| Katherine Mansfield(1888-1923) is one of the most famous short story writers in Britain, who was born in New Zealand. With delicate description in her short stories,she becomes the unique one in the history of literature. By the unique aesthetic pursuit and exquisite style in her short stories, Katherine Mansfield has won the honorary title of “ The Master of Short Stories”.The conspicuous consumption firstly appeared in Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class. The consumption patterns of the leisure class are called as conspicuous consumption in his book, which defines as an evidence of wealth. He points that the leisure class prefer to put more money into the physical consumption, which symbolizes their superiority in the society. The middle class has developed rapidly after the second industrial revolution. It is the right time that the middle class has become the main force of consumption in the society. So, it is of great significance to study the middle class people’s consumption in the certain time. Meanwhile,Katherine Mansfield expresses her deep concern for the disorder of social ethic in the transformation of British society.Based on the understanding of conspicuous consumption, the thesis analyzes consumption in Mansfield’s short stories from three aspects of consumption. There are the middle class’ consumption of leisure ways, consumption of clothing and consumption of residence conditions, aiming to present the middle class’ life style and consumption concept and morality affected by consume culture of the second industrial revolution. The first part of the thesis analyzes the middle class people’s extravagant consumption of leisure ways. On one hand, the middle class purchase luxuries largely. The heroine Rosemary in A Cup of Tea always goes shopping luxuries in Paris’ business street. She will take them, as long as she is pleased with the goods no matter how expensive they are. However, she waifs off a beggar by using only three ponds. It reveals the middle class’ character of selfishness. On the other hand, the middle class hold lavish parties. The elaborate arrangement of party venue,the attentive preparation of food and the gorgeous collocation of dressing make the middle class’ parties ceremoniously and lavishly. The second part focuses on the middle class’ superfluous consumption of clothing. Firstly, they show off their fineries to the lower class people. Laura in the The Garden Party wears a pretty and shining hat, bringing some food which is the remains from their garden party to visit her neighbor who has died in an accident. There is a stark contrast between Laura’s beautiful clothes and the slums’ dark. The middle class desire for the superiority to satisfy their vanities from the comparison above. Secondly, the middle class chase the upper class’ dressing style blindly. In others’ eyes, Miss Brill’s favorite and expensive fur collar is just like a fried cod in Miss Brill. It is ridiculous that Miss Brill thinks wearing fashionable and expensive clothes can be one of the members of the upper class. The last part dissects the middle class’ conspicuous consumption of residence conditions. For one thing, from the analysis of house surrounding environment, such as the site selection of house and the arrangement in the garden, it could reveal the change of the middle class people’s consumption concept. For another thing, the thesis analyzes the high grade decoration in the middle class’ house. The middle class want to show off their wealth through the high grade decoration in their house, in order to get a higher social position.On the basis of the above analysis, the conclusion clarifies the new significance to the work with the analysis of Veblen’s theory of consumption. According to the conspicuous consumption to manifest the affluence, the middle class can acquire higher social status and reputability. In fact, conspicuous consumption is the results of the alienation between man and man, man and the whole society. |
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