Miss Brill

A detailed Summary of Miss Brill

"The Garden-Party" by Katherine Mansfield is a life-changing short story about a girl named Laura who awakens to the fact that she and her entire family have a totally different set of values. Her internal conflict is that she goes through many stages of denial and reasoning until she is finally forced to decide what is right. There are many factors, events, and complications that affect her final decision and some symbols that reveal her conflict.

Laura has respectable values that show her humanity and modesty throughout the story but, unfortunately, does get confused at times when faced with a problem or something alien to her. For example, when the workmen come to set up the marquee, Laura tries to handle them the way her mother would, "'Good morning,'" But when she said that, she felt as if she were a horrible person and was ashamed. "'Oh-er-have you come-is it about the marquee?'" At this moment, she tries to be like her mother thinking that her mother's opinion of lower people, that she and Laura were above and superior to people that had to work to make a living and that all such people were grubby low-lives and a waste of their precious time, was right. However, when she hears how she sounds in her attempts, she is

In conclusion, one should never sway from something one believes in wanting someone to accept you. Never be ashamed of your values as Laura learned in this story.

almost frightened and realizes that the workmen were just as "nice" as could be. But then she goes back into business mode thinking that she "must be firm" but this doesn't work for a second. The worker says something and Laura wonders "whether it was quite respectful of a workman to talk to her of bangs slap in the eye." At this moment, her mother's values are almost haunting her but she decides that she doesn't care and that the workmen are nice men despite what she knew her mother would say about them. Then, Laura starts to try and please them thinking "Perhaps he wouldn't mind so much..." Laura's mother would have shuddered at the thought of being nice to the lowly workmen. That shows just how different their values are.

Perhaps the best ways of showing the difference in Laura and her mother's values are the symbols. The item that symbolizes Laura's values is presented to the reader very early in the story. The bread and butter that Laura is holding represents her values. "They looked impressive. Laura wished now that she had not go the bread-and-butter, but there was nowhere to put it, and she couldn't possibly throw it away." This means that she wished she could be firm like her mother and get rid of her values to speak to the workers but that she couldn't possibly accept her mother's ideas. Then, because of the worker's friendliness, "Laura took a big bite of her bread-and-butter as she stared at the little drawing." She wanted to show them that her values were

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1121
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English