The short story, a Victorian Literature, “The Garden Party” written by Katherine Mansfield talks about the upper class Sheridan family, including Laura, Laurie, Meg, and Jose, preparing for a garden party. Laura, the main character, is excited about the party first but becomes troubled later when she learns the news about the death of their working class neighbor Mr. Scott died because of being drunk. Laura feels sorry for Mr. Scott and she would like to cancel the party, but her mother insists that they should continue with the party as planned. She pulls Jose out and talks to him, showing her sympathy for the Scott's family, but Jose just regards it as a puny matter compared to their garden party. Laura becomes mad and goes up to tell her mother this matter, but surprisingly her mother attempts to distract her by saying that Laura looks beautiful in her hat. After the party Laura brings the leftover party food to the Scott’s family, views the dead body lying under a sheet, observing the family’s grief. Laura then starts to think about the meaning of life and the idea of social hierarchy. Three themes are discussed in the story: social conventions and class consciousness, empathy and sympathy, and work and leisure.
Social conventions in the past had a large impact on the life of nobles and workers, which reinforced the idea of class consciousness in society. In the early 20th century, people have been divided into two sections: the poor and the rich. The rich only interacted with the rich, the poor only interacted with the poor. Also, the nobles had prejudices for the rich with the other way around too. Laura was very aware of her own class, and the narrator continuously interrupts the story whenever someone makes a mistake improper to their corresponding class. Laura is very conscious of her class, but still sympathizes for the Scotts, when other people don't even care. This makes them not empathize for the Scotts and also blames them for their mistake, such as Scott being drunk when driving the cart with the horse. Mrs. Sheridan and her family clearly do not care about Mr. Scotts. Her family is entirely unable to sympathize with the lower class, which makes them think that all is a show of fake sympathy to make the impression that they have good hearts so that the poor will not hate them. Their class division also makes them unable to communicate with the lower classes because of the slang. People should not have too much class divisions and would bond with each other, not just do their own things and never care about others.
Sympathy and empathy for the lower classes cannot be acknowledged by the higher classes, often because they don’t know what being poor looks like. In the early days of the 20th century, people were harshly socially divided, which made it hard to have a mutual connection to each other, which made it hard for them to connect with each other through communication. Laura is completely astounded and fascinated by the lower classes, and feels sympathy for them. But when the workers come for the marquee, she becomes entirely unable to communicate with them, and tries to use her mother’s style of speech. Also, at the Scott house, she only feels guilty, not sympathy. She speaks her only sentence out of guilt: “Forgive my hat.” Laura considers the Scotts as neighbors and wants them to have a very respectful mourning process. High Class people often have a detachment to life, such as that they put up a show of emotions rather than really showing it. Also these kinds of rich people don’t pay attention to others, unless it has damaged their property or their beauty, because it is mostly what they care about. Sympathy and empathy for the lower classes from higher classes is often unlikely because of the social conventions.
In a deeply unequal society, work and leisure were things of completely different classes, as there were still social stratifications. When people were in the early days, they all depended on workers to work for them, and lo the workers had to depend on them for money. This never ending cycle caused the rich to be very lazy and the poor to be even more poor. When the Sheridans do their party, none of the servants get the credit for doing the work, and instead the Sheridans get congratulated for setting up the party, but most of them just order the servants around to do the work. This makes them unsympathetic toward mr scotts’s death and also very uncaring about others. Sheridans are not able to sympathize and empathize because they have better treatment, while the servants are very poor and get mistreated all the time. Therefore, people who are in the rich class are snobbish and also don’t care about anybody except themselves and their family. “Thank you” are entirely misattributed. Leisure is the cost of other people’s work, because when there is leisure it takes away resources and other energy that other people put in.
The Garden Party is a short story full of meaning and open to many interpretations. While using snippets from her own life, combined with the current society and social problems, Mansfield weaves a delicate and meaningful tale although it may look mundane and ordinary at the start. People in the richers classes have never been so empathetic of the poor, like how Laura feels so sad when Mr. Scott dies. However, her parents tell her not to worry about it, and also interactions with the poor are very inefficient, as they have slang and proper words that come from completely different backgrounds. While explaining the social stratifications, Mansfield also suggests the feelings of guilt, empathy, caring, and sympathy. Although the narrator often sides with the neighborhood and not the poor, the narrator still has access to Laura’s thoughts and makes the reader know that Laura is not the snobbish rich kind of person. As though she is rich, she can actually feel empathy.
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