The Doll's House (short story)

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The Doll's House is a 1922 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in The
Nation & the Anthenaeum on 4 February 1922, and later appeared in The Dove's Nest and Other
Stories.
[1]
An alternative title used by Mansfield in other editions was At Karori.
[2]

Contents
[hide]
1 Plot introduction
2 Plot summary
3 Major themes
4 Literary significance
5 References from other works
6 Footnotes
7 External links
[edit] Plot introduction
The Burnell children receive a doll's house from Mrs.Hay and they show it off to their school
friends.
[edit] Plot summary
Mrs. Hay has given a doll's house to the Burnell children; it is minutely described, with especial
emphasis on a lamp inside of it, which the youngest girl, Kezia, thinks is the best part of the
doll's house of all. The next morning they cannot wait to show it off to their school friends;
Isabel bossily says she will be the one to decide who is allowed to come and see it in the house
as she is the eldest. The Kelveys, two poor girls, Lil and "our" Else, will not be allowed to do so;
Aunt Beryl talks Kezia out of letting them. Later, Isabel and two of her friends, Emmie Cole and
Lena Logan, taunt the Kelveys about their low social status. Soon afterwards Kezia impulsively
decides to show them the house anyway; Aunt Beryl, worried about an insisting letter from a
certain Willie Brent, walks in on them, shoos away the Kelveys, scolds Kezia, then feels better.
The Kelveys have managed to see the lamp though.
[edit] Major themes
Class Consciousness : the school is portrayed as a melting pot or mixing of all social
classes, and the Kelveys as the lowest of the social classes. The other children are
discouraged from talking to them; they are outcasts.
[edit] Literary significance
The text is written in the modernist mode, with minute details and haphazard narrative voices.
[edit] References from other works
A continuation of The Doll's House called The Washerwoman's Children written by Witi
Ihimaera, depicting Else later on in life as a Justice in London, coming back to Karori for a
jubilee at her school.