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Grant Hill

Ms. Anya Jones

English III Honors

19 May, 2014

Analysis of Katherine Mansfield


I elected to analyze Katherine Mansfield the author of The Dolls House and how her
background relates to the historical context of the story. As a recap of The Dolls House we
all know the story is about class discrimination and or the socially outcast which is the typically
is the working or lower class. The author, Katherine Mansfield was born in New Zealand in
1888, the daughter of a self-made colonial merchant and financier. By definition she had wealthy
upbringing, although not old money, similar to Jay Gatsby in the movie The Great Gatsby.
Many admired her and her work, Bertrand Russell admired her work and once said he would like
to seduce her. Virginia Woolf said she loved her and admitted that she was jealous of
Katherines work. Katherine obviously was a very talented writer; she also was a free spirited
female at a time that was not as accepting. She was a woman who was very open sexually, once
participating in an mnage a quatre with D.H. Lawrence and his wife as well as her husband.
Needless to that did not end to well. Katherine openly loved men and women risking everything
for lifestyles today that we take for granted. Again many describe her as a writers writer, it
appears to me that she was someone who dared to be different, as a matter of fact in todays
society she would be considered weird.
I believe that Katherines background is somewhat similar to one of her characters in
The Dolls House. The youngest of the three sisters in the short story was named Kezia
Burnell, and as you read the story you will discover that she dared to different. Several times she
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challenged the norms of society. First her favorite part of the dolls house that she and her sisters
received as a gift was the lamp, and the lamp symbolized to working class. This was unique
because she was in the wealthy class. Secondly she asked her mother if she could invite the
Kelvey sisters over to look at the dolls house. Her mother stated under no circumstances were
the Kelvey sisters welcomed at their house. Being in a small town that only had one school all
members of society went to the same school, both wealthy and working class, the Kelvey sisters
were considered working class because they lacked material wealth. Their mother cleaned the
houses of the wealthy and it was believed that their father was in jail, and because of these
circumstances the Kelvey sister were treated unfairly. Kezia Burnell defied her mother and
invited the Kelvey sisters to her house even though she was told they were not welcomed.
Katherine Mansfields background is parallel to her character Kezia. The setting for The Dolls
House and Katherines background is the early 1900s. Again there were bad things acceptable
in society as normal, (class discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination), today changes
have occurred and some things are more acceptable.