Nina Reece: B2440214A300 TMA 2Some critics have claimed that Katherine Mansfields stories express a strong protest against social injustice (OSullivan, A300 CD 1, Katherine Mansfield, band 6). Explore this claim in relation to either Sunset Song or any two of Katherine Mansfields stories.

Katherine Mansfield is critically acclaimed for her beautifully constructed short stories. Whilst her fiction could never be considered polemical, the claim that her prose expresses a strong protest against social injustice is one that I agree with. The Times English Dictionary defines injustice as the condition or practice of being unjust or unfair; and explains the term social as anything related to human society or any of its subdivisions (Treffry et al., 2000 p. 792, p. 1456). Therefore, in this essay, social injustice is defined as any unfair or unjust condition or practice, that is inherent in human society, and is not regulated by law. I shall explore two stories, The Little Governess and The Life of Ma Parker, to show how Mansfields aesthetic techniques create a strong protest against two types social injustice; the sexual exploitation of vulnerable young women, and life in poverty.

The little governess is a young woman who is travelling to Augsberg for a new role. Her name is not known, and this depersonalisation allows her a more symbolic function. She is a generic mirror image of a subdivision of society; young, vulnerable, lower middle class unmarried women of the twentieth century. On her journey she meets a porter; who tricks her, a retired civil servant; Herr Regierungstrat, who she believes to be trustworthy, but who later sexually assaults her, and a waiter; who delights in ensuring she misses a meeting with her new employer. We never know if she makes it to Augsberg. The story is not driven by a traditional narrative arc, but by the characters internal thoughts and experiences. The focus of the reader is turned inward, magnifying the protagonists fear at travelling alone, and the later sexual assault. Mansfields choice, to focus intensely on the experience of vulnerability and sexual exploitation, rather than the goal of arriving in Augsberg, conveys a strong protest against such social injustice.

A third person omniscient narrator relays the governesss tale. Much of the story is written in free direct discourse, with the narrator taking on the thoughts and speech patterns of the governess: Oh dear, how she wished it wasnt night-time. Shed have much rather travelled by day, much much rather. (Mansfield [1915] 2002, p. 47). The idiom oh dear, and the repetition of much, communicates the governesss trepidation from the first line. She thinks and speaks in simple sentence structures, with repetition and exclamation points: Look! Look what flowers - and by the railway station too! (p. 53). She uses a simple palette of colour to describe the world: green eyelidsblue airwhite geraniums (p. 53). This syntax creates a childlike phraseology, characterising the governess as an innocent. Mansfields protest here is implicit; it lies in the subtext of an innocent child manipulated by an elderly man. Through these literary techniques, the victims voice resonates more readily inside the reader. The purpose is to elicit an emotional response against the social injustice of such manipulation.

Yet, Mansfield shifts the point of view frequently. The reader views the governesss bare little hand, lips moving and hair that fairly blazed under the light from Herr Regierungstrats perspective (p51). The reader grasps that from their first meeting, Herr Regierungstrat views her in a sexual light - and that this is something she does not grasp. A sense of dramatic irony, a shared knowledge between the reader and the author of which a character is ignorant pervades this text (Abrams and Harpham 2012, p. 186). Mansfield narrates from the perspective of all characters, inhabiting their minds to juxtapose any sympathy for the governess against a deep frustration at her naivety. Her eventual sexual exploitation by Herr Regierungstrat feels so unjust, because for the reader it is imminent; yet the protagonist does not see the clues. We judge her for her obliviousness throughout her day with Herr Regierungstart, willing her to become wise to his ulterior motives. Mansfield uses this ironic gap between the reader and the governess to build tension and frustration. The effects of this shifting position evoke in the reader a strong sense of protest against the naivety of young women to their own exploitation.

The colours pink and white, with connotations of femininity, purity, and gentleness are in the clouds, flowers and the strawberries Herr Regierungstrat buys for the governess. These gentle tones are repeated in the descriptions of his moustache and handkerchief, and later in the glassware in his flat. Yet they are always juxtaposed with harder, more sexual images: a pearl pin stuck in his black tie and a ring with a dark red stone (p. 51). Delia Da Sousa Correa notes Mansfields practice of using symbolic detail in place of description or analysis to convey the themes of her writing (in Salman and Gupta 2002, p. 131). The images of the pin and ring ring allude to the aura of sexual danger around him. It is a danger that is specifically created by Mansfield to call attention to his predatory nature. Colour, imagery and symbol are the techniques used to decry the social injustice that although men may often seem gentle, they can be predatory and dangerous toward vulnerable young women.

In The Life of Ma Parker, a different kind of social injustice is protested. A working class woman, cleaner to a literary gentleman, arrives at his home for work (Mansfield [1921] 2002, p. 251). Her young grandson, killed by tuberculosis and buried on the previous day, haunts her memory throughout. We know Ma Parker is working class from the first moment of direct speech: We buried im yesterday, sir (p. 250). Mansfields use of sociolect, a dialect of a particular social class (Oxford Dictionaries 2014), is achieved through the use of phonetic spellings such as Beg parding (Mansfield, [1921] 2002, p. 251). The most chilling example is the line Ma Parker remembers from her grandson Lennie: I aint got nothing (p. 251). This statement from a dead young boy echoes the sense of lack and loss that underpins this story. Mansfields use of sociolect roots us firmly within the proletariat existence. The reader is encouraged to feel sympathy for Ma Parker, to experience the injustice of life without education, money or hope. This story was first published in the Nation and & the Athenaeum in 1921, for a largely middle class readership. By forcing her privileged audience so close to an experience of poverty, Mansfield is making a direct protest against the social injustice of class differences.

Mansfield recounts the hard life Ma Parker has endured using a third person narrator. Through free indirect discourse, the point of view shifts from the narrator, to Ma Parker, and the literary gentleman. This positioning focuses the reader on the inner worlds of the characters, allowing for deep insight into the sadness of Ma Parkers life, and into the literary gentlemans feelings toward the working class: He was in the middle of his breakfast. He wore a very shabby dressing gown and carried a crumpled newspaper in one hand. But he felt awkward. He could hardly go back to the warm sitting-room without saying something - something more. Then, because these people set such store by funerals he said kindly, I hope the funeral went off all right (p. 250).

The use of hardly, the repetition of something and the colloquial went off alright, suggests the thoughts before the direct speech are his. The superior classification these people is the first clue that the literary gentleman considers Ma Parker, and anyone of the working class to be other - removed from his own societal position. This is emphasised later here:Otherwise, as he explained to his friends, his system was quite simple You simply dirty everything youve got, get a hag in once a week to clean up and the things done. (p. 251).

The term hag with connotations of witches and outcasts, shows that he barely considers Ma Parker human (p. 250). He completely alienates the woman who keeps his home in order. Yet, the literary gentleman is not presented as a well bred member of the intelligensia. He is shabby, and crumpled, his disgusting living habits are described with florid detail, and his miserly attitude is implied in his concern for a missing teaspoonful of cocoa (p. 251, p. 254). He is pitted against the protagonist through his deplorable concern for his breakfast, juxtaposed with Ma Parkers concern for her dead grandson. Through the symbolic literary gentleman, Mansfield satirises a class system that privileges an undeserving few and oppresses the wider majority. Her protest against this system is evident in the juxtaposition of the literary gentleman against the bereaved protagonist, and in his implicit negative characterisation. He represents the attitudes that have trampled on Ma Parker for her entire life.

Mansfield then recounts this life for the reader through the medium of flashback. The social injustice of poverty saturates Ma Parkers memories, and flashbacks use the direct speech of the agents of this injustice, as well as free indirect speech from Ma Parkers point of view. One flashback is to a doctors misdiagnosis of her husbands tuberculosis as flour on the lungs (p. 253). This veiled reference displays Mansfields anger at the injustice of inadequate healthcare for the working class of the twentieth century. Another flashback references a letter in a newspaper:

Dear Sir,- just to let you know that my little Myrtill was laid out for dead. After four bottils gained 8lbs. in 9 weeks, and is still putting it on. (p. 253)

Daniel (2006) states that an oral treatment for tuberculosis was not available until 1944, so this letter would have been advertorial - but Ma Parker and her daughter lacked the education to classify this advertising ploy, and a little more of the money they did not have was spent. Mansfield did have the level of education to understand when a pharmacology company was capitalising on the ignorance of the poor, and this reference is a direct objection to this manipulation. By using flashbacks of misdiagnosis and misinformation recounted from Ma Parkers point of view, Mansfield is obliquely calling attention to the social injustice of upper class exploitation of working class ignorance.

A further flashback recounts a conversation with the literary gentleman. He is interested in her life for just a moment, as a product called Life - material for a potential narrative (p. 252). He quickly shies away from the horror of the death of seven of her children. The implicit message is that he considers her life too raw for his fiction. With this allusion, Mansfield spotlights her own literary protest. She acknowledges that the social injustice of poverty is not popular fiction, and that highlighting it is a considered choice for a writer.

Mansfield also uses pathetic fallacy; the attribution of human feelings to nature, to personify the unending social injustice that Ma Parker represents:Out of the smudgy little window you could see an immense expanse of sad-looking sky, and whenever there were clouds they looked very worn, old clouds, frayed at the edges, with holes in them, or dark stains like tea (Mansfield, [1921] 2002 p. 251).

Her existence is frayed, stained by sadness and full of holes. The effect on the reader is powerful; life in poverty is like that sky, immense, oppressive and unending.

In a moment of epiphany, Ma Parker is struck by the injustice of her life. She leaves the flat, aching with the need to cry out her suffering: She did not know what she was doing, she was like a person so dazed by the horror of what has happened that he walks away - anywhere, as though by walking away he could escape. (p. 255).

This complex sentence, punctuated with hyphens and commas increases the pace of the story from this moment of epiphany to the last line. The ellipsis allows the futility of her escape to sink into the consciousness of the reader, and echoes the eternal nature of her oppression. The story ends with, There was nowhere, and the reader understands that Ma Parker is trapped (p. 256). Mansfield forces us to experience such hopelessness through a syntax that combines fast paced complex sentences, and short, unforgiving phrases. She ends the story on a syntactic climax, but on a philosophical nadir. The implicit message is that for many there is no escape from poverty, and that this is unfair and unjust.

The Little Governess and The Life of Ma Parker place the reader within the minds and experiences of a sexually exploited young woman, and an older woman living in poverty. The social injustice of their positions is dealt with obliquely, through aesthetic techniques that elicit an emotional response from the reader. Mansfield places powerless women at the centre of these narratives. She highlights the manipulation and sexual exploitation of all young women in the twentieth century in the first; and the hopelessness, alienation, and oppression of older women in poverty in the second. For Mansfield, her role as an artist was to, single out, [to] bring into the light, we put up higher (in Salman and Gupta, 2002, p. 160). Though analysis of some of her other stories may yield a different conclusion; I believe that this focus on creating empathy and awareness of the lived injustice of marginalised characters, constitutes a strong protest against the social injustice of poverty and sexual exploitation.

Bibliography.

Daniel, M. Thomas. (2006) The history of tuberculosis, Respiratory Medicine, vol. 100, no. 11, pp. 862 - 870 [Online]. Available at www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095461110600401X. (Wednesday 19th November 2014).

Da Sousa Correa, D. (2005) The stories of Katherine Mansfield, in Danson Brown, R and Gupta, S. (eds) Aestheticism and Modernism, Oxfordshire, Routledge/Milton Keynes, Open University, pp. 113-185.

Mansfield, K. The Life of Ma Parker ([1925] 2002) Selected Stories, Oxford/Oxford University Press.

Mansfield, K. The Little Governess ([1915] 2002) Selected Stories, Oxford/Oxford University Press.

Oxford Dictionaries (2014) Oxford Dictionaries [Online]. Available at www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sociolect (Accessed 18 November 2012).

Treffry, D., Ferguson, S. and Isaccs, A. (eds) 2000. The Times English Dictionary Glasgow, HarperCollins/Aylesbury, Market House Books.