What is the plot in The Garden Party?
Laura is stuck in a world of high-class housing, food, family, and garden parties. She then discovers her neighbour from a lower class has died and she clicks back to reality upon discovering death. Sensitivity and insensitivity. The Sheridans hold their garden party, as planned, complete with a band playing music.
What is the main message of The Garden Party?
“The Garden Party” emphasizes the stark division between working-class people and economic elites in a deeply unequal society—in this case, early 20th century New Zealand.
What happens at the end of garden party?
At the end of ”The Garden Party,” Laura realizes that life is marvelous. This occurs after she sees Mr. Scott’s dead body and realizes that, for the dead person, death is peaceful and restful freedom from life, even though it feels tragic for the loved ones of the person who has died.
What is the main conflict in The Garden Party?
Therefore, the conflict in “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield is both internal and external. Laura fights an internal conflict because, mentally, she not only has to deal with what she feels according to what she believes and thinks but also deals with what the people around her think about the situation.
What does the hat symbolize in The Garden Party?
The hat symbolizes Mrs. Sheridan’s apathy for anyone that is not of her social class. When Laura confronts her mother about canceling the party to show respect for the man who just had a fatal accident just below their house, Mrs. Sheridan seems unconcerned with the death.
Why does Laura want to stop the party?
In the story, a poor man from the village in which the Sheridans live dies. Laura wishes to stop the party and help the newly widowed woman. The guests of the party, including her parents, think she is out of her mind for even thinking such things.
What does the garden symbolize in The Garden Party?
The garden on the Sheridans’ estate symbolizes Laura’s innocence. Like the Garden of Eden of the Old Testament of the Bible, it is a seemingly perfect place where nothing bad could ever happen. The sun is always shining, and people are always happy among the flowers and trees.
What is the irony in The Garden Party?
The irony of having the Sheridan family, most especially Laura wearing her best dress and going to the wake of the family is highly ironic. The basket of leftovers is also a symbol of how the rich family perceives the poor Scott family.
What does Laura learn in The Garden Party?
”The Garden Party”: Background
However, just before the party is scheduled to begin, she learns that a man from a cottage down the road was thrown from his horse and killed, leaving behind a wife and five children. Laura learns about social class and death through this experience.
How does Laura change in The Garden Party?
Laura changes in “The Garden Party” noticeably. She begins as a young lady who has no control over herself, not only on a physical level but on a mental level. She does not have the strength to express her thoughts, nor to perform actions related to those thoughts.
What is the symbolize in the hat in The Garden Party?
Hats symbolize the gulf between the Sheridans, the affluent middle class family giving the garden party, and the working class people they hire and who live in poverty nearby them. Hats represent the world of pleasures and luxuries that attract Laura and her cohort and distract their attention from the poor.
Why did Laura apologize for her hat?
When she visits the cottages, Laura is ashamed of her hat, which symbolizes her wealth to people who will never have the privilege to experience the aesthetic extravagance of the garden-party. When she apologizes to them for her hat, she seems to be rejecting her privilege and aligning herself outside her family.
What do lilies symbolize in The Garden Party?
Lilies are a flower that represents royalty, purity, and rebirth. The Sheridan family presents themselves as royalty since they live on a fine estate and throw extravagant parties while the people in the cottages below have nothing.
What does the hat symbolize in the garden party?
What does Laura learn at the end of The Garden Party?
At the conclusion of The Garden Party, Laura is exposed to a side of life she has never encountered before, and comes to a sudden realization that “life and death may indeed coexist and that their common existence in one world may be beautiful” (Magalaner 101).