The Garden Party

The story begins with “ideal” weather for a garden party, with a tone of lightness and gaiety surrounding the early events; by the end, it is night time, and Laura weeps in a strange epiphany after visiting a man’s wake. This drastic, overarching transition frames one of the story’s key messages: People live in constant liminality, balancing between fragile states as they transition through various life stages. This message is mirrored in the journey of the protagonist, Laura Sheridan, a young wealthy girl who, within the span of one day, struggles with her precarious position between wealth and poverty, adolescence and adulthood, and life and death.

The story’s encompassing liminality extends to the theme of class distinction. As Laura prepares for the party, she dances from duty to duty and, in doing so, reveals her liminality as a character: While wealthy in her upbringing and surroundings, she is curious of the less-affluent workmen who help to set up the party, as well as the poorer, working-class neighborhood outside the Sheridans’ gates. Mansfield quickly dramatizes the Sheridans’ wealth by juxtaposing Laura’s upbringing against one of the workmen’s use of slang in the beginning of the story.