Fantasy Worlds in The Garden Party and Her First Ball by Katherine Mansfield

In the short stories ‘The Garden Party’ and ‘Her First Ball’, both written by the well-known New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield, the importance of detail lies in several fields. As Mansfield herself states, “there is an indefinite value and delight in detail” and this is shown constantly as she uses it much effectively to portray themes, provide us with a contrast between the two different settings and also paint us a clear picture of the protagonists’ fantasy worlds.

Mansfield shows and doesn’t tell. In both the short stories, she plunges you straight into the imaginative and personified worlds of the protagonists and then the plot follows. The detailed description of the “perfect day for a garden-party” depicts Laura’s imaginations and excitement for this whole wonderful occasion. Every little detail such as the “green bushes bowed down as though they had been visited by the archangels” and the fact that the roses understood they “are the only flowers that impress people at garden-parties” adds to the angelic aura that Laura seems to have put forward so that we as the readers understand better her excitement and great anticipation. She is untainted by the worldly matters such as class distinctions at this point as she is still in her own imaginative world of “archangels.”

Similarly for Leila in Her First Ball, everything is so magical, exactly the way it is in a fairyland. Everything around her is so strikingly new and enthralling. It is Leila’s first ball, and her first exposition to society. Mansfield describes the young girl’s emotions and excitement in so much detail that it incarcerates us in the quaint fantasy world of Leila. Just like Laura, we also sense Leila’s innocence, because “her first real partner was th...

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...escribed in colours of youth, innocence and purity: “pink and silver programmes”, “pink and white flags”, “pink velvet cloak”, “pink pencils” and “pink chairs”. Then the contrast sets in with black dispelling this girlish innocence and the carefree atmosphere: the black velvet cloaks of the mother, the fat man’s black suit and the black night, which is threatening. We are held up in the joy and anticipation of Leila’s first ball and with this detail, Mansfield crushes us. This contrast forces us to conclude that nothing can be held, nothing lasts forever. Whatever era we live in, the impermanence of life is what affects every living thing on this planet.

All in all, every minute detail in ‘The Garden Party’ and ‘Her First Ball’ is very much significant in that detail is the medium through which Mansfield ‘speaks to our minds’. Not by telling us, but showing us.