The Doll's House (short story)
Encyclopedia
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 later appeared in The Dove's Nest and Other Stories. An alternative title used by Mansfield in other editions was At Karori.
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
. It was first published in The Nation and Atheneum
The Nation and Atheneum
The Nation and Atheneum or simply The Nation was a United Kingdom political weekly newspaper with a Liberal / Labour viewpoint. It was formed in 1921 from the merger of the Athenaeum, a literary magazine published in London since 1828 and the smaller and newer Nation.The enterprise was purchased...
on 4 February 1922, and later appeared in The Dove's Nest and Other Stories. An alternative title used by Mansfield in other editions was At Karori.
Plot introduction
The Burnell children receive a doll's house from Mrs.Hay and they show it off to their school friends.Plot summary
Mrs. Hay has given a doll's house to the Burnell children; it is minutely described, with especial emphasis on a lamp inside of it, which the youngest girl, Kezia, thinks is the best part of the doll house. The next morning they cannot wait to show it off to their school friends; Isabel bossily says she will be the one to decide who is allowed to come and see it in the house as she is the eldest. The Kelveys, two poor girls, Lil and "our" Else, will not be allowed to do so because they are of a much lower social class. Later, Isabel and two of her friends, Emmie Cole and Lena Logan, taunt the Kelveys about their low social status. Soon afterwards Kezia impulsively decides to show them the house anyway; Aunt Beryl, worried about an insisting letter from a certain Willie Brent, walks in on them, shoos away the Kelveys, scolds Kezia, then feels better. The Kelveys have managed to see the lamp though and our Else smiles joyfully which is rare.and the story ends with them being silent once more.Major themes
- Class Consciousness : 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.