The Garden Party 
Katherine Mansfield

AUTHOR Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a well-known twentieth century writer. Her country was New Zealand. She got her education in England. She settled down in London. She wrote short stories, letters, journals and novels. Her most familiar themes are family ties. Her most important stories are Bliss and Other Stories, The Garden Party, The Dove’s Nest etc.

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SUMMARY and Analysis of “The Garden Party”

The Garden Party has an autobiographical dimension. It draws from Katherine’s childhood and upbringing in New Zealand. The story is a brilliant exploration of the mind of Laura Sheridan, a young girl.

The Sheridan’s belong to a rich upper class. When the novel opens, the Sheridan’s are preparing for a Garden Party (A lawn Party). We learn that Laura is the only good character in the story. She is the heroine or protagonist of the story.  She is hates the class distinctions. She feels a bit apologetic for her class privilege. This becomes clear when Laura is interacting with a marquee man. (A marquee is a large tent in which a big event like a garden party is held.) Laura feels disturbed on hearing that a young man who was a very poor neighbor has died due to an accident. She protests that the Sheridan family should not celebrate the garden party. Her mother, Mrs Sheridan says her that it quite absurd that Laura should think like this. All the family members are against her ideology.

Her mother further says her that the poor people do not have any such expectations from them. She however sends Laura with a basket of food to the house of the bereaved family. Here the story takes a serious turn with Laura’s entry into the world of the poor. The house of the dead man is symbolically located at the lower end of the Sheridan’s house. It is a world characterized by poverty and need.

The Sheridan family sees the dead body of the young man. Laura is besieged by a powerful feeling. She now realizes the pettiness and excess of her own social class. She sees the young man fast asleep. He was far away from their family. Being dead the young man had nothing to do with the garden parties, a basket of food and lace-frocks. These things belonged to the world of living men and women. A new sense of life had dawned upon Laura. There is something inspiring about death. The fact of death puts an end to all feelings of rich and poor, high and low, a big house and a small house. Death puts an end to all feelings of high and low, rich and poor.

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TEXT QUESTIONS

Q1. How does the narrator establish a sense of social class in the opening of the story?

Ans: The sense of the social class is established at the beginning of the story. The title “The Garden Party” of the story indicates the fact that Sheridan’s belong to rich upper class family as they enjoy the life. When the story opens, the Sheridan’s are preparing for garden party, while the family was busy with preparing for their party. Still they were preparing for the party the news arrives that one of the poor neighbor was accidently killed.   Laura who has humans in her heart and pleads to other family members for cancelling of the party. The family members reject this idea and say they cannot sacrifice their party for the poor person like him.

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