The Doll's House (short story)

"The Doll's House" is a 1922 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in The Nation and Atheneum on 4 February 1922 and subsequently appeared in The Doves' Nest and Other Stories (1923). Mansfield used an alternative title in other editions, including "At Karori".[1]

Major themes

1) The school is portrayed as a melting pot or mixing of all social classes, and the Kelveys as the lowest of the social classes. The other children are discouraged from talking to them; they are outcasts. The Burnells (Kezia, Isabel and Lottie) are one of the higher-ranking families. Class distinction is also a major theme of this short story.

2) The author of “The Doll’s House” is commenting on how hard it is to raise one’s social status. The class that a person is born in is usually the class where they spend the rest of their life. It is hard to change their future because everyone else is so focused on their parents’ past. The Kelvey children can not be accepted by the other children at school and other families because of the social-state of their parents.

Literary significance

The text is written in the modernist mode, with minute details and haphazard narrative voices.

References

  1. ↑ Mansfield, Katherine. "explanatory notes". Selected Stories. Oxford World's Classics.
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