CHAPTER -11
IMAGISTIC CORRELATIVES:
SYMBOLS AND IMAGES
CHAPTER - I1
IMAGISTIC CORRELATIVES: SYMBOLS AND IMAGES
Symbolism is the systematic and creative use of arbitrary symbols. The
symbolic significance lies in the abstract meaning rather than the literal meaning of it,
A synibol in literary usage refers as anything that in its context suggests meaning over
and above its literal sign$cance (Lawrence, P. 1988 172). In the broadest sense
a symbol is applied to a word or set of words that signifies an object, images, events
and characters which are often used deliberately to suggest and strengthen meaning. It
also provides enrichment by enlarging and clarifying the experience of the work and
to help to organize and unify the whole. Chadwick, C. (197 1 2) defined symbolism as:
the art of expressing ideas and emotions not by describing them directly,
nor by defining them through overt comparisons with concrete images,
but by suggesting what these ideas and emotions are, by re-creating them
in the mind of the reader through the use of unexplained symbols.
Symbolism can be considered as an attempt to represent a world of abstract
ideas by a carellly formulated scheme of symbols which can give the same
emotional experience. The beauty of the symbol is its compactness and it makes
possible much be said in a few words. The symbolic use of a word is distinguished
from the emotive use of a word. But a symbol may also be a sign and a verbal
equivalent to a pattern of experience. It is, therefore bound to be powerfbl, complex
and intricate.
In literature, symbolism was one of the most important artistic movements in
the late nineteenth century, which was tried to represent
a world of abstract or
mystical ideas through the symbolic use of images. Many major writers of the modem
period exploit by creating their own symbols, which draw attention to a particular
object and linking it to something ebe or some other quality.
Art which is universal in nature represents the eternal quest for truth through
varied modes of expression elusively personal to the symbolists. In the course of the
attempt to represent truth, the symbolists believe that art should represent absolute
truth which could attain only by an oblique method.
Symons, A. (1980 6) explored the development of symbolism in French
literature and he eventually came to view that Symbolism begins with thejrst words
uttered by thejrst man, as he named everything, or before them in heaven when God
named the world into being. He further says it is a form of expression, at the best but
approximate, essentially but arbitrary, until it has obtained the force of convention,
for an unseen reality apprehended by the consciousness (Symons, A.1980 2-3).
He explains that in a symbol ..,there is a concealment and yet revelation: hence
therefore, by silence and speech acting together, comes a double significance
(Symons, A. 1980 2). Symbolism is then the previously contained consciousness that
enabled the reader to view a concealed reality. Arthur Symons has influenced so many
early 20'
century writers notably W.B.Yeats, T.S.Eliot. Katherine Mansfield
absorbed the theory of which Symons presented in his critical books. From him she
adopted the symbolist belief that in literature an abstract state if mind or feeling
should be conveyed not through descriptive analysis but through concrete images or
symbols. This oblique narration is dealt in detail in the next chapter.
The present chapter deals with the detailed study of the symbolism and imagery
employed by Katherine Mansfield. Symbols found in the stories of Katherine
Mansfield are varied and harmoniously form an integrated part of the story. They
often finnish the narrative with remarkable images and therefore:
Symbol generally points outside a work to meanings established by super
natural or historical concepts. It is argued here that Mansfield'sJigures may
best be called 'imagistic correlatives' because they express internal meanings
drawnfrom the minds of the characters, which may be individual, may have
associational meanings and may pertain to one fragmentary experience only
(Gunsteren, J.V. 2000 172).
Katherine Mansfield is recognized as innovative, accessible and
psychologically acute, and one of the pioneers of the avant-garde in the creation of the
short story. She experimented with a variety of techniques, along with symbolism and
customized them accordingly to create a unique style. Katherine Mansfield's
influence of symbolism and decadent movement as Hanson, C., and Gurr, A.
(1981 21-22) argue and point out is that Mansfeld is a symbolist writer, takingfrom
her early attempts to piece together an aesthetic [she relies] almost entirely on the
writings of Symom, and to a lesser, Wilde. From these two, she took ideas which
continually influenced her art. Her stories involve a variety of techniques with which
she instrumentally employs symbolism and imagery as meaninghlly in prose fiction.
She traditionally employs the symbol in poetic technique. Katherine Mansfield is one
of the most prominent modernists, who wrote only short stories.
Katherine Mansfield's biographer Kaplan, S. (1991 47) claims about her
emergence into modernism in eirly twentieth century as:
Her emergence into "modernism" was not derivative of other twentiethcentury writers, but a finction of her own synthesis and imaginative
reworking of late nineteenth-century techniques and themes.
The
symbolists had given her a glimpse of a view ofart in which abstract state
of mind or feeling should be conveyed not through descriptive analysis
was replaced by suggestive concrete images and symbols.
In her stories every detail has a symbolic as well as a narrative function and
these details or images are intended to work in concert to create a mood or evoke
a theme which is not directly stated. These symbols add a new dimension to her
stories and intensify their effect by extending their depth as well as breadth.
Katherine Mansfield's short stories develop over the course of time into 'Slice
of life' - glimpses into the lives of individuals, families, captured at a certain moment,
frozen in time like a painting or a snap shot. On the whole, a single main event is
revealed and developed, no case is presented for or against their actions or their life,
they simply 'are'. 0' Sullivan, V. (2006 142) discerns that in Mansfield's art, one
event may offer us in miniature, something which holds m e of an entire life, or
perhaps of life itseg Katherine Mansfield develops a mastery of the art of being brief;
there is nothing extraneous in her stories. Imagery abounds, which develops into the
use of recurring synbols which unify all her work. Nathan, R.B.(1988 14) explains
that: these symbols are similar to the "leitmotifs" of Wagher's music and Mann S
fiction, whose repetition recalls each previous occurrence, and which unifjt the work
in terms of its theme. In Katherine Mansfield's short stories, symbols are every where,
often reoccurring in different stories and thus lining up thematically through out her
work. A metaphor in one section acts as a stem - cell out of which a whole story is
grown in another.
Plants and flowers form an important backdrop in large number of Katherine
Mansfield's stories; these symbols play a central role. The use of plant symbolism in
her stories emphasizes varying qualities of the plant life to make parallel with a like
quality in her characters as a means of conveying the central meaning of scene or
situation. These plants and flower symbols, which do not h c t i o n only as a setting in
the stories but also are used for a more deliberate purpose and are strongly associated
with the middle class women characters of different age groups which inhabit
a middle class environment.In Katherine Mansfield stories like Prelude, At the Bay,
Bliss, The Escape, The Garden Party, and The Man without Temperament
the main symbols found are plants and flowers.
In Prelude written in 1930, after the traumatic loss of Katherine Mansfield's
brother Leslie in 1915, was based on her memories of the time, when her family
moved from Wellington to Karori. Prior to writing the story, she brings her desire to
write an elegy on her beloved brother, who died in a training session in preparation
for the war, She writes about the 'lovely time' which they spent together:
Then I want to write poetry. B e almond tree, the birds, the little wood
where you are, theflowers you do not see, the open window out of which I
lean and dream that you are against my shoulder, and the times that your
photograph 'looksad '. But especially I want to write a kind of long elegy
to you
... perhaps not in poetry. Norperhaps in prose. Almost certainly in
a kind of specialprose (Muny, J.M. 1954 94).
The discovery of the special prose is found in creation of Prelude to pay
homage to her dead brother where she identifies her love for her brother through the
natural world steeped in plant and nature,The central symbol in the story is the aloe
tree, which represents the various swelling motifs.
The Aloe later renamed as Prelude is the most celebrated work of Katherine
Mansfield, where the story is divided into twelve careWly constructed sections based
on the house shifting of Burnell family. Katherine Mansfield employs symbols which
carry secret selves of character and that of woman in particular. In the story, some of
the pervasive symbols are the plants and flowers of the natural world and the most
important of these is the 'aloe'; it is the mysterious central symbol provided by
Katherine Mansfield which represents, 'a view of life'. The story unfolds through the
consciousness of the characters, which are not described, but reveal through minute
details of their appearance and behaviour. The 'aloe' as a dominant symbol,
eventually discloses a theme of 'psychological hidden' for all the characters.
According to its theme, the secret selves of Linda and Beryl are disclosed in the story.
The aloe, had three different important functions in the story seen by day, it serves as
the first step towards Linda's self-revelation. Hanson, C., and Gurr, A. (1981 52)
claim that:
l?trough the controlling symbol of the aloe Katherine ManrJield
expresses in 'Prelude' a view of lge which underlies all her major
stories. The aloe is, like lqe itself; often unlovely and cruel,
oflering for long periods nothing but years of darkness, yet it also
holds within itself the possibility of that rare jlowering which
justifies existence the other images of the story blend into and
support this central symbol.
The very title of Katherine Mansfield's story Prelude is symbolic for 'moving
day' signifies a dramatic change in the life style of the many individuals within the
extended family because, as the children realized, Now everything familiar was leji
behind (Prelude 17). The title also signifies the beginning of the struggle of the
individual to preserve himself within the encompassing pressures of the family
The aloe plant is perceived differently by different people in the story. The
story begins with house shifting scene of the Bwnells. In the very first scene of the
story, Katherine Mansfield clearly brings out the nature of Linda Burnell as a pmon
who wishes to live in a world h e from her children. She casts off her two young
daughters in the old house among the furnihue. She doesn't consider her children to
be a part of the 'absolute necessities' which she rehses to let go from her sight, even
for a moment, Hand in Hand they, [Kezia and Lottie] stared with round solemn eyes,
Jirst at the absolute necessities, and then at their mother (1 1). The children knew that
their mother considered them less important than her inanimate possessions. The
children are classed as utility articles equaled to chairs and tables.
After the Bumell's move to the new house, Linda notices the aloe tree in their
new found garden. The 'aloe' in the story appears at very crucial moments especially
associated with female characters. The aloe plant is identified with the character
Linda. She describes the aloe plant as:
The Island was made of grass banked up high. Nothing grew the top
except one huge plant with thick, grey- green, thorny leaves, and out of
the middle there sprang up a tall stout stem. Some of the leaves of the
plant were so old that they curled up in the air no longer; they turned
back, they were split and broken; some of them layflat and withered on
the ground (...) Linda looked up at the fat swelling plant with its cruel
leaves andj7eshy stem. High above them, as though becalmed in the air,
and yet holding so fast to the earth it grewfrom it, might have had claws
instead of roots: The curving leaves seemed to be hiding something; the
blind stem cut into the air as
if no wind could ever shake it (34).
The features of the aloe plant appear threatening to Linda with its cruel leaves
and claws. She encounters aloe as 'a phallic tree of knowledge'. Linda visualizes
'aloe' with lot of fear as she dislikes sex. The flat and swelling of the plant, looks like
a pregnant woman and the fleshly stem like phallus. Angela Smith says that the aloe
seems to confront her with a phallocentric world, invincible, the power of the phallus
cruel, animal and indomitable (Smith, A. 1999 98). Linda is scared of having another
child, and she thinks that her husband is like a New found land dog that she is so fond
of on the day time but she wishes that he wouldn 'tjump at her so. He was too strong
for her from a child there were times when he was fiightening- really fiightening
(Prelude 54). Linda connects sexual submission with death and sees herself as
a potential victim of male sexuality and illness.
In the story, Linda Burnell, is associated with different images and symbols,
She has series of dreams which symbolize her own situation. On the very morning of
her stay in the new house, she lies on her bed and dreams that she was going away
from this house, too. And she saw herselfdriving awayfrom them all in a little buggy,
driving away from everybody and not even waving (25). She never wanted the
domestic burden and always wished an escape fiom it. Her wish is fulfilled only in
her dream. This dream appears to create world for the eruption of repressed resonance
&om Linda's real life. Refening to Greek myths about birds as masculine figures
specially Zeus who turned himself into a swan to rape Leda. Sigmund, F. (1965 424)
in Interpretation of Dreams declares that many of the beasts which are used as genital
symbols in mythology folklore play the same part in dreams. In chapter six of the
story, Linda gets yet another dream where she sees a bird trying to fly away. The bird
image represents Linda's suppressed hatred of sexuality and also her entrapment with
in the realm of domesticity. A bird is universally associated with flight of freedom.
Ironically Linda is void of both. In her dream the bird is both trapped and prevented
&om flight by domesticity as it is caught in an apron which represents her own
situation of entrapment within the patriarchal web.
Similarity is found in Linda and her young child, Kezia who too shares the
fear of rushing animals in her dream whose 'heads swell e-enormous', which is also
shared by Linda who had always hated things that rush at her,flom a child (Prelude 54).
In another of Linda's dream where the bird in her hands swells into baby with
a big naked head and a gaping bird mouth, opening and shutting (24). The bird
turning into a baby is a symbol of Linda's deep seated fear of childbearing, which
suggests ' a heritage of sexual trauma'; as well as an evocation of male sexual
predacity and female victimization (Head, D. 1992 119). She loves her husband, but
does not appreciate his intense romantic feelings. She is always unsuccessful in
conveying her feeling of sexual aversion to her husband and poorly expresses her
delicate physical condition, "you know I am very delicate. You know as well as I do
that my heart is affected, and the doctor has told you that I may die at any moment. I
have had three great lumps of children... " (Prelude 54). She is very conscious of her
delicate health. Looking at the symbolic aloe, Linda envies because unlike her, it can
avoid ffequent sexual transaction.
At the end of the chapter when Kezia and Linda meet at the aloe, Kaia asks
her mother, whether the tree ever bears flowers, Linda smiles, half shutting her eyes
and replies, 'once every hundred years'. The daughter is troubled by the aloe's age.
Linda identifies herself with aloe plant and express her feeling as I shall go on having
children and Stanley will go on making money and the children and the garden will
grow bigger and bigger with wholefleets of aloes in themfor me to choosefiom (54).
The aloe becomes to some extent her personal symbol, with sharp thorns firmly
rooted in her determination to preserve herself apart, inaccessible in external
appamnce, not with the possibility of bearing once every hundred yean the flowers
of selfloss love.
The aloe is again manifested towards the end of the story, when Linda walks
in the garden with her mother. They stand before the aloe with the bright moon light
which seems like a ship with oars lifted riding the grassy waves. She imagines that the
ship draws nearer, caught her up and canied away, beyond the gardens and fields,
leaving house and family behind and assumes a kind of identity with aloe plant and
visualize herself in a fantasized ships:
with oars lifted. Bright moonlight hung upon the lifted oars like water,
and on the green wave glittered the dew ... she dreamed that she was
caught up put of cold water into the ship with the lifted oars dnd the
budding mast. Now the oarsfell striking quickly, quickly. They rowed far
way over the top of the garden trees, the paddocks and the dark bush
beyond ... Ah she heard herselfcry: "Faster! Faster!" to those who were
rowing (53).
Linda's imaginary escape is an expression of liberation from the demands of
motherhood and accompany with the association of sexuality that she perceives to be
an inescapable component of being a woman. Looking at the long sharp thorns edging
at the aloe leaves seems to be hiding something that symbolizes Linda's introversion
and ugly tenacity which reflects her continuance as wife and mother, despite her deep
resentment and longing to escape. Katherine Mansfield transforms a sexual perception
into a personal symbol. The aloe acts a central line, which signifies the dauntingfears
and pains of a life time, !ived for a brief moment offlowering, the timeless moment
which both illuminates and jwt$es all the rest of the pained and miserable time of
learning (Pilditch, J. 1996 205).
Bliss by Katherine Mansfield also deals with plant symbolism underlying
meaning to the theme. A 'pear tree' is the central symbol of the story. The story
unfolds with the main character Bertha an ecstatic young woman, filled with a child
like delight at her dinner party. Bertha has everything; she is young, beautiful and has
a loving husband, a baby and a splendid house. Katherine Mansfield clearly describes
the tree in great detail referring to Bertha's own life in relation to the beautiful leaves
and blossom. Berkman, S. (1951 192) says that the central symbol is the lovely pear
tree which to Bertha Young represents her life and which embodies Bertha's own
virginal quality. The blossoming pear tree is entwined with the events of the story and
to the female protagonist, Bertha.
The story opens with Bertha Young, a thirty year old woman, overcome with
a feeling of happiness and bliss. She wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing
steps on and offthe pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw something up in the air and
-
catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at nothing -at nothing, simply (Bliss 91).
Her ecstasy is innocent, as she thinks of her relationship with her husband as that of
good friends ~d she anticipates of her first night passion after the dinner party.
At the beginning of the story, Bertha's bliss over a sunny day brings it full
bloom in her ecstasy. Before the party, she observes the pear tree as hor most
important moment of self pleasure which is represented symbolically. She recognizes
her ecstasy of the moment with the presence of the pear tree:
the windows of the drawing- room opened on to a balcony overlooking the
garden. At thefar end, against the wall, there was a tall, slender pear tree
infirllest, richest bloom; it stoodperject, as though becalmed against the
jade - green sky. Bertha couldn't help feeling, even fiom this distance,
that it had not a single bud or a faded petal. Down below, in the garden
beds, the red and yellow tulip, heavy withjlowers, seemed to lean upon the
&k A grey cat, dragging its belb, crept across the lawn, and a black one,
its shadow, nailed afier. The sight of them, so intent and so quick gave
Bertha a curious shiver, and she seemed to see on her eyelids the lovely
pear tree with its wide open blosscms cs a symbol of her own life (96).
The tree mirrors Bertha's state of mind and also acts as a symbol of female
sexuality, because of the fruit that resembles the figure of a woman body. The pear
tree symbolizes the completeness and perfectness that the hostess, Bertha feels. The
tree is in full bloom, full of life, and she is intent on pursuing the belief that her life is
111 and rich, open to wondrous possibilities. In her foolishness, she imagines that her
feeling of bliss is because of her high standard of living, she has even dressed to make
herself resemble the blooming pear tree in the garden, a white dress, a string ofjade
beads, green shoes and stockings ... she had thought of this scheme hours before she
stood at the drawing -room window. Her petals rustled softly into the hall (97) and
she goes to welcome her guest and feels that her dress rustles around her like petals.
The symbolic imagery, as Bertha contemplates her 'brimming cup of bliss' over
dinner, the symbol of the pear tree is an instant image 'in the back of her mind'. The
pear tree thus becomes the outward visible symbol of the inward emotional state of
Bertha (Friss, A. 1946 137). Bertha feels that she too is at the peak of her flowering
sexual beauty and she shares her experience of the tree with one of the guests, the
beautiful Pearl Fulton, who sat there turning a tangerine in her slenderfingers that
were sopale a light seemed to comejvm them (Bliss 101). The central symbol turns
towards enigmatic Miss Fulton with a different meaning as a goddess of the moon
about to touch the blossoms of the tree as a sign of their intimacy that hangs over the
pear tree. She dressed in all in silver, with a silverfillet binding her pale blonde hair (99).
The moon is also a symbol of female sexuality which focuses on the relationship of
Bertha and Pearl Fulton.
The pear tree draws together the characters and their emotions in the story.
After the dinner party ends, Pearl Fulton enquires of Bertha if she has a garden and
Bertha interprets the question as an invitation to retreat alone together to the window.
And the two women stood side by side looking at the slender,flowering tree. Although
it was so still it seemed, like theflame of a candle, to stretch up, to point, to quiver in
the bright air, to grow taller and taller as they gazed- almost to touch the rim of the
round, silver moon (102). As the two women gaze at the pear tree, Bertha turns her
attention to the reciprocity of mood that she experiences with her firiend, and marvels
at the accuracy of their mutual perception. The two women share the sight of the
beautiful tree, which becomes heavily ironical. Bertha is struck by her husband's
confession of admiration for Pearl Fulton. Before leaving Bertha, Pearl Fulton
whispers to her the word 'pear tree'. Although Bertha cannot make out the difference
that what she meaut because the two look the same, as if nothing has happened. She
never knew that life is likely to change due to her husband's feeling for another
woman. Pearl Fulton, who held her hand a moment longer and murmurs as:
"Your lovely pear tree ", !
And then she was gone, with Eddie following, like the black cat following the grey
cat.
"I'll shut up shop'', said Harry, extravagantly cool and collected.
"Your lovelypear tree - Pear tree- Pear tree!" (105).
Her state of bliss is violently broken down into a state of emotional and
intellectual collapse when she realizes that her friend Pearl Fulton and her husband
have an affair. At the very moment, Bertha happens to turn towards the hall way and
sees that something shatters her connection with Pearl Fulton. She catches the sight of
Pearl kissing her husband. Her bliss is shattered and she is alienated by h a society
and remains engaged with the object of world of her garden at night; she is again
assailed by the beauty of the pear tree; "Oh what is going to happen now?" Is
subsumed in Pears; But the pear tree was as lovely as ever and asfill offlowers and
as still as ever (105).The pear tree in the story by Katherine Mansfield presents itself
as a symbol of nature hlfilling its own unemotional purpose of fertility. In the story,
the pear tree represents a symbol of Bertha's own liJe , a healthy and bloomingfiit
tree, inert with in the walled garden and, thus, always at hand to be contemplated and
admired (D'arcy, C. 1999 35).
Like other women characters in the short stories of Katherine Mansfield,
Jennie, the sick wife in the story The Man without a Temperament, finds comfort
and solace in the garden. The story is set in a holiday resort in the south of France; the
story poses familiar and satiric stereotypes of European vacationers against an invalid
woman and her apparently calm, gentle, protective husband. The story unfolds with
images of early snow, moon light, and small wild flowers that, the protagonist recalls
in flash- back scenes her early days in London. She enjoys looking and smelling the
flowers in the garden.
"Oh, those trees along the drive ", she cried. "I could look at them for
ever. They are like the most exquisite hugeferns. And you see that one with
the grey- silver bark and the clusters of cream- colouredflowers, Ipulled
down a head of them yesterday to smell, and the scent" -she shut her eyes
at the memory and her voice thinned away, faint, airy- "was like freshly
ground nutmegs " (The Man without a Temperament 131).
.+
41
3C8fS26
Her experience of the wild floral imagery is differbnt from that of the other
women in the short stories. The imagery signifies decay and over-ripeness, the
woman's sense of victory over disease and of her impending death. She has
a different outlook on life. She does not long for escape, but for life. In Katherine
Mansfield's stories, men too have a close relationship with the natural symbols.
Katherine Mansfield refers the connection of men with the garden as entirely different
perception from that which the woman has with the garden.
In the short stories of Katherine Mansfield there are both middle and working
class men, who are connected with the garden, such as Stanley Bumell in Prelude and
At the Bay, for whom garden is a status symbol. For Robert Salesby in the story, The
Man without Temperament, he finds for escape from his sick wife in his long walk
in the hills. He is untypical man, and not satisfied with being tied down to one place
by his sick wife and always desires for freedom. His unease, calm measurements of
routine and the antiseptic quality of his politeness are seen as:
out of the thick, fleshy leaves of a cactus there rose an aloe stem loaded
with pale flowers that looked as though they had been cut out of butter;
lightjlashe upon the lifted spears of thepalms; over a bed of scarlet waxen
flowers some big black inrec&' "Zoom - Zoomed"; a great, gaudy
creeper, orange splashed withjet, sprawled against the wall (1 35).
The story The Escape is a story of a married couple and their whole
relationship forms an image in total where each and every situation, mood, and
expression is depicted symbolically. The central image is that of the journey. There is
no mention of the purpose of the journey in the story. But it is a journey of two
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travelers who are husband and wife. In spite of traveling together, they want an
'escape' from each other. The imagery in the story unfolds for itself es the story
unfolds. The man and the women are contrasted in their character. The woman is
nervous and blames her husband for everything. It was hisfault, wholly and solely his
fault, that they had missed the train (The Escape 196) and the man is in contrast lazy
and easy going and forgetful and disorganized.
The whole story is told in retrospective. The woman remembers how they both
missed the train. She is never bothered about anything around her except herself. All
she cares is herself the women who'd held up that baby with awful head ... "oh, to care
as I care- to feel as I feel, and never to be saved anything-never to know for one
moment what it was to ...to ...(197) she is indulged in narcissism and herself, she
pressed the handkerchief to her eyes (197). When the husband s w e y s the bag of his
wife he finds powder puff, rouge sticks, a bundle of letters, pills 'like seeds', a
broken cigarette, a mirror, 'white irony tablets of note paper' which symbolize her. He
thought in Egypt she would be buried with those things (198). But it is the spiritual
death which is shown in both the characters as the story runs its course.
The parasol is another symbol which plays an important role in the story. At
first it appears to be like a 'pointer' in more ways than one; as the thematic pointer;
next it appears as a narrative ploy, which is made out to be the apparent cause of a
quarrel between man and woman, and finally it gives the vital twist when the woman,
realizes that h a parasol is knocked out of the carriage. My parasol, It's gone. The
parasol that belonged to my mother. The parasol that Iprize more than-more than.. .
(200). The parasol is the literal embodiment of the fragile protective shell to which
she artifice between her and the rest of the world. She refuses to let her husband go
looking for it. She herself goes to find her parasol leaving her husband saying
I f I don 't escape )om you for a minute I shall go mad (201). After two sequences
which shows in detail the conflict between the members of the couple, the
aggressiveness of the woman, and the hstration of the husband, who feels a hallow
man, a parched, withered man as it were, of ashes (201). The man by chance sees,
a tree beyond a garden gate, which leads him to peacefulness and happiness, though it
does not free him from the relationship with his wife.
It was an immense tree with a round, thick silver stem and a great arc of
copper leaves that gave back the light and yet were somber ...It was then
that he saw the tree, that he was conscious
if its presence just
inside
a garden gate ... As he looked at the tree h e m his breathing die away and
he become part of the silence. It seemed to grow, it seemed to expand in
the quivering heat until the great carved leaves hid the sky, and yet it was
motionless (201).
The tree is beautiful and has the quality of inalienable existence that enable the
man to lose himself in contemplation of it. He feels for a moment at one with the
external world. He finds something hidden behind the tree- a whiteness, softness, an
opaque mass, half hidden- with delicate pillar. Behind the tree, he hears a voice rising
in a song what was happening to him? Something stirred in his breast. Something...it
was warm saying (202). The final epiphanic vision summarises and brings an
'escape' for the plot conflict, using a mental and not a material way. It is shown
through the w e of a rich and complex symbolic image, tree and brings to an ironic
ambiguous ending. The man escapes through mystical identification with the
complete, harmonious pattern of life repseated by the tree.
Plants, especially flowers are constantly recurring symbols in Katherine
Mansfield's stories. Flowers are imbued with suggestion and emotions and are used
symbolically to indicate the central theme and mood of the story. Katherine Mansfield
herself is very fond of flowers and so makes skillful use of the various attributes of
the pl-
as symbols in her stories. Hynes, S. (1953 68) comments that: It is not
strange that Miss MansJield chooses to state this theme [of lost innocence] most
frequently in flower imagev; flowers are beautiful, delicate, and transitory-like the
innocence of childhood. In The Garden Party, Katherine Mansfield gives full reign
of flowers with the depiction of roses, the lilies and the daisies on Laura's hat,
provides for the potential growth beyond the close Sheridan world. At the very
beginning of story, Laura notices roses in her garden as she thought as:
for the roses; you could not help feeling they understood that roses are the
only flowers that impress people at garden parties; the only flowers that
evelybody is certain of knowing. Hundreds, yes literally hundreds, had
come out in a single night: the green bushes bowed down as though they
had been visited by archangels (The Garden Party 245).
Similar to rose, Laura is delicate and also represents lilies. The lilies represent
the purity, innocence and vulnerability of Laura.
There,j ~ inside
t
the door, stood a wide, shallow tray fill ofpots ofpink
lilies. No other kind. Nothing but lilies -canna lilies, big pinkflowers wide
open, radiant, almostjighteningly alive on bright Crimson stems.
"O-oh, Sadie! said Laura, and the sound was like a little moan. She
crouched down as if to warm herselfat that blaze of lilies; she felt they
were in herjingers, on her lips, growing in her breast (249).
Laura's romantic sensibility is swept away by the beauty, but the lilies are
also, a symbol of death, which comes at the end of the story. Laura is allowed to visit
the Carter's family with some leftovers from the garden party. Her mother says, Take
the arum lilies too. People of that class are so impresses by arum lilies (258).
Katherine Mansfield deliberately uses flower imagery: throughout the story that
seems to keep the reader reminded of the delicacy of Laura's world. Theflowers are
splendid, beaut~jdand- what is not stated, short lived (Kathleen, K. 2006 6).
Katherine Mansfield employs flower imagery in the story At the Bay also, the
continuation of the Prelude, where the flowers which fall after flowering make Linda
Burnell consider the temporality of life. She marvels at the 'exquisite beauty' of the
tree:
tiny yellowishjlower dropped on her, Pretty-yes, ifyou held one of those
flowers on the palm of your hand at it closely, it was an exquisite small
thing. Each pale yellow petal shone as if each was the carefil work of
a loving hand. Te tiny tongue in the centre gave it the shape of a bell. And
when you turned it over the outside was a deep bronze colour. But as soon
as theyflawered, they fell and were scattered. You brushed them ofyour
frock as you talked; the horrid little things got caught in one's hair. Why,
then, flower at all? Who takes the trouble- or the joy- to make aN these
thing that are wasted, wasted ....It was uncanny (At the Bay 221).
The beauty of the external world represented by the flowers is symbolized by
the motif of life, love and rebirth. Katherine Mansfield is able to use different aspects
of trees and flowers to help reveal a central quality of a character or of a situation in
h a stories.
Katherine Mansfield's use of symbols, which are full of hidden meaning as
forceful as the thoughts expressed in the schematic stories. She uses images and
symbols which construct principally on objects, animals and universal bodies like sun,
moon and sea. Besides the natural symbols, objects also figure as symbols in
Katherine Mansfield's stories. The Doll's House is one of the Katherine Mansfield's
very famous short stories. The two main symbolic objects in the story are 'the dolls
house' and the 'little amber lamp'. The story's title itself signifies the main object, the
perfect, pegect little house colored with big lumps of congealed paint hanging along
the edge (The Doll's House 383). It is the gift to children of Bumell's family by old
Mrs.Hay. The doll's house functions as a symbol which is miniaturizes the middle
class world of ostentatiously perfect exteriors that probably covers the less than
perfect real life, the typical middle class hypocrisy.
All the rooms were papered. There were pictures on the walls, painted on the
paper, with gold frames complete. Red carpet covered all the floors except the
kitchen; red plush chairs in the drawing- room, green in the dining- room;
tables, beds with real bed clothes, a cradle, a stove , a dresser with tiny plates
and one big jug ... The father and mother dolls, who sprawled very stiJf as
though they had fainted in the drawing -room and their two little children asleep
upstairs, were really too bigfor the dolls house. They didn 't look as though they
belonged (384).
The dolls house is the symbol of everything about the family life of
middle-class society, and the stiffness of the dolls indicate the lack of life, heart and
soul in the middle class character in the story. The 'two big' children dolls are like the
middle class children; they adopt their parents' prejudice and contempt for the poor.
Kezia, the moral fulcrum of the story didn't include herself. The story unfolds 'the
lamp', a more significant symbol appreciated only by Keiia, the only middld class
girl, earnestly wants the poor outcasts to enjoy glimpses of the dolls house. It is Kezia
who takes the special notice of the beauty of the lamp which probably symbolizes
one's kind heart that transcends class distinction of the materialistic world. Kezia is
fascinated by the lamp:
she think is perfect For Kezia what she liked more than anything, what
she liked fiightfirlly, was the lamp. It stood in the middle of the dinning
room, an exquisite little amber lamp with a white globe ... but the lamp
was perfect. It seemed to smile at Kezia to say. I live here, the lamp was
real (384).
Her passion remains exclusive since Isabel and the other girl fail to appreciate
the unique appeal of the lamp. This symbolic lamp stands so powerful at the end of
the story, even though having been chased away by brutal treatment, the little Else
shares with Kezia the vision of lamp: ' I seen the little lamp' shows the revelation
that Else alone had shared Kezia vision of the 'perfect' and 'real' thing. Kezia (and
her lamp), hold out a ray of hope to the ostracised Kelveys, with her child-like,
innocent attempt to include them in the fold (Kinoshita, Y . 1999 134). The two little
girls are united in a shared sense of the aesthetic. The 'lamp' is the central object
which signifies the real aspect of life which has no prescribed by socio-economic
barriers.
In The Luft Bad the object used as a symbol is umbrella. Mentioned orrly
twice in the story, at the very beginning and at the end, it becomes the central symbol
of this particular story. Umbrellas signal both 'ridiculousness' and give 'protection'.
On the one hand, the character thinks it ridiculous to we an umbrella as a 'hiding
place' against the sun, by bathers, and other men. The stoiy starts with first person
narration I think it must be the umbrellas which make as look ridiculous....saw my
fellow-bathers walking about very nearly "in their naked" it struck me that the
umbrellas gave a distinctly "little Black Sambo " touch (729). Towards the end of the
story the narrator, whose name is not mentioned, goes back to her room to take bath.
She returns to the LuR Bad to see the umbrellas still unfolded. The umbrellas are to
saving grace of the Luft Bad. Now, when I go, I take my husband's "storm" gamp and
sit in a corner, hiding behind it (732). Katherine Mansfield presents symbols to reflect
the main character, their feelings, mood and the atmosphere. Here in the story
something is used for to represent something else. It is a material object 'umbrella'
representing the life on the beach of The Luft Bad.
One of the remarkable aspects of Katherine Mansfield's use of symbolism is
her use of symbolic gestures by the characters. In Prelude, the impatience of Beryl is
denoted by her gesture of biting her lip, her mouth was rather large. Too large? No,
not really; Her under lip protruded a little; she had a way of sucking it in that
somebody else had told her war awfilly fascinating (Prelude 58). Mouse's gesture of
stroking her muff denotes her embarrassment in Je Na Parle Pas Francais. The
restlessness of The Man without the Temperament is revealed by his habit of
turning his ring. He stood at the hall door tunring the ring, turning the heavy signet
ring upon his littlefinger while his glance traveled coolly ...but he did not whistle-on[y
turned the ring turned the ring on his pink; Peshly washed hands (The Man Without
the Temperament 129).
The Voyage, the story is limited, a young girl travels with her grandmother by
boat to her grandparent's home, to line with them. Her mother has passed away and
her grandmother now takes care of her as her guardian. Only halfway through the
story it is known of Fenella's mother's death. In short stories, information is often not
told in many words, but suggested rather economically through images. Imagery
means someone sees, hears, smells, feels or tastes-of the main character without
wordy explanations. From these impressions facts, moods go along with them.
,
Katherine Mansfield never lets the readers know the exact age of Fenella but it
is understood that she is a young child because of the limited understanding she has of
different situations. Here comes the dramatic irony in the story. The wood pile in the
story appears to Fenella as a "huge black mushroom", an image that would perhaps be
unusual for an adult's point of view.
In the middle of the story Fenella is in the private cabin with her &randmother.
In wonder she watches the old woman undress, while until then she had hardly seen her
grandmother even with her head uncovered. Because it is new and strange for Fenella,
grown up women's underclothing is not yet known to her: then she undid her bodice,
and something under that and something else under neath that (The Voyage 326). This
is Fenella's introduction to what it would be like to have a woman's body. There are
two themes symbolized by the contrast between darkness and light.
Some of the images of darkness shown in the story are the old wharf is 'dark,
very dark'. Everything on the "old wharf' is dark. This darkness and light imagery
symbolizes transition from childhood to adulthood. The transition from being an
innocent child becoming a knowing adult.
The Voyage itself is the only event of the story. All the action centers around
it and thus it is more than just an event. It becomes a symbol. The death of her mother
perhaps forces Fenella to grow up faster than she otherwise would have. The journey
symbolizes a transition from childhood to adolescence.
Along with the voyage, the repeatedly mentioned urdbrella becomes a symbol.
Fenella's grandmother lets her take care of her swan-necked, probably an expensive
umbrella At first it seems a burden to Fenella, as it is big and awkward. But she does
think about it during the trip and on the boat, she prevents it from falling over. When
they anive on the island, grandma does not even have to say a word, Fenella confirms
that she performed her duty well:
"You've got my ""Yes,grandma. " Fenella showed it to her (329).
The umbrella comes to symbolize Fenella's grown sense of responsibility.
Even the grandfather in the end, is surprised to see Fenella carrying his wife's good
umbrella.
Katherine Mansfield combined realist way of writing with personal or
understandable symbols. The Voyage is a good example of that. She uses the 1
9
'
century painter's depiction of sensory modernist technique where she gives series of
moments in her stories. There is no moral, no plot, but rather snippets of life.
The outstanding aspect in Katherine Mansfield's technique is her use of
animal symbolism applied to the specifically named stories. Her uses of birds and
insects which are prevalent images of her stories have invited much of criticism and
controversies. The bird is often an image of flight of escape which is endemic to the
notion of victimizer of the unsuspecting, and the moth which is the perfect image of
ironic victim, rushes all unknowing toward that which appears desirable but will
destroy him. Katherine Mansfield employs fewer symbols, so that they form an
intrinsic element of a story and carry their symbolic and thematic significance at the
same time. The symbol of insed life in Katherine Mansfield draws another
remaskable point.
Katherine Mansfield wrote a deeply pessimistic story called The Fly,which is
a chilling commentary on divine indifference and the tragedy of war. Katherine
Mansfield approaches her theme through the story of a man, known simply as 'the
boss', who drowns a fly in a pool of ink. She links the image of the fly to that of her
dead brother and uses the struggles of the dying insect as a metaphor for human
helplessness. The all powerful figure of 'The boss' contains elements of Katherine
Mansfield's father and God.
Katherine Mansfield's perception of human beings as being confident of their
intelligence, chance of success and ability to control destiny and self-image is
portrayed in her fiction. The perceptive is used most interestingly in The Fly. In the
story, symbol of the fly is identified with the human characters and its fate is like the
ironical fate of man. The images and symbols of this story have invited much of
criticism and controversies in deciphering the boss's motivation in torturing the fly
and the results of his experiment. The fly depicted as a prevalent image in her
writings: is the perfect image of the ironic victim who rushes all unknowing towardr
that which appears desirable but which will destroy him (Zinman, T.S.1978 462).
Six years following his son's death, boss is unable to weep and doesn't
understand what is wrong. At this moment; the boss finds a fly in the ink pot,
struggling to get free. He helps it to come out of the ink pot and places it on a piece
of blotting paper. The boss imagines that the fly must be joyfbl knowing it has
n m w l y escaped death. But just then the boss gets an idea. He plunged his pen back
info the ink, leaned his thick wrist on the blotting-paper, and as theJIy tried its wings
down came a great heavy blot (The Fly 417). The fly struggles to fly away. The
struggle of the fly to fly is symbolic of man's desire and will to live in the face of
death. While the fly is about to fly the boss covers it with a blot of ink and the fly
struggleshard to fly away. The experimentswhae in the boss continuouslytests the fly's
capacity to overcame induced death, is registered in the boss's mind in terms of
time - 'the hction of a second! When it appears to be dead but it's recovery by cleaning
its wing compared to sharpening of a scytheis the image of life consuming time. The
boss is joyfid watching the fly brave through tmils of death and feels that courage is the
right spirit to tackle things of never say die: it war only a question of... (417).A feeling
of horror fills his heart and he drops the fly in the waste paper basket, for nothing
happened or was likely to happen. The Fly was dead (418). The boss stands for
a superior controlling power-God, destiny or fate which in capricious and impersonal
cruelty tortures the little creatures struggling under his hand until it lies in death.
At the same time, he is presented as the one who has himself received the blows of
this superior power through the death of his only son in the war.
The chain of events leading to the death of the fly suggests a parallel in human life.
The boss is wretched and horriJied because he realizes that he is like the fly.
He had been struggling against the blow given by Fate. He has almost
forgotten the sorrow caused by his son's death. But fate has no mercy. Other
blows willfall life is never daunted. Till death it goes on struggling like the
fly. One may indict life because in course of time itforgets every sorrow. One
may praise life at the same time for its tenacity. Katherine MansJeld
suggests all these things by her Chekhov - like indirect method and her art of
suppressing many details (Mukerjee, I. 1992 43).
The fly is a poetic symbol so that Katherine Mansfield herself wrote that the
story seems to trembling on the brink of poetry. According to Maurois, A. (1935 339)
the virtue of Katherine stories lies not merely in their tnrthfulness, but in their poetry.
The 'Fly' in the story is symbolic of its consistent trials even in the face of gigantic
difficulties hoping to come out of the battle unscathed. But ultimately when the trails
cross the borders, it succumbs to Fate. Though the result of his experiment is
a revelation to the boss that his attempts to surpass destiny are ludicrous and
ineffective; he reverts to his old behavior by ignoring it. He forgets the fear he faces
on the death of the fly and his own mortality as is echoed in the phrase for the life of
him, he could not remember (The Fly 418).
Katherine Mansfield contrasts the happiness and sadness in the unfortunate
situation of losing some one or something to death in the story, The Fly shows that it is
hardly an influence on it as the theme goes beyond the problem of death. The Canary in
Katherine Mhsfield story The Canary is a symbol of the failure and isolation of the
protagonist, Missus. The story unfolds the tale of a lonely woman, after the death of her
canary, the only thing she loved. She is unable to move past the idea of its loss. The
flies represent death more directly by Katherine Mansfield. The canary's death also is
symbolic of the death of the woman's love and happiness. The protagonist in the story,
lamenting the death of the bird recalls with fondness how it chirped and wanders faintly
in his tiny cage. At the end of the story, the song of the bird resonates with joy and
sadness: But isn 't it extraordinary that under his sweet, joyfit1 little singing it was just
this-sadness?-Ah,what is it? -that I heard (The Canary 422).
Jkes, ~ , ~ . ' ( 1 9 13)
7 3 quotes the last words of Katherine Mansfield as:
Perhaps it does not matter so very much what it is one love in this world ...
But love something one must. Through sheer force of will she can isolate
and elevate objects of her love, but the effbrt out weighs the apparent,
benefits. Loss, sadness, sorrow are still there waiting,
The enlargement of perception, received from Katherine Mansfield's work is
of the kind, which gains h m association with an imagination of a gifted child. The
child sees freshly and sharply, the meaning of life with in the compass of the small.
Child has a special place in the world of Katherine Mansfield's short stories. Her
vision of the world is a vision of her own childhood, which perceives highly, vividly
exquisitely and acutely. Her writing of children touches with a delicate Dickensian
quality. The image of children, whose creation in the stories is particularly renowned.
Children occupy important place in every story as they appear very frequently in
stories like - The Doll's House, At the Bay, Prelude and Sun and Moon. These
stories are particularly dominated by children and the relationships which they have
with their parents and the adult world. Many critics dwell almost exclusively on
images, together w~ththe beauty of the natural description and unusual images, which
the whole effect becomes extremely 'pretty'.
The child symbolizing the oneness of humanity of the soul transcending social
and economical distinctions is the major concern of Katherine Mansfield. This
perception is seen in the freshness of the child as in The DoUs House: The Doll's
House can be considered as a representative price in this sense (Chellapan, K.
1989 61-63).
The story The Doll's House is based on an actual event in Katherine
Mansfield's childhood. The arrival of a doll's house and excitement combines with
her personal and racial experience. The story unfolds the difference between the rich
children and poor children, the haves and the have-nots, and their attitude towards
toys and objects of value,
The minds of innocent children are poisoned by the clumsy and a pret6ntious
elder is shown in the story and these characters arc represented only through the
speech and thoughts of the children. The Doll's House which begins with Mrs.Hay
sending the Bumell's children a doll's house as a giR The children of Burnell family
-Kezia, Lottie and Isabel all were delighted to have it. The doll's house is painted
Spanich green, picked out bright yellow. Kezia immensely likes the lamp on the
dinning table inside the doll's house. Isabel, the eldest tells her friends at school about
the fascinating gift. Kezia is the only one to be drawn towards the lamp. All but two
children Lil and Else come to see the Doll's house and listened to Isabel and Kezia.
Lil and Else are the poor daughters of the local washer woman. The children of the
well-to-do Bumell family in the story are forbidden to talk with them, because of their
poverty and their background. Children are forced to imitate their parents in the world
of social rules and regulation. In the school the discrimination between classes is
brought out in all the true colours in the text as:
it was the only school for miles. And the consequence was all the children
of the neighbourhood, the judge's little girls, the doctor's daughters, the
store- keeper's children, the milkman's, were forced to mix together. Not
to speak of there being and equal number of rude, rough little boys as well.
But the line had to be drawn some where, It war d r m n at the Kelveys
(The'Doll's House 385).
The class consciousness is clearly evident in the Burnell children, who always
set an example to their other friends and the fiends imitate their behaviors. The
Kelveys were the daughter of a spry, hard- working little washer woman ' who went
aboutfiom house to house by the day (386). The underdogs of the society, Lil and
Else were deprived of the chance to see the doll's house. To add insult to injury one
day Lena Logan, a girl belonging to the so-called middle class and a friend of the
Burnell children remarks like:
it was the dinner hour... they wanted to be horrid to them. Emmie Cole
started the whisper.
"Lil Kelveys S going to be servant when she grows up ".
"0-oh how awful! " said Isabel Burnell, and she made eyes at Emmie.
Emmie Swallowed in a very meaning way and nodded to Isabel as she'd
seen her mother do on those occasions.
"It's True-it 's true-it 's true, " she said.
Then L e ~ aLogan ir little eyes snapped. "Shall I ask her? " she whispered.
"Betyou don 't, " said Jessy May
"Pooh, I'm norflghtened", said Lena....
And sliding, gliding, dragging one foot, giggling behind her hand, Lena
went over to the Kelveys.
Lil looked up from her dinner. She wrapped the rest quickly away. Our
Else stopped chewing. What was coming now?
"Is it true you're going to be a servant when you grow up. Lil Kelvey?"
shirlled Lena.
Dead silence. But instead of answering, Lil only gave her silly, shamefaced
smile. She didn't seem to mind the question at all.
What a s e w Lena! The girh began to titier. Lena couldn 't stand that.
She put her hands on her hip; she shot fonvcird, 'Yah, yer father's in
prison! " she hissed spitefilly
This was such a marvelous thing to have said that the little girls m h e d
away in a body, deeply, deeply. &cited, wild withjoy" (388).
The description of the class distinction is clearly evident in the way the
children imitate the behavior of the adults. Katherine Mansfield creates with a few
sentences the complex feeling of those children. Head, D. (1992 120) asserts that:
The children [...I absorb and use adult discourse not specifically designed
for their own consumption, and this again, raises the issues of ideological
power and conditioning. When Mansjeld has the children play at being
adults a serious investigation along these lines lies beneath the humorous
vignette of children mores.
Flowers and animal imagery abounds in the description of the Kelveys Lil
Kelveys came up to her desk with a bunch of dreadfully common-looking flowers. The
Kelveys came nearer, and beside them walked their shadows, very long, stretching right
across the road with their heads in the butter cups (The Doll's House 389).
Lil and Else are compared with animals, which are hunted or chased by
humans. Else was a tiny wish bone of a child, with cropped hairs and enormous
solemn eyes- a little white owl (386) and the two girls together are two little stray cats,
chicken, little rats of Kelveys (390). The Kelveys are associated with the natural and
unpretentious, perceived by society to have no value. But one of the Bumell Children
Kezia transgresses the imposed social conventions and secretly invites the Kelveys to
view the doll's house for themselves, the only children in the locality who have not
yet done so and her favorite thing in it an e.quisite little amber lamp with a white
globe (384).
She spots the kelveys walking down the road. She invites them and opens the
gate to let them in. The gate, symbolizes the crossing h m one domain to another, the
man-made barrier between rich and poor and emphasizing of well-dressed children.
Lil first hesitated and frightened, knowing their status and their treatment as 'outcasts'
our Else was looking at her with big, imploring eyes; she was frowning;
she wanted to go. For a moment Lil looked at our Else very doubtfirlly. But
then our twitched her skirt again. She started forward Kezia led the way.
Like two little stray cats they followed across the courward to where the
doll's house stood (390).
As Lil and Else stared at the prized possession of the Burnells, Aunt Beryl
interrupts them violently in the scene, but the Kelveys get their sense of fulfillment.
She put out afinger and stored her sister quill- she smiled her rare smile.
"Iseen the little lamp", She saidsoftty. T k n both were silent once more (391).
Katherine Mansfield skillfully shows the difference between the adult's
attitude and that of the children's to life. According to Chellepan, k.(1989 62):
The dolls house is a symbol of his contradiction- it can be opened in the
ways the God opens houses at the dead of night when He is taking a quiet
turn with an angel. It is a micro-world, like the child or its world, and yet
so diyerent. Even though the social d~ferencesare there in any society
and the child is indiferent to them, the situation is aggravated in colonial
set- up. Sb the doll's house can be said to symbolize the human
predicament as intensified in
... the lamp within the doll's
house, is
metaphor for the lingering child's vision, in the prison- house of the
world. It is ironic that the doll's house itselfwhose door has a magical
touch is shut to certain children. But Kezia's desire to show the doll's
house to the Kelveys shows the desire of the human soul to transcend the
class consciousness.
The symbolism is used to convey the implicit meaning which the lamp
suggests, because this minute object is clothed with a deeper and lasting significance.
It is imbued with a life of own, as it becomes the means of linking the individual parts
of the story to create an organic whole. The closing words by Else, "I seen the little
lamp", suggests that the lamp symbolizes an interior world in which peace,
contentment, and psychological closure have been achieved.
Katherine Mansfield juxtaposes infants' sensations with adults creating the
haunting light, play over innocence and experience in the seventh section of At the
Bay, where Kezia moves from a small child's perception of the world through her
toys to something different. Kezia asks her grandmother to tell the story of the death
of Uncle William. The love, affection and trust Kezia has for her grandmother reflects
on the healthy aspects of their relationship. It comes about because her grandmother
will not tell lies, and is knitting like the three fates. Her physical sensations of sandy
toes engage powerfully with the present, but she cannot avoid contemplating the
mortality not just of a duck, as in Prelude but of her beloved grandmother.
Grammatical punctuation, a dash and the repetition of 'leave' makes her transition
from infancy, when her grandmother draws a long thread from the ball which
implicates the Kezia life span rather than her own. At first Kezia cannot believe that
she herself will die.
'But, grandma.' Kezia waved her leJt leg and waggled the toes. They felt
sandy. ' m a t ifI
just won't?'
The old wonurn sighed again and drew a long threadfrom the ball.
We're not asked, Kezia, she said sadly. Yt h a p p h to all of ur sooner or
later. '
Kezia lay still thinking this over. She didn't want to die. It meant she would
have to leave here, leave everywhere, for ever, leave-leave her grandma. She
rolled over quickly.
'Grandma,' she said in a startled voice. 'What, my pet! '
'You're not to die ' Kezia was vety decided.
2h, Kezia '-her grandma looked up and smiled and shook her head- 'don't
let S talk about it. '
'But you're not to. You d d n 't le.ave me. You couldn 't not be there. ' Thir war au@l
'Rvmise me you won 't ewr do it. gmndina,'pleadedKQia (At the Bay 226-227).
Though the scene ends in tickling and laughter, Kezia has undergone a
transforming experience which the reader has to recognize through intuition and
memory. As in Prelude and The Garden Party, Katherine Mansfield uses a child
younger than Laura, to reveal the crude insensitive world that adults make for
themselves. The story Sun and Moon appears simple in technique and expression.
The Sun is a boy shown as separated from the attitudes of the adult world, and the
little sister Moon accepts and imitates. The name of Sun which not only gives a pun
on the word 'son' but also suggests enlightment and knowledge and the little sister
Moon,is totally dependent on her parents and society. She is mysterious, hidden from
view and cloaked in darkness.
At ?hebeginning of the story Sun and Moon, focus is on the preparation of
the party. In the first paragraph of the story, Sun perceives a transformation of the
home into something new, unknown: In the af?emoon the chairs came, a whole big
ca@l little gold ones with their legs in the air. And then flowers came. When you
stared downfiom the balcony at the people canying them theflower pots looked like
j k n y awfilly nice hats nodding up the path (Sun and Moon 153-154). Both were
excited by the new furniture and the decoration and they walk around in awe as they
were turned upsidedown producing a topsy -huvy images that is both unusual and
impractical that one cannot sit on an upside down chair. Sun also observes a man
sitting at thepiano-notplaying, but banging at it and then looking inside (154). In this
way ofperceiving makes the objects strange; they do not look like what they are when
viewed from a different perspective.
The greatest transformation happens in the kitchen. Sun and Moon, enters the
kitchen to watch the preparation for the fancy dinner. The children observe a table of
beautihlly h i s h e d food and are excite to see a plate of ice pudding in the
refiigeration Oh! Oh! Oh! ...It was a little pink house with white snow on the roof and
green windows and brown door and ... a nut for a handle (155). Moon wants to touch
the marvelous thing: She always wanted to touch all the food. Sun didn 't (155).Moon
wants to experience the house by having a direct contact with it, but Sun can have his
has experience just by looking at it. Sun is specially fascinated by the nut handle on
the door. Sun in the story is shown as physically weak by the excitement of viewing
the house.
Later they move into the dinning room which is made ready to receive the
guests. Sun and Moon were frightened to step into the room as they were ordered by
their mother to remain in their nursery. "They wouldn 't go up to the table atfirst; they
just stood at the door and made eyes at it" (155).
The whole dining room is decorated with lights, red ribbons, red roses "and aN
the lights were red roses. Red ribbons and bunches of roses tied up the table at the
corners, In the middle was a lake with rose petalsflouting on if (155).
Sun was surprised to see the preparations and asks the cook "Arepeople going
to eat thefood?" asked Sun.
"I shouldjust think they are" laughed cook ( 1 55-156). Moon laughs too as she
always imitated others. But Sun doesn't laugh a more serious for his age. He rather
contemplates on what is going to happen during the dinner time.
Round and round he walked with his hands behind his back ( 1 56).
While they were still enjoying the scene, Nurse suddenly takes them back to
the nursery to wash them and dress them up for the concert.
Sun subconsciously fears his sister who never knew the difference between the
reality and illusion. In Sun's family, the Children play very little role. Their mother's
indifference to them is shown in the fact that she only has time to say to them,
Get out of my way children! While rushing to prepare for the party ( 1 54). During the
party, the mother instructs the maid to dress the children in lavish, demeaning
costumes and make them sit still and wait to be called. The children are invited to
come to the party for only a few minutes; so that guests can admire them and kiss
them. The children are like mere possessions amongst their parents' wealth.
At the end of the story, when the destruction of the beauty of the evening
suddenly reveals to Sun that his view of the adult world of beauty is wrong. Sun sees
before him the debris, of the dinner and he a melting pile of pink ice. He is horror
stricken:
But- oh! oh! K4at had happened. The ribbons and the roses were all
pulled united. The little red table- napkins lay on thefloor, all the shining
glasses, 2'3e lovelyjbod that the man
plates were dirty and all the wMnldng
had trimmed was all thrown about, and there were bones and bits andfiuit
peels and shells everywhere. There was even a bottle lying down with s&f
coming out of it on to the cloth and nobody stood it up again. And the little
pink house with the snow roof and the green windows was broken- brokenhalf melted away ( 159-60).
At this point, Sun's sister, unaffectedby the destruction, happily reaches out and
eats the small nut which had served as the door handle. To sun, the destruction of the
beauty at the end of the evening makes him sob: I think it. Horrid-Homid-Hom'd (160).
The story presents Sun's expectations are the opposite of reality, and the lovely dinner
has been eaten and smashed. His God-like parents the figures of authority- have become
destructive and irresponsible in the eyes of the children. Linda, Penaine. (149) has
noted the lack of casual relationships is another aspect of this text, which suggests
that we are seeing events through the eyes of some one who does not have a total
understanding of reality.
Katherine Mansfield stories clearly reflect the pattern of imagery which
emerges from the body of her work has a more esoteric undertone. It is as if she is
assuming a subconscious understanding of the working of the universe through her
use of recuning symbols, sometimes anthmmorphized to emphasis their importance.
She uses universal images of sun, moon and sea which reflect the interconnection
between the natural world and the human beings, The moon for Katherine Mansfield
is allied to the feminine, to the mysterious life and the sun to the masculine. The sea is
also a feminine symbol, a feminine response, allied to the moon, whose power over it
is all consuming. The images are seen in relation to each other they form patterns of
victims and victimizers that are emblematic of Katherine Mansfield in her stories
Sun and Moon, The Garden Party, At the Bay, The Daughters of the Late
Colonel
The Sun in Katherine Mansfield most anthologized story The Garden Party
reflects the brightness while the party takes place. The sun is a traditional image
which is an illuminating symbol of knowledge element where Lawa notices' two tiny
spots of sun one on the ink pot, one on a silver photograph frame, playing too.
Darling little spots (The Garden Party 249). In Prelude, the sun frequently makes an
appearance when Stanely Burnell, girt with a towel, glowing and slapping his thighs.
He pitched the wet towel on top of her hat and cope, and standingfinn in the exact
centre of a square of sunlight to do his exercise (Prelude 25) and in the story
Mr. Reginald Peacock's Day, Reginald Peacock is in a similar posture; Back in his
bedroom, he pulled the blind up with a jerk, and standing upon the pale square ofsun
light that lay upon the carpet l i k a sheet of cream blotting -paper, he began to do
exercise (Mr. Reginald Peacock's Day 146) .
At the Bay is a continuation of Prelude. The study unfolds a single summer
day from sunrise to night, and from necessary to dream, in the lives of the Burnell
family at their summer cottages in Crescent Bay. Katherine Mansfield employs her
individual and unique style to convey a vegetation myth drawing on the idea of life,
death and re birth. Her use of images and symbols are the ancient universal sun and
moon and sea. The sea fonns the background for the entire story. It is heard all day
long &om sunrise to moon rise and fonns the Debussyan close. The story opens with
the evocation of nature in which the rising sun forms a perfect day: It is very early
morning. The Sun was not yet risen, and the whole of Crescent Bay was hidden under
a white sea-mist. The big bush- covered hills at the back were smothered. You could
not see where they ended and the paddocks and bungalows began (At the Bay 205).
It suggests the smothering mist, and evocation of water and wetness with which
suggest the cyclical eternal renewal. She employs anbther image the sun as
a distinctly masculine symbol in the story which embodied in the person and actions
of Stanley Burnell. It is a significant symbol where the rise of sun is like awakming call
to the Bumell family. The description of the scene is symbolic of her poetic thoughts.
The image of the early morning is happiness as Katherine Mansfield suggests to live -to
live! And the perfect morning, so fiesh and fair, basking in the light, as though
laughing at its own beauty, gleamed to whisper, "Why not? " (209).
In the story At the Bay, the beauty of an early summer morning soon
changes by the Stanley Burnell who makes his clumsy way from beach house to sea.
Ah-Ahh! Sounded the sleepy sea. And from the bush there came the
sound of the little streamsflowing, quickly, lightly, slipping between the
smooth stones, gushing into ferny basins and out again: and there was
-
the splashing of big drops on large leaves, and something else what
was it? - a faint stirring and shaking, the snapping of a twig and then
such silence that it seemed someone was listening (205).
The personification of nature occurs in the chapter I1 where the bathing scene
of Stanley Burnell and Jonathan Trout is described. Stanley Burnell the patriarchal
head considers himself to be an embodiment of the active centre of life of the family.
His activity is presented with the sure footed tread of the shepherd for whom success
in the world is measured by the welfare of his sheep. He is excited at being first, but is
highly irritated at the presence of his weed like brother-in-law, Jonathan Trout, who is
already in the sea, swimming, The pride he takes in being the first person in the water
reflects his need to be in control of practical sffairs, and to be the undisputed owner of
the sea, he swims routinely, u-ithout enjoying it. Jonathan Trout, on the other hand
comments to the very essence of Stanley's character as:
there was somethingpathetic in his determination to make a job of everything.
,
You couldn 't help feeling he'd be caught out one day, and what an almighty
cropper, he 'd come! At that moment an immense wave fif?ed Jonathan, rode
past him, and broke along the beach with a joyfil sound, What a beauty! And
now there came another. That was the way to live- carelessly, recklessly,
spending oneself(209).
His philosophy of life reflects an easy association with to take things easy not
tofight against the ebb andflow of life,but to give way to it- that was what was
needed (206).
Katherine Mansfield ends the story of the Burnell family in At the Bay by
foregrounding the feminine in both the symbols the moon and the sea. She lets the
entire scene mirror the receding misadventure between Beryl and Herry Kember.
Beryl who witnessed frightening moment of sexual harassment by Herry Kember,
realizes that he was not what he seemed to be. The 'moment of darkness' obscures the
authenticity of the woman, as the small serene cloud floats over the moon and at the
very moment the sound of the sea is deep troubled and echoing the darkness that
reflects a mute, impoverished female self. The sea troubled is the feminine psyche,
eternal and mysterious and then the story concludes symbolically; a cloud, small,
serene, floated across the moon. In that moment of darkness the sea sounded deep
troubled. l%enthe cloud sailed away, and the sound of the sea was a vague murmur,
as though it waked out of a dark dream. All Was Stiil(245).
Katherine Mansfield's development as a modem writer is reflected in her use
of symbols. She formed her stories around its w e and relied on it to convey each
story's theme. The influence of Symbolism partnered with her use of symbols, images
and objects resulted in literature that was evocative of modemism and established her
as an original modern writer. The next chapter is a continuation to this as it discusses
epiphany and irony.