Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

“The Lady's Maid”

(1920)

 

Katherine Mansfield

(October 14, 1888–January 9, 1923)

Notes

 

171  eiderdown: a thick covering for the top of a bed, filled with soft feathers or warm material, used especially in the past (Cambridge Advanced Learner's)

 

171  lumbago: general pain in the lower part of the back (Cambridge Advanced Learner's)

 

172  pinny: UK informal for pinafore (LOOSE CLOTHING) (Cambridge Advanced Learner's)

pinafore: (informal pinny) a piece of clothing worn by women over the front of other clothes to keep them clean while doing something dirty, especially cooking (Cambridge Advanced Learner's)

 

173  Sheldon: 

 

174  ducky: (mainly US old-fashioned informal) excellent or very pleasant (Cambridge Advanced Learner's)

Life has been ducky since she got out of the hospital.

What a ducky little room!

(Merriam-Webster)

1: darling, cute <a ducky little tearoom>
2: satisfactory, fine <everything is just ducky>

 

174  brooch: a small piece of jewellery with a pin at the back that is fastened to a woman's clothes (Cambridge Advanced Learner's)

 

174  dagger: a short pointed knife which is sharp on both sides, used especially in the past as a weapon (Cambridge Advanced Learner's)

 


 

Comprehension Checks

  • Is "eleven o'clock" at the beginning of the story in the morning or at night?

  • Who or what is the maid addressing with the words "Now you needn't be in too much of a hurry to say your prayers" (171)?

  • How old is the lady's maid?

              

Study Questions

  • Fill in the missing side of the conversation.

  • Notice the presence of time in the story. How is time conveyed?

  • What is the relationship like between Ellen and her "ladies"? How does it compare to that between her and Harry?
  • What are the similarities and differences between the generations of women portrayed?
  • What is wrong with "thinking" at the end of the story?
  • Explore contrasts in the story such as lady vs. maid, holy vs. wicked, alive vs. dead, youth vs. age, close vs. open.
           


 

Review Sheet

Characters

Ellen – "my mother died of consumption when I was four" (172); "I cut off all my hair" (172)

My lady's dead mother –  

My lady –  "she kneels on the hard carpet" (171); "your lumbago" (171)

Madam –  

Grandfather – "kept a hair-dresser's shop" (172)

Aunt – " a cripple, an upholstress. Tiny!" (172)

Harry – "had a little flower-shop just down the road and across from where we was living" (173); "White! he turned as white as a woman" (174)

 

Setting

 

Plot

 

 

 

Vocabulary

plot

conflict

setting

characters; characterization

dialogue

diction

imagery

metaphor

simile

 

Sample Student Reading Responses to Katherine Mansfield's “The Lady's Maid”


Response 1:

 

 

 

 

 

Student Name

2202235 Reading and Analysis for the Study of English Literature

Acharn Puckpan Tipayamontri

January 18, 2010

Reading Response

 

Title

 

Text

 

 

 

 

 

            

 

 

Reference


Mansfield, Katherine. "The Lady's Maid." The Garden-Party, and Other Stories, Century Hutchinson, 1988, pp. 171–75.

 

 

Links

 

Katherine Mansfield

 

 

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Last updated March 18, 2019