The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield
- Brief biography of author
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp was born on October 14, 1888 in Wellington, New Zealand. She was born to Annie Burnell and Harold Beauchamp, he who was a successful Wellington business. George Bowden and John Middleton Murray were the spouse of Mansfield. In 1903 she travelled to England and spend four years there attending Queens College in London. There she became the friend of D.H Lawrence and Virgina Woolf.
In 1906 she returned to New Zealand unwillingly. And there she began to practice writing by experimenting with stories and sketches. In 1907 Mansfield began publishing stories in Australian Magazines. In 1908 she returned to London and determined to become a literary artist. In 1910 dropped her surname and settled on Katherine as her first name. In 1981 she had a major Hemorrhage and died on January 9, 1923 (aged34) in Fontainebleau, France.
Some of notable works of Katherine are:
- The Garden Party.
- Bliss.
- Prelude.
During her writing career Mansfield was incredibly inspired by the works of Oscar Wilde and Anton Chekhov.
- Brief introduction of the short story
This is the short story about a vibrant young woman named, Laura. She is the central character of this story. The family of Laura including her mother, father, brother and sister got ready for the party on behalf of inviting the guests to the party. Unfortunately an unpleasant news arrives at them. A man named Scott has been killed in an accident, a man who lived in a lower class cottage next to their house.
On hearing this incident Laura’s instinctive reaction is that to stop the party. But her family members did not accept it and they wanted to continue the party as they got ready.
After finishing the party Laura’s mother send her to the funeral house providing her a bouquet of flowers to hand over to the wife of dead man. As soon as she gave the bouquet she went to the bedroom where the corpse has been laid out. As she see the corpse, she is not horrified. She saw the corpse as merely sleeping on bed and sees the death as something calm and beautiful.
The story ends ambiguously. Laura comes home and meets her brother trying to say something but cannot because no words to interpret it. She thinks that her brother could understand what she tries to say.
For more information
- “Katherine Mansfield – Biography” Great Authors of World Literature, Critical Edition Ed. Frank Northen Magill. eNotes.com, Inc. 1997 eNotes.com 27 Jul, 2019.
- http://www.enotes.com/topics/Katherinmansfield#biographybiography-biography-biography
- “Katherine Mansfield – Biography” Literary Essentials: Short Fiction Masterpieces Ed. Charles E. May. eNotes.com, Inc. 2001 eNotes.com 27 Jul, 2019.
- http://www.enotes.com/topics/Katherinmansfield#biographybiography-biography-biography-1
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