Lindsey Arnold

Doctor Dunn
ENG 2260
4-9-2020
Human Nature from an Ecocritical Perspective
There is a lot to be taken from “The Garden-Party” by Katherine Mansfield when reading

the story through the lens of Ecocriticism. When we take a look at the party that the characters

try to set up as part of the nature that they view around themselves, we can see how their

dishonest portrayal of nature as part of the domestic picturesque leads them to a loss of self

rather than a finding of oneself.

At the start of the story, Laura and her family are setting up for a garden-party. The

mother puts the children in charge, and Laura is the one who mostly takes over. She goes to

speak to the workmen about where they should place the marquee, and eventually comes to think

the following when they suggest a spot: “Against the karakas. Then the karaka trees would be

hidden. And they were so lovely, with their broad, gleaming leaves, and their clusters of yellow

fruit… Must they be hidden by the marquee? They must” (207). Here we can see the struggle

that Laura goes through when she considers covering up the natural beauty in favor of the

constructed beauty. She allows the workmen to overpower her decision of siding with the natural

beauty of the garden and loses her satisfaction through this decision.

A few pages later, we can see a negation of what the mother originally says in that she

would not get in the way of the children. She gets a delivery from the florist of a large number of

canna lilies and says of them, “‘I was passing the shop yesterday, and I saw them in the window.

And I suddenly thought for once in my life I shall have enough canna lilies” (209). To this, Laura

comments, “‘But I thought you said you didn’t mean to interfere’” (209). We can see the
differences between Laura and her mother here and how their views of what nature is affect how

they behave towards others. While Laura prefers the natural, her mother prefers that tailored

image of nature that can be bought from a florist. Through her creation of her domestic

picturesque, she loses the importance of leaving the job to her children and allowing them the

glory of creating the space.

We now come to the meat of the story when the girls, Laura and Jose, find out about the

man being killed close by. The two have vastly different reactions. Laura stresses and

immediately thinks about how they need to cancel the party. Jose, however, allows the reader to

see the negative way in which their controlled depiction of nature can affect people. She is

unconcerned with stopping the party, commenting to Laura that “If you’re going to stop a band

playing every time some one has an accident, you’ll lead a very strenuous life” (213). Jose has

allowed the garden-party to seep into her mind and eclipse the feeling inside. Likewise is the

case with Laura’s mother. When Laura runs to tell her, the following scene unfolds: “‘Mother, a

man’s been killed,’ began Laura. ‘Not in the garden?’ interrupted her mother. ‘No, No!’ ‘Oh,

what a fright you gave me!’ Mrs. Sheridan sighed with relief…” (213). There is so much to be

gathered from this reaction from the mother. She is relieved when she hears that the man has not

died within her perfect scene of nature instead of reaching towards the human side and realizing

that a life has been lost. She, like Jose, is completely wrapped up in her version of what an

impressive scene of nature is. Through being drawn into this idea of the garden-party she is, even

more so than most characters perhaps, drawn away from the wilderness where the essence of

humanness thrives.

A short quote that is interesting to look at near the middle of this story comes as the

garden-party is finishing. The quote reads, “And the perfect afternoon slowly ripened, slowly
faded, slowly its petals closed” (215). The way in which the party is described at its end is almost

exclusively in terms of the natural world. We see a ‘ripening’ of the day, as if it were a piece of

fruit growing on a vine. We see a ‘fading’ of the day, as if it were a sunset in the sky. We see the

‘petals’ of the day coming to a close, as if it were a flower going to sleep. All three of these

descriptions work to bring the garden-party into the wilderness of nature, when in reality it is the

furthest from it. This shows a draw to what is natural, and the simultaneous fight against it. It

seems to be the natural way to revert back to nature itself.

As we move towards the end of the story, Laura is requested to take a basket of leftover

food from the party down to the family of the man who has died. She is about to go when her

mother suggests she also take some arum lilies. A very interesting line here reads “‘The stems

will ruin her lace frock,’ said practical Jose. So they would” (216). Thus, Laura does not take the

lilies. It is vital to notice how they, whether consciously or not, acknowledge how the fake

portrayal of nature can do harm. Furthermore, by cutting off this dishonest portrayal of nature

where it lies, they keep that very pain and worse from existing. Laura chooses not to make the

family feel further diminished than is already occurring with the offering of the food by deciding

not to take the flowers as well.

As the story comes to a conclusion, Laura views the man who has died and is stricken by

sadness. She does not know how to respond or what to say. At a loss, she comes out with

‘Forgive my hat’ (217). She sobs those words. One might question this at first, but given the

previous reading of passages from the story, the reader can understand that the hat has been a

symbol of the party itself, the very party that Laura did not want to have because of the way in

which it supported the movement away from nature and humanity. She goes to see the family of

this man to send condolences while wearing the very thing that symbolizes the lack of them.
Therefore, Laura asks for forgiveness for being drawn away from what is important. She at first

valued the trueness of nature and the humanity that was connected with it, but she was led away

from it by this hat and what is connected with it. She now needs forgiveness for this

transgression or this lack of loyalty to the wilderness.

As demonstrated in the reviewed passages, there is a lot to be learned from this story

when the reader views it with an ecocritical lens. We can understand how when people try to

move away from the most basic forms of beauty to be found in nature, they not only lose nature

itself, but also lose what should be human nature and the care for other people that we all wish to

think is natural.
 Works Cited

Mansfield, Katherine. “The Garden-Party.” The World’s Greatest Short Stories, edited by James

Daley, Dover Thrift Editions, 2006, pp. 206-218.