Emotions In Katherine Mansfield's Short Stories

This article analyzes the way Austen portrays women in her novels. Kruger mentions that Jane Austen’s work is often deprived by the

“It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder, that life might be long.” (Chopin 17). “"Poof!"… gave a revealing look at the victims of domestic abuse and how they wrestle with overcoming their fear and their doubts after suffering years of abusive treatment.” (Toomer 5) Loureen unlike Mrs. Mallard, witnesses her husband’s death first hand during a marital argument. Loureen goes through denial questioning whether her husband’s death. She is happy her husband is dead but also feels guilty, because she knows how a mourning wife should react, but the joy of his demise is greater,” I should be praying, I should be thinking of the burial, but all that keeps popping into my mind is what will I wear on television when I share my horrible and wonderful story with a studio audience…”, Loureen’s husband, Samuel, was physically abusive, as revealed by Florence, Loureen’s best friend and neighbor. “Did that mother***** hit you again?” (Nottage 1563) This abuse, physical by Samuel and mental by Brently, is what allows Loureen in the drama “Poof!” and Mrs. Mallard in the short story “The Story of an Hour” to have the shared freedom they feel in the release from their respective abusive relationships.

In the story,Tell-Tale-Heart by Edgar Allan Poe,Poe describes anxiety in many different ways.First,the narrator tells us about his confrontation with the police “They were making a mockery of my horror(Poe 94). The narrator is slight crazy.He thinks they are laughing at him but,they really aren’t .The narrator could not understand why they were smiling with a faded grin and it really upsetted him.But before we get to that part,let’s talk about what led him there. The old man and the narrator lived together.The narrator never had any problems with the man,but he kept going into his room stalking him. It is evident that the old man is scared because The old man sprang up in bed, crying out-”Who’s there”(Poe 94). This shows both fear and anxiety

In both passages, the main characters follow the same pattern of emotions. In the first passage, “Departure”, George Willard, the main character, is leaving his home town and everything he knows to head for the big city. In the next passage, “Farewell to Eliza”, the main character tells his love, Eliza, that they must part because he is dieing. The main character in “Departure” shows anxiousness before he leaves and the main character in “Farewell to Eliza” shows more sadness in the beginning, but both show acceptance in the end of how things turned out.

Minnie Pearl was the family matriarch, she strictly enforced churched, she was the best cook, and after church she would host Sunday dinner. She was known as the family provider to her grandchildren and 4 children, including a son with mental disabilities. Minnie Pearl was a single parent, after her husband gambled away the family's money he left them in Central Georgia stranded in a mobile home with no savings so Pearl had to work two jobs. While Mrs. Thomas understands the role she played and takes full responsibility of her actions she also believes she has paid her debt to society and she’s a changed woman.

Confronting the truth often reveals painful realities. In “One Writer’s Beginnings,” Eudora Welty details her very sheltered life. Afraid of any dangers that may affect her, Welty’s parents attempted to shield her from the world around her. Welty’s mother made the world around her seem more dangerous. As a byproduct of her sheltered youth, Welty reveals the truth in a palatable manner. She spends considerable effort making the truth non-painful. Every person copes with pain and loss differently. In many ways, Welty hides from the truth or at least protects herself from it by detaching herself from reality. Through context, clever word choice, and rhetorical devices, Welty compares and contrasts how she confronts pain

The nineteenth century is popularly known for its traditional view of gender roles, especially regarding women. The term “True Woman” refers to what society at that time thought to be the ideal woman, carrying qualities of “modesty, submissiveness, physical weakness, limited education, and complete devotion to husband and home” (White, 2009, p. 1). Women were restrained in terms of sexuality, dress, language, and economic decisions. In Amy Gilman Srebnick’s The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, Mary rebels against these standards by being a single women that is also sexually active, however, her actions are what seemingly lead to her demise. Similarly, Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall also goes against gender norms. In her case, she earns her own economic independence through her writing and lives a more unconventional life as a mother, but faces repercussions from her family. Through the novels Ruth Hall and The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, the main female characters revolt against being “True Women” through their daily actions and behaviors, however they’re each punished with consequences for trying to deviate from society’s path.

Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of them simply because of their gender.

The characters of the women are deliberately sad and lonely. The narrator’s wife before getting married to the nameless narrator indented to marry a military officer and wasn’t much happy about the issue, due to which she attempted to suicide. Even Robert’s wife was always pitied, as her husband was unable to see her and look at her romantically.

Write a critical analysis of any aspect of "The Story of an Hour" which you found of interest and significance.

Woolf demonstrates how women writers have often failed in this because of our frustration and bitterness with a world that presented to us and our writing not welcome, or even indifference, but hostility (41). She makes it clear that if there is ever going to be a “Shakespeare’s sister,” we must---at least while we are writing---swallow that sense of having been wronged, for it stands as an impediment to our creativity. This is the mental freedom that women writers must attain.

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard is caught in a cold marriage and a constrictive house. The same goes for Sarah Penn in Mary Wilkins Freeman “The Revolt of “Mother.’” Despite the fact that both stories share the topics of imprisonment and control, physically and inwardly, the ladies in the stories have diverse responses to their circumstances. Sarah battles the confinements without holding back, taking her opportunity, while Mrs. Mallard adopts a motionless strategy and is just liberated through the death of Mr. Mallard.

In 1919, Margaret’s mother died of influenza (Gone 91). Following closely behind, her first love died in war (Millichap 107). After the loss of her mother, Margaret dropped out of Smith College to live with her dad and brother, with whom she had a strained relationship. Similar events have been mirrored in her book. Disaster continued with her first marriage to Berrien “Red” Kinnard Upshaw, who raped and abused her. Their marriage ended quickly in an annulment (Gone 91). Her second marriage, although less aggressive, mirrored that of the relationship with her father and brother (Millichap 107). John Marsh, her second husband, encouraged Margaret to write. After breaking her ankle and needing bed rest, Margaret read all the “interesting books” in the library, and John told her to write her own interesting story instead (Gone

Mansfield created the story with the intention of allowing it to be open for various interpretations; though she includes specific detail concerning the characters Mansfield does not elucidate them in a manner that clearly defines their personalities. The story, like the budding rose, is one that never peaks to maturity, but rather remains in the developing stage because of its ambiguities which cause it to be discussed and interpreted in many varying ways.

Katherine Mansfield was born October 14, 1888 in Wellington New Zealand. Mansfield was a well-known and respected prominent writer in the 20th century. She attended Queens College in London with her sisters. Mansfield broke barriers for female writers in the early 20th century and even still today. Her stories commonly focus on the theme of reality /world versus human nature while also touching the themes of the darker and more complex sides of life.