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the little girl
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THE LITTLE GIRL
KATHERINE MANSFIELD
SHILPA SHARMA
CONTENTS
Let's Read II
- Line by line explanation
- Word meanings and their discussion
Analysis
- Title and its significance
- Symbolism
- Themes
- Major events and their analysis
Then it was she decided there were different sorts of fathers. Suddenly, one day, Mother became ill, and she and Grandmother went to hospital.
The little girl was left alone in the house with Alice, the cook. That was all right in the daytime, but while Alice was putting her to bed she grew suddenly afraid.
“What’ll I do if I have a nightmare?” she asked.
“I often have nightmares and then Grannie takes me into her bed—I can’t stay in the dark—it all gets ‘whispery’…”
“You just go to sleep, child,” said Alice, pulling
off her socks, “and don’t you scream and wake your
poor Pa.”
But the same old nightmare came — the butcher
with a knife and a rope, who came nearer and
nearer, smiling that dreadful smile, while she could
not move, could only stand still, crying out,
“Grandma! Grandma!” She woke shivering to see
Father beside her bed, a candle in his hand.
“What’s the matter?” he said.
Hours later, when Grandmother had wrapped
her in a shawl and rocked her in the rocking-chair, the child clung to her soft body.
“What did God make fathers for?” she sobbed.
“Here’s a clean hanky, darling. Blow your nose.
Go to sleep, pet; you’ll forget all about it in the
morning. I tried to explain to Father but he was too upset to listen tonight.”
But the child never forgot. Next time she saw
him she quickly put both hands behind her back
and a red colour flew into her cheeks.
The Macdonalds lived next door. They had five
children. Looking through a gap in the fence the
little girl saw them playing ‘tag’ in the evening.
The father with the baby, Mao, on his shoulders,
two little girls hanging on to his coat pockets
ran round and round the flower-beds, shaking
with laughter. Once she saw the boys turn the
hose on him—and he tried to catch them laughing
all the time.
LET'S READ
I1
“Oh, a butcher — a knife — I want Grannie.” He blew out the candle, bent down and caught up the child in his arms, carrying her along the passage to the big bedroom. A newspaper was on the bed.
He put away the paper, then carefully tucked up the child. He lay down beside her. Half asleep still, still with the butcher’s smile all about her it seemed, she crept close to him, snuggled her head under his arm, held tightly to his shirt.
Then the dark did not matter; she lay still.
“Here, rub your feet against my legs and get
them warm,” said Father.
Tired out, he slept before the little girl. A funny
feeling came over her. Poor Father, not so big, after
all — and with no one to look after him. He was
harder than Grandmother, but it was a nice
hardness. And every day he had to work and was too
tired to be a Mr Macdonald… She had torn up all his
beautiful writing… She stirred suddenly, and sighed.
“What’s the matter?” asked her father. “Another
dream?”
“Oh,” said the little girl, “my head’s on your heart.
I can hear it going. What a big heart you’ve got,
Father dear.”
ANALYSIS
TITLE
-The title depicts that the story is narrated from the perspective of a little girl.
-We are given an insight into her thoughts and feelings.
SYMBOLISM
FATHER: Symbol of authority and control.
GIRL: Symbol of innocence and childhood.
ANALYSIS
THEMES
THEMES
- Relationships as Dynamic Connections
The father daughter relationship undergoes
a change during the course of the story. It shows that relationships are always dymanic.
- Compasssion and Love v/s Anger and Fear
Bonds require love and care to be nourished. Fear and authority destroys them.
Major Events and Their Analyses
Major Events
Kezia's behaviour around her father.
-She approaches her father slowly.
-She stutters in front of him.
Father beats up Kezia
-Though it is to teach her a lesson but she starts hating him.
-She never forgets the episode.
Hides her hands
-Kezia hides her hands behind her the next time she meets her father after
getting beaten up.
Major Events
Part 2
Kezia notices Macdonalds playing
-It draws a contrast between the two fathers.
-Their location, the garden is in contrast to hers.
-The laughter is significant as it denotes happiness.
Kezia has a bad dream. She screams Grandma, Grandma!
-Dream signifies fear and trapped emotions.
Kezia sleeps clinging to her father's shirt.
-It signifies the protective image of her father and his love for her.
THANK YOU!!!
THANK YOU
CONTENTS
Introduction
- About the author
- Introduction to the story
Let's Read I
- Line by line explanation
- Word meanings and their discussion
CONTENTS
“Kezia,” Mother would call to her, “if you’re a
good girl you can come down and take off father’s boots.” Slowly the girl would slip down the stairs, more slowly still across the hall, and push open the drawing-room door.
By that time he had his spectacles on and looked at her over them in a way that was terrifying to the little girl.
“Well, Kezia, hurry up and pull off these boots
and take them outside. Have you been a good
girl today?" “I d-d-don’t know, Father.”
“You d-d-don’t know? If you stutter like that
Mother will have to take you to the doctor.”
TO the little girl he was a figure to be feared and
avoided. Every morning before going to work he came into her room and gave her a casual kiss, to which she responded with “Goodbye, Father”. And oh, there was a glad sense of relief when she heard the noise of the carriage growing fainter and fainter down the long road!
In the evening when he came home she stood
near the staircase and heard his loud voice in the
hall. “Bring my tea into the drawing-room... Hasn’t
the paper come yet? Mother, go and see if my paper’s out there — and bring me my slippers.”
LET'S READ
I
She never stuttered with other people — had
quite given it up — but only with Father, because then she was trying so hard to say the words properly.
“What’s the matter? What are you looking so
wretched about? Mother, I wish you taught this child not to appear on the brink of suicide... Here, Kezia, carry my teacup back to the table carefully.”
He was so big — his hands and his neck,
especially his mouth when he yawned. Thinking about him alone was like thinking about a giant.
Laboriously, with a double cotton, the little girl
stitched three sides. But what to fill it with? That
was the question. The grandmother was out in the
garden, and she wandered into Mother’s bedroom
to look for scraps. On the bed-table she discovered
a great many sheets of fine paper, gathered them
up, tore them into tiny pieces, and stuffed her case,
then sewed up the fourth side.
That night there was a hue and cry in the house.
Father’s great speech for the Port Authority had
been lost. Rooms were searched; servants
questioned. Finally Mother came into Kezia’s room.
“Kezia, I suppose you didn’t see some papers on
a table in our room?”
“Oh yes,” she said, “I tore them up for my
surprise.”
“What!” screamed Mother. “Come straight down
to the dining-room this instant.”
On Sunday afternoons Grandmother sent her
down to the drawing-room to have a “nice talk with Father and Mother”. But the little girl always found Mother reading and Father stretched out on thesofa, his handkerchief on his face, his feet on one of the best cushions, sleeping soundly and snoring.
She sat on a stool, gravely watched him until he
woke and stretched, and asked the time — then
looked at her. “Don’t stare so, Kezia. You look like a little brown owl.”
One day, when she was kept indoors with a cold,
her grandmother told her that father’s birthday was next week, and suggested she should make him a pin-cushion for a gift out of a beautiful piece of yellow silk.
And she was dragged down to where Father was pacing to and fro, hands behind his back. “Well?” he said sharply. Mother explained. He stopped and stared at the child. “Did you do that?” “N-n-no”, she whispered. “Mother, go up to her room and fetch down the damned thing — see that the child’s put to bed this instant.”
Crying too much to explain, she lay in the
shadowed room watching the evening light make a sad little pattern on the floor.
Then Father came into the room with a ruler in
his hands. “I am going to beat you for this,” he said. He pulled them aside.
“Sit up,” he ordered, “and hold out your hands.
You must be taught once and for all not to touch
what does not belong to you.”
“But it was for your b-b-birthday.”
Down came the ruler on her little, pink palms.
KATHERINE MANSFIELD
INTRODUCTION
-Kathleen Mansfield Murry
-14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923
-Prominent New Zealand modernist short story writer and poet
- At the age of 19, she left New Zealand and settled in England, where she became a friend of writers such as D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf.
-Died at the young age of 34.
About the Story
ABOUT THE STORY
- This story was first published in 1921 along with some other stories.
- It explores the relationship between a father and a daughter.
- The little girl Kezia learns that behind the strict image of her father is a loving, caring man who makes her feel safe and loved.
- The story also explores the
relationship between Kezia and
her grandmother.