the garden party and other stories by katherine mansfield

Yet his death has set in motion changes they so desperately desire, as does the death of Fenlla’s mother in 'The Voyage. The death of their father in 'Daughters of the Late Colonel' forces Josephine and Constantia Pinner to revaluate their circumstances and to embrace their new found freedom but they find that even in death their father’s opinions still hold them captive. Ma Parker in 'Life of Ma Parker' suffers the loss of her favorite grandson, Lennie, and yearns to grieve for all of the tragedies she has endured in her difficult life. Scott’s death in 'The Garden Party' awakens in Laura Sheridan, the main character, a dislike of her family’s elitism. DeathĪ minor theme in comparison to life, death is the catalyst by which change occurs in a number of key stories within the overall work. Mansfield was particularly interested in how women view the world and featured several female protagonists, a unique point of view for her time period. Instead she focused on the trivialities, the small moments that linger in the minds of her characters and acted as epiphanies, making way for character transformations and new beginnings. Mansfield was not interested in a grand or spanning picture of life. The stories’ narratives encompass an examination of those lives concentrating on the opinions, emotions, dreams, fears, and especially the innermost anxieties of the main characters. Each of the stories focuses on a specific moment in time in the lives of the characters. The prevailing theme in The Garden Party and Other Stories is the examination of life and its particularities.

The garden party and other stories by katherine mansfield