6/9/2015 1 MS. BOKPE PRE-SEMINAR STAGE OF A MARXIST (ANALYSIS) INTERPRETATION OF “THE GARDEN PARTY”

04/18/23

1MS. BOKPE

PRE-SEMINAR STAGE OF A MARXIST

(ANALYSIS) INTERPRETATION OF

“THE GARDEN PARTY”

SEMINAR CENTRAL FOCUS:

• To what extent is an individual conditioned by his social class?• What do we do when confronted with tragedy or injustice?• The author of the short story “The Garden

Party” Katherine Mansfield, provides some insights into this issue by narrating one day in the life of the protagonist Laura, her family, and her neighbours.• Let’s examine this story through a Marist Lens.

04/18/23 2

MARIST LENS

• One of the main principles of Marxism is that the proletariat (the lower, working class)can only survive by rising against the bourgeoisie (the upper, ruling class)

• Questions to ask:• 1) Who has the power and money? Who does not? What

happens as a result?• 2) How do individuals play out the roles assigned to

them by their society, not recognizing their lack of freedom to behave otherwise?

• 3) How does the representation of the world in the text—including the events narrated and roles of the characters—work to reproduce or sustain the prevailing social and economic order?

04/18/23 3

CHARACTERS: THE BOURGEOISIE (THE UPPER, RULING CLASS): SHERIDANS

• Laura, protagonist• Mrs. Sheridan• Meg & Jose (Laura’s sisters)• Laurie (Laura’s brother)

04/18/23 4

CHARACTERS: THE PROLETARIAT (THE LOWER, WORKING CLASS)

• Hans & Sadie (Sheridan’s servants)• Workmen in garden• Godber’s man (bakery)• The cook• Scott (killed at work, fell off horse)• People living in “little cottages…at the very

bottom of a steep rise that led up to the house”

04/18/23 5

SETTING: CONTRASTS THE RICH VS POOR

• Structured around an early afternoon garden party in New Zealand in the early 1920s• The plot is structured chronologically around

Laura, an idealistic young girl who wishes to cancel the planned afternoon party upon learning of the death of a working-class laborer who lives down the hill from her parents.• The Sheridan mansion vs “little cottages”

04/18/23 6

04/18/23 7

POINT OF VIEW: BOURGEOISIE PERSPECTIVE

• Third-person-limited • Immediately establishes irony because of the

distance between information and subject matter.• The narrator withholds information in favour of

limiting what she says to what Laura thinks and experiences• Laura does not understand what she experiences

until the end

04/18/23 8

POINT OF VIEW (CONT’D)

• The setting is ironic (a perfect day/death)• Laura’s innocence and light-heartedness at the

beginning• In interacting with the workmen• Her mother, and her brother• Laura wants to be like her mother (imitates her voice) but

mother is superficial

04/18/23 9

CONFLICT: INTERNAL/EXTERNAL

• Laura vs her family (human vs human)• Class conflict: Laura vs workmen (human vs

human) provides background to the story• Life of comfort of the family (the bourgeoisie) vs life of

hardship of the people of the village (the proletariat)

04/18/23 10

CONFLICT: THE BOURGEOISIE VS THE PROLETARIAT

It is that difference in class, and the inability of one class to understand the other, that Mansfield wants to expose.

• Laura’s inner conflict• Learns about life and death• That knowledge is staggering• Her background conflicts with the poverty and

experience of death

04/18/23 11

STYLE: STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS

• The story concerns Laura’s alternating moments of resistance and conformity to her mother’s idea of class relations.• Reveals Laura’s bourgeoisie vs proletariat conflict

04/18/23 12

STYLE: STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS

• Copying mother’s voice talking to workmen• Laura’s upbringing made her wonder for a

moment whether it was quite respectful of a workman to talk to her of bangs slap in the eye.• Why couldn’t she have workmen for her friends

rather than the silly boys she danced with…• It’s all the fault, she decided…of these absurd

class distinctions… Well, for her part, she didn’t feel them.

04/18/23 13

STYLE: STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS

• Laura identifies with the workmen “…how she despised stupid conventions”• Jose loved giving orders to the servants…• Laura tells Jose they have to cancel the garden

party once she learns of the accidental death• Jose replies “Stop the garden-party?...Nobody

expects us to. Don’t be so extravagant.”

04/18/23 14

STYLE: STREAM-OF CONSCIOUSNESS

• Juxtaposition: description of little cottages down the hill in contrast to Laura’s mansion• “the greatest possible eyesore” “little mean dwellings

painted a chocolate brown” “cabbage stalks”, “rags”, etc.• “You won’t bring a drunken workman back to life by

being sentimental” (Jose)• Laura goes to speak to her mother who responds like Jose

04/18/23 15

STYLE: STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS

• “But, dear child, use your common sense. It’s only by accident we’ve hear of it. If someone had died there normally—and I can’t understand how they keep alive in those poky little holes—we should still be having our party, shouldn’t we?”• “Mother, isn’t it terribly heartless of us?”

04/18/23 16

STYLE: STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS

• Mrs. Sheridan gives her a hat.• “You are being very absurd, Laura,” she said

coldly, “People like that don’t expect sacrifices from us. And it’s not very sympathetic to spoil everybody’s enjoyment as you’re doing now.”• Laura then sees her reflection in the mirror and

she forgets about the accident.

04/18/23 17

STYLE: SYMBOLS

• Hats used throughout the story to represent the superficiality of the rich• “bright birds” represent the rich• Party leftovers (sandwiches & pastries) represent

Mrs. Sheridan’s false guilt• Laura thinks to herself “Again, how curious, she

seemed to be different from them all. To take scraps from their part. Would the poor woman really like that?”

04/18/23 18

STYLE: SYMBOLS

• Story starts off with a perfect, bright day and end with darknessdarkness the day becomes dusk• “here she was going down the hillgoing down the hill to somewhere

where a man lay deaddead…• “mean little cottagesmean little cottages”, “a shadowa shadow”, “crab-like”,

“a dark knotdark knot of people outside”• “A little woman in blackblack showed I the gloom.”

04/18/23 19

STYLE: JUXTAPOSITION

• “What did garden-parties and baskets and lace frocks matter to him?”• Laura experiences life from the poor people’s

perspective.

04/18/23 20

STYLE: SYMBOLS

• “Forgive my hat”• Her hat contrasts with their poverty, and

emphasizes the superficiality of the rich.• “She found her way out of the door, down the

path, past all those darkdark people.”

04/18/23 21

THEME

• The story exposes the superficial attitudes of the rich towards the poor and how both classes misunderstandmisunderstand each other.• At the end Laura hides her feelings and

Laurie tries to comfort her. Laura is overcome with emotion at viewing a dead body. She is at a loss to understand life—perhaps it is not fair and is in fact cruel.• “Isn’t life….isn’t life—”• “Isn’t it, darling?” said Laurie.

04/18/23 22

THEME: COMING-OF-AGE

• Of a sensitive girl, the protagonist, Laura Sheridan• An awakening to “the hypocrisy of bourgeois

society” & middle class ruthlessness• Class unites & divides us• But the story is not just about the evils of class

• What drives the story are Laura’s perceptions, feelings, mix of emotions and her new insights about the contradictions of life.

04/18/23 23

CENTRAL QUESTIONS RAISED:

• Should the Sheridans have cancelled the garden party in light of the accidental death down the hill???• How is it possible for the bourgeoisie to

understand the proletariat and vice versa?• To what extent is an individual conditioned by

his social class?• What do we do when confronted with tragedy or

injustice?

04/18/23 24