Katherine Mansfield-The Garden Party (1922)

Who was Katherine Mansfield? 

Katherine Mansfield aimed to address the feminine experience in her writing, as many believed that women’s literature did not qualify as high literature. Her writing consists of experimental fiction that explores the female inner life and the social roles women must adopt in a society dominated by men. She delves into the psychological introspection happening in the minds of women, observing their struggles to survive in a male-dominated world and examining the effects of gender roles on their lives. In this story, we observe Mansfield's examination of a woman's personality and conduct. Katherine Mansfield delves into character introspection, as she aims to uncover the inner workings of her characters’ minds and to illustrate for us readers the harmful effects that women’s social roles in a patriarchal society can have on women. She is interested not only in women’s social and family lives and its significant effects on women’s private lives but also, specifically, in the everyday life of women. 

What is the story of "The Garden Party" about?

·The story centres around a garden party that the protagonist Laura arranges with the help of her mother, as well as the revelation of the death of an individual who is very poor named Mr. Scott. 

·Laura is exploring her teenage years as she transitions into womanhood. Along the way, she is entrusted with certain responsibilities. She must assist in organizing the garden party and is quite occupied with its preparations; however, she then learns of the death of a man who lives close to them. 

·She wishes to call off the party, but her family, specially her mother, tell her that she is acting foolishly, as they see no justification for canceling the event even though a man has died. This is because they are superficial people who are not willing to cancel a rich party for the death of their poor neighbor. 

·After the party, they take some leftover food from the event to bring to the grieving family of the deceased man. Allegedly, she experiences a moment of revelation upon seeing the corpse.

 

Important quotes from the story: 

·“They were the greatest possible eyesore, and they had no right to be in that neighborhood at all.”: We see the clear judgment Laura feels for the lower classes of society, and seems to only want the exclusivity and privilege of there being only houses of her own social class there. The phrase highly shows a lack of empathy on Laura’s part, since she doesn’t seem aware of the troubles and hardships that the lower social classes have to deal with in their daily lives, in contrast with her perfect and comfortable life.

·“In the garden patches there was nothing but cabbage stalks, sick hens and tomato cans.”: At the beginning of the story, Laura's garden is described as a beautiful landscape with a great climate condition, so it is an idyllic version of nature, whereas in this fragment the garden is not idyllic, it is explained as if the land was abandoned and there are only some rests left, like the tomato cans mentioned in the text. Moreover, the garden has sick hens, so it plays a contrast with the beauty created in Laura's garden where nothing is imperfect.

· In the text it is said that “When the Sheridans were little they were forbidden to set foot there because of the revolting language and what they might catch”: When she thinks of her neighbors, she immediately associates them with poverty, as she has been taught from a young age to stay away from the working-class and to look down on their social condition, instead of showing compassion.