Most definitely. I cannot think of any work of literature
that does not actually have some form of conflict that drives it, and this excellent
short story by Mansfield is no exception. As with many of her works, her subject is
class consciousness and how, in this small, rural, New Zealand village, social niceties
exclude some and include others. What highlights these harsh social divisions is the
gift of the doll's house that the Burnell sisters receive. Who they allow to see it and
who is included in their gang says a lot about social divisions. Let us examine the text
as it talks about their society:
readability="15">
For the fact was, the school the Burnell
children wen to was not at all the kind of place their parents would hve chosen if there
had been any choice. But there was none. It was the only school for miles. And the
consequence was all the children in the neighbourhood, the Judge's little girls, the
doctor's daughters, the storekeeper's children, the milkman's, were forced to mix
together. Not to speak of there being an equal number of rude, rough little boys as
well. But the line had to be drawn somwhere. It was drawn at the
Kelveys.
Note how Mansfield
is deliberately setting up a kind of microcosm of the world, where the different social
groupings are unable to avoid each other. Note too how her text points towards the
essential reality of life: there must always be a "line" and that "line" must always be
drawn to exclude people. In this story, it is the poor Kelvey sisters who are excluded.
Of course, Kezia's decision to let them see the doll's house hints at the ways in which
the "line" can be transgressed, but this is only temporary before it is redrawn with
greater strength. Thus the conflict in the story concerns class differences, as
exemplified in the differences between the Burnells and the
Kelveys.
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