The absurd Class Consciousness in Mansfield's The Garden Party

Laura's epiphany|class distinction|The Garden Party by Mansfield|Sheridan  family's party and death of a poor neighbor   

"The Garden Party" is a wonderful story written by Katherine Mansfield. The writer of this story has wonderfully portrayed the class consciousness through the perspective of Laura who is the central character of the story. Laura is the youngest member of the Sheridan family. She explains her psychological conflicts as the story goes.  Though Laura is from a rich family she is very sympathetic to the lower class people whereas the other members of her family are not like her. The garden party basically refers to a family party of the Sheridan family. Instead of being the youngest Laura's ideology is mature. When she comes to know the news of the accidental death of their poor neighbor who left his wife with five children she feels shocked and sad. She thinks they should stop the party because their party will increase the glum of their neighbor. When she goes to her sister Jose and proposes to stop the party her sister gets surprised. Her sister doesn’t agree with her and her mother's reaction is also the same as her sister's. Laura explains that the sound of a band party can increase the sorrow of their neighbor but her family members consider Laura as foolish.

Their family is always very conscious of their class. So they refuse to stop the party because of the working-class neighbor's death. Her mother thinks it will be degrading to the image of their family. We can see another mark of class consciousness when her mother tells her to serve ort of their food to those working-class neighbors. Laura doesn’t think it is a good idea rather she thinks it is a mockery to their poor neighbors. When Laura visits their dead neighbor's house, she realizes the meaning of life and death in which all human beings share a common humanity. There is no existence of class distinctions. 

In the end, we can say "The Garden Party" represents the best class distinction between rich and poor people of our society. It makes us realize the dark side of class consciousness through Laura's realization of life and death.