A Study of Katherine Mansfield's Bliss

Interpretive fiction is a way of writing in which the writer’s goal is to help take the reader deeper into the real world and provoke our thoughts, broadening our awareness of life and our perspective. Many stories are examples of interpretive fiction because they give the reader not only the fictional ideology, but also some insight on real-world issues and make the reader take the time to think about what is the big meaning behind each and every story. Miss Brill, written by Katherine Mansfield and Identities, written by Wd Valgardson are both short stories that are examples of interpretive fiction. Both of these stories have a deeper meaning related to the misjudgement of others, the effects it has on people, and the reality of how people perceive the world and each other. One’s self-perception differs from reality and often one only learns this reality through the collective perceptions of the world with which we interact. Unfortunately, some of these perceptions can be guided by judgement.

After this, Dorothea enters an unfamiliar location and releases her built up passion, “every muscle, nerve, fibre abandoned itself to the delicious sensation of rest that overtook”. When Dorothea escapes, the nature around her is throbbing with life. The lively characteristics given to objects of nature can make the reader imagine the relaxing feeling that overtook Dorothea. The writer ends the story with Dorothea stating that she would not be with Randall ‘Not for all his thousands!’, showing that Dorothea is an independent woman, who doesn’t need a man to

From the fur in the box to the band in the park, this short story is full of vivid details that give the reader a clear image of Miss Brill’s point of view. Throughout this essay, many other characters and background details are used to juxtapose Miss Brill. However, the characterization of Miss Brill is ambiguous because different parts of the story suggest contradicting character traits. Mansfield uses Miss Brill to explore different interpretations of reality. It is unclear how the rest of the world’s perception of Miss Brill relates to her own perception.

     In a letter to her brother dated 1814, Jane Austen boasted about a compliment she had received from a friend on her most recent work, Mansfield Park: "It's the most sensible novel he's ever read" (263). Austen prided herself on creating literature that depicted realistic characters and honest situations, but perhaps more importantly, she strove to create fiction that was moral and instructional as well as entertaining. So what does sensible say about the sexual? In Mansfield Park, the answer appears blaringly before us, as we repeatedly witness sexuality and desire represented in the darkest of terms, and often resulting in the most sinister of outcomes. Those who

There are millions of people who live in self-denial and self-rejection. When one thinks of self-denial, most people picture a young person trying to find his or her way through society without being ridiculed, but what does it mean when self-denial lingers into adulthood? In her acclaimed short story, “Miss Brill” author Katherine Mansfield does not detail her story in a descriptive, elaborate style, yet the reader can infer that the protagonist, Miss Brill, is a woman who is self-conscious and yearns to be important to the point she denies her pain and sorrow.

Mansfield’s stories contain her protagonist living in a situation where they are blinded by others or societies standards on how they should think or feel. For example Laura in 'The Garden Party ', is confronted with the reality of death. Mansfield introduces the story by explaining the extravagant garden party Laura’s mother is allowing her to plan. The details of Laura ordering around staff and the whole complexity of it all leads readers to believe that Laura and her family are of higher class. Because of this Laura has not been introduces to the realities of life such as Death. She has also been taught that because of her class other below her are “unacceptable” as her neighbors the Sheridans were unacceptable and “they were the greatest possible

Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” tells the tale of a young, affluent Laura Sheridan and her encounters with the working class when a man dies on the day of her family’s social gathering. Although Laura’s sense of self has long been molded by her upper middle class Victorian society, Laura develops compassion, empathy, and awareness that distinguish her from her family. During her interactions with the workmen and the dead Mr. Scott, Laura proves through her reactions, diction, and actions that she will unroot herself from her family’s vain lifestyle.

Introduction: Katherine Mansfield was a well acclaimed author born in 1888. Her literature was in the form of short stories spanning no more than several passages long. Many dub her as an innovator in literature for her distinctive use of realism and symbolism which at the time was foreign to short stories and writing in general. Most authors at the time fabricated fictional worlds with fantastic characters in their stories but Mansfield was more interested in writing and emerging her audience into stories about realistic people in everyday environments facing internal struggle,which gained her much attention. Many of her pieces are also autobiographical as they subtly reference many moments and mixed emotions that Katherine had

Though all of her books deal with social matters, manners, and small family communities, Mansfield Park is arguably one of Jane Austen’s duller novels, lacking a truly lovable heroine and breezing over issues that, had she gone into more detail, would have made the book a lot more controversial and readable for 21st century readers.

Foster begins this chapter with Katherine Mansfield’s The Garden Party. It is about a girl, Laura, setting up a garden party. Her mother, Mrs. Sheridan let her prepare the garden party for the first time, so she wants to make it the best. While doing the preparations for the party, Laura hears about the recent death of a man in the little cottages down the hill. Because of this, she tries to convince her sister and mother to cancel the party. How could they celebrate when a neighbor just passed away? However, the both of them tell Laura that it is not their problem that someone had died and that it is not worth it to put away all the preparations done for the party. From this, the reader can see that Jose, the sister and Mrs. Sheridan do not really care about the people who are not as fortunate as them. Mrs. Sheridan distracts Laura from the topic by giving her a hat. The garden party starts and is very successful. After it ends, Mr. Sheridan brings up the story about the man that had just died and Mrs. Sheridan decides that they should give the family their leftover food. Laura walks down to the cottages with a big basket of food. She wants to cover herself because she is dressed extravagantly while the other neighbors down the hill are not. Laura goes into the widow’s house and meets the man’s sister in law, Em. She takes her to see the deceased man and Laura cries. After this, Laura leaves and meets her brother, Laurie at the corner of the road. She

Paula's voice, in which the entire novel is related, combines convincing staccato storytelling, slangy working-class diction, frank revelations, and agonized reconstruction of the past in sometimes profane and often touching tones. Here Paula remembers her teenaged self, both attracted and repelled by the man she will so disastrously marry:

The novel is written in the first person point of view. Throughout the novel, the name nor gender of the narrator is revealed. The narrator is describing multiple events taking place during her time being in love with another character named Louise. They speak expressing their emotions for this character named Louise and eventually comments on the events that led to their heartbreak. However, at the end of the novel we ask ourselves, is the narrator male or female? Does it matter? And most importantly, why do we care? We are so used to knowing from the start whose story we’re reading but Written on the Body has given us a new way of reading a story. We are reading their sexual exploits with men and women and still uncertain who they are. We don’t know who they are but it doesn’t even matter. It’s a story of love and devotion,

Jane Austen’s Novel, Mansfield Park, published in 1814, has caught the eyes of many readers after being published. It had many different themes that depict different aspects of a society.

Katherine Mansfield uses an extensive range of language techniques to portray the lonely and slightly delusional spinster; Miss Brill. The story of "Miss Brill" is an extremely good example of how a writer can use different language techniques to reveal a variety of aspects of the character.

Katherine Mansfield’s “Bliss” is quite an interesting story full of underlying meanings and themes. Upon a first reading, it seems to be a simple story of a woman who feels uncontainable bliss one day, only to have it end when she discovers her husband is having an affair. Although this is a correct interpretation, after a second reading, much more is apparent. “Bliss” is a story of the revelation of a vibrant young woman, of criticism of society, and of sexual revolution.