| Katherine Mansfield (l888-l923) is a distingUished sholt storywriter in modern English litertae. Throwtout her 1ife, she workedassiduously in literary productions through which she exPerimentedwith a lot of revolUtionary booVaions of short-story genre and thusmade a great cOfltribulion tO the developmen of modem fiction.There are many critiqucs focused on her artistic featUres, however,her theme on women ha8 been more or less ignored. The presentthesis, failing into fOur chapters, is to discuss her creation$of womencharacters and her contributions to the gender cu1ture, especially tOthe tbma1e cuforre.In chaPter One, I choose tWo stories At Lehmann's and FrauBrechenmacher AttendS a ffeddng from Manstield's earlie8t creationIn a German Pension, to explore her early issues on feminism. In thetWo stories, Mansfie1d most vivid1y captUres some mdried women'spadril case and angrily rejects woman's role as housekeeper, sexualobject and child-bearer She not only exPresses her deep symPathytowards women's pathetic position but also voices her anger overtheir silcnce and complete submission to their fae. Those women arevictAns in a patriarchal society They are traditional sufferers, bearingtotwe8 and indignities of their life with unhaaginable self sacriliceand patience. Dominated by mery thcy have no rights whatsoever inthe fandly. As poor Frau Lehmann pul it: "I'm nothing; I don't7matter" Thowi they migh questiOn the justness of their fate once ina whi1e, they never attempt to fight back against the circumstances orpeople who dominate them.ChaPter tWo endeavors to discuss Mansfie1d's several storiesabout poor, lone1y women who are emotionally or physicallydeprivd, such as The Tiredness Of Rosabel, PictUres, and LJe Of MiParker In the stories of this thetnatic grouP, Mansfie1d depictsvarious pitiable women characters with touching tones. if the storiesof poor young girls are reflections of Mansfield's early hard life andthe amculties she faced as a woman alone, abroad and llVing on theedge fmancially for years, those stories about the pitiful old womencan be scen as an extension of this theme. Rosabel, Moss and Maparker are all 1onely souls in a hollovV indtherent world. They areinvisible creat'Ures for whom nobody cares and nobody knows.Although they live in the human society they are ostracized andexc1uded from the circle of human communications due to povertyand low socia1 position. The ouly thing that they obtain from theworld is the endless loneliness, inhumanity and injustices that theyare taught to suffer and bearChapter three attempts a discussion of NIansfield's stories aboutthe middle and uPper class women. if Mansfield's early works onwomen arc focused on their aPparent exp1oitation by thc patriarcha1world and the miseries they suffet, thcn her latcr creations on women8shth to the exp1orations of women's inner or spiritual world. Thosewomen are dtherent from the fOrmer pathetic creatUres who sufferbecause of material inadequacy Quite on the contrary they lead awealthy and comfortable life. They never need to bother about thefood or money since they are well suPplied by their hu8bands.However, it doe8 not follow tha material wealth gIJaanteeshaPpiness. UnhapPy to be ornamentS or dolls of their husbands, thosewomen tri to the inner world to fmd the meanings of their lffe. Andinvariab1y the AndingS are disappointing since their spiritua1 llvesare void and meaning1ess. So they are caught in a diletnma f to remaina doll or to be a rebel. Their ambivalent feelingS towards marriageand their ovvn identity cannot be balanced or solved, and tl1ey tuminto the gnawing angUshes haunting them everyday. In Prelude, Atthe Bcy; and Mirriage d la mode, Mansfleld most successfullycaPfores the ambivalent feelings of Linda Burnell and Isabel. Theyrepresent the uPper-c1ass women of the 1ate nineteenth and ear1ytWentieth ccnt-Ury who wcre experien...
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