“The Storm” by Kate Chopin and “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield is a writer known for her character analysis and her inner worlds in her stories. Called the goddess of the short story, Katherine Mansfield brought a different innovation to her literary life with the symbols she used in her works. Kate Chopin, who is our other author, is a short story writer of great importance in American Literature. She became the greatest representative of feminism in her time, saying that American women and all women have sexual freedom and life. In this essay, we will deal with the role and function of the setting of “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield and “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, and the relations between them.

In The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield, Mansfield uses the garden as the setting of the story, which reveals the understanding of social and class relations in the society. Firstly, there is the area where Sheridan’s house is located. In this neighborhood where very rich and first-class people live, Sheridan’s house is very showy with its large garden covered with exotic flowers and trees. The narrator describes the environment as follows ‘’Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud. Only the blue was veiled with a haze of light gold, as it is sometimes in early summer. The gardener had been up since dawn, mowing the lawns and sweeping them, until the grass and the dark flat rosettes where the daisy plants had been seemed to shine’’. the gardener mowing the lawns and the shining flowers indicate the social status of the Sheridan family. They have different rooms for many functions. On the other side, there are small neglected houses where workers and people from the lower classes live. While the world of Sheridans is defined brightly and positively, the world of the poor neighborhood is depicted as gloomy. ‘’ As the narrator states, they were the greatest possible eyesore, and they had no right to be in that neighborhood at all. They were little mean dwellings painted a chocolate brown. In the garden patches, there was nothing but cabbage stalks, sick hens, and tomato cans. The very smoke coming out of their chimneys was poverty-stricken.’’ This short story takes place in the early 1900s, during the period between the two world wars, and is based on the author’s childhood home in Wellington, New Zealand. If we evaluate from a socioeconomic side, there is a lot of emphasis on socio-economic differences throughout the story. It is considered unusual for an upper-class person to be in a neighborhood with lower-class people. Both classes of people attract each other’s attention. Due to all this atmosphere and social influences, while Laura is young and full of pure happiness, she awakens to the realities of life and begins to question. Katherine Mansfield uses the setting of the story in this direction so that we can see the world through Laura’s eyes and realize the deception of the upper-class society. I think the main intention of the author is to show that happiness and sadness always exist in life. She tries to explain that the existing contrasts are a natural process of life with the setting of the story.

In the Storm, the setting plays an important role in the development of events and relations. The story is set in the late nineteenth century at Friedheimer’s store in Louisiana in the afternoon, and at the house of Calixta and Bobinôt. The story begins with the weather change. Dark rain clouds bring destructive rain. The existence of the storm is not a coincidence. The storm begins as soon as the forbidden relationship begins, the storm stops when the relationship ends. Having good etiquette, morals, and family values at that time is a very important criterion. Sexual intercourse is considered taboo in society. Everyone is expected to remain loyal to their family. However, when there is a relationship, that is, when the inner storm ends, our character reaches happiness. To illustrate, ‘’ The rain was over; and the sun was turning the glistening green world into a palace of gems. Calixta, on the gallery, watched Alcée ride away. He turned and smiled at her with a beaming face, and she lifted her pretty chin in the air and laughed aloud.’’ The setting of the story is very important here. Experiencing unstoppable sexual desires and destroying what is seen as a taboo represents perhaps an individual, just like the unstoppable storm. She clearly stated the complexities of mood and married status by using these settings.

All in all, we can understand that the main purpose in both stories is to question the values accepted by society. Both authors worked for it, developed the story using the effect of the setting, and left its influence on us by presenting its purpose. There are several parts and purposes of setting which is about society and norms in both stories. As I mentioned above, each author presented us using different settings.

— Yaren Karakoç —