Katherine Mansfield (0)

The Garden Party
Katherine Mansfield
Character Analysis: Laura
The character that won my favor is Laura, the protagonist of the story, who comes across as a fragile and insecure young woman . All at once she starts to perceive her role in this complex world. Moreover , she begins to wonder over the values and delusions, which are of great importance in life. Throughout the story it stands to reason that she is trying to establish her true self, even though she is steadily influenced by her family, especially by her mother . On account of her constant questionings she finally evolves into an individual, who is capable of distinguishing essential truths of life from unimportant ones, however she still remains to be uncertain, which may indicate that her discoveries are not all-encompassing in nature and may fade away from the memory .
From the very beginning it is evident that Laura is a young lady , who tries to learn how to establish herself . During that process she has to step out of her comfort zone for several times . She is often afraid of looking silly or simply weird. As well as, she constantly questions how she should behave. Therefore , she often imitates her mother or somebody else to be taken seriously. Once she attempted to impose herself among workmen, but failed miserably and lost face . Namely she attempted to mimic her mother`s voice in an unconvincing way by saying “ Good morning ” to workmen. Afterwards she felt very much ashamed. Nevertheless, she gives her all to live up to the same social standards and values as she is raised to follow. Because of her upbringing she frequently wonders how disrespectfully some people dare to speak or act. Yet she really wants to become a part of the grown -ups world. She secretly admires older people and wants to be around them . For instance , she admires workmen and once she even forgets herself to think how she would like to have workmen for her friends rather than the silly boys she danced with and who came to Sunday night supper. She believes she would get on much better with men like these. In many ways, she is a sensitive girl in her formative years , whose feelings fluctuate along with the values she assigns to the external world and objects. Also worth mentioning is the fact that when a nearby neighbor is killed she sympathizes the man with all her heart and intends to call off the garden party. However, her mother silences her by saying "You are being very absurd , Laura," she said coldly. "People like that don't expect sacrifices from us. And it's not very sympathetic to spoil everybody's enjoyment as you're doing now." True it is, that life has to go on and pleasure must serve a certain role even after someone dies , but Laura feels that this kind of action would be heartless and inappropriate. Her mother even tries to divert her attention with elegant hat, which she puts on Laura`s head and comments endlessly how it makes her beautiful. This brings along an internal conflict in Laura`s mind, either to grief, or to be vain and self-centered. Towards the end Laura is sent to the grieving family to fetch a big basket . At the sight of the dead man she then realizes how unbefitting her hat is and recognizes a change in herself. During that moment she discovers the complexity of life, where are no profoundly right or wrong social conceptions. She matures significantly, albeit everything she learned might not be a lesson of such a kind, which would serve as life-changing, rather short-lived knowledge, if not developed further.
In conclusion , it can be said that Laura`s mother influenced her inner growth immensely. Above all Laura wanted to establish her true self and to be wise enough in order to manage in the world of adults. In the end it is apparent that she has matured a great deal and gained many new experiences likewise discovered her own truths. Having said that, she has changed for the better as a person, but she still is insecure and open for the changes .