The Dolls House Response To Text Essay
25th June 2013
Reading Response #2
Text Type: Short Story Text Title: The Dolls House Author: Katherine Mansfield
In the short story "The Dolls House", Katherine Mansfield expresses the theme of discrimination through the characteristics of both the Burnell family and the Kelvey's.
When the three Burnell daughters (Isabel, Kezia, and Lottie) are given a dolls house by "dear old Mrs Hay", they are all very excited and can't wait to show it off. Their mother lets them invite every little girl in town to come and see the little dolls house. Every girl except the Kelveys: Lil Kelvey and Our Else, the daughters of a washerwomen. Kezia Burnell, the second eldest of the three, cannot understand why the Kelveys aren't allowed to see their little dolls house. When she is told by her mother that the Kelveys are "certainly not" allowed to see it, she argues "why not?", only to be told to "run away", because she knows "certainly well why not". I hold a great deal of respect towards Kezia for not following the ways of her elder sister and mother by dispising the Kelveys for their family background. It is sad to know that, because there wasn't another school for miles, "... the consequence was that all the children in the neighbourhood, the judges little girls, the doctors daughters, the storekeepers children, the milkmans, were forced to mix together." The young Kelveys were seen as being of a lower class because their mother was a washerwomen, and their father wasn't around. I hope people like Kezia grew up without this discrimititive personality and continued to treat those around her as equals.
As a result of their background, the Kelveys were a target for bullies. Lil Kelvey had
Reading Response #2
Text Type: Short Story Text Title: The Dolls House Author: Katherine Mansfield
In the short story "The Dolls House", Katherine Mansfield expresses the theme of discrimination through the characteristics of both the Burnell family and the Kelvey's.
When the three Burnell daughters (Isabel, Kezia, and Lottie) are given a dolls house by "dear old Mrs Hay", they are all very excited and can't wait to show it off. Their mother lets them invite every little girl in town to come and see the little dolls house. Every girl except the Kelveys: Lil Kelvey and Our Else, the daughters of a washerwomen. Kezia Burnell, the second eldest of the three, cannot understand why the Kelveys aren't allowed to see their little dolls house. When she is told by her mother that the Kelveys are "certainly not" allowed to see it, she argues "why not?", only to be told to "run away", because she knows "certainly well why not". I hold a great deal of respect towards Kezia for not following the ways of her elder sister and mother by dispising the Kelveys for their family background. It is sad to know that, because there wasn't another school for miles, "... the consequence was that all the children in the neighbourhood, the judges little girls, the doctors daughters, the storekeepers children, the milkmans, were forced to mix together." The young Kelveys were seen as being of a lower class because their mother was a washerwomen, and their father wasn't around. I hope people like Kezia grew up without this discrimititive personality and continued to treat those around her as equals.
As a result of their background, the Kelveys were a target for bullies. Lil Kelvey had