Universität Trier
Übung: Introduction to Literature

A short interpretation and analysis of Katherine Mansfield’s
“The Garden Party”

Wintersemester 2003/04

Table of contents

Introduction ... 2

Analysis and Interpretation ... 2

Conclusion ... 5

Bibliography ... 6

Introduction

“People began coming in streams. The band stuck up;[..]Ah, what happiness it is to be with people who all are happy, to press hands, kiss cheeks, smile into eyes.”¹ This is what one expects to read when he or she opens a book with the title “Garden Party” but the events in Katharine Mansfield’s story, are completely different and complex. This analysis and interpretation is going to focus on selected main points of the story due to the shortness of the essay. Due to this reason I will not divide the main part into different subsidiary points. But still I hope that I am able to provide a good insight into the world of K. Mansfield’s garden party for the reader of this short written term paper.

Analysis and Interpretation

The short story “The Garden Party” written by in the New Zealand born British writer, Katherine Mansfield, is set presumably in New Zealand at the beginning of the 20^th century. The Sheridan family lives on a hill in mansion with servants² ,a tennis court³, a huge garden and lawns that require a gardener⁴.

According to page 2198 it’s summer: “And after all the weather was ideal. […] Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud”.

The family is bound to have a party in their garden. According to the title, this is the main event of the story, however the title is misleading. The essential plot is about a young girl who discovers her difference from her mother and class.

This protagonist of the story is the teenage daughter of the house, Laura Sheridan.

[...]

1 Mansfield, Katherine. “The Garden Party” 1921. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. page 2205

2Mansfield, Katherine. “The Garden Party” 1921. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. e.g. page 2201.

3 ibid, page 2199.

4 ibid, page 2198.