Her First Ball

The headline of the text is “Her first ball”. The author is the Katherine Mansfield. The subject matter is one of the most important events in woman`s life. The theme is naivety, old generation opposite innocence and first feeling which has the young girl. Leila is so excited and terrified, but later, in the ball, excitement is not the only feelings she has, but also some other feelings. She considers that it is the beginning of everything. It seemed to her that she had never known what the night was like before. Up till now it had been dark, silent, beautiful very often-oh, yes-but mournful somehow. Solemn. And now it would never be like that again-it had opened dazzling bright.
The plot of the story is about a country girl named Leila; get to go to her first ball with her cousins, but she has only experience of a country school dance. After dancing with several young men, she dances with an old bolding and fat man who has been coming to balls for 30 years. He tells her that she will eventually grow old and only watch the dances, regretting her lost youth and beauty. For a moment, the magic of occasion is spoilt. Then another young man asks Leila to dance, emotions overcome the thoughts as Leila returns to the dance floor and didn`t even recognize him again.
The climax point is when the fat man comes to dance with Leila. His comments are the highest tension. The fat man said: “You’ll be sitting up there on the stage, looking on, in your nice black velvet. And these pretty arms will have turned into little short fat ones, and you'll beat time with such a different kind of fan-a black bony one. And you'll smile away like the poor old dears up there, and point to your daughter, and tell the elderly lady next to you how some dreadful man tried to kiss her at the club ball. And your heart will ache, ache”. He had broken her dreams, he had spoiled it all. The quotation provides us with some questions: Is he wants to intimidate her and make her gloomy? Or is he actually whole-heartedly trying to prevent her from suffering the terrible fate? The conflict start when she can`t believe to his words. The author uses the stylistic device such as epithet: “deep inside her a little girl threw her pinafore over her head and sobbed”. It expresses her emotional condition, but she doesn`t give a sign. The 4th partner and Leila`s dancing is very important, but we can`t call that conclusion. May be, just because of him she forgot that bad dialogue. She didn't even recognize “fat man” again.
The characters:
Leila – the country girl.
The “fat man” - the older, fat and unattractive man. He has arrived in the story to open Leila’s eyes on real life. The older man has a much more realistic view on life.
Sheridan girls: Meg, Jose and Laura – Leila`s cousins, they are care about her. For example: She's under my wing - said Meg. Hold on to me, Leila; you'll get lost - said Laura.
Laurie – Leila`s cousin. She said by indirect speech: Oh, how marvelous to have a brother! It means, she envy to Sheridan girls.
Miss Eccles - Leila's dance teacher from London at boarding school.
The first partner - Someone with a faint voice. The author describes his as "the voice", because he doesn`t matter on the text.
The second partner - a new voice.
The third partner – the fat man.
The fourth partner - a young man with curly hair. The author uses stylistic devices personification to show her excitement – “waltzing lampposts and houses and fences and trees”. Like she already dancing with "an unknown young man". The bolster on which her hand rested felt like the sleeve of a young man’s dress suit – simile. Meg's tuberoses, Jose's long loop of amber, Laura's little dark head, pushing above her white fur like a flower through snow – imagery and simile. The author is constructing “fairy land” as the setting of the story through Leila’s point of view. Little satin shoes chased each other like birds - simile. Everything is so new to Leila and she makes unusual connections, like a child. A great quivering jet of gas lighted the ladies room – personification.
There came a burst of tuning from the drill hall, it leaped almost to the ceiling – personification.
I’ve torn simply miles and miles of the frill – hyperbole.
Little quivering colored flags strung across the ceiling were talking – personification.
She floated away like a flower that is tossed into a pool - personification. She is totally infatuated dance at this moment.
The azaleas were separate flowers no longer; they were pink and white flags streaming by. Leila is becoming more comfortable at the ball. She is no longer noticing every little thing.
Katherine Mansfield wrote this story with third person. We can see everything with this method, Leila`s feelings and atmosphere. The story conveys the past time, actually when she lived. The idea of the story portrays the reality of life. She shows the first experience of a young girl and the new beginning of life.
My opinion: I enjoyed reading this story. It is well written and it’s a fascinating story. From this story I have learnt about some feelings about girls who were upbringing with a good ton and getting to know more about life and balls in the past. Nowadays, we do not really consider first ball that important. It`s turned into a party with no cultural behavior.