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The Lady's Maid
Fiercely dependent on her identity as a lady's maid, a woman relates her experiences and ambitions, and the paths that her vocation has taken her down in this dramatic monologue.
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First published January 1, 1920
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About the author
Katherine Mansfield
1,031 books1,232 followersKathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp) was a prominent New Zealand modernist writer of short fiction who wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield.
Katherine Mansfield is widely considered one of the best short story writers of her period. A number of her works, including "Miss Brill", "Prelude", "The Garden Party", "The Doll's House", and later works such as "The Fly", are frequently collected in short story anthologies. Mansfield also proved ahead of her time in her adoration of Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov, and incorporated some of his themes and techniques into her writing.
Katherine Mansfield was part of a "new dawn" in English literature with T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. She was associated with the brilliant group of writers who made the London of the period the centre of the literary world.
Nevertheless, Mansfield was a New Zealand writer - she could not have written as she did had she not gone to live in England and France, but she could not have done her best work if she had not had firm roots in her native land. She used her memories in her writing from the beginning, people, the places, even the colloquial speech of the country form the fabric of much of her best work.
Mansfield's stories were the first of significance in English to be written without a conventional plot. Supplanting the strictly structured plots of her predecessors in the genre (Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells), Mansfield concentrated on one moment, a crisis or a turning point, rather than on a sequence of events. The plot is secondary to mood and characters. The stories are innovative in many other ways. They feature simple things - a doll's house or a charwoman. Her imagery, frequently from nature, flowers, wind and colours, set the scene with which readers can identify easily.
Themes too are universal: human isolation, the questioning of traditional roles of men and women in society, the conflict between love and disillusionment, idealism and reality, beauty and ugliness, joy and suffering, and the inevitability of these paradoxes. Oblique narration (influenced by Chekhov but certainly developed by Mansfield) includes the use of symbolism - the doll's house lamp, the fly, the pear tree - hinting at the hidden layers of meaning. Suggestion and implication replace direct detail.
Katherine Mansfield is widely considered one of the best short story writers of her period. A number of her works, including "Miss Brill", "Prelude", "The Garden Party", "The Doll's House", and later works such as "The Fly", are frequently collected in short story anthologies. Mansfield also proved ahead of her time in her adoration of Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov, and incorporated some of his themes and techniques into her writing.
Katherine Mansfield was part of a "new dawn" in English literature with T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. She was associated with the brilliant group of writers who made the London of the period the centre of the literary world.
Nevertheless, Mansfield was a New Zealand writer - she could not have written as she did had she not gone to live in England and France, but she could not have done her best work if she had not had firm roots in her native land. She used her memories in her writing from the beginning, people, the places, even the colloquial speech of the country form the fabric of much of her best work.
Mansfield's stories were the first of significance in English to be written without a conventional plot. Supplanting the strictly structured plots of her predecessors in the genre (Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells), Mansfield concentrated on one moment, a crisis or a turning point, rather than on a sequence of events. The plot is secondary to mood and characters. The stories are innovative in many other ways. They feature simple things - a doll's house or a charwoman. Her imagery, frequently from nature, flowers, wind and colours, set the scene with which readers can identify easily.
Themes too are universal: human isolation, the questioning of traditional roles of men and women in society, the conflict between love and disillusionment, idealism and reality, beauty and ugliness, joy and suffering, and the inevitability of these paradoxes. Oblique narration (influenced by Chekhov but certainly developed by Mansfield) includes the use of symbolism - the doll's house lamp, the fly, the pear tree - hinting at the hidden layers of meaning. Suggestion and implication replace direct detail.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 7, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 12, 2014
Katherine Mansfield was an author best known for her short stories about ordinary people, which often ask difficult questions. If you have never read anything by her before, this is one of a new series of single stories by her, which offer a great taster of her style and work.
Ellen is a Lady’s Maid. In this monologue, we hear her thoughts as she takes a late cup of tea to a guest, after putting her lady to bed. Ellen’s whole life seems to be wrapped up in service, but, as the story progresses, we also hear of past regrets. Ellen admits that she never felt like a child and there is a poignant recollection of accompanying her employer’s nieces to the seaside, which is really moving. Of course, much of Ellen’s regrets could be through her own lack of confidence – using her perceived ‘lady’s’ reliance on her as an excuse not to change her life. Still, this is a moving and interesting story and a good example of her writing.
Ellen is a Lady’s Maid. In this monologue, we hear her thoughts as she takes a late cup of tea to a guest, after putting her lady to bed. Ellen’s whole life seems to be wrapped up in service, but, as the story progresses, we also hear of past regrets. Ellen admits that she never felt like a child and there is a poignant recollection of accompanying her employer’s nieces to the seaside, which is really moving. Of course, much of Ellen’s regrets could be through her own lack of confidence – using her perceived ‘lady’s’ reliance on her as an excuse not to change her life. Still, this is a moving and interesting story and a good example of her writing.
November 6, 2014
Opening lines:
Eleven o’clock. A knock at the door … I hope I haven’t disturbed you, madam. You weren’t asleep – were you? But I’ve just given my lady her tea, and there was such a nice cup over, I thought, perhaps …
You may read online at Biblioklept.
September 20, 2022
I don't get it
June 14, 2016
A little life story, a biography, a maid who loved her mistress, told as though in answer to someone whom we never see at all.
December 16, 2018
Excellent example of a dramatic monologue.
#shortstory
#shortstory
November 7, 2014
Read it here --
http://biblioklept.org/2012/12/04/rea...
http://biblioklept.org/2012/12/04/rea...
April 15, 2017
Read it for class
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews