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Questions for Mansfield's Stories, Part 2 (see below)


For next week, read the following stories: "Mr. and Mrs. Dove," "The Young Girl," "Life of Ma Parker," "Marriage a la Mode," and "The Voyage." Answer two of the following questions anytime next week, though I will post another set of questions around Thursday. You can turn in both sets at once, or stagger them, however you like. 

 Q1: Many of these stories, like Laura in "The Garden Party," have characters who find themselves unable to express what they see and feel. As Anne protests in "Mr. and Mrs. Dove," "Surely you must see that, it's so simple" (78). What makes them unable to communicate 'simple' things to their friends and partners? Besides their own confusion, what else seems to stand in the way?

 Q2: Many of Mansfield's stories bounce back and forth between perspectives and even narrators. Or, a story like "The  Young Girl" even has an unnamed narrator who doesn't even reveal his sex (except in a very veiled way, which is easily missed). Why do you think she refracts her stories through so many points of view? By comparison, in modern writing, the rule is to stick to one narrator throughout the story, typically a named first-person narrator. What do you think she gains by perversely breaking the rules?

 Q3: In "Mr. and Mrs. Dove," Anne tells Reggie that "I've never felt so happy with anyone. But I'm sure it's not what people and what books mean when they talk about love. Do you understand?" (77). What do you think she means here, and how might this compare to male/female relationships we've seen in other works in the class? Where might Anne's notions of love and marital bliss come from if not from her own experience?

 Q4: In "Life of Ma Parker," we're told that the main character hails from Strarford-on-Avon, the famous birthplace of Shakespeare. However, when asked about him, she replies, "Shakespeare, sir? No, people were always arsking her about him. But she'd never heard his name until she saw it on the theatres" (87). Why do you think Mansfield includes this detail in a story about the sharp divide between the classes in England? As a colonial, why might she be more on Ma Parker's side than the writer's? 

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