Katherine Mansfield – Assessment Task

Engaged in the real world of the 20th century, modernist writer Katherine Mansfield depicts her short stories and her strong beliefs on feminism, social issues and relationships through the voice of characters contained in her ‘Collection of Short Stories.’ With narrative anthologies exploring a vast range of dysfunctional relationships, Mansfield argues they should be a matter of personal choice. Her experiences growing up in New Zealand heightened her awareness of the discontinuities, lacunae, and constrictions of 20th century life. Following with her journeys around the world, where she absorbed the condescending ethics of social class around a patriarchy society, which she demonstrates throughout her narratives. The concept that relationships should be a matter of choice is portrayed by the views of multiple characters in Mansfield’s ‘Prelude’.

‘Prelude’ is the first story in the collection and is an essential reading, like its sequel, ‘At the bay.’ Initially, the Burnell family are moving from the city to the country. The three children are neglected by their parents, Linda and Stanley and are predominantly raised by their grandmother, Mrs Fairfield. The Burnell’s being ‘upper class’ use language primarily to establish control over their environment, “we shall simply have to cast them off.” This contrasts with the linguistic style of the Samuel Josephs who are ‘lower class’ and the reader assumes to be less educated, “you come and blay in the dursery”. Mansfield writes with such strong descriptive language that the story is played out visually for the reader, “she had a comb in her fingers and in a gentle absorbed fashion she was combing the curls from her mother’s forehead.” Through this technique we know Linda is unhappy in her marriage and ironically her envious sister Beryl Fairfield contrarily wishes she was in one. Beryl fantasises of love, “A young man… meets her by chance, the new governor is unmarried.” To succeed in society in the 1900’s was to get married and have children, all the things Beryl longs for, unlike Linda. Stanley wants to have a son who can carry on his name after he dies but Linda feels as though she is just a child breeder, “I have had three great lumps of children already” and she wants none of it. The author relates child bearing to an aloe plant, Linda admires the aloe's inherent self- protection against violation - the “long, sharp thorns” as she has none, nothing to protect her from her husband. Like in the writer’s narrative ‘Sixpence,’ a family friend pressures the Bendall Family into whipping their attention-seeking boy Dicky, Linda is pressured by her husband and influenced by society to have a boy who would carry on the Burnell family name. Consequently, in the sequel, the Burnell’s have a son, “the boy” and Beryl still is unwedded and desperately looking for someone.

The Burnell’s are on a holiday at Crescent Bay, also in New Zealand, along with the Harry Kembers who are in an open marriage, “he ignored his wife just as she ignored him.” The writer thoroughly describes the natural setting. Throughout the narrative, Mrs Harry Kember shows an interest in Beryl and expresses her adoration, “mercy on us, what a little beauty you are” but Beryl turns cold and harsh when Mrs Harry Kember touches her waist. Beryl springs away with a small affected cry of “Never” – society would never approve, and that’s all she cares about. Beryl wants a man, a “knight in shining armour.” Mr Harry Kember later tries to “drag her into the fuchsia bushes” but she understands what he is implying and wrenches her arm free, whilst calling him a “cold little devil.” Though this is the fantasy she has desired, Beryl chooses to run away as he is a “married man” and she will get nowhere in society by furthering her relationship with him. The reader observes the relationship between the Harry Kembers to be more satisfactory than the Burnell’s because at least the two are honest with each other, they know where they stand. Mansfield presents the sisters in this story as uncontrollable of their dysfunctional relationships until Beryl stands up for herself much like the protagonist in ‘The Little Governess.’

Mansfield doesn’t give the ‘little’ governess a name, hence allowing the reader a greater possibility to relate to her. The reader assumes this woman is young and innocent by the writer addressing her as ‘little’. She is a naïve, English woman travelling by train to Germany, contrasting with the independent ‘narrator’ in ‘Frau Fischer’. The governess befriends an old man on her journey that she considers to be like a grandfather, “what a perfect grandfather he would make.” This persuasive man leads her to his home after showing her around, Munich “this has been the happiest day of my life.” The deceitful grandfather figure abducts “a kiss” without her consent “On the mouth, where not a soul who wasn’t relation had ever kissed her before.” The reader is shocked by this man’s decisions and is as startled as the governess: both are lead to believe that the man’s intentions were purely innocent. The little governess has been taken advantage of and is a victim of a relationship that has gone drastically wrong. After escaping from the man she finds herself encountering an unnamed waiter she met earlier in the narrative. He tells her abruptly that the woman she was meant to meet had left and wouldn’t be coming back, “I told her you had arrived and gone out again immediately with a gentleman.” The waiter seems satisfied with the misfortune he has delivered the governess. The waiter’s judgemental attitude underlines the patriarchal and conservative society that ‘The Little Governess’ is set within. As an outsider to Germany, the little governess is now lost physically and mentally; who could she trust? Mansfield writes many stories providing perspectives of foreign women in other countries; the short story ‘Frau Fischer’ is another example of this.

Dysfunctional relationships are reflected in ‘Frau Fischer’ with the characters having nothing in common and holding different opinions of marriage and child bearing. The narrator of the story is also an English woman and she observes Frau Fischer enter the ‘Pension Muller’, a 20th century equivalent of a day spa where all the characters are staying. “Every year I come expecting to find you with an empty nest” the overbearing, superficial Frau Fischer expresses to the proprietor, Frau Hartmann. Frau Hartmann replies “We are such a happy family since my dear man died.” This is Mansfield’s way of showing another character having her own opinion and breaking with patriarchal tradition and having less of an emphasis on the need for a husband. Later when the narrator and Frau Fischer meet, the narrator’s first impression is that this lady is a busy body needing to know everyone else’s business. After being insulted by Frau Fischer the narrator ascends to her room, but is again disturbed by Frau Fischer who imposes her personal space, saying she interrogates all the guests, “I squeeze them dry like a sponge.” The narrator saves herself having to explain why she isn’t married and avoids revealing herself as low in social status by telling Frau Fischer she is married to a sea captain who is, coincidently, away on a voyage. The reader understands why the narrator would lie; she appears not to want to have conversations such as this. When the narrator says she is fine with her ‘husband’ being away Frau Fischer opines saying “that cannot be true because it is not natural.” Frau Fischer thinks she knows best, “My dear, I am a woman of experience” and comes across as having a conservative view of partnering relationships, “handfuls of babies, that is what you are really in need of.” But the narrator refuses to agree with Frau Fischer because she considers, “childbearing the most ignominious of all professions.” The narrator resists social pressure to define herself in terms of her sex and child bearing. Ironically Frau Fischer as a woman is prospering the patriarchal tradition. At the end of the story, the narrator’s dislike of Frau Fischer is underlined by her refusal to squeeze her hand, “She squeezed my hand, but I did not squeeze back.” Mansfield is known for her unfavourable portrayal of Germans, and we, like Mansfield, are subconsciously alert when we are confronted by an overbearing elitist, no matter what country they are from. Frau Fischer is all of these things. Like the narrator, some women in Mansfield’s collection begin to have more of a say in their relationships, as Fraulein Sonia demonstrates in ‘A Modern Soul’.

The author snipes at German middle class continuously and writes herself in as a clever outsider however in reality she appears immature. The character of Fraulein Sonia is an actress; she spends her days looking after her mother but longs for escape, “sometimes I think the solution lies in marriage.” Fraulein Sonia doesn’t want her mother marrying a second time before she herself gets married, “mamma to marry again before I marry – the indignity.” So, foolishly, Sonia faints, causing her acquaintance, the narrator, annoyance; she dashes off to find help from Herr Professor, an un- married, eligible and handsome man. Mansfield draws the line between married and un-married women in society. “On the appointed day the married ladies, sailed about the Pension dressed like upholstered chairs, and the un-married ladies like draped muslin dressing table covers.”

The next day, Herr Professor and Fraulein Sonia are not seen in the dining room and are assumed to be out on an excursion to the woods. We, like the narrator, ponder whether Fraulein Sonia’s acting paid off. Mansfield presents a romance easily found within a night; this contrasts back to Beryl, from ‘Prelude’ and ‘At the bay’ longingly looking for a husband but not succeeding. Fraulein Sonia chooses to get into a relationship whilst simultaneously removing herself from the dysfunctional one with her mother. No pressure was put onto this young lady to find a husband so suddenly, but she felt it was her only escape so she evidently she had the choice. Peer pressure accustoms people to do things they wouldn’t usually do, which inflicts problems for the family as it did for the Bendall’s from ‘Sixpence’ from Mansfield’s ironically labelled, ‘Something Childish’ anthology. Furthermore, the character Vera in ‘A Dill Pickle’ chooses the fate of her relationship.

Vera is strong enough to make the choice not to again repeat history and be partners with ‘him’. As society dictates, it is not an issue for men not to get married and nor do they have to concern themselves deeply with relationships. Vera has the chance to change her social class but declines, as she is happier without a man who after 6 years, is only interested in her “beautiful voice” not what she has to say. We, like Mansfield, recognise ‘he’ is mocking Vera, “I know I am going to love you too much, far too much. And I shall suffer terribly Vera, because you never, never will love me.” He is wealthy and brags that he has been on all the journeys she longed to go on. Rather than being carried away by ‘him’ Vera would prefer to be alone, “I am alone as ever.” Vera leaves, “It’s quite a well-known form of…She had gone.” This story doesn’t follow the trend of the women in Mansfield’s stories where they give into men just to avoid being assigned lower class and shunned from society. The spinster, old ‘Miss Brill’, is an example of a woman shunned. Fraulein Sonia is a young woman wanting to get married. But no one is as desperate for marriage as Beryl or Miss Meadows from ‘The Singing Lesson’ who continues her dysfunctional relationship with her fiancé even though he couldn’t care enough to scratch the word ‘disgust’ out of her letter until it were unreadable.

The protagonist Miss Meadows’ mood is affected by her fiancé, who cannot seem to make up his mind about how he feels about her. She is set on marrying him but gets a letter from him saying he is not a “marrying man.” This breaks her heart and the metaphoric music her choir is singing mixes with her feelings, “every note was a sigh, a sob, a groan of awful mournfulness.” The narrative intelligence by Mansfield is simultaneously sympathetic for and mocking of Miss Meadows. She “could never face the science mistress or the girls once it got known”. The whole problem is not that he doesn’t really love her enough to be wedded. The problem is the fact that she would continue to ‘fail’ in society without a husband. The fiancé didn’t have the decency to completely scratch out the word ‘disgust’ in his letter. “I feel more strongly now that our marriage would be a mistake… the idea of settling down fills me with nothing more but… and the word, ‘disgust’ was scratched out lightly and ‘regret’ written over the top.” This expresses to the reader that he really has no feelings for this woman, and doesn’t care how she would feel when reading it. Miss Meadows tries to force herself into thinking he loves her, “but she knew he didn’t love her.” Later she gets a telegram saying that he now wants to get married again. She is delighted by this message regardless of the previous thoughts she had. The short story depicts a situation where the relationship’s future is dictated by one partner’s actions. The fiancé chose to not be with Miss Meadows and later chose to be with her. One wonders what the future would hold for a woman who places her self-satisfaction in the hands of a man who is apparently so feeble minded and prone to changes of mind. The fiancé gets away with his actions unlike Mr Bendall who will forever regret giving “Dicky three hard slaps.”

Peer pressure plays a part in all of Mansfield’s stories; society in general or an individual influences each narrative. In comparison to the traditional 20th century, where Mansfield writes from, and the 21st century our personal attitudes have changed about relationships and gender equality for the better. It is not so much about women relying on a man to succeed in society, it is now a matter of personal choice, both genders being equally involved in decision making, as expressed somewhat through two of her stories ‘A Dill Pickle’ and ‘The Singing Lesson.’ Collectively Mansfield depicts all kinds of relationships, from uneasy acquaintances in ‘Frau Fischer’, to family problems ‘Sixpence’ all the way to romance issues and the women longing for marriage or to get out of one, ‘Prelude’ and ‘At the bay.’ The fear of being alone plays a part of many individuals’ lives such as Fraulein Sonia, however, conversely some people long to find a place of solace such as the narrator in ‘Frau Fischer’ and this experience is no different to today although the social context has changed. Mansfield captures the voice of all her characters and at times enables the reader, like Mansfield, to enter her literature by not giving certain character’s identities. Mansfield uses her short story anthologies to loudly advocate for a change in society by addressing the real world where many other writers try to adapt it and make it something it isn’t. As one of the greatest short story writers, her voice has been heard and, looking at history to the present day, relationships are now predominantly a matter of personal choice.