Tylistic Analysis of Katherine Mansfield’s Garden Party
Stylistic Analysis of Katherine Mansfield’s
Garden Party
To better comprehend our course: Style in Fiction, I have selected a short story the Garden Party, so as to analyze in terms of styles.
1. About the writer and the story
1.1 About the writer Beforehand, I’d like to give a brief introduction of the short story’s writer Katherine Mansfield and the short story. Katherine was born in Wellington, New Zealand, into a middle-class colonial family in 1888. She studied at Queens College, London, where she met and later married her husband, a famous critic. Mansfield‘s creative years were burdened with loneliness, illness, jealousy, alienation - all this reflected in her work with the bitter depiction of marital and family relationships of her middle-class characters. Her short stories are also notable for their use of stream of consciousness. Like the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, Mansfield depicted trivial events and subtle changes in human behavior. 1.2 About Garden Party Garden Party(1921), which Mansfield wrote during the final stages of her illness, has being the peak of her achievement. Alpers said that Garden Party was based on Mansfield’s real life (Alpers, 1980). Laura, a daughter from a family of upper-middle class, who is preparing for the coming garden party, hears of the accidental death of a young local working-class man, Mr. Scott. The man lived in the neighborhood. The little girl goes into a bad mood immediately, asking her mother stopping such a party, while everyone thinks Laura’s proposal is ridiculous and extravagant. She fills a basket with sandwiches, cakes, and other uneaten food, goes to the widow’s house, and sees the dead man in the bedroom where he is lying. "He was wonderful, beautiful. While they were laughing and while the band was playing, this marvel had come to the lane." Crying she tells her brother who is looking for her: "‘It was simply marvelous. But, Laurie - ‘She stopped, she looked at her brother. ‘Isn’t
Garden Party
To better comprehend our course: Style in Fiction, I have selected a short story the Garden Party, so as to analyze in terms of styles.
1. About the writer and the story
1.1 About the writer Beforehand, I’d like to give a brief introduction of the short story’s writer Katherine Mansfield and the short story. Katherine was born in Wellington, New Zealand, into a middle-class colonial family in 1888. She studied at Queens College, London, where she met and later married her husband, a famous critic. Mansfield‘s creative years were burdened with loneliness, illness, jealousy, alienation - all this reflected in her work with the bitter depiction of marital and family relationships of her middle-class characters. Her short stories are also notable for their use of stream of consciousness. Like the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, Mansfield depicted trivial events and subtle changes in human behavior. 1.2 About Garden Party Garden Party(1921), which Mansfield wrote during the final stages of her illness, has being the peak of her achievement. Alpers said that Garden Party was based on Mansfield’s real life (Alpers, 1980). Laura, a daughter from a family of upper-middle class, who is preparing for the coming garden party, hears of the accidental death of a young local working-class man, Mr. Scott. The man lived in the neighborhood. The little girl goes into a bad mood immediately, asking her mother stopping such a party, while everyone thinks Laura’s proposal is ridiculous and extravagant. She fills a basket with sandwiches, cakes, and other uneaten food, goes to the widow’s house, and sees the dead man in the bedroom where he is lying. "He was wonderful, beautiful. While they were laughing and while the band was playing, this marvel had come to the lane." Crying she tells her brother who is looking for her: "‘It was simply marvelous. But, Laurie - ‘She stopped, she looked at her brother. ‘Isn’t