement to bring the invitation to. that she will need all this audit. So she reminded me that, What do you want me to go and do there? Show them that we are more and then said, Sta, and you have the rest I used to wear to go to.
Oz: And she said, They’re old. Why would I wear that? Said okay, how much.
Cryptte: For, because people at that bold would recognize it as the one that she wore to the theater she wore.
Peter: That’s my thing. That’s my,
Oz: that’s my, Sorry. [00:43:00] That, that’s my thing. Ki
Peter: okay. . Yeah. So I find the inter conversation very interesting. So a bit of, a bit do some reactions.
Peter: Okay. So I like the question. She asked about, I think if the story were inside one room, we’re talking about it now. Mm-hmm. Human actions are the same matter at time. Mm-hmm. So as much as it happened to age, you still have context of age. Yeah. Practices. So I’m looking at it from point of view, human actions, and I think they still happen now.
Peter: So things happen and usually it’s easier, the story is possible if, if like we keep emphasizing on knowing I’m not sure we completely know people to the extent that you feel that we should know them until every there is, there is already shared that okay, somehow, like you don’t know this person.
Peter: But that’s not the point. The point is most times, like in the case of this [00:44:00] man, you know from okay, the life lived and. Sometimes, sometimes know how they say, Okay, you want to do something for, so maybe you desire something. Okay, I want to do something for you. So instead of just doing it the basis, instead of doing the basis, I want to do extra.
Peter: Like they say, give mom, go the extra life. I think that was what my understand that was what he wanted to do for his wife. Like I don’t want just wear. Everyone expects you to react to be. We are. not to sure, but to also show that, okay, you are up to that standard sort of, that kind of, So and that’s, that’s the memory as a memory.
Peter: It, it created like the Osborn went beyond the expectations to do much more for his wife and for the rest of the life. He memory is going to stay to stay. So you do more than the requirements. That’s. It could have turned, it could have turned out [00:45:00] positive, just that eventually it didn’t work out Okay.
Peter: And that’s why we have the story. So, Yeah. Like, yeah. I think sometimes stories also reflect us, like, must like characters are like us. And of course she did what she, he didn’t need. You know, if we limited to to a certain boundary, wouldn’t have had this story. I wouldn’t had these conversations.
Peter: So I like the fact that okay, they did in that the mistakes are part of being human, being a man and a woman. Yeah. Okay.
Oz: So details ended the argument for all
Peter: True Today. True. .
Oz: Okay. This is there anything else you want to say, because I take home Okay. Take home, but in just one, one sentences. For me, my take home from this story would be that
Oz: be honest. Okay. I’m sorry. I’m going to take more than one sentence. . It’s a lack of honesty to [00:46:00] begin with. She wasn’t honest with herself to say, This is what, this is my lot in life and accepted. She wasn’t honest when she went and borrowed a necklace that she believed in all estimation that she could not.
Oz: Like she actually went out of her to pick the most expensive thing she thought was there. She wasn’t honest. She wasn’t honest also when she lost it and she couldn’t go to her friend to tell her. So for me it’s a lot of just to be honest, be true to yourself except what you have, except who you are and all of that.
Oz: That’s my thing.
Cryptte: For me Okay, so I say this often and I think my friends agree with me that I don’t really have much of a social life and that would probably cancel at what I’m about to say when the same way you could also say that’s the reason why I can’t say what I’m going to say. Our social status, the way people see us and.
Cryptte: how high we hold ourselves to this imaginary standard that we’ve [00:47:00] put in, at least in this day and age isn’t really as important as we make it out to be, because like I said, if I have no social life and I’m still able to exist, still have lots of friends, still have lots of family, still have people that look up to me have I’m a mentor to others, then it means that.
Cryptte: That social status, that presence that I’m supposed to have online or around the place. I actually do have a standing. It’s just not that I’m the, it’s not the kind of popularity that they’re looking for. I’m not famous and I’m not infamous. I’m just somewhere in between. So Popularities and everything.
Cryptte: You don’t need to stand out. You could just be like everybody else.
Oz: Thank you. My take home from this is like, It doesn’t matter the time of age, a hundred years or a hundred years in the future, humanity will remain humanity. We are humans. We are always going to make the same mistakes. We are going to have the same thought patterns.
Oz: The only thing that changes [00:48:00] is where we look at those terms. The way we look at this story and we can say, Yeah, she made the mistake, but it was because of her time period, this and that. And if someone does the same thing in this time period, we will have a different reason. Reason for why. Why she did it.
Oz: In the future, someone else will do it and they will have the same, a different reason for why they do it, but still the same. We’ll still do it. We still make those mistakes because we are human.
Peter: Okay. I, I was being very emotional with the story because this is more than a story to me. It is life.
Peter: And whenever this kind of thing happen, the fault is always one sided. It is always not one sided. And my take home was in Monday, so. Maybe, maybe you should just have some kind of policy about living within your own financial status, which [00:49:00] is currently not, I mean, possible with the current economic imbalances we have in Nigeria.
Peter: But then if, unless it is absolutely very important. , it should not happen. Thank you. Yeah. Being a human being is very hard and okay. That’s why we’re still there, having the same conversation over and over. Right. And affects all of
Cryptte: us, and
Peter: that’s why we’re trying to give, to be humans.
Oz: Yeah. Okay. This brings us to the end of the episode. Thank you so very much for being here with me once again. I had fun and I can wait to do this with you guys all over again. Bye. If you’ve enjoyed our chat and would like to continue the discussion, kindly followers on Twitter and Instagram at the Short Tells Club.
Oz: Also, you can find the story and other works by the ortho on Amazon using the link provided in our show notes. Doing so would greatly help the podcast [00:50:00] grow. Thanks in advance and see you next time.
