Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party”: A Strong Protest Against the Class Consciousness and the Class Distinction
“The Garden Party” is an interesting short story by Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) from her short story collection " The Garden Party and Other Stories ". The major theme of the story is the Class consciousness and class distinction. In the story depicts how the class conscious the well-to-do family overlooks the poor endangered neighbour. The central character of the story is Laura Sheridan ,the youngest member of rich Sheridan family, the daughter of Mrs. Sheridanand Mr. Sheridan. The whole story moves around her telling her inner psychological conflict. She is very soft minded and very sympathetic to the lower class people unlike the other members of the family. Laura, a budding rose, has carefully been protected from the reality of the world.She has never experienced poverty, hardship, labour, let alone death. When Laura and Laurie were small children, they were confined to a " desert island "(the Sheridan estate). As the narrator comments: