The Lady’s Maid. Analysis

The Lady’s Maid. Analysis

Katherine Mansfield a master of the short-story, who evolved a distinctive prose style with many overtones of poetry.

 She was born in  October 14, 1888, Wellington, New Zealand and died January 9, 1923,  Fontainebleau, France). She had much influence on the development of the short story as a form of literature.

“The Lady’s Maid” is about young woman who, having decided to become free, becomes a maid.

The theme of the story is Escape from own desires and destiny.

The mood of the story  is gloomy. The short story was written in first-person narrative and as a dramatic monologue. The narrator is not a participant of the events, he’s an observer- author.

This story was written in belles-letters style.

It is possible to give the summary.

Ellen, the household maid, enters the room of her Lady’s guest, who she calls “madam. ”

Unprompted Ellen tells madam that she always makes a cup of tea for her Lady each night before bed.

Helen’s grandfather had taken her in at first. Her grandfather took special pride in Ellen’s hair and was devastated when young Ellen cut it all off. He burned her fingers with red hot tongs from the fireplace as a punishment and Ellen, frightened of her grandfather’s raging temper, ran away.

Answering a question by madam, Ellen replies that she had thought of marrying at one time. She had a fiancé named Harry when she was younger who owned a flower shop.

Ellen had ended the relationship not long before she and Harry were to be married. She felt guilty for wanting to leave her Lady and thought no one else could take care of her properly.

Ellen told Harry she could not leave her Lady and shut the door on him. When she opened it a few moments later, Ellen was surprised to see that he’s gone.

 At the conclusion  she said she did not know what she would do if something were to happen to her Lady.

The idea of the text is realised on all its levels, by means by different expressive means and stylistic devices.

Throughout the story, ellipsis are used, they indicate the highlighting a new thought.

There are a lot of symbols, , which  related to the  narrator’s identity.

There  is a stronger symbol of the narrator’s subservience. Ellen was told to take the lady’s two little nieces for a ride on donkeys. As the narrator sees the donkeys, they are described as “lovely-silver gray, with little red saddles and blues bridles and bells jing-a-jingling on their ears”.  These animals characterize painstaking work, difficult work, in this scene they were beautiful, but they were not free, the same with Ellen.

Ellen’s wishes to ride those donkeys reflect her own desires, wishes: "I do want to go on a donkey. I do want a donkey-ride!"

It is also noticeable that this short story presents a few flowers as symbols – each one of them might be understood as a different symbol. Those flowers are: pansies, daffodils, and lilies-of-the-valley. The relationship with Harry was connected with flowers: “and I've had my Easter lilies with a gorgeous star all daffodils in the middle".

lilies-of-the-valley are known as highly poisonous flowers. However, they were put together with daffodils – flowers that are normally used to symbolize new beginnings. This emphasizes that the maid could not decide whether to start a new life with Harry or stay with the lady.