The Garden Party (short story)

The Garden Party is a 1922 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in the "Saturday Westminster Gazette" on 4 February 1922, then in the "Weekly Westminster Gazette" on 18 February 1922. It later appeared in "The Garden Party and Other Stories". [Katherine Mansfield, "Selected Stories", Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes]

Plot summary

The Sheridans are getting ready for a garden party. Laura is supposed to be in charge, but the workers appear to know better, and Mrs Sheridan has ordered lilies to be delivered for the party without her approval. Miss Jose tests the piano, and then sings a song in case she is asked to do so again later, the furniture is moved round, and then they learn that a poor neighbor, Mr Scott, who lives in a cottage near their main entrance, has died. While Laura fathoms the party should be called off, neither Jose nor her mother agree. The party is a success, and later Mrs Sheridan decides it would be good of them to bring a basket full of leftovers to the Scotts' house. She summons Laura to do so. The latter is let into the poor neighbors' house by Mrs Scott's daughters, then sees the matron herself and her late husband's corpse. The look in his eyes brings her to tears, and she runs off back to her own house, where she sobs into Laurie's arms.

Characters in "The Garden Party"

*Mrs Sheridan, the mother
*Laura Sheridan, one of three daughters
*The workers, who put up a marquee in the garden
*Meg Sheridan, a second daughter
*Jose Sheridan, a third daughter
*Laurie, a brother
*Kitty Maitland, a friend of Laura and a party guest
*Sadie, a house servant
*the florist, who delivers lillies ordered by Mrs Sheridan
*Cook, the house cook
*Godber's man, the delivery-man who brings in the cakes
*Mr Scott, a lower-class neighbour who has just died
*Mrs Scott, the deceased's widow.
*Em, Mrs. Scott's sister

Major themes

*class consciousness. Laura feels a certain sense of kinship with the workers and again with the Scotts. Her mother thinks it would embarrass them to receive flowers. An omniscient narrator also explains that as children Laura, Jose, Meg and Laurie were not allowed to go near the poor's dwellings, which spoil their vista.

References to other works

*The names Meg, Jose and Laurie may be related to Louisa May Alcott's 1868 "Little Women". [Katherine Mansfield, "Selected Stories", Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes]
*The characters are also used in 'Her First Ball'.Illusion versus reality. Laura is stuck in a world of high class housing, food, family and garden parties. She then discovers her neighbour from a lower class has died and she clicks back to reality discovering death. After trying to cancel the garden party Laura's brother comments on her magnificent hat and Laura immediately turns into her mother.

Literary significance

The text is written in the modernist mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative.

References

External links

* [http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/GardPart.shtml Full Text]