For Miss Brill, the knowledge that she is part of the play is comforting and connects her to the others in the park, giving her and them a shared awareness that she still does not quite understand. The way the two she sees as the hero and the heroine talk about her, though, shatters her comfortable existence and brings back the unpleasantness she has only been able to stave off for a time.
In Mansfield's story "Je ne parle pas francais," which means "I do not speak French," Raoul Duquette is the central character and also the narrator. His word is suspect, and the author treats her spokesperson here in an ironic manner. He starts by claiming he is a true Parisian, though the title alone suggests that this is false. To Raoul, he is authentic because he is a gigolo and a poseur. He also serves as the embodiment of the Romantic perception of the artist, a dilettante who sits in a cafe and wiles away the day in idleness, presumably while creating his masterpiece in his mind. The books he has written, though, suggest that his talent is largely fiction, books called Wrong Doors, False Coins, and Left Umbrellas. The reader is privy to Raoul's thoughts about himself and his reactions to others, and he shows a degree of confusion about who he really is and what he means to other people.
Raoul staves off the unpleasant with his own particular illusions about himself and his work, and his interactions with Dick and Mouse show how is illusions sustain him while Dick sings and Mouse cries. Raoul also cries, but he does so when under the influence and when seeking to show an affinity for Dick and for the song Dick is signing, while Mouse is in real despair about her life and the unpleasantness she faces. For Raoul, none of this persists as he returns to his habit of going to cafes and continuing his pretensions.
In "The Fly," old Mr. Woodfield tries to avoid the unpleasant realities of human existence by keeping...
Katherine Mansfield Early Works Later Works and Themes Kathleen Mansfield Murry, commonly known by her penname Katherine Mansfield, was born in the late nineteenth century and only lived to be thirty-four years of age. Her early death was due to the effects of tuberculosis on her body. During her lifespan however, she was able to write a variety of short fiction stories in the modernist genre. Her works gave her a great deal
"Mansfield's characters share the topical hopelessness that characterized much of early Modernist writing. Characters like Miss Brill seem to be living on the brink of personal disaster; the sense of community has vanished; they are largely alone" (Devi). Miss Brill must face the dreadful truth that the community she felt so much a part of could easily go on without her. By the time she reaches her dark room,
It's all the fault, she decided,... Of these absurd class distinctions." Mansfield blatantly shows us the indifferent heartlessness that the wealthy feel toward the poor, when Laura wants to stop the garden party out of respect for a worker who has died on the road outside their gate: Oh, Laura!" Jose began to be seriously annoyed. "If you're going to stop a band playing every time some one has an accident,
The scene is full of hope and joy, and the use of light helps to illuminate this mood. Once Laura crosses the road, the scene is described quite differently. At first it is "smoky and dark," however Laura does manage to see in some of the cottages flickers of light in the shadows. These flickers of light represent flickers of hope, but they are far less luminous than those which
Psychoanalysis and Literature Narrative and Psychoanalytic Approaches to Mother Daughter Relationships in Literature There are several different types of narrative forms utilized by authors in texts and short stories to describe mother daughter relationships. Traditional forms include personal experience narratives where characters are traditionally well defined with personalities and unique identities. The extent to which modern authors have employed narrative techniques to create true to life characters has been well researched throughout history.
Superstition relates to the sense of exploration and the hunger for knowledge in the contemporary human heart. The themes of light and darkness in the modern context has developed to signify knowledge and ignorance - the former being banished by knowledge like shadow by light. In this way, the main themes of the story take on a symbolic significance for the contemporary world, and remains relative to the paradigm
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