By: LAUREN LANDIN
Staff Writer
In some places of the world we live in, we have certain people who think of themselves as superior compared to others. An example of this is people who consider themselves rich are better than people in the working class. In “The Doll’s House” author Katherine Mansfield illustrates her idea of social class to differentiate different families around the time of 1922. The Burnell family is a part of the higher social class and was only known to invite people of the appropriate class (higher class) into their home. Keiza, the youngest Burnell daughter, admires a small lamp inside of the dollhouse and believes it ought to be the best part of it all. Isabel and Lottie admired the entire house and did not even notice the lamp that Kiesza seemed very mesmerized by. The morning after receiving the dollhouse as a gift, the Burnell girls could not wait to boast the dollhouse to the rest of the girls at school. The oldest Burnell daughter, Isabel, is proud to show off their house during playtime; when playtime rolls around, all of the girls except for the Kelvey sisters, Lil and Elise, were huddled in a large circle together giggling and conversating about the doll house. The Kelvey’s were often gossiped about because they are impoverished, being the daughters of the known village washerwoman. During the early 1900s, every class was separated and there was a known rule that the different social classes could not talk or interact with other social classes. Days pass and the Kelvey sisters are the only ones who have not seen the dollhouse and all the other girls make fun of them. Keiza finally decides to invite them inside, knowing that their families are forbidden to speak to each other. While showing the Kelveys the dollhouse, Aunt Beryl sees them and pushes them out of their house. While Aunt Beryl yelled at the Burnell daughters, Else and Lil ran to the road and for the first time in the entire short story Else spoke saying, “I seen the lamp”. Katherine Mansfield emphasizes how social classes interact with each other through her usage of symbolism.