The Garden Party

Setting: The time is early summer in a year in the first decade of the 20th Century. The story unfolds at the estate of a well-to-do upper-class family on Tinakori Road in Wellington, New Zealand, at the nearby home of a poor lower-class family, and on the road between the two dwellings.

Narrator point of view: Mansfield wrote "The Garden Party" in limited third-person point of view. It is limited in that the author presents the thoughts of Laura only. The personality and outlook of the other characters reveal themselves only through what they say and do. 

Major Character:

• Laura Sheridan: Mrs Sheridan's daughter
• Laurie Sheridan: Laura's brother
• Jose Sheridan: Sisters of Laura and Laurie
• Mrs Sheridan: Mr Sheridan's wife and mother of Laura.
• Mr Sheridan: Mrs Sheridan's husband and father of Laura.
• Mr Scott: A lower-class neighbour who has just died.

Summary: The wealthy Sheridan family prepares to host a garden party. Hearing that their neighbour has died, Laura insists her family members call off the party, neither Jose nor their mother agrees. Laura eases her conscience by deciding to forget the matter until the party is over. At the end of the party, Laura takes a basketful of leftovers to the neighbours. She's taken to see the dead body and has a moment of epiphany in which she sees death as merely a peaceful sleep.

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Major Theme in "The Garden Party"

 Major Themes

Class consciousness: Laura feels a certain sense of kinship with the workers and again with the Scotts. An omniscient narrator also explains that, as children, Laura, Jose, Meg, and Laurie were not allowed to go near the poor neighbours' dwellings, which spoil their vista.

Illusion versus reality: Laura is stuck in a world of high-class housing, food, family and garden partied. She then discovers her neighbour from a lower class has died and she clicks back to reality upon discovering death.

Sensitivity and insensitivity: The Sheridan hold their garden party, as planned, complete with a band playing music. Laura questions whether this is appropriate, given the death of their neighbour only a few hours earlier.

Death and life: The writer masterfully handles the theme of death and life in the short story. The realization of Laura that life is simply marvellous shows the death of human beings in a positive light. Death and life co-exist and death seems to Laura merely a sound sleep far away from troubles in human life.

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