Katherine Mansfield on Women's Status

One of the themes that can be found in the stories of Katherine Mansfield centers upon the role, status, sexuality, and "place" of women in society. According to Chantal Cornut-Gentille d'Arcy (244), "Mansfield's succinct narrativesa are triumphs of style, a style which challenged the conventional parameters of nineteenth-century realism, constrained to plot, sequential development, climax, and conclusion." More specifically, d'Arcy (245) maintains that "even though Mansfield never acknowledged any profound engagement with Freudian approaches to sexuality or psychic disordera Mansfield moved in a context which undoubtedly indicates she was aware of Freud's ideas and discoveries."

This is evident in "Life of Ma Parker," which describes the life of a widowed charwoman who has experienced nothing more than tragedy throughout her life and who most recently has had the horrible task of burying her loving little grandson (Lohafer 475). Ma Parker is written by Mansfield from both a Freudian psychological and a sociological perspective. Susan Lohafer (475) characterizes the story as "a spare iconography of working-class life that makes the story a perfect set-piece for cultural studies." In the story, an aging charwoman must not only cope with the death of her grandson, she must also deal with the fact that she has no place to go where she can be by herself and give way to her grief.

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ittle more than monkeys, symbolically referenced in the monkey=patterned coat worn by Mrs. Norman Knight and the voice of the narrator, who described Mrs. Knight sans coat as looking very much like an intelligent monkey. Dilworth (144) believes that the "monkey references introduce an element of satirical mockery by reminding the reader of the primate ancestry, and perhaps essence, of these effete, aesthetically cultivated, pretentious sophisticates, whose supper conversation is so banal." Alternatively, it is possible to consider "Bliss" less as a Darwinian allegory of the survival of the fittest than as a Freudian "coming of age" allegory (D'Arcy 246). In this approach to the story and the character of Bertha Young, what is emphasized is the fact of a soon-to-be-frustrated sexual awakening initially directed toward the self, then toward the same gender, and finally toward the "appropriate" heterosexual object. Bertha's "bliss," as the title of the story suggests, is transitory; bliss can be experienced but not retained. For Bertha, says D'Arcy (247), the departure of the guests at the dinner party will mark the beginning of a new relationship between Bertha and her husband -- a relationship in which they will become as equ
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1656
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)