Literary Essay Sample: "The Singing Lesson" by Katherine Mansfield

The short story "The Singing Lesson" by Katherine Mansfield explores the main theme of despair. The story is narrated by an unnamed narrator from a third party perspective. Mansfield is effortless in her attempt to describe the despair that unfolds in the story right from the opening statement "With despair - cold, sharp despair - buried deep in her heart....." (p.1) with this type of opening the author's tone exposes the reader to her main motif in the proceeding story. She uses figurative language to show the protagonist - Miss Meadows - the level of despair after reading the letter from Basil. Again, Mansfield uses the school setting 'the cold corridor' to show the unfortunate situation the character finds her current life circumstances. This paper will explore the theme of despair showing how Mansfield employed different literary devices to develop the main motif of the story.

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Miss Meadows's feelings are expressed when she has a conversation with the Science Mistress revealing her coldness as the primary elements of her despair feelings. The irony of the protagonist's feelings and the weather described by Mansfield shows the significance of her story mood. Interestingly, Miss Meadows' mood is presented to be negatively infectious to the girls in her music class. She makes a lamenting type of song for the girls to sing making a noticeable effort to show her mood to the class. Mansfield emphasizes on the theme of despair derived from the song Miss Meadows selected for the girls in the sorrowfulness and sadness emanating from every note saying that they were a sigh, a groan of awful mourning, or a sob. The song was effective for Miss Meadows to attach to her mood with the effect caused to transfer her sorrow to the girls in sadness.

Mansfield employed different literary devices like metaphor, symbolism, irony, and sarcasm to bring out the main theme of the story. When Miss Meadows enters the music class she is dressed in her academic attire to teach the singing lesson is symbolic to show her professionalism (Davidson, 2013). Yet, when she walks through the corridors she shows the despair in her life when she passes girls of all ages laughing, shouting each other's names or running up and down the hall. Her ignorance of the happy atmosphere around her shows how immune she was to happiness. Her fiance, Basil, has written to her calling off their wedding illustrating her cause of despair. Mansfield catches the readers' attention when she symbolically shows the many chances Miss Meadows had to enjoy life but, hers took the wrong turn. Again, the pain of her pain is metaphorically illustrated when the beautiful, cheerful, and charming Science Mistress tries to have a conversation with Miss Meadows in the hallway she gets the wrong impression. Mansfield shows the contrast between the two women to show the significance of the level of despair in the protagonist's life. The sarcasm in the events happening around Miss Meadows' life and career shows the contrast that developed despair that was transferred from her personal problems to her teaching career.

In conclusion, the short story "The Singing Lesson" by Katherine Mansfield presents the main motif of despair to show the trouble revolving around the life of the protagonist - Miss Meadows who is struggling to balance the frustrations in her love life and her teaching career. Throughout the story, Mansfield portrays the misfortunes that lead from one desperate situation to another in the main character's profession and personal life. The author brings out symbolism, metaphor, sarcasm, irony, and imagery to develop the theme of despair in the things Miss Meadows tires to do. It was through the hard situations that happen in her life that makes her transfer her sorrow and frustrations from her heart and infecting them with her students.

References

Davidson, Matthew. (2013).The American Composers Alliance, entry for The Singing Lesson.

Mansfield, Katherine. (1920). The Singing Lesson, Katherine Mansfield Society.