Throughout the novel, How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, the author elucidates that several interpretations can be drawn regarding the meaning of a story. For example, in chapter 27 entitled “The Test Case”, Foster explores this very claim by providing the interpretations linked to “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield. In his novel he states that these interpretations range from the disparities between social classes, to a representation of hell and the journey Persephone, the captive of Hades, goes on.
Foster’s novel presents the idea that the quest of characters in a story can represent the journey to hell because of the conflict that arises, this explains how the use of allusions allows readers to comprehend the conflict that is taking place. Author Thomas C. Foster uses the novel “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield to explain how interpretations are based on a plot of the story, he does this to show how the conotation of a story can be developed.
The Garden Party” follows the story of Laura Sheridan and the garden party that her family is planning. Due to the fact that Laura and her family are very well off, the party represents a level of gross decadence which becomes important in the first of Foster’s interpretations. The explanation of the division of classes, “more specifically… how people insulate them from what lies outside their narrow view of the world” (Foster 267), becomes very relevant to the plot of Mansfield’s novel.
As a result of the isolation that Laura’s family faces because of their wealth, the death of one of the caterers for their party, something that Laura believes should halt the celebration of a garden party, becomes of no particular interest or concern to her family. In other words, the materialism present with the Sheridans, blinds them from the problems associated with the lower and less fortunate to them. Due to the fact that Laura is the only character aware of the obliviousness that is present in her family, it proves that their position of extreme wealth leads them to have concern with only the issues facing themselves.
Laura begins to understand that her family does not seem to acknowledge the problems that occur outside of their home, which leads her to develop a mindset that challenges the insulation present. The main conflict in the story is the contrast between the viewpoints of Laura and those of her brother and mother who clearly support Foster’s claim of insulation. Foster also goes on to say that the digression from insulation, is Laura’s journey to hell as it provides her with a abrupt change from her perfect life.
The curiosity that Laura develops regarding those who are less fortunate than her, leads her to visit the home of the worker that passed away. While the previous aspects to the story directly link to social class division, the latter and her crossing to encounter death, is parallel to the journey of Persephone to the underworld. Foster explains that “Laura has gone to hell… not only that but she hasn’t gone as Laura Sheridan but as Persephone” (Foster 273), and this fact lies in the very basics of the adventure she goes on.
Because of her mother’s affiliation with childbearing and flowers, two elements that directly link to Demeter, Mrs. Sheridan is in fact Demeter. Not only this, but when Laura begins her descent to the underworld, she encounters a dog by her gate that represents Cerberus and his protection of the hell, the destination she travels to in order to grieve the loss of the dead caterer. Moreover, the broad road which Laura crosses to reach the home represents the River of Styx.
The Sheridans home is a heaven because of its economic status; therefore, the lower classes would be viewed negatively and even as the opposite, implying that it is hell. Because the River of Styx is the transition between the two, the road that links the lower and upper classes, does the same. Furthermore, the hat given to Laura by her mother, with the golden daisies on it, directly links to Aeneas’s Golden Bough, or admission ticket to the underworld, as it is what propels her journey to the workers home.
The woman that Laura encounters at the home is Sibyl, because of her familiarity with the dark and dangerous lower class underworld. While the author uses Laura’s family to imitate heaven, he discovery of suffering, leads her to question this heavenly atmosphere. Because of the questioning of her lifestyle, Laura unearths the suffering that leads directly to hell. The beginning of her questioning is causes her exposure to these negative and hellish aspects of life, meaning that she departs from the heaven that her mother and her insulation has created for her, leading her to hell.
Due to the fact that many authors want their readers to use allusions to comprehend conflicts in a novel, the use of Persephone and the descent to hell are very pertinent. This descent often exists to explain the trials or change of character that individuals go through. Foster’s notion that the use of the descent alludes to a hellish trial or change is also evident in both Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.
