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Everything is so magical, exactly the way it is in fairyland. Leila, Katherine Mansfield's main character in the short story, "Her First Ball", is absolutely breath-taken at every sight and sound at the ball. Everything around her is so strikingly new and enthralling. It is Leila's first ball, and her first exposition to society. Mansfield describes the young girl's emotions and excitement in a way that incarcerates her readers in the quaint fantasy world of Leila, and within the damsel's spinning cyclone of different feelings and emotions.
Mansfield illustrates a rich, colorful fairy-tale-like picture as the setting of Leila's world. We can obviously sense how Leila's perception of the ball is that of a dreamlike event. The author shows her readers at the beginning of the story how Leila felt more like Cinderella incarnated in her body; for, her thrill is felt when she is in the cab passing by "waltzing" lampposts. Apparently, Leila's heart is beating fast here, and we can almost hear its pulse, especially when "she tried not to smile too much; she tried not to care"(p.40).
The author's creation of a dream world is revealed in the way Leila views everything with wide eyes and astonishment. Simple common details, such as "Meg's tuberoses, Jose's long loop of amber, Laura's little dark head…"(p.40) are even seen by her as most charming and extraordinary. Unmistakably, Mansfield is constructing "fairy land" as the setting of the story through the eyes of Leila.
In order to sketch the ball through Leila's eyes, Katherine Mansfield writes the story from a feminine point of view. The writer of the story seems to understand Leila's awe, and even seems to have lived similar experiences. If a man were to write in Mansfield's style, it would most likely be difficult for him to achieve the same results as the female writer. He needs to think, live, and see things as a woman. There is this delicacy and innocence that scents the story, which is a very feminine incense. When this "feminine aroma" is inhaled, we can directly feel that the story is written by a female, and from a female's point of view. The very structure of the setting (the fairy-tale-like touch) is a part of a young girl's perspective on life.
Part of the feminine color in this story is the way it focuses on female fashion, age, customs and traditions---in short, all are part of feminine subjective experience. The focus on fashion is revealed when Leila enters the ladies' room. There, the ladies were fixing their looks by seeing to their hair, tucking handkerchiefs into their clothes, and smoothing their gloves. Also, fashion terminologies suggesting the female world are used, such as "invisible hairpins" and "powder" (p.41). Traditions and focus on age concerning young ladies is revealed when it is hinted that a girl would be exposed to society at the age of eighteen (usually in order to fetch herself a husband).
The female voice in "Her First Ball" is mostly depicted in the tone of the story---the tone of a mature lady. It is in the form of a mature lady's talking about her memories of her attendance to her first ball(and that is a very evident suggestion of feminine experience). This is one characteristic of female writers' works, which cannot be found in a male author's writings.
Mansfield, speaking in the story from the experience of a mature lady, could be criticizing feminine youth at the same time she is reminiscing it throughout the story. Although the eyes of Leila see beautiful things, there is still a sense of superficiality to her views that is criticized in the story. The criticism is brought by the ugly middle-aged man who frustrates Leila. Leila, like many of the young girls her age, is floating in a world of dreams, not looking out into the real world, not realizing the harshness of life. However, the man has lived through a lot, and although he might have dreamed in his youth, he probably didn't dream the way young women do. In other words, Mansfield is criticizing the silliness of most of the women in her days(especially young girls) who don't really look at life the way they should. As a young girl, the female would think of nothing but beauty, fun, and handsome young men. Then as time passes and she gets married, she would see her youth in her daughters and yearn for the old days to come back again. She wouldn't be much wiser though---she'd still be concerned mainly with fashion and tradition. Obviously, Mansfield didn't think much of women's concerns, or the way her society made a woman think and act. A lady was looked at for her beauty, and was restricted by social norms and traditions. That is, a woman during Mansfield's time was never "weighed" according to her mental capacity, and therefore hardly ever used it. There is this silliness of feminine youth that couldn't be neglected by Mansfield. According to the author, almost all what a woman looks at is not of any serious concern.
We can say that the story "Her First Ball" contains a political issue. There are a few suggestions of politics of division, such as experience versus inexperience. This is manifested by Leila's(inexperienced) encounter with the middle-aged fat man(experienced). Leila is innocent, and just beginning to open up to the world, whereas the man has already been through enough. Another issue shown from this example is the issue of old generation versus new generation. The life of the old generation is dulled by time and experience, while the new generation is still fresh and full of life and vitality. The politics of gender are also revealed throughout the story. A woman's future is determined by the man she will be chosen to marry, and that is shown by the way the girls' eyes head towards the young men, and how the ladies are later on "led" by them to the dance floor. This example may also contribute to the author's criticism of patriarchy. Indeed, Mansfield's story contains within it many hidden criticisms of issues held during her lifetime, not to mention that the criticism is also written from a woman's point of view, throughout the setting of a dreamlike world(in the eyes of a young lady).
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