You are on page 1of 18

A Slice of Life

As seen in the works of


Katherine Mansfield

A Slice of Life as seen in


The Garden Party
Bliss
The Dolls House
Miss Brill
All by Katherine Mansfield

How the form A slice of life


Is portrayed among selected texts
Helps to communicate real life situations
and themes
Allows for insights into Mansfields own
personal experiences

How the form A Slice of Life is


portrayed
Minimal plot
Although Bertha Young was 30, she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of
walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavementWhat can you do if you are 30 and, turning
the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly, by a feeling of Bliss absolute bliss
Bliss

Use of interior monologue and dramatises


dialogue
Lauras upbringing made her wonder for a moment whether it was quite respectful of a workman to talk of her bangs
slap in the eye
- The Garden Party

Specific choice of detail


There stood the dolls house, a dark, oily, spinach green, picked out with bright yellow. Its two solid chimneys were
painted red and white, and the door, gleaming with yellow varnish, was like a slab of toffee
- The Dolls House

The form A Slice of Life reflects


real life events and themes

The garden Party - Laura feels her garden party should be


cancelled due to the death of a man in a near by suburb. Themes
death, class distinctions
Bliss - Story of Bertha Young, a women who is overcome by
absolute bliss one afternoon only to discover later that evening that
her husband is having an affair with a woman Bertha considered to
be a loyal friend. Theme - the role of women in society
The Dolls house - about two young sisters, Isabel and Kezia who
receive a dolls house as a present. They are keen to show all their
friends from school the dolls house however their mother
disapproves of two girls visiting the dolls house simply because of
their lower social class. Themes Class distinction , childhood

How the form A slice of life allows for insights into


Mansfields own personal experiences
Katherine Mansfield

Laura Sheridan
Garden party)

Upper class
Experiences the
death of a
neighbour

(The

Upper class
Experiences the
death of her brother

How the form A slice of life allows for insights into


Mansfields own personal experiences
Bertha Young (Bliss)

Katherine Mansfield

Upper class

Upper class

Discovers her
husbands disloyalty

Intrigued by the
scandalous affairs of men
and women

How the form A slice of life allows for insights into


Mansfields own personal experiences
The Dolls House

Katherine Mansfield

a realistic image of an
upper class childhood
in New Zealand

Grew up in an upper
class family in New
Zealand

Characteristics of Katherine
Mansfields short stories

Uses environment to convey feelings


Uses poetic prose. Why am I haunted every single day of my life by the
nearness of death and its inevitability? KM
Central concern is presentation of the characters and development of their
relationships in considerable depth.
Arresting openings
Her finest stories are those in which she returns to her NZ background.
Time and action contracted into small episodes.
Tends to highlight a single theme in each story.
Characters rarely described by the author.
Stories suggest rather than state.
No plots
Some main themes are loneliness, exclusion, class consciousness, growing
up, disillusionment, life and the light thrown on it by death.

Cont.

Stories just open and unfold.


Sometimes involves reader by use of interior monologue.
Often invests a special object with a particular significance becomes a
symbol.
Most skillful and characteristic device is her technique of switching voices
within the narrative structure.
Limited number of characters.
KM own family appear in different guises, e g Burnells/Sheridans.
Climax moment of realisation or truth within the experience of the main
character.
Little external action most main action is inward feelings, thoughts and
attitudes.
Stories simply arrest and expand a moment or incident in order to reveal a
character through it.
Background and setting an integral part of stories.

How is character revealed?

Miss Brill
Interior Monologue
An insight into how reader feels about
character
Actions / reactions to an event.
Methodical person breaking a routine /
event she usually does once a week
Actions / Speech
What the young lovers say Why
doesnt she keep her old mug at
home?
Her fur which is so funny
Direct contrast to how Miss Brill feels
about herself.

Bliss
Slice of Life

Actions / reactions to an event.


Bertha in a state of Bliss finds out at
end of story that life is quite different.
Actions / Speech
What Pearl says to Bertha and what
Harry says to Pearl.

The garden and the pear tree


Bertha truly believes that life is
wonderful and full of Bliss

Cont.
Use of symbolism
Fur symbolic of only friend hence hurt
feelings when returns to box.
Red eiderdown symbolic of hurt feelings
Her room like a cupboard
Symbolic of loneliness in Miss Brills life
dark despairing life she leads reveals
important facts about her.

Character emotionally complex


Little or no physical description
necessary stories revolve around
emotional complexities of character.

Fire and sun dominate the first half


of the story to highlight how blissfully
happy Bertha is . These are warm and
light images. shed swallowed a bright
piece of the late afternoon sun
fire n her bosom and fire of bliss
represents passion
The pear tree is mentioned at the
beginning and at the end of the story. It
is flowering and gives fruit. It is
symbolic of Berthas life and with her
feelings of bliss. Bertha wears green at
the dinner party.
It is seen as a symbol of her own life
by her (sexuality in her prime/Spring
new life)

Cont.

It represents perfection- outside time


all together. This represents Berthas
desire to live in a perfect world.
Even at the end, Bertha is holding onto
this dream/fanasty.
Colours In the fruits, carpet, room.
Represents happiness. Bertha tries to
achieve perfection
Pearl is dressed in silver and her
fingers emanate a silver light like the
moon. She is associated with a
Crescent moon meaning that not all is
revealed which is what Pearl is like.
Cats foreshadowing events.
Food symbolism in how food is
arranged. Eddie Warren talking about
poem called tomato soup.

Themes

Central Theme
Pain of loneliness
Inadvertent attempts to experience life
through experience of total strangers.

Central Theme
Social Commentary
Social satire
Foolish aspects of middle class society
Emotional drama
Sophisticated is superficial
Eddie Warren introduced to show how things
are superficial. Exaggerated taxi ride.
Characters are made to appear inadequate.
Bertha is an example of this
Berthas world is materialistic and pretentious.
(grapes are chosen to go with the purple
carpet).
Characters do not choose to comment on social
issues or problems.
Disillusionment This theme is one we have to
interpret for ourselves. It is implied, but not
stated.
Communication At the party is superficial and
shallow.

I want to write about my home


country until I simply exhaust
myself Oh, I want for one moment
to make our undiscovered country
leap into the eyes of the world
- Katherine Mansfield

You might also like