Her First Ball

Her First Ball is a 1921 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in "The Sphere" on 28 November 1921, and later reprinted in "The Garden Party and Other Stories". [Katherine Mansfield, "Selected Stories", Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes]

Plot summary

A young girl called Leila has come to the city to stay with her cousins, the Sheridans (who also appear in "The Garden Party.") As the story opens, they are going to a ball. Leila is very excited: this is her first ball. Once there, she is both excited and terrified. After dancing with several young men, she dances with an old balding man who has been coming to balls for 30 years. He tells her that she will eventually grow old and only watch the dances, regretting her lost youth and beauty. For a moment, the magic of the occasion is spoilt. Then another young man asks Leila to dance, and her worries disappear.

Characters

*Leila, a cousin of the Sheridan Girls in "The Garden Party". She is 18 years old.
*Laura
*Laurie
*Meg
*Miss Eccles, Leila's dance teacher at boarding school.
*Jose
*the first partner
*the second partner
*the fat man
*the third partner
*the fourth partner

Major themes

*loss of innocence
*love

Literary significance

The text is written in the modernist mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative.The main themes of the story are very dramatically portrayed through leila's reactions and her emotions.

Footnotes