Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Laura Sheridan
Garden party)
Upper class
Experiences the
death of a
neighbour
(The
Upper class
Experiences the
death of her brother
Katherine Mansfield
Upper class
Upper class
Discovers her
husbands disloyalty
Intrigued by the
scandalous affairs of men
and women
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
Cont.
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
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.
Cont.
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.